We started the long trip to the big island on Wednesday evening. We left our house around 5pm, picked up Chipotle and drove ~2:20 hr to Decatur Georgia to stay with our friend/athlete Katie at her house. With a 7:30am flight out of ATL, we opted to be close to the airport versus driving from Greenville to Atlanta at 2am on Thursday. It was nice to catch up with Katie (we haven't seen her since her 3rd place finish at IM Maryland) and finally meet her doggies. She knows how much I love her three-legged dog Pax and I finally got to meet the fluffy marshmallow. On Thursday morning, we woke up around 3:50am and drove the 20 minutes to Peachy Parking and then took the shuttle to the domestic terminal. Although we could have flown from Greenville (Delta), it was cheaper and less layovers to fly from ATL. After checking in and dropping off our bikes and suitcases, we went through security and spent ~90 minutes in the Delta lounge in terminal A. We enjoyed some coffee and food before boar...
Intentional walking is not failing to run. For many people, learning to run without walk breaks is a right of passage. It shows that endurance has improved and you are able to run continuously without needing to stop. However, intentional walk breaks during run workouts (or racing) are not a sign of weakness or failing to run. They are a purposeful tool for endurance triathletes and runners to help support long-term development and higher-quality training. Strategically inserted walking allows heart rate, breathing, and muscular tension to partially reset, enabling you to maintain better mechanics and aerobic efficiency throughout the workout or race. This means better recovery and less stress from each run workout and the ability to run faster for longer on race day. From a physiological standpoint, walk breaks reduce excessive fatigue in the neuromuscular system and can help keep the effort aligned with its intended training zones. They also decrease cumulative impa...