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Showing posts from September 30, 2018

IMKona '18: 10 & 9 days out

After a surprisingly great night of sleep on Tuesday, we woke up just in time for the sunrise while sitting out on the patio enjoying a pre-workout snack. We wasted no time with our first workout on the island and headed straight to "dig me beach" for a 40-minute open water swim.  Sadly, the water was a bit more cloudy and there weren't a lot of fish. It was also rather warm. However, it still felt amazing to swim in the ocean with the sun shining down on us.  Karel and I swam an easy 40 minutes (~20 minutes out and back). We kept it fairly easy throughout but built the effort on the way back. The focus was just to move blood after travel and to have fun in the ocean.  Even though it's still 10 days out from the 2018 IM World Championship, the swim venue was pretty busy. It was nice to be surrounded with so many triathletes from all different parts of the world. Karel is looking forward to connecting with some of his Czech friends next week.  ...

Kona '18 - Travel day

Maps not to scale make the Hawaii islands seem so close to California. So deceiving! Well let me tell you, it's not a quick hop over the Pacific ocean. Over the past 11 years (since my first IM Kona in 2007), I've traveled to the Big Island for the IM World Championship a total of 6 times. Four of those times I was an athlete ('07, '11, '13, '15) and now twice as a spectathlete ('16 and '18). While it's a long journey to get to Kona, the first step off the airplane makes it so worth it. There's nothing like seeing the island as the plane is getting closer to landing.   Our journey to Kona started on Monday afternoon. After a see-you-later to Campy and our cats (they will be well taken care of thanks to my mom and our neighbor Joey), we packed up the car and headed to Atlanta around 3:30pm. With a 9am flight on Tuesday morning and a total of 11ish hours of flying, the thought of leaving our house at 3am on Tues was a bit exhausting and s...

Is your sunscreen safe and effective?

As the seasons change from hot and steamy to cold and dreary, his means less outdoor workouts or layering/dressing for the conditions. But for a lot of athletes (especially those heading to the Big Island of Kona over the next two weeks), there's still a lot of time left for outdoor training, which means you need to continue to protect your skin.  Sunscreen is a very important product for overall health. Sunscreen use can help prevent skin cancer by protecting you from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Regardless of age, gender or race, anyone can get skin cancer. Sadly, it's estimated that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Even if you don't burn easily, wearing sunscreen is still important. Sunburn is an immediate reaction, but sun damage occurs over a lifetime. The following information is from the  Environmental Working Group:   "Thus, ingredients in sunscreen should be able to withstand powerful UV radia...