IM NZ Race Week and Race Plan

Much of the timing below will really depend on how we are handling the time change (17 hrs ahead).  Plan is to strap the 2 year old to his seat and hope for the best.

Sunday  – Monday 

Stretch, Yoga, Hydrate during travel

Bringing Yamuna balls to roll on in aisle when awake

Tuesday 

Arrive in NZ with 4 hour drive to race city Taupo

Assemble bike to make sure everything is a go

Scope out the closest place to get a pump or get to know a neighbor that is racing that has one. 

If I can get it in – 30’ jog

Wednesday 

Course Ride 90’

Course Swim 30’

Will be a great day to see what access is like to the race. We are two families and 4 kiddos under 5 yrs old trying to find me on race day, so riding out to the course and getting to the swim venue will help develop those plans.

Race expo is open from 9-5 – play this by ear

Thursday 

Course Swim again 30’

Quick Ride to check set-up 30’

Quick run 30’

Athlete Check-in 9-4.  Would like to get this out of the way, either right after or right before swim/bike/run.

Race expo open from 9-5 – play by ear.

Race briefing 7PM

Friday 

No working out!

Bike/Bag check-in 10-4. Prob try to go early so he can come with – quick stroll around the venue and then back to the flat to rest.

Rest – Feet Up

Saturday – RACE DAY!!!!!

Early Morning Wake Up 3:45 – 4:00.  Eat ‘breakfast’ which includes my Bullet Coffee with cream, MCT oil and butter, some almond butter and raisins/bananas, and the typical 2 big glasses of lemon/salt water. Lemon/salt water until race start

Transition opens at 5:00.  Get there early. Get set up.  Deep Breaths.  Smile.

As far as race goals go….I tend to have a lot of them….mainly because it allows me to ‘succeed’ along the day, and also because I found that with my First (and only other IM) I needed ways to validate the day in case the unthinkable happened. As with time goals, there are so many other factors that can come into play, time goals can really get into your head if they are not met, so I usually have a time goal, an AG goal, and a ‘Feel’ goal for each discipline.  WRT the Time goals, I also have a good/better/best(usually bordering unrealistic) goals as well.  Lots of chances to ‘succeed’ J

Swim: 0700 AG swim start

Tri Kit, goggles, wetsuit, timing chip, cap

Get in and warm up by 6:40 at the latest.  Drils/swim/drills/swim

Race Plan: Book it for the first 400-500yrds then settle in for the long swim.  Keep my 5 drills in my head to keep focus.  Find bubbles.  Stay relaxed.  Stay lllooooonnnnnggggg. Smile.

Swim Goals: 

Time: 1:08/1:03/sub1:00

AG Goal: Out of the Water Top10/Top5/Top3 [38 females in my AG, so doable]

Feel: Relaxed neck and shoulders during entire swim. Come out of the water feeling rested.

T1: Can’t take wetsuit fully off until in transition, so peel top half off, get to transition, step and strip.  T1 bag – helmet, shoes, socks, chamois cream, suntan lotion. 

Bike:  Ride first 30-40 minutest to settle in.  There is a long hill less than 2 miles in so goal is to get through that nice and easy, start to re-hydrate from the swim. STAY STEADY.  The ride has 4 long hills, (each 4-6 miles long).  DO NOT CRUSH THE HILLS.  This is hard for me.  I’m a small rider who loves to crush hills to prove I’m strong, since the rest of the ride most others are passing me.  Coach P reminded me that race day is not the place to do this J  Keep HR between 137-145.  Start nutrition at bike time 40-45 min as practiced in SO many workouts.  On bike will have front water bottle with lemon/salt, on frame a concentrated lemon/salt, on frame ‘heavy’ nutrition bottle with UCAN.  Sip from front water bottle every 10 minutes.  Take nutrition every 30 minutes.  When I hit the aid stations, poor concentrated hydration into front bottle, get water to fill up front bottle and keep going.  Hit special needs with another bottle of concentrated electrolytes and ‘heavy’ bottle. 

Bike Goals:

Time: 6:14/6:00/5:36 [that last one is a 20mph avg…yeah…..]

AG Goal: Top 50%/Top 25%/Top10%

Feel: Able to stay in aerobars, Negative split, stay strong throughout. Stick to HR.

