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IM 70.3 Blue Ridge - quick recap

When I first heard about the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Blue Ridge in 2020, I was intrigued by the possibility that an Ironman branded half ironman would include a challenging bike course. When the bike course details described an "epic five-mile climb on Route 43 to the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance" and that "Athletes will experience breathtaking views of the valley, as they ride and descend 21-miles of completely closed roads" I never stopped thinking about this race. I love challenging race courses as the accomplishment comes in the journey to the finish line. My most memorable half Ironman races have been on really hard courses ( IM 70.3 St. Croix and IM 70.3 Branson quickly come to mind). For the past few months, Ironman 70.3 Blue Ridge has remained my focus. Although my training has been a bit unconventional this year, I felt that I could do really well on the course as it suited my strengths of being a hilly and hot course. I didn't need to be fast, just healt...

Hello from Roanoke!

  The past two weeks have been a bit hectic. Although I recovered really quickly from IM 70.3 Chattanooga, Karel's broken wrist has been giving him a lot of pain. The broken radius is healing nicely but he is still experiencing a tremendous amount of pain from his ulnar nerve. He doesn't sleep well at night as the pain gets worse. I feel so bad for him. He had a follow-up with his surgeon on Tues (and got his stitches out from the three incisions) and if the pain doesn't get better in the next two weeks, Karel will see a neurologist to figure out what's going on. His PT is going well and he is making some progress with using his fingers (he still doesn't have much strength). We have a good friend/triathlete that is a hand surgeon so he has been incredibly helpful as he has been speaking with Karel almost daily on his progress and figuring out a good routine for his medications to help with the swelling and pain.  So with so much of my emotional energy going to Karel...

How to recover from a long-distance event

Being sore, exhausted and a little run-down after an endurance event is normal. That post-race soreness is your reward from the effort that was needed to get from the start to the finish - you earned the hobble in your wobble.  Although there is no one specific guideline, rule or method to speed up recovery after an endurance triathlon event, I feel it's important to walk you through some of the factors that contribute to recovery time after an endurance event. Although everyone is different, here are some of the mistakes that athletes make post race and a few strategies to help you get back to good health after a long-distance triathlon event. Why is recovery important? In training for an event, we welcome (and need) intentional and residual training stress for proper peaking and then we need to provide the body with a taper, in order to reduce the psychological and physiological stressors of consistent training in order to optimize performance and enhance previous training adapt...

2021 IM 70.3 Chattanooga - race recap

  After receiving news from my mom that Karel was out of surgery and slowing waking up from his knock-me-out-cocktail, I felt a lot more at ease. The check-in process was very smooth and it felt much more normal and familiar (like pre-pandemic).  Around 3pm we made our way 1.8 miles to our rental home (Airbnb). Once we unloaded the car, I couldn't wait to Facetime with Karel. He was still super sleepy and out of it but it was nice to see him.  We chatted again about 90-minutes later as he was back at our home and a bit more alert (still on the drunk-side after being sedated for two hours). He received a nerve block which made his entire left arm numb and although it felt super weird, he said it was a relief to be pain-free for the first time since the fall on his right hand.  Around 5:30pm, we had our athletes over for our typical pre-race pizza party/course talk and it was so nice to see everyone. I ordered pizza from  Home Slice  and it was delish. They a...