Thinking about nutrition

Today I had a very cool opportunity with Rocky Mountain Tri Club to listen to some pretty awesome pro triathletes talk about the quadratic formula.

....No just kidding. They talked about triathlon obviously. 

So the pros were Liz Blatchford, Rachel Joyce, Drew Scott, and Tim Don. The talked a lot about training and the idea of 20-30 hours/wk blew my mind. I have to FIGHT to get in 10 and last summer the few times I got in 12 or 13 really wore me down. Can't imagine double that.

But honestly, what I took away most was something I all ready knew but needed a swift kick in the ass about: nutrition.

Drew Scott talked about 400 cal/hr on the bike. Tim Don said "if you think you need 4-5 gus, take 6-7." And they are both right. As anyone who has been following me knows I have had some rough runs, rides and races all due to nutrition (for some reason, I'm always smart about bringing gatorade to long swim workouts - even so I've had some cramping there too). I need to get my head in the game.

Part of being a woman, especially a woman who did not grow up an athlete and spent the vast majority of her teen years losing a lot of weight, makes me incredibly calories conscious. Sometimes I'll know on a workout I need more nutrition, but the thought of losing the calories in weight will nag at me. If I don't think I need it, I won't take it to gain the extra 200-calorie loss. God. That's dumb isn't it? I probably burn 1500 cal on the average bike ride. I can give an extra 100 cal to nutrition. We'll call it a July resolution: take the damn nutrition supplement.

But most importantly, it reminded me my idea for Boulder is right. When I bought my nutrition last week at Tribella, I bought double what I intended upon buying. So originally I planned 2 gus and 1 pack of enduro bites: 600 cal (plus gatorade on the bike and sport beans on the run - so maybe 800 for the whole race). I'm glad I did because while the extra pack of EnduroBites are staying home (or in the cooler), those Gus are getting taped somewhere just in case I feel so inspired to eat them. 

I am determined to have a good race, or at least a better race than last time. It all starts with getting all my ducks in a row.

On an uplifting note, here's a picture of me with Tim Don at Runner's Roost.

EnduroBites on a LONG training day

Yesterday was a long day. I spent 3 morning hours on a bike, then 1 afternoon running and 1 evening doing yoga. PHEW I'm wiped. But luckily I kept my refueling in check and I was able to DO all this yesterday. During the ride, I brought with some EnduroBites which are apparently just BARELY launching on to the market.

I was introduced to these one day when I ran into Tribella to get my cassette to stop rattling - but it cost me next to nothing and mid-ride all I had was a credit card so I resolved to buy something else. Liz suggested I try some of these - so I got one of each flavor - fig & chocolate and chocolate espresso. I threw them in the fridge when I got home. Well OH MY GAWSH. One night I got hungry after a workout and wasn't much in the mood for anything but a small snack so I tore open the fig & chocolate. These were so good that they never actually made it on a workout with me. I only ate them pre/post workout because they were so delicious and starring at me.

The chocolate espresso made it a little further out on a 10-mile run and a 53-mile bike. I didn't love these as MUCH as the fig & chocolate (and trust me...I'm a coffee fanatic). I found these to be a little more grainy, which didn't suit my tastes as well.

For other athletes I'd say this - these are the best when they are cold. Keep them in the fridge (as the package instructs anyway). If you aren't one for heavy food, these probably won't be your favorite for racing. I'd compare them to Picky Bars and Larabars - less sticky and gooey than both. I'm a big fan of chocolate during races - chocolate gus, specifically. So another chocolate-flavored nutrition was a good call. I like that they are all natural. So, broken down:

pros:
yummy
all-natural

cons:
heavy
grainy

Take that as you will - but I'm totally buying a pack of fig & chocolate to eat on Aug 4 at Boulder 70.3. One of my friends once told me "bring something on the bike you look forward to eating" which I feel is TOTALLY valid for an ironman or half. I'll look forward to chowing down on a pack of these guys. The packaging is tough to open - so pre-cutting is necessary. Also, each pack has four bites so they are pretty sizeable. You may want to divide them out in individual saran wrap/tin foil/something.

