The Zen of Ultra Running

Saturday July 15 - Rainbow Run 5K  My sister will be studying at the U of MO at Columbia for a semester. She had some time before the school starts so she came to stay with us for 10 days. I convinced her to sign up for a color run 5K because it's always my dream to run a race with my family. My sister is not a runner and hates all kinds of exercise lol but she thought the color run would be fun. So she agreed to run it with me. We ran and talked (mostly I talked) the whole time. We had a lot of fun. 5K seemed to short but for a non-runner that's already long enough. She complained that her legs were tired the next morning lol Sunday July 16 - Lake Metroparks Lighthouse Sprint Triathlon This week I'd been sick. I caught a cold on the flight back from Columbia, MO (stupid germs on the plane). I was still coughing on the race morning and was considering a DNS. I also had been traveling for the past couple of weeks and the training was not very consistent. Consid...

This weekend I had a chance to be part of the Inaugural Canal Corridor 100 Mile Endurance Run, which is a 100-mile run on the Towpath in NE Ohio. The runners start at Lock 3 in downtown Akron, OH and run south to Canal Fulton, OH. Then, they turn around and run north to Vally view, OH, turn around and run back to Lock 3. It began with the race director asking me for marketing/social media advice back in January. They invited me to the committee meeting and the next thing I knew I was in charge of the website and Facebook. As a runner, I never knew anything about what's going on behind the scene of a race. I only thought about how I would RUN the race. Being on the committee of a 100-mile race shows me the other perspectives of a race including getting permits, volunteers, supply crew, course marking, registration, etc. Luckily, we had great people on the committee who brought their expertise to the group. On the race day, my job was to go around and take photos, update Facebook...

This past week was kinda blurry. I started my week with a 4-hour research meeting on Monday, which made my head hurt. I was still tired from sweeping the course at Mohican on Sunday. Luckily, the meeting was quite productive so I did not feel like it was a total waste of my time. I was going to bike on Monday night after the meeting. It turned out that I was too mentally and physically exhausted to do any active exercise so I went to a slow yoga class instead. A long meeting Monday was followed by an all-day training on Tuesday. Again, I was too tired to get any run or bike in on Tuesday night and decided to go for a nice dinner with hubby instead. It seemed like my training plan fell apart last week due to heat, rain, and exhaustion. Ran and swam on Wednesday and did another short run in a hot and humid weather on Friday. Turned out that the track at the school near my house was open so I threw in some intervals (yippee!) On Saturday, I paced a friend (L.) at Eagle Up Ultra in C...

So many things going on last week and weekend. Luckily, my work is slow in the summer (no teaching, only research). Since I was on vacation for 2 weeks, I spent Mon-Wed catching up with work but was able to throw in a short run and a group ride on Tuesday (2 workouts/day! woo!). I was too tired on Wednesday morning so I skipped a swim but tried out Orange Theory Fitness (OTF) in the evening instead. The idea of OTF is similar to high intensity interval workout. The instructor told you to switch between weights, treadmill run, and rowing machine. The goal is to get your heart rate up in the "orange zone" (Z4) and sustain at that level for 20-30 minutes during an hour workout. Heart rate monitor is required but you have to purchase it from the company so it connects with the monitor and system. I like the idea and the workout kicked my butt. However, I got bored on a treadmill and rowing machine. The music was also loud and I am not familiar with loud music during exercise. I...

When I signed up for this race, I forgot that my family would come to visit us in Ohio and I would be traveling for two weeks prior to the race. At that time, I thought it was ONLY a half marathon (no big deal) but did not take into account the stress and the chance that I might get sick. I was on vacation in CA with my family for 2 weeks. During the trip, I did not have time to exercise and finally caught a terrible cold before we flew back to Ohio. Family vacation was fun but it's also exhausting as I needed to plan, organize, and basically do everything to make sure everyone was happy. 2 days after my family went back I ran the Candy Mountain Half Marathon. Luckily, I knew the course and the race director really well. The race was also only 10 minutes from my house so I felt like another "Saturday long run". I started the race with no expectation on time. The only goal was to finish the race and maybe have fun. I was still coughing but the fever and ache were ...

Monday after the race weekend I donated blood. I always donate blood whenever I have a break (3-4 weeks) from races as it takes around 2 weeks for my body to recover from blood donation fatigue.  This time I felt really weak after the donation. They also recommend no heavy lifting or exercise 8 hours after the donation. It's also the finals week and I had a lot of deadlines so I took 2 days off and did completely nothing (except work).  Wednesday - went to the indoor cycling class. Kicked my butt as usual. Despite 2 days of resting, my legs were still tired. Not sure it's because of the races or blood donation.  I was REALLY tired on Thursday. I felt like it's accumulated since the weekend. I tried to get out of bed in the morning to go for a run but I could not. Decided to sleep in and slept for 12 hours. It's also that time of the year when everything was due and needed to be done. I am usually stressed out and that always affects my exercise ro...

Salt Fork Spring Challenge 10.5  12ish miles. When D. told me about this race and said a group of runners were going to run Salt Fork and had a weekend getaway, I thought it was a good idea but was not sure if I could do it because it's at the end of the semester. Turned out that I could get away on that weekend so I signed up for the race. I love the idea of girls getaway weekend. I did one last year with MOTR ladies (Superior Spring trail 25K in Duluth, MN) and that was very fun. There were 9 of us running the race and some ladies planned on staying for 2 nights. Too bad the race was at the end of the semester and it's usually the busiest time for me. I could only stay one night (Friday) at Salt Fork. We rented 2 cabins. I drove down there with D. and M. on Friday afternoon. We arrived at Salt Fork State Park around 5:30pm. Picked up the package, checked in the cabin, and had dinner at the lodge. This is the view from our cabin. The race started at 9:30am on Satu...