Tri-ing my best: Ironman by 40

I was weirdly calm going into this race. When I compare on my mindset for this along side my Half Ironman, it is so different. I think that part of that comes from the aspects of Triathlon that feel out of my control (aka the bike having a flat, etc). With running, it feels like it is all on me. Just me and the legs and mind and body that I trained to prepare for this moment. When we got to Pittsburgh on Saturday I really couldn’t believe how amazing the site of our hotel was. I knew it was close to the finish. But I didnt realize that the corals for the start were literally on the street next to the race. I woke up at 5, did all the usual things. I ended up going to the bathroom twice and that actually made me nervous that my stomach was not going to cooperate for the day. But after I second time it felt fine so that was good. We met Connie and Mark in the lobby at 6:45. We walked down to the corals and said our goodbyes. They were wandering down the road further to see me off. My cor...

Reading back on that last post, I want to tell you that all is better and I am 100% back to crushing life in the best way. I am in a different place. Not where I used to be when I had this intense focus and drive to get every single training session in and then some. I am trying to figure out where I am right now mentally, which is why I am finding myself writing this post. In my last post I talked about massive projects with huge stakes. Well, the project launched on Monday. The last 3 months have been pretty nutty, esp since I started training also for the Pittsburgh marathon on January 1. The project being live is indeed a huge relief and overall it has been a success. This next month feels like it will be trying to get back to a normalcy at work. Catch up or progress things that paused during March when Five9 took all our team's energy. So as I sit here the first weekend post launch, I have a MASSIVE list of things to do. But I do feel like I can accomplish them. I will just ne...

It has been 8 days since I recognized that I was exhibiting the physical and mental signs of burnout. As I look back now it is clear it has been building. I haven’t been sleeping well, I haven’t been able to focus, I have had minimal to no ability to take action on anything I need to do other than go through the motions. I think the impending winter and shorter days kicked it to a new level and so I found myself in this place less than 2 weeks after the time change, mourning the loss of that extra hour of daylight. Another catalyst was  two runs in a row with hamstring pain. I have been dealing with hamstring pain in some way since July. I just kept going. After my race I sought out PT and have been going since early October. And I was mostly running pain free. But two runs in a row with pain resulted in me in tears of frustration at my inability to do this thing I “needed” to do. When I told my PT about this, and mentioned a lot of stress at work, she said our stress shows ...

Okay so every single detail is what I am aiming to capture. This post is for me to capture as much as I can. I am now one week past Michigan 70.3 and I am ready to sign up for another. Friday morning we left (Pam, Shane and me) and headed to Frankfort. Pam is 6 months pregnant and we didn't even get to Lansing before she had to use the bathroom haha. It made me laugh so hard. We made the drive up with a few more stops, lots of laughs, and just all the best feelings. We got into Frankfort a bit before 2p and I went to sign in. Of course there was ALL THE MERCH for Ironman. I bought it all haha. In reality I grabbed a sweatshirt (it was a Finisher sweatshirt and of course it made me very nervous to buy this before the race. But I didn't know I they would have them after - and they didn't, so I am glad I got it when I did). I also got a long sleeve shirt, microfiber towel with all the participant names on it, a hat, and a coffee mug. The gear was Lululemon so it was not cheap ...

 Um, so where did I leave off? Remember how I said my run just felt hard and I thought it was just the let down of a post race feeling? Nope. COVID. So that explained a lot. It was a very mild case overall. Stuffy nose, one terrible morning of coughing, and otherwise nothing much (other than that terrible run).  Just after my isolation period ended, I had Tri Goddess Tri on the calendar. I went into the race after basically two weeks of not working out and zero expectations. I signed up for it truly because I wanted the jersey, and so I reminded myself of that as I prepared that day. I was very happy with the outcome of the race. This was the first race I have done twice and so I could compare last year to this year and see progress. 2021: Swim 24:05 / T1 2:41 / Bike 38:04 / T2 1:02 / Run 28:29 2022: Swim 19:27 / T1 1:51 / Bike 24:03 / T2 wasn't recorded / Run 30:52 The improvement on the swim and bike really made my day. The run wasn't my best but thats okay. Shaved 8 minutes...

After my Olympic Distance tri this past weekend, I was on Cloud 9. For a couple of days. Its been awhile since I had that feeling though that sometimes comes a few days after a race. That feeling of moving slow towards getting back going again. That (dare I say) lack of motivation. The itching feeling of a lack of consistency after recovering for a couple of days. For me, that is all being compounded by a work trip, and some killer allergies that just have taken me out of my rhythm.  I am working towards giving myself space with it. I think an aspect of this also is that after feeling what I gave on Sunday, and what it took out of me, part of me is doubting if I can do the 70.3 Or rather, do it well (by my own definition of well). How can I finish it feeling strong and like I emptied the tank, when I just did that and it was only half the distance? I can tell myself logically that I won't be going as hard since it will be longer. But I don't think I am yet at a place mentally t...