Seattle Ironwoman

I am so thrilled to have successfully completed Ironman Canada 2015! It was an incredibly challenging race - the hills on the bike were no joke - and it poured rain on us the majority of the day. Despite the things we couldn't control like the weather, I had a very well planned and executed race. It's so easy to already forget the low's of the race and only remember the high's. Before the race: We were lucky that the rain held off until we climbed into the water. We took the shuttle from T2 to Alta Lake, and it felt like the longest ride of my life. It was very overwhelming to begin mentally preparing for what was ahead of us. We setup our bikes, added fuel to our race bags, and climbed into our wetsuits. The Swim: I had been very nervous about where I should start in the pack for the swim. I didn't want to get run over and kicked in the face and also wanted to make sure I didn't spend the whole swim passing people. I decided to stay off to the side at t...

We made it to Whistler and the past three days have been a whirlwind! We're staying in a condo near the village and the location is fantastic. We're so lucky to be up here with such a great group, but you can see the anxiety across our 4 faces during certain points of each day since we got here. Most of our current anxiety is coming from the unpredictable weather. No one is sure how much/when it will rain, what the temperature will feel like on the bike, if we'll need a coat or not and how hot we'll get on the hills. Today our workout was the shortest triathlon of all time. Our swim was cold - no wetsuits today so they wouldn't be wet tomorrow, and the water was super choppy. Our bike ride was during the rainiest part of the day but it was nice to get a feel for how slick the roads would feel. Our run was super short but great for loosening up for tomorrow. We're all nervous but ready to get this done!  If you want to follow me and my team tomorrow - visit t...

As we've been tapering, I've been overwhelmed with all kinds of feelings. Happiness, fear, anxiety... all the feelings, more than I've felt in a while. I have been so exhausted the past 6 months that I've felt a constant state of being "out of it" and haven't felt as emotionally connected, so this overwhelming rush of emotions throughout the days has been very different. I thought that when they said not to go crazy during taper that it would only apply to elite athletes that train a LOT harder than me. Already, I've found myself pushing my workouts too hard. Everything this week is supposed to be super easy or don't do it at all. I'm swimming, biking, and running too fast and hard. It's challenging to not keep pushing at the intensity I'm so used to - every workout I have to remind myself constantly to slow down - total opposite of everything up until now! While tapering has certainly been challenging mentally and emotionally, I am e...

One week from now, I will hopefully have already crossed the finish line. Isaac and Nate (the person who told me it'd be a great idea to do an Ironman) will hopefully have finished a couple of hours ago. No one really knows where Chelsey will be including her - but hopefully she'll have a fantastic race and maybe have caught up to me during the marathon. That's all assuming everything goes according to plan... which, no matter how much you prepare, you can never anticipate what might cross your path during the race (like a bear). Flat tires, crashes, bonking, stomach issues.... a lot can go wrong during a 12-15 hour race. (12-13 for the boys, 14 for me). While getting through the bike portion will be a struggle (see video below about Ironman Canada race specifics), you have to respect the marathon and listen to your body. For anyone that has run a marathon, you know the challenges of hitting that 21 mile wall. From what I've heard, there are multi...

And don't go crazy This week officially began our two week taper . It's fairly common knowledge that tapering is almost as difficult as training is for triathletes. Anxiety rises as the race gets closer and all you want to do is train more; but at this point, nothing we do in terms of swimming, biking, or running will increase our fitness for the race. If we push hard during these two weeks, it can only hurt us and send us into the race over-trained. I've read multiple places that it's better to go into Ironman 10% under-trained than 1% over-trained.  Training is nice and easy this week - MUCH shorter across the board: Monday: 3600 meter swim (1:15 in the water) Tuesday: 75 minute turbo trainer (HR 3 intervals) and 20 minute transition run  Wednesday: 4000-4600m key swim and 60-90 minute easy spin (optional) Thursday: 60-70 minute interval run (we've been doing 90 minutes) Friday: OFF!!! Saturday: optional 30 minute swim, key short 2-2.5hr bike, key 1...

For the last 5 months, our weekends have been dedicated to training, spending about 4-7 hours each weekend day. Long rides can range from 3-7 hours, followed by a 20-50 minute transition run (the longest rides were followed by longer transition runs). We would normally long bike and t-run on Saturdays and bike, long run, and lift on Sundays. The longest run we did during training was 18 miles, not too bad!! (in comparison to the 7 hour rides, I'd take a 3 hour run any day!) Our longest ride was 103 miles. This weekends training was: Saturday: 3.5-4.5hr ride and 30min t-run Sunday: 1hr ride followed by a key 90minute run (each workout that has more than one component has a key focus - the important activity. You might have a swim, bike, run Saturday but only the bike and run are key ) Compared to what we've been doing for volume the last 3 months, this weekend is nothing. We still have so much time after training to actually do regular people weekend s...

As I love reading fellow triathletes blogs, I decided to take a stab at one of my own. My intent here is to track some training and races, connect with some other triathletes, and honestly vent about the challenges along this path to Ironman. When I signed up for this race almost 1 year ago, I had no idea what I was signing up for. Yes, I read there would be a lot of training. Yes, I knew the distances (2.4mi swim, 112mi bike, 26.2mi run). Yes, I knew I'd miss out on a few social events. Yes, I knew it was going to push me further than I'd ever gone and been pushed before. And that was the main reason I signed up - to push past all the limits I thought I had. But what I didn't realize what how all consuming Ironman can become. It's not a hobby, it becomes your life. What do I think about most days? My training that I completed that morning, what training looks like tomorrow, what I need to consume to keep going all day, how many calories I need to eat on the bike tomo...