triathletes — BLOG — WHERE YOUR FEET TAKE YOU

A Recap of 5x100 Miles on the Bike in a Week

The week of August 3rd I partook on a self made challenge of completing 500 miles on the bike in a week structured as five 100 mile rides, so 100 miles done on five different days. This challenge arose after Ironman Wisconsin was cancelled. My coach texted me asking if there was any challenge I was in the mood for completing in lieu of the race being cancelled. I learned a lot during those five days and wanted to share a couple of the biggest learnings with you.

⚡️Motivation and discipline are totally different.
⚡️You can do hard things.
⚡️Letting go of your data and expectations is very freeing.
⚡️Hard things are totally worth it.

For more on each of these learnings that I had check out the video and recap in the blog, I promise it is worth it!!!

Coach Kayla's Home Gym Equipment Recommendations

A lot of us right now are either under “stay home” orders or at a minimum practicing (or at least I sure hope you are) social distancing practices and that means for most of us gyms and pools are closed leaving us with a gap in either our training or just in our health conscious life in general.

So I put together a few of my favorite home gym pieces that can help make your home gym work more fun and efficient!!

Top Learnings of a New Mom

I can’t believe it has been over four weeks already since Skylar Zane graced us with his presence. It has been an amazingly exhausting four weeks. Now this blog isn’t meant to be his birth story more on what I learned during these last four weeks but I will give you the quick down and dirty highlight reel of how he came into this world.

Since having Skylar Zane these last four plus weeks have been amazing and beautiful but also some of the hardest and most growth related weeks of my life. So I wanted to share a little bit about what it is that I have learned these last couple weeks.

Kayla BowkerDecember 18, 2019whereyourfeettakeyou, #whereyourfeet, postpartum, birth story, triathlete, blogger, blog, triathlon, triathletes

Letting Our Inner Dialogue Guide Us Towards Greatness

Our minds work just like a movie with a constant flow of images, words, and thoughts that never stops, we are constantly thinking, analyzing and trying to figure things out even when we don’t know that we are doing so. Learning how to control the Self - Talk and subsequently learning how to change it allows you to take control and get after your potentional. So how do you change your self talk? Its not an easy process but if you are willing to take the steps towards changing then here are some tips to help you:

Kayla BowkerNovember 5, 2019whereyourfeettakeyou, #whereyourfeet, triathlon, mindset, mindfulness, triathletes, mindset coach, self talk

5 Basic Principles to Get to Kona World Championships (or just chase your dreams)

Maybe you are someone who has dreamed of racing in Kona on World Championship day. Maybe you’ve been close multiple times but never totally there. Maybe you just want to push yourself to see if it is even possible. Well let me tell you, it is possible, and it is totally worth it, but you are going to have to work for it. Qualifying for Kona means you are going up against the best of the best in the sport from Professionals to Age Groupers and let me tell you there are some amazing athletes out there across the board. Now this blog won’t tell you exactly how to qualify from a performance standpoint and it isn’t meant to be a guide in your training but merely a guide in the most important pieces of getting yourself there; five basic principles to help organize your mindset to achieve your dreams of racing on the big island.

6 Tips To Running Faster Off The Bike

Being fast in an Ironman (both 1406. and 70.3 distances) really comes down to who can to who is the one who slows down the least. It is very common that around the late stages of a race all of the sudden the wheels fall off and pace drops. Running off the bike seems so easy, you just run right? So why is it that you as you work through your training all of the sudden it seems like you are getting slower during your running. You up your run mileage and it doesn’t seem to help… Running efficiently and in turn faster off the bike is more than just running more; there are a lot of little other factors involved with running faster off the bike. Check out my 6 tips to running faster off the bike!!

Choosing To Race While Pregnant

The number one thing that my parents taught me was to chase my passions, never give up on your dreams, and do whatever it takes. This may mean that my route and path may change a little bit, it will be adjusted, but it sure as hell does not mean that my dreams and goals have to change unless I WANT them to.

I want my child to grow up watching its parents chase their dreams, to go after their passions, to get down and dirty with the crazy ideas that they have. I want my child to look at me and know that I never gave up on what I wanted in hopes that someday when they are out their chasing their dreams they will think my mom never gave up so why would I.

Race Simulations: Why We Love Them

A race simulation doesn’t always have to be a complete day that is treated like a race but merely a specific workout say your long Sunday run where you do it at race pace effort, or even just a bike done with large portions at race pace effort. Now you can’t, and don’t want to do these types of training days, all the time because our bodies would break down but strategically placed they can be very beneficial.

An Athlete's Favorite Mantras to Dig a Little Bit Deeper

You are stronger than you think you are and your body is much stronger than your brain thinks it is. We say a lot of things to ourselves when we are deep in the pain cave of a race, or even when it is a hard day of training. We train ourselves to be mentally tougher than the person next to us, and it takes something different for every single person. It is these little pieces that when you are deep in the hurt locker that you can grab onto to light that fire deep within you to help you put one foot in front of the other. In this post find out what not only myself but other athletes as well do to help keep themselves out of the darkness.