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Showing posts from May 10, 2015

Never give up

In two days, I will be racing my 9th half ironman distance triathlon.  In 5 months, I will be racing my 10th Ironman distance triathlon and 4th Ironman World Championship.  In 9 years, I have covered 1827.8 miles with my body.  That's like swimming, biking and running from Miami, FL to Maine!!! INCREDIBLE!! One thing I have learned throughout the past 7 years since starting endurance racing, is that patience, hard work and commitment help me accomplish a lot with my athletic goals but life isn't fair or simple when you are an athlete.  Throughout every training and racing season, I found myself experiencing great highs and lows. With the highs, I have won races, qualified for Kona, set PR's and have traveled to really cool places in order to race. Most notable with the lows, I always found myself with yearly chronic hip/glute/back injuries (that would keep my from running for several months at a time), regardless if I felt I was taking risks to p...

It's race week! Travel, nutrition and performance tips

NUTRITION/BODY IMAGE Rock the race day breakfast Changing your perception of "race weight" Eat for performance, not reward Go ahead, indulge! Post Race indulgences Don't be afraid of sport nutrition  Don't let your body image ruin your race Simple and effective race fueling tips Avoid dehydration  PERFORMANCE Successful athlete tips Embrace your competition on race day Race smart in unfavorable conditions Race tips - get yourself race ready Master the mass start How to spectate like a champ  (for your family/friends) Let it go: How to move on from a bad race Recovery tips from race to race Mental skills tips (from Dr. G) How to find your race week zen Taper do's and dont's Enjoy a healthy taper TRAVEL Going international - travel tips for athletes Smart meals for traveling triathletes Race-cation: plan smart Here are some videos that I did with Oakley Women:  PRE RACE NUTRITION TIPS ...

Taper do's and don'ts

"This is so hard!" "I don't feel like myself!" "I don't know if I can survive this!" For many athletes, the taper period before a race can feel harder than any interval workout. You've reached a point in your season when you put in countless hours of training, more miles than you would ever consider driving at one time and have accomplished so many workouts that you termed "impossible" when you started and now, the only thing between you and putting all that training to good use is a week or two of a drop in training volume, less total workouts and more rest.  Yes, now you can clearly see why athletes dread taper.  Your "normal" routine changes....... And we all know that most athletes do not do well with change.   Some athletes feel they may lose fitness during taper whereas other athletes feel "off". It's important to understand that every athlete handles their taper differently - an...

Happy Mother's Day!

"You never know how strong you are until strong is your only choice" - Bob Marley This is one of my favorite quotes. I often think of this saying before I race for I always feel like I find myself in uncomfortable situations on race day and in order to find success, I have to stay physically and mentally strong. It's amazing how strong you can be when your only choices are to find a way or to simply give up.  This past year has been incredibly tough for my family.  Almost one year ago, my dad lost his 10 month fight with cancer. For anyone who has lost a close friend, family member or loved one, it's very easy to feel depressed, lonely, sad and angry People will often say "stay strong" but it's just not that easy.  Everyone grieves differently but eventually, the survivor of the loved one is destined to continue on with life. It never gets easy and the loved one is never forgotten but life does go on and we should try to not wast...