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Showing posts from June 22, 2014

Race ready for Ironman Austria!

After another good night of sleep, I woke up around 5:45am and had a good pre workout snack of WASA + PB + Banana slices and granola/raisins and water and coffee and then we got our bikes ready for our last warm-up ride.  We drove to the race venue and parked before things got busy for there were two athlete meetings that morning (9 and 10am) as well as the Iron Girl race at 11am (run).  We rode about 50 minutes total on the back part of the course (headed out first backward on the course) so that we could see the last 5 or so miles of the course. After the bike we did a short 10 min run to wake up the legs and then walked to the athlete briefing (in English).  I always encourage athletes to go to the athlete meeting before a race for you never know what information you will need to hear that is important for your race. I always want to be prepared and many times, attending the race meeting can ease many pre race nerves (always good to control the controllables). 

Two more sleeps before Ironman Austria!

After a good night of sleep, we headed to the swim start/race venue (about 5K away) from our flat and got in our last pre-race swim before race day. Friday is typically a "day off" for us (and our athletes) before an A-race so we reserve this day to be incredibly lazy before the big event day and to attend to some pre-race to do's. Also, with our 3 hours of training on Thursday, we finally woke up our body and Friday felt great for just an EZ 25 minute swim to get more comfortable in the water and in our wetsuit. The water feels great and the weather is amazing! The finish line area is like an arena with a huge big screen TV and stadium seating. Of course, we pass the finish line area at least 3 times while we are running so this finish chute will be super exciting when we finally get to end our 140.6 mile journey here on Sunday.  How exciting to meet Faris! We are huge fans of this professional triathlete super star! He was super nic

Ironman Austria race course (pics)

Some of the most memorable parts of traveling are enjoying new sight, smells and tastes. Because I am super camera happy, I just love capturing memories of beautiful sights when I travel. I really try my best to soak up every moment when I travel but for me, pictures help me tell a story. Not always do the pictures flow like sentences in a paragraph but more often than not, they help the reader want to turn the page for more. That’s how I see life when I travel. I just love sensory overload in a new place! After my first two Ironman’s (IMFL and Kona in 2006 and 2007 respectively) and 3 consecutive half IM’s in Orlando Florida (Disney half ironman at the time, now Ironman Florida 70.3),  I welcomed my first Ironman race after Kona in my home state of Kentucky. I really enjoyed the journey of training for the Ironman but the added excitement of traveling for a race really made my Ironman experience extra special. Since 2009, I have continued to follow two passions of mine – trav