T2: Plan is to have a Ziploc bag with the items I can put on while running out of transition.  Leave bike shoes on bike.  Helmet/glasses/socks off in that order.  Put garmin on.  Turn Garmin on. New socks on, shoes on, grab bag and go. [bag has race number, visor, nutrition]

Run:  So the run is where I have the most to prove.  In my previous Ironman, I was grinning from ear to ear at the start of the run.  My swim and bike were better than expected. My seat hurt so bad from the bike I was ecstatic to be done with it, and I ran…..way……to ……fast at the start.  I ended up spending lots of time in porta potties, and walk/ran for three hours.  So, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast right?  Pace for first 3 miles is 10:00 +  Pace for miles 3-6 is 9:45 + at the fastest.  I run all my zone 1 workouts with my mouth closed.  Pace miles 6-12 9:30 +, Pace miles 12-18 9:15+, Pace miles 18 – go for it. If I need to open my mouth, I’m running too hard before mile 18.  I tend to get really caught up with numbers, so when I run with a watch, I only look at it when it buzzes at the mile mark, so running on feel is a much better gauge for me.  I can usually get up to an 8:49 mile with my mouth still closed, so these paces might be conservative, but I have to start out that way or I’ll make a repeat of IM WI – not happening.  This run is going to be different.  This run is going to be Great!

Nutrition will be UCAN carried in Hammer Flasks, take water from every aid station, if I need more, I’ll have honey gel in my tri kit pockets.  Use special needs to grab another flask of UCAN.

Run Goals:

Time: 4:30/4:18/4:08

AG: I don’t care – I just want to feel goodJ

Feel: I just want to feel good!  No portapotties. No tummy troubles.  All smiles.

Remember you are in New Zealand.  Remember you have your family and BFF at the finish.  You have so many things to be thankful for.  This race being one of so many.  Whether the day turned out as expected (which it won’t) or not, you are Powerful Beyond Measure.

The 6th Discipline

We all know the 3 disciplines of triathlon:  1.Swim 2.Bike 3.Run

4. Nutrition.   Nutrition is extremely important and when not executed well can turn months of great training into mush on the side of the road.  [You can see more in depth views of my nutrition rants HERE, and HERE.  More to come for sure] 

5.  Transitions.  I’m sure it’s been said by others, but I do think that transitions are a discipline of triathlon.  It’s something that I practice and include in my training.  Even for sprint races, I have T1 and T2 piles on the floor. With my trikit, wetsuit, cap, goggles and race chip in hand I ‘run’ up to my T1 pile and exchange my swim gear for my bike gear – Do I have everything?  Then I turn around and ‘run’ up to my T2 pile and exchange my bike gear for my run gear – Do I have everything?

Could there be a 6^th discipline?  I mean how many do we need??  Well, I added another one to my training. 

6.  Self Chatter (or Chattah as my TS Aus friends would say).  We all know that little voice inside our heads “This is too hard”, “I’m so tired”, “I don’t know if I can do this”, “I don’t know if I can reach my goals”.  And we all know the little voice inside our heads (hopefully) that says “You can do this”, “This is worth it”, “Don’t give up”.  We don’t really focus on it, but it is a part of who we are and part of what gets us through the training.  What if we DID focus on it?  What if we had specific mantras that we told ourselves over and over during our training?  What if we visualized crossing that finish line at the hour mark we’ve been working for?  Well I subscribe to you, that if you believe it, it will happen.  In fact I know for certain, that if you don’t believe it, it won’t happen. 

I’m not really one to make excuses – ‘It is what it is’ and I ‘Do the best with what I have’, I might not be 100% during that particular day/workout, but ‘I give 100% of whatever I have’.  I’m not one to get down on myself if a workout doesn’t go as expected, I try to ‘Set it and Forget it’.  BUT I have to admit I am someone who has a hard time telling myself  ‘I am Powerful beyond Measure”.  I’m more afraid of being a 10-hr IM athlete than I am of a DNF at the end of the day.  Seriously.  That’s kind of hard to say out loud, but it’s true.  I’ve taken 1:40 off my 1000yd time trial because I’ve stayed disciplined in working on my technique and not laps.  I am stronger on my bike from continually working on a good fit with a professional fitter, and sticking to my OutSeason like glue to get stronger.  I’ve been able to finish my last three miles of my long runs (13-18 miles) at a sub-8:00 mile pace because of my patience at the beginning of my runs.  Does that calculate to a sub 11-hr IM time?  I don’t know cause I’m scared to do the math!!  I don’t want to know because it just might be possible!!!!

