Catch Up Time!

The year of 2015 has been a busy one for me! From competing in half marathons to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Austria. It’s been a fun and challenging season there is no doubt about it!

My racing season start with Ironman 70.3 Florida which ended up being a tougher race than expected. The extreme heat and the hills on the run made it hard to perform at my best. After mentally more than physically recovering from Florida I prepared myself for Ironman 70.3 Raleigh. With Raleigh being close to home I was hoping to do extremely well knowing the elevation changes and acclimated to North Carolina. But in the end, Raleigh showed me differently! Between the heat and the sun blaring down on the runners with little to no shade in the run, this was the worst performance of the year. I did however catch up to my dad who started almost half an hour earlier then me and we finished the race together for the first time in a half Ironman which was an amazing and rare opportunity. Fourteen days later I found myself in Williamsburg, Virginia competing in the Challenge Family USA 70.3 race. At this race I was introduced to Base Performance salt which I decided to try during my race breaking the rules of “nothing new on race day”. Now if you have never done this race before, it’s an amazing venue but the bike is down a long section of highway with the maximum sun exposure the entire stretch and then the run is in and out of the woods on gravel paths. It’s an interesting combination of going from the blaring heat of the sun to the humidity of the woods. If it had not been for me talking the Base salt, I highly doubt I would have finished that race. Then of course my A race was at my door step. The Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Austria was such an experience that I cannot even begin to explain. The mountains were beautiful, the lake was clear as could be and so refreshing. I learned a lot about myself from a nutritional/hydration perspective and not to under estimate a mountainous race like this one! Failure are a valuable lesson of life… especially if you can and will learn from them! The last big race of the year for me was Ironman 70.3 Austin. This event allowed me to see all of my family in Austin and San Antonio. This race held true to course for the year with additional insurmountably odds and me rolling my ankle badly on the run which effectively ended the rest of the race for me.

As things move towards “the out season” it will give me time to recover and get mentally prepared for the 2016 season. I will be focusing not only on strength but form and mechanics! This past season was a huge learning process for me and I want to thank Tops Athletics for getting my body for physically ready for my races. I have come to love my Clifton 2 from Hoka OneOne and is my preferred race day shoe. Also my new TYR Hurricane 3 wet suit proved to be a great weapon towards the back end of my season as the waters got colder. I could not have done this without my supporters this year and I’m sincerely grateful for their support and amazing products!