The tumblr is pretty cool too - so check it: http://endurobites.tumblr.com/

Boulder Peak Triathlon

The plan was to get up and swim this morning....instead I slept for 10 hours and still feel like a ton of bricks. So I have found myself with some extra time this morning, since I'm not working out, I will sit here eating my peanut butter and banana sandwich and recount yesterday's agony.

I knew yesterday would be hard when a friend of mine pointed out there is a 5-mile continuous climb on the bike course. Plus, I probably didn't taper as well or as much as I should have. This will NOT be an issue for the 70.3 in 3 weeks.

The morning started out rough. I was running late and missed my opportunity to have a swim warm up.  Then I realized I'd forgotten to leave my sunglasses in transition (they were on my face...) but was luckily able to get a volunteer to drop them into my helmet for me.

Yesterday we were once again seeded by swim time. This time instead of fastest 100y it was how long we thought the 1500 would take us. I lined up with the 33-36 min crew. The challenge to this, once again, is the number of people in this time bracket who spend a good portion of the swim freaking out. Though I'm not very fast, I still swim strong the whole time, so this gets tough. One woman (I'm unsure if she was actually doing something different or just doing free) hit me in the face just a few 100m out. That BLEW because it knocked my goggles off my face and got water in them. So I stopped to let the water out. Unfortunately, pushing the goggles back on my face too hard brought on a headache a few 100m later which I just dealt with through the rest of the swim. Man, getting those goggles off was great.

I also encountered people breaststroking, backstroking, life guard swimming...it's just a mess out there. I wish we were faster but I guess this is what I get for being slow. Once guy was doing a good pace free so I was sitting in his draft when he flipped over into back and slowed down tremendously. So I waited for him to pass because I was on his left and he started swimming into me with no idea where he was going...and went around him on the right. In the end, I stopped my watch at 35:40 (which was the time we crossed the mats to run from the beach into the water, to the time I hit the mats to take me to transition.

Unfortunately the results aren't up yet, so I don't have the real times for you.

T1 felt very long. The day before they told us we had to wear our bib numbers on our backs so that was just ONE MORE thing to worry about. Plus, I brought my road bike for the climbing so that just sort of added to the chaos - no easy place to leave my helmet, my sunglasses were just sitting in it. But I took my time. I knew rushing and panicking would probably only make t1 longer.

The bike started as every course has in Boulder. Up a very very slight grade to get to 36, which I would guess varies between a 1-2% grade in the beginning. So not too bad, but slower than you'd like to be moving. Than a turn on to Lee Hill rd. which I'm going to say sits nicely between 4-7% the whole time.  Then you turn slightly right as the road turns into Old Stage and BAM 15% grade. Have fun.

For those of you who aren't familiar with gradients - this is steep. VERY VERY steep. In the Tour de France the announcers will start freaking out about 10% grades. I was going about 5 mph the whole time (very very slow for a road bike) and lots of people just got off their bikes all together and walked it. I was all kinds of determined not to walk up that hill... so I didn't. I was a little concerned by people around me swerving their way up, mildly worried about the prospect of crashing. But I didn't do that either.

It actually ended up being a ton of fun. For once I let my competitive self go. I didn't care about passing people (though I did pass them) and I mustered up energy to cheer on people around me here/there when I knew they were struggling. There were lots of spectators lining the hill to watch us struggle, screaming, cheering. There were people in costumes with loud music playing at the top at the bottle exchange.

On the back end there were some rollers and then one big descent with a speed limit! It was only for a short section but there was a speed of 35 imposed and they had both a huge digital read-out set up and a cop sitting at the bottom of the hill with a speed gun to catch us. I kept myself at 32-33 so as to not get dq'ed - but I ABSOLUTELY see how someone could hit 40 without a problem.