So words of wisdom to myself  “I am powerful beyond measure”, “I am strong”,  “I have committed to this plan and process and I BELIEVE in it making me FASTER”. 

Visualize yourself with that perfect swim stroke.  Grab that shelf and pull yourself over it.  EASY AND FAST.

Visualize yourself being STEADY on the bike, being thankful that your seat isn’t slowing you down, and being STRONG AND FAST.

Visualize yourself running slow that first hour maybe two “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”… then build… then push.  You can run fast, just DO IT.  Don’t hesitate.  It might hurt, but the faster you run, the faster you get to the finish and see your support crew!!!!!

YOU ARE FAST!

YOU ARE STRONG!

And remember – this race will take less time that it did to give birth to T – and for those who know those particulars – it will probably be less painful.  Good advice from my midwife and doula “This pain has a purpose” – it sure does.  Ready or not NZ, here I come.

January Volume Camp, Clermont FL

Warning... Novel Long Post

Well, I made it through a lot of ‘firsts’ last weekend.  Everything/everyone made it home in one piece.

• I successfully packed up my bike to fly, reassembled it and rode it without it falling apart
• I lived through my first time away from my kiddo overnight for multiple days
• I rode more back-to-back miles in three days than I ever have..in....my.......life

The January Volume camp was a 4 day training block where me and my teammates were able to get a ‘boost’ in performance.  One of my teammates is also doing IM NZ, so it was so great to meet him and to know I have a solid friend out on the course in March.  For those who didn’t have a race planned in the next few months, this was a chance to get some volume in each discipline and really give that outseason a kick in the butt and finish strong to start their training season in the Spring.   In total we had 10 athletes and 2 coaches, and I was one of two girls, and we kicked ass.  We were roomies for the weekend and got along famously.  We were early to bed, early to rise and did a pretty good job with our stretching at the end of the day, which I think really helped us recover.  I'm pretty sure the boys stayed up too late and didn't do much stretching - unless you count the hot tub as stretching:)

A quick overview of what we did each day at Camp

Friday – Early morning swim (3-4K) at a beautiful outdoor NTC facility.  It was a bit chilly (40s) and I was of course wearing shorts and flip flops because that's what you do when you live in MN and it's 40 :) The water was a balmy 79.  We were able to get some video of our stroke to review later in the evening.  Then it was back to the hotel for some foodage and get ready for an 84 mile ride.  It was a bit cold at the start, so I started out in long sleeves and a close layer under my jersey, but the day warmed up to a beautiful and sunny 60+ degree day.  We rode through a very cute town (Mt. Dora) and saw some beautiful lakes.  I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the boys, but I held my own and even ended up out in front a couple times.  Once we returned to the hotel, it was time for a quick run, like really quick.  R and I had good intentions of 20-30  minutes….but there were these hills.... all going UP from the hotel….at least it seemed that way.  So we made it 15 minutes and called it a day.  Then it was clean up for dinner and get refueled for Day2.  After dinner we had a chance to review our swim video and get some pointers on what we could do to improve our stroke.  I’ve been working on my swim stroke pretty heavily the last 3 years.  The only reason the swim is my strength is because I can usually swim at an effort level of 3-4/10 and come out of the water near the front and invigorated, not tired.  So I’ve been really concentrating on how to go faster with the same effort – and the only way to do that is to have better technique.  So it was great to be able to confirm my work has been paying off while watching my swim stroke.  Anybody who hasn’t had a chance to have their stroke filmed (over and under the water) is really missing out on some ‘free speed’.  Well, it’s not free….it’s take a LOT of drilling, but it pays off, even it’s three years later.

