A tale of two World Championship events

 

The picture is from the Kona, Hawaii. On nine separate occassions for almost 2 weeks, between 2007 until 2019, this was our view in early October. The Ironman World Championship has a very special place in our hearts. I have had the privilege of racing 5 times on the Big Island and Karel has raced 4 times. At Ironman Lake Placid this year, we both earned a slot to race in Kona again. Had we accepted, we would have been heading back to the Big Island to participate in the IM World Championship. 

This is a picture from Molveno, Italy. A place we've never been to before. On Monday, we will be flying (back) to Europe for the Xterra World Championship. Karel qualifed at the 2021 USA Championship in Ogden, Utah. Originally I was planning to bring my mountain bike and make the trip an epic train-cation while supporting Karel but I unexpectedly received a rolldown slot after participating in the Xterra European Championship in Czech Republic and I accepted the slot for my first Xterra World Championship. 

Two completely different World Championship locations.
Two completely different races.
Two completely different weather conditions.
Two completely different expectations.

In Kona, I always felt tremendous pressure to perform at my best. Every year I requalified for the Ironman World Championship, my expectations for myself got higher and higher. Sadly, I never performed to my potential. I let the pressure get the best of me.

For my first Xterra World Championship, I am going to apply the lessons learned from several past World Championship experiences and I will go into the race with no expectations. This isn't to be confused with low expectations. No expectations means no dissapointments. Karel and I are there to learn, to enjoy the experience, to take in the scenery and to give our best effort on the day.

You don't have to participate in a World Championship event to find yourself trying to forecast how you want things to go. Career, moving, school, the weather, a relationship or special occassion - trying to control an outcome can lead to tremendous stress, pressure and frustration.

So does this mean that we should lower our expectations in order to avoid dissappointment? Should we stop dreaming big so we don't have to experience a let-down if we don't succeed?

It's great to have goals. It's good to strive for more. It's fine to have high-standards for yourself. But your expectations should not affect your self-esteem, well-being or happiness. Be reasonable with yourself. There will always be things out of your control. Living with high expectations can be associated with burnout, sadness, depression and low self-esteem.

Here are a few signs that you may be expecting too much from yourself:

• Perfectionism - feeling that you are never good enough, setting unrealistic standards.
• Not allowing yourself to make mistakes.
• Being hard and overly critical on yourself, focusing too much on your imperfections.
• Setting goals to other people's expectations, not based on your own needs, interests and abilities.
• Trying to please everyone and putting the needs of others before your own.
• Focusing too much on what other people are doing.
• Not being able to say no.
• A constant need for achievemet and praise for sense of self-worth.
• Expecting to always be at your best. 

Here are some tips to help you stop expecting so much from yourself (remember, no expectations is not low expectations): 

• Stop comparing yourself to other people (or a past version of yourself). Your self-worth should not be based on other people. Focus on your own strengths and abilities and your journey in life.
• Set goals that are realistic. Strive for "good enough." Let go of the need to be perfect.
• Allow yourself to fail. Be ok with making mistakes. You don't have to be great at everything.
• Live within your own moral code and personal values. Make sure your goals are in line with your own needs, not to please others.
• Set boundaries for yourself. Know when to say no, ask for help and give yourself rest.
• It's ok to have rough patches. This does not mean that you are not going to be successful. Everyone has bad days.
• Enjoy your journey without the need for constant applause or achievement.
• Challenge the bully in your head. Address the negativity to focus on the positives. Be kind to yourself. 

When you learn to stop expecting too much from yourself, you may find that you are much happier, succeed more often and recognize the positives in what you have.

Hello from St. George!

 

St. George, Utah is one of our favorite race venues. Our first time to St. George was in May of 2017 for the 70.3 event. We couldn't wait to return in 2018 to race for a 2nd time. Karel loves St. George so much that he returned again for the 70.3 in 2019. And then in September of 2021, we once again traveled to St. George to participate in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. 

The St. George scenery gets us every time. The red rocks are incredible and the race course takes us through several different towns, allowing us to see so much of the area. With such a challenging course (hills, heat and wind), the spectacular views make it easy to temporarily forget about the suffering. 

For the first time ever, the Ironman World Championship is taking place outside of Hawaii. On May 7th, Karel and I will be participating in the 2021 Ironman World Championship (because no World Championship took place last year, this race is being called the 2021 World Championship). This will be my 6th Ironman World Championship and 18th Ironman event. This will be Karel's 5th Ironman World Championship and 15th Ironman event. We love tough and challenging events and we will be tested on Saturday. 