The nice part was that after all this, we descended a TON so we had about 10 miles of some nice quick course. I geared out twice and threw my knees into my top tube and my head down as close to the handlebars as I could get it. As we turned onto 63rd, I knew the road very well and knew I had some rollers in store. My hamstrings were really starting to feel it though and I definitely wasn't at my best for this part.

Coming into t2, it looked like the course took me about 1:26 which given the fact that it was longer than your average olympic course and much much harder, I wasn't too upset with. I had a long run back to my rack from bike-in over the same really awful, painful asphalt and so I just walked it. My feet were numb and I wasn't having it.

I started out on the run feeling pretty okay. I felt heroic during my run warm-up. Heck, if all I had to do was a 10k yesterday I think I would've smoked it. The first mile I came through at a smooth 9:30 - which isn't as fast as I would want but it wasn't all that bad. Mile 2 came and after that came the twisting and turning, seemingly unending trail of mild rolling hills. I wasn't happy. I walked up the first hill because I just had not too much left. My feet started to blister in my shoes and my breathing felt shallow. I knew it couldn't be because of altitude because I've been here too long, but man it felt like I was suddenly at 10,000 feet.

I rounded the half way point feeling like crap. There were two girls around me in my age group though so catching them was a priority that moved me forward. One, just after I passed her, asked the volunteer if they had margaritas. I decided I liked her - thought briefly about just running it in with her, but I think she was probably holding 11 min/mil and it was just too slow. Honestly, when I mustered up the energy to run I was probably keeping a decent pace, but I was overcome with the blisters and exhaustion more often than I wanted to be.

I passed the other girl and hit the 5-mile mark, but that last mile was lacking a severe amount of motivation. Lisa Norden passed me and I thought "Whoa. COOL!" so I ran a little because it's LISA NORDEN! But then I had nothing left and walked again... the other girl in my AG came running by and I tried to hang but just couldn't do it anymore - especially not with the extreme pain from the blisters. At mile 3 I knew I was no longer racing, I was just "finishing" and that really did nothing for my motivation to go fast...or go at all.

I think I ended up finishing at around 3:12 which is a terrible time for me. About 13 minutes longer than my last olympic this season. My bf met me at the finish line and I exploited his medic knowledge in saying "I need you to help me take off my shoes. It isn't going to be pretty." His response "well, at least you aren't bleeding" - which was true. I've just got lots of tiny blisters all over these feet of mine.

All in all, it was trying. While it was slow and not a very good race for me, it made me feel pretty excited for the 70.3. No huge hill anymore, a longer swim I can handle. And my goal is 11:30s on the run, which I imagine I will suffer through similarly to how I did this one (which I'm assuming was about 10:30s). With just a little more training and nutrition, we'll see how it goes!

Back in the Saddle

I have 27 days until my next 70.3 and 1 week until my next race.

70.3 training has not been quite as intense as last year, which is sort of a blessing because when I got to race day last year.... I was exhausted. Then again, I am concerned about being less "ready." We will see. My swimming is comparable, my running is actually probably more as I've been in half marathon mode since April and my biking has certainly been less which I know is weird coming from this girl who loves her bikes more than creation.

I knew my needs for long rides have been looming though and since the onset of June I've been working on a 50+ mile ride/week when I'm not racing.

Once again, I spent July 4th on a riding extravaganza. I was told last minute on the 3rd that I would actually have the day off, so I left around 9 am with an estimated goal of a 4-hour ride. Not quite the 73-miler I pulled off last year, but still something.

My TT bike was making weird rattling noises and I needed to take it into the shop before putting more miles on it, so I suited up Isadora to ride:

I unfortunately found my Garmin wasn't working so I did the whole ride off time and my speed monitor on this bike. I ended up climbing the usual path that I often enjoy despite it being very trafficked and into Chatfield where I bike as far as I could until it dead ended and I turned around. Here are some pictures from that.

In the end I knocked out 63 miles at around 16 mph in just a little less than 4 hours. I finally felt good again about distance riding. It didn't hurt too bad until after 60 miles, so that was a good indicator. Now just to keep it up for the next 3 weeks until I taper. YIKES!