Saturday – Long Bike Day.  A Full Century, with a fun ‘little’ hill at mile 80.  I haven’t done two rides back to back like this since 2007/8, and I haven’t done a full century since IM WI 2011, so.....It’s been a while.  I gotta admit I was a bit unsure how this day was going to unfold - but I did alright.  It helped that it was another gorgeous day.  We all started out with some extra layers, but a few wardrobe changes and I was in my tri kit getting a sunburn – LOVE IT!  I rolled into the parking lot at the EXACT moment my odometer hit 100 miles.  Perfect.  Now time for another run – seriously??  Remember those hills from yesterday?  Yeah, R and I ran around two parking lots – more importantly, two FLAT parking lots and called it a day.  Then another delicious dinner brought in for us, and a low key Q&A where M and I were able to show Coach P the IM NZ bike course and get some pointers.  (more to come about that as the race gets closer and I unveil  my race plan)

Sunday – Yeah for more swimming – mainly because I figured it would help get my body warmed up after all that riding without having to push too hard.  And yup, it was awesome.  A bit warmer as we started an hour later, and we even got a bit of sunshine at the end of our swim.  Again, thankful for the swimsuit tanlines in Jan – however I can get ‘em.  Then it was back for breakfast and get ready for a short (54 mile) ride.  Remember that hill I mentioned from yesterday?  Yeah, I didn’t mention much of it because I’m trying to burn it from memory. We did a double loop of that ‘mountain’ (seriously, it’s called Sugarloaf Mountain), this time one from each way.  It was a bit easier as we didn’t hit it at  mile 80 of 100, but I gotta say, my only goal when starting at the bottom each time was simply not to have to get off my bike and walk.  We all made it, and our legs, hearts and lungs are now stronger for it!  Day three of riding….I’ve never done this.  Ever.  Not only was I able to keep up, surge, make it up mountains, but you know?  I wasn’t feeling too bad.  Great confidence builder for IMNZ.

Monday – Time to go home and see my family!!!!  Right after a 12.8 mile run.  It was another perfect morning.  Sun shining, clay trail.  Beautiful.  Seriously THE most beautiful run that I’ve ever been on. The picture gives you an idea.  I forgot my music, so I had a running commentary in my head, and as I came up over this hill to a beautiful view of a small lake, I literally said “WOAH” in my head (and probably out loud, but if no one is there to hear you, did you really say it?).  So the run was great.  I’m working at running zone1 for the first 60 minutes and then progressively getting faster, with the goal of having my last 3 miles be the fastest of the run.  I ended with a 7:47 min mile – which is great for me – as I start out at a 10:00 mile.  Awesome.  Pack up and get home safely – check.

Some Lessons Learned 

• Bike Travel bag is great - I actually had a loaner....Get this....I bought a bag from Mountain Plus Outdoor Gear, but they were waiting for their shipment and weren't sure they were going to be able to get it to me in time for my Volume Camp, so they sent me their personal/employee bike travel bag, to BORROW.  I am sending it back to them, and they will send me the purchased bag as soon as they receive theirs back.  Oh, and they're a veteran owned small-business to boot.  mpgear.com
• No bottles on the back of my bike.  I lost one on Sat ride and since I’m doing my own nutrition on race day, I want to minimize that risk.  Going to put my old school saddle bag tapped up under my seat and hope that I never have to access it and going with standard bottles on my frame.  Also, having that many full bottles on my bike was REALLY heavy. 
• Aero bottle on the front of my bike worked great.  I took a sip every 10 minutes and took a glug from my bike cage bottle (nutrition) every 30 minutes.  It kept me engaged and was easy to drink from and fill up.
• Tri kit is a GO.  I had only done an Olympic race in my tri kit – so I rode the Century in my new EN tri kit and it worked great.
• BIKE FIT IS AWESOME!  I have always been uncomfortable on the bike.  From my seat to my neck.  My legs never get a chance to get sore because my seat is in too much pain to stay seated for long enough to get my legs tired.  I used to say, the only reason I bike is because they put it between the swim and the bike.  My neck was a bit sore – but mainly from having to sit up on my tri bike (gotta have those hands near the brakes when riding in a larger group)– when I usually try to stay aero as much as possible in training.  My seat was for sure sore after over 200 miles of riding, but it didn’t bring me to tears as it has the last 7 years.  HUGE confidence builder.
• Fuel Belt on the run – still unsure.  I borrowed someone’s to try out and I probably need a different size, so I’m going to try that out and see how it goes.
• Nutrition worked great.  I got up every morning and had my bulletproof coffee.  I even brought my own coffee press because I’m a snob and I want good coffee and I’m too cheap to go to Starbucks every morning.  Then after swims, I had a Lara bar on the walk back.  Had some nuts/yogurt/fruit before the ride.  Then on the ride I used UCAN for my liquid nutrition, lemon/salt water for hydration, and brought some home made bars with me for more calories.  I didn’t have to worry too much about food on the ride wrt tummy troubles because the runs after our rides were so short.  But I never got hungry, fuzzy, cranky, so I calculated well with what I needed to get through the day.  In fact, I probably had too many calories if I would have had a long run after those rides. I did do my long run (as I have with all my other runs) on a fasted stomach, other than my bullet coffee, with some UCAN starting at 1:30 into the run – to get me through those last three harder miles.

