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Showing posts from July 15, 2012

Making every minute count

 Everyone talks about the lifestyle component of healthy living. Certainly, it's easier said than done. In looking back at my life over the past 6 years, I have stayed extremely active with  my triathlon lifestyle but I have also created some awesome habits that keep me happy, consistent and healthy. It isn't rocket science to create this lifestyle habits but it's so hard at times because of all the chatter out there as to the right, wrong ways of doing things. It's like everyone is an expert out there as to how you should live but obviously, they don't walk in your shoes. I think one of the hardest parts of training for sports or appreciating a more balanced diet is the trust factor. It's almost as if athlets fail at their continual attempts to live a healthier lifestyle by losing trust in their own actions as soon as someone starts talking about a better, newer, faster or easier way to do things. One thing I've learned over the years is to focus on m

Race week tips - Endurance events

May 2006. My very first endurance triathlon - Ironman Florida 70.3. I had no idea if I trained right for the distance or what I needed to be aware of on race day. So, the only thing I had control over was my attitude and at the ripe age of 23 (almost 24), I was overly confident and I was stubborn enough to believe I had done everything right to race my first half ironman. As for packing my transition bag - well, that was another story. This is totally a newbie picture. But we all know that race day performances are built on consistent actions. You eventually learn how to train smarter, pace better and plan ahead. Eventually, if you set your sights on your goals - dreams reallly do come true....even if you still feel like a newbie - 6 years later. For when you train the body to perform, your race day performance is solely dependent on your fitness - on that day. When I work with my athletes, I thrive off seeing them progress with their training, only to get an

Salad Pizza - YUM!

Sunday morning was a toughy. Karel kicked my butt...more like, he made my butt work hard!! On my Training Peaks schedule, Karel had "Brick with Karel" .That's it and I didn't ask questions. When I train with Karel, I've learned that to be mentally strong, I have to be willing to try to stay on Karel's wheel and with that, I can't psyche myself out before the workout starts. On Saturday, after Karel's race, I did a Z2 3- hour endurance ride just to loosen my legs from one of my toughest long runs, on Friday (10.5 miles). I had no intentions to run on Saturday for I wanted as much recovery as possible before Sunday's workout. At 6:30am, we were out the door. Karel said he was a little sore but he was glad he had the day off on Saturday from work, to recover from the intense effort of the sprint triathlon. Although it was only a sprint, it was an all out max effort for one hour. I think many people downplay the stress on the body for a sprint

Race report - Karel's first triathlon!

I think we can all relate to the unknown that comes with doing something for the first time. Uncomfortable, exciting, weird, awkard, easy.....it's hard to describe what it feels like to do something new because well, it is unfamiliar to your everyday living. I remember when I was less than 24 hours away from my first Ironman - IMFL in 2006. I was so freakin' excited yet a little scared of riding my bike for 112 miles. However, I could hardly contain myself. The only thing that really scared me was my heart and that it would have to beat for over 11 hours for a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. But thankfully, it did just fine since I trained it well and it worked great for 11 hours and 47 seconds. Since I've known Karel, this has been his comfort zone. A frame and two wheels and handlebars for steering. Karel has been racing bikes since a very young age but a few months ago, he was ready for a change. He craved something unknown, new and cha