Our travel started off super early on Monday morning. We woke up around 3:30am, quickly got ourselves ready, said good-bye to our five furry kids (who will be well taken care of while we are away) and drove to the Greenville airport. Due to our small airport, we rarely need more than 90-minutes to go from parking to the plane. Well, this time was different. The airport was packed at 4:15am! With a 5:30am departure to Atlanta, we were cutting it close and then at security, Karel was told that his birthdate didn't match his ticket because the lady at the counter entered it wrong. So he had to sprint back to the counter to get it changed. By the time he got through security and then we got to the gate, the door was shut and we - along with a handful of others - were not on our plane. 

In all my years of traveling, I've never missed a flight before. It was our fault for not allowing more time. I was so upset. This trip was not starting off on a good note. We were put on the next flight (7am) and on a different flight from Atlanta to Vegas so thankfully we got to our final destination on the same day (just a few hours later than planned). 

Things turned from bad to good when we picked up our rental car. This was my first time using Turo and it was awesome. We went from the luggage area to short term parking and there was our car with instructions as to how to get the keys inside of it. Not only was this process super easy but this rental car was almost $500 less than had I rented from a rental car company at the airport. We loaded up our Ford Edge and made our way to get some food....Chipotle! 

We started our ~1:45 hour drive to Vegas - which turned into almost 3 hours due to ~4 miles of construction work. We finally arrived to our condo (the same area that we stayed in September) around 5pm after a very long day of traveling. It was so nice to finally arrive in St. George. Despite a long and semi stressful travel day, we took one look around and we were quickly reminded why we love it here. 

As Karel put together the bikes, I went to Albertsons to get groceries (~3 miles away). By the time I got back, Karel was finished with the bikes. I was mentally exhausted so I made myself dinner (well more like breakfast - a yogurt parfait with fruit, granola and bread with peanut butter) and Karel went for a short run to shake off the fatigue from the flight. 

Around 8pm mountain time, we were tired and ready to sleep. Thankfully, a good night of sleep was all we needed as we woke up on Tuesday morning around 6am feeling excited to get on our bikes to check out a new part of this Ironman race course. 

More to come tomorrow.....

The (Best) Worst Timing

 

We got sick and our PCR test results came back COVID-19 positive. 

Karel had his worst symptoms (flu-like body aches, night sweats, fatigue, no energy, but no fever) from August 27th-30th. I had my worst symptoms (flu-like body aches, sinus congestion, running nose, wet cough, fatigue, low energy, but no fever) from September 1st-3rd. It took us both another 3-4 days until we started to feel more like our normal self. I am still without taste or smell and my sinuses are still very congested. After waiting three days for an appointment, we both tested positive on September 3rd. 

Thankfully, we were not in close contact with many people over the past two weeks. We don't eat out, we don't go indoors without a mask (grocery and post office are the only two places we go indoors) and Karel only had three bike fits in the two weeks before he was tested positive. We have two training partners (Alvi and Kristen) so we notified them and they both tested negative. I told my mom and her boyfriend and three other people who stopped by to see Asher (our newest kitten). No one has reported any positive tests since interacting with us. 

With the Ironman 70.3 World Championship just eight days away, we are happy to report that thankfully, we are both out of our quarantine/isolation period and we will be safe to travel (and race) race week. 

There's never a good time to get sick but this COVID experience has been the (best) worst timing. If we would have gotten sick this week, we wouldn't be traveling or racing at the IM 70.3 World Championship. Certainly we would have preferred to not have gone through this but at this point, we are just so thankful that we were fully vaccinated when we were exposed and thanks to the vaccine doing what it was designed to do, our symptoms were not severe. Although I have had to drastically change our expectations for our race day performance since I am still struggling with heavy legs while running, sinus pressure and overall, I still don't feel 100%, I am just so thankful that I was able to race so much this year without having to overcome any major obstacles. 

A younger version of myself would have felt as if my Ironman 70.3 World Championship experience was ruined due to a sickness 2.5 weeks out from the race. But over the years, I've learned not to associate my self-worth to one race. The truth is that happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them. Struggling doesn't mean you are failing. 

Although I am disappointed in the timing of this sickness, it's still the best worst timing in that we will still be able to travel to and participate in the race. Sure, this virus took away some of my strength, my taste and smell and time away from structured training but what counts is what you do with what you have left - not wasting energy on what is taken away from you. Worrying and complaining changes nothing. 

Life's best lessons are often learned at the worst times. Sometimes you have to go through the worst, to arrive at your best.