#feedtheathlete – PushMyLimits

This month has been a COMPLETE whirlwind! It seems as though it has drug on and flown by all at the same time! How does that happen?!

Racing:

9/11 marked our third trip around the Ironman Wisconsin race course and was the 5 year anniversary of my first Ironman…which was also Ironman Wisconsin! It was a fantastic day for racing…so fantastic that I had a 40+ minute PR on this course for the day! You can read more about my race here.

Riding up Barlow Hill with the cheers of Thing 1, Thing 2, and my Coeur Sports Tribe. Photo Credit: Erin Klegstad

Recovering:

Post Ironman always means lots of “down time” and recovery. I think this is probably the best I’ve done at taking time off and doing NO exercise for nearly 2 full weeks…well, I did do an EASY hour on the trainer and we helped a friend move, but otherwise we’ve done no swimming, no running, and VERY little cycling and strength training. While my body will definitely appreciate the down time, my mind is going CRAZY without my daily dose of stress relief! Thankfully we are starting to see some easy recovery workouts in Training Peaks again and some stress relief is in sight!

Reading:

At the beginning of September, I finished reading On Top of You Game: Mental Skills to Maximize Your Athletic Performance by Carrie Cheadle for the 2nd time. This book is a MUST read if you are an athlete wanting to perform at a higher level. It is full of great tools and has activities for you to do to help you achieve success! #feedtheathlete is something we can all be on board with!!

After Ironman Wisconsin, I picked up 17 Hours to Glory: Extraordinary Stories from the Heart of Triathlon by Mathias Miller, Mark Deterline, and Timothy Carlson. This book is great! Each chapter is about a different person’s journey to the Ironman finish line. Some individuals have crossed the finish line of multiple Ironman races, while others just a few. It is the perfect book to read just a chapter and set down, or read it from cover to cover!

Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown is what I am currently reading. I am not very far into this book, but it is already full of hope, stamina, and grit! My husband (someone who doesn’t read much) recommended I read this and I am finally getting around to it. WOW…a must read!

Regrouping:

Finding the “new normal” after an Ironman race is always a challenge! When we are used to having SBR (swim/bike/run) consume most of our “free time,” we are often at a loss for a few weeks after an Ironman. We have cleaned both of our vehicles (inside and out), we’ve cooked many meals to load our freezer, we’ve cleaned the house and the garage, we’ve reseeded part of our lawn that the city chewed up when redoing our street earlier this summer…we can’t seem to sit still, so lots of things are getting done that we’ve put off during peak training and racing.