Chickleta - My SBRing and other Adventures

My road to the finish line of Ironman Chattanooga, my third Ironman, was filled with ups and  downs, like the roller coaster that is the bike course. It has not been the best season for me  and coming into the race I was not confident of my racing shape, my training and my ability to  accomplish the goal I had set for myself when I signed up for the race last year. The goal back  then, looking for some sort of redemption from Ironman Mont Tremblant  ( see why here ) was a sub 12 race.  About 3 weeks before race day, I had a total mental break down and I was toying with the idea of pulling the plug and not even going down to  Chattanooga. Thanks to the support of Michelle (my personal cheerleader and best partner one can hope for) and an encouraging email from Marni from TriMarni (check out her blog ) I managed to stay on track. With a fresh mindset and Marni's words in-mind ( " T rust that you are ready. You have done the work and your ...

I have 3 weeks until Ironman Chattanooga. This is when I usually reflect on my season and do an evaluation of where I am fitness wise to come up with a race plan and a pacing strategy. However, this year, in the last few weeks I have been struggling. Struggling with my training, struggling to get into the right mindset, to stay focused and to find motivation to train. This past week was especially bad, and on Sunday I reached my breaking point. I was ready to throw in the towel and cancel my hotel reservation and not even give it a try. While I managed to do the run workout I was supposed to, I could not find the motivation to go for a ride. I was feeling sick to my stomach from stress. I still am a little bit. I do not feel as fit as I want to be at this stage, I am not as confident about my training and work and life have been very stressful on top of everything. Unlike the previous years, I am letting this lack of confidence paralyze me and impact my focus and even worse my mo...

It's mid day Saturday, September 7, 2013, I am laying on bed in my hotel in Madison, one day before my first Ironman.  I am already thinking about next year, I ask my friend Debbie, is it bad luck to sign up for my next Ironman before I even raced my first (holding my Ipad with the Mont Tremblant registration page open).  We both go through the "logic" (well at least for us or should I say me?) - if I don't do well in Wisconsin - of course I would want to do another one and if I do well, than I would want to do another one and do better.  Yes, totally made sense. Gotta love Debbie who supported my sick "logic".  So I did, I signed up for my second Ironman in Mont Tremblant. Village of Mont Tremblant After a successful first Ironman, I had an aggressive goal for myself, finishing my second IM in sub12 hours. I really believed this goal was achievable, knowing IM Mont Tremblant course (from racing the half in June 2013), and so the training began. Af...

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 signin...