Chickleta - My SBRing and other Adventures

I singed up for Ironman Racine 70.3 thinking this half ironamn distance race will be the last practice race before my biggest goal for the year Ironman Mont Tremblant. Race date is 4 weeks before the IM so perfect time to test my fitness, dial-in my nutrition and practice my IM pacing and strategy.  Race location is also very convenient, only about 1.5 hours drive from Chicago, which means we can actually drive up Saturday afternoon. In the weeks leading to the race, my training was going as planned.  Made it to the lake (Lake Michigan that it) once, and boy that was a cold one, been doing my long rides, long runs, etc. On Racine's bike course (July 4th pre-ride)  We even made it up to Racine on July 4th to ride the bike course and see what's it like.  I was looking forward to racing this bike course.  Fun rolling course, mostly out of town, windy (as if there is a course in this area that is not windy). Fast forward to race week, I had two objectives for the race and o

On paper my plan looked perfect, the best of all wolds.  "It's an opportunity that I just cannot pass on", I though to myself, when the company I work for, announced that they will be sponsoring the 2014 Paris Marathon and they have entry spots for company employees.  What could be better, a trip to Paris, running a marathon with work colleagues and the race fee is all covered for. I'm in - where and how do I sign up?  So I did. Paris marathon date was April 6, 2014, doable goal I was thinking back in the fall, yeah I'll have to do my long runs in March, but by then it should not be a problem.  Or so I though ... This past winter ended up being the coldest and snowiest winter I have ever experienced and with a marathon date beginning of April it meant that almost all my long runs (or runs at all) will have to be done in the freezing cold and on icy roads, hmmmm, not really an option for me.  I ended up doing most of my training indoors, on the treadmill, fol

Yes, I'm about 11 months behind on this race recap.  I am 5 days away from starting my second ironman distance triathlon and have been spending time thinking about this year's race plan, nutrition, packing list, and just generally obsessing about the coming race.  I though it would be a good idea to reflect on last year race and finally summaries what it felt like.  True, memories that are 1 year old are not as fresh as right after the race, but that's all I got.  I promise next week a more timely race recap. For those who are not sure exactly what is an ironman (or IM) distance triathlon it is a one day event comprised of 2.4 miles (3.8 km) swim, 112 miles (180 km) bike and 26.2 miles (42.2 km) run.  This total distance of 140.6 must be completed within 17 hours.  For many years the thought of that scared me, and it still does, that is why I must start with the months/weeks leading to the race and then move to the race itself.     I'm signing up for Ironman Wiscon