I feel like I left out so many things.  About how boys will be boys.  The jokes.  The awesome friends.  The encouragement from every person, and sharing this experience with such a great group of athletes.  I’m so thankful that my husband urged me to do this.  I remember forwarding him the e-mail, thinking “this would be really cool, but I’ll never do it”, and his immediate response was “DO IT”.  Seriously, I still have the e-mail.  So thanks Babe. 

And to my JVC peeps.  Thank You.  I had such a great time, and can't wait to have your mojo stalking me on Race Day.  That's a pretty powerful thing, especially racing so far away from home.  You all gave me a confidence I have never had wrt triathlon.  And of course to Coach P - I'm not sure you have any idea how much your 'coaching' impacted me last weekend.  You are great at what you do, and we are all lucky to have you on our team, never stop.

You’re a Fat What??!?!?! Part Two

Our health begins in our gut. Consider the following facts about the gastrointestinal system:

• The gastrointestinal system comprises 75% of the body's immune system.
• There are more neurons in the small intestine than in the entire spinal cord.
• It is the only system in the body that has its own, independently operating nervous system, called the enteric nervous system.
• If you stretched our the gastrointestinal systemic its entirety, it would have the surface area of a regulation sized singles tennis court.  There are over 400 species of microbes living in your gut, totaling over 15 pounds of mass and containing more bacteria than there are known stars in the sky.

Now lets talk sugar.  Sugar causes inflammation in the gut and overall body.  The more processed and refined the carbohydrate (sugar), as a rule, the faster it breaks down in the digestive system, and the bigger the sugar rush it delivers.  That's why refined flours, sugars and sugar syrups pose such a problem for our systems.  As we gulp down sugar, those simple carbs are converted into simple sugar molecules (glucose) that pass directly into the bloodstream.  Blood sugar then rises, and the pancreas releases insulin to lower the blood sugar levels by taking glucose out of the blood and into cells.  If our body needs the sugar at the time we put it in the body, the body uses it appropriately. If not, the pancreas goes into overdrive, releases too much insulin, and begins the increase in inflammation in the body.

Normal inflammation in the body can occur when we are rebounding from an injury.  White blood cells rush to a point of injury in the body and mend.  When the injury is deep inside the body, such as the gut, hidden inflammation can trigger chronic disease and we get so used to it we don't even realize it's there.

The body in a fasted state has 1 tsp of glucose (sugar) measured in the bloodstream.  This is where our body likes to be.  The average American has, at any given time, 20 tsp of sugar in their bloodstream.  YIKES.

Two weekends ago I had my first BIG DAY of training.  Which basically means, I Swim, Bike, Run for 6 hours straight.  The goal isn't to see if I can do it, the goal is to learn what is working, and what is not with regard to my pacing, and most importantly, my nutrition.  I woke up, had my bullet proof coffee, with butter, heavy cream and MCT oil (concentrated Coconut Oil), did my strength resets and headed to the pool.  Got home, hopped straight on the bike and had two water bottles, each with 159 calories of UCAN (a starch based energy supplement that does not spike blood sugar), and two water bottles with Celtic Sea Salt and lemon.  I plowed through all the water bottles - probably should have been better hydrated - and should have drank more before and after my swim - because I felt like I had too much in my belly (nutrition included) during the run.  The run was a 30 min zone 1 effort, then push to 15 min of zone 2, and finish as hard as I could - no higher than high zone 3.  No tummy troubles, no bonking.  didn't have to take in any nutrition on the run.  It was great!

This last weekend, I had a 30-min run before my 3:30 ride indoor on the trainer.  I had my bullet proof coffee, did my resets, hopped on the treadmill, hopped on the trainer and didn't have any nutrition until 45 minutes into the ride, and continued to "drip feed" my nutrition throughout the bike.  Then the next day I had a 2 hour run.  The only nutrition I took during the run was salt/lemon water and a TBSP of honey at 1:15 in.  Felt Great.  Finished at a sub 8:20 min mile run pace - I got stronger as my run continued.  AWESOMENESS!

On Thursday I head to Florida for my first ever Volume Training Camp.  And my first time ever away from my little T.  The plan is 10+K swim, almost 300 miles biking, and 30 miles running.  What a break! :)  I wanted to send a blog update every day, but I'm hoping to not take a computer at all (I KNOW!!!!  CRAZY!!) so I'll take good notes and report when I get back.  Viva warmth!

gastrointestinal system facts resource: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/fix-gut-fix-health
sugar/inflammation facts resource: https://experiencelife.com/article/sugar-breakdown/

You’re a Fat What??!?!?! Part One

I am a Fat-Adapted Athlete.  A Fat What???  Exactly.

Most of my athletic life – certainly since I picked up the art of triathlon – I have had gut issues, mainly on the run part of a triathlon.  It’s so frustrating after putting in so much time and effort training our body to race long and fast, only to get to race day and have your tummy troubles hold you back.  You know you can run faster.  Your legs don’t hurt. Your joints don’t hurt.  Your heart and lungs don’t hurt, but you’re afraid you just might…..you know…..not make it to the next port-a-potty.

One of the things with becoming a fat-adapted athlete is “you notice what you don’t notice”.  It’s hard to explain, and you just can’t really understand it until you are there, but I never realized how much better I could feel on a day-to-day basis, let alone have stellar workouts and feel great after, with very little fatigue.  Yes, my tummy troubles went away, but I also gained so much more. 

I’ve had a pretty healthy diet all my life – as far as mainstream society would think.  Not a lot of junk, lots of home cooked meals, lots of salads, maybe a bit too much candy.  Every new approach I used to overcome my tummy troubles, I couldn’t get concrete results.  I tried no gluten, no caffeine, low carb, nothing was tried and true.

Then a year ago, my DH found a triathlon website that had him intrigued.  It was a diet based on the idea that our bodies have a TON of fat that we can use for fuel, but we need to teach our body to use it.  With the standard recommended diet, our bodies can’t access that fat because we’ve lost the ability to process fat efficiently.   We simply don’t feed it enough fat, and feed it too much processed stuff – aka refined carbs/sugar.

I’m not a nutritionist, and there are a ton of resources that are much better at describing this than me – I’ve included many of my favs in links below – but here’s my quick stab at describing our diet.  You’ve heard this before – Even the skinniest athlete has enough fat on them to run a marathon – but why can’t we USE that fat for fuel???  Our bodies have 2,000 calories at most in carbs (glycogen stores) available to use as fuel.  But we have almost unlimited fat stores.  When I was training for my first Ironman, I definitely upped the fat intake realizing that my body would use what I gave it for fuel.  Eating more fat helped my body learn how to use fat as fuel.  We now take that to a whole new level.

A ketogenic diet is a high fat diet.  75% fat, 20% proten, 5% carbs.  Because I am in the midst of training for an Ironman, I include more carbs into my diet – strategically.  Strategically being the key word here.  Think of your body as a fuel tanker.  You have fuel in the cab to keep the truck running and a WHOLE LOT of fuel in the tankers you are pulling.  If you follow the standard American diet, you can end up on the side of the road with no fuel left to drive the truck – but you have this enormous amount of fuel in the tankers you are pulling that you have no access to.  When you are fat adapted you can tap into that extra fuel and not end up sidelined in the middle of the race.

I often miss meals.  I race in a fasted state for all workouts that are less than 90 minutes.  I use strategic carbs for longer workouts.  I put butter and heavy cream in my coffee (seriously, it’s freaking delicious).  I don’t get hungry.  I don’t crash during workouts.  And the best part is, I have yet to get tummy troubles during any of my runs, short, long, easy, hard.

Here are some links to some good resources.  If you look to the very first Friday Fat Black episodes, (#1, #3) they have some good basic explanation of the #JERF Just Eat Real Food Movement and the benefits of being a fat-adapted athlete.

 A good, basic ketogenic information site http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com

Trispecific –  http://www.trispecific.com  Friday Fat Black podcast

The Natural Nutritionist http://www.thenaturalnutritionist.com.au

And it Begins - Ironman #2 Training

And It Begins…..

So, I’m at it again. Training started yesterday for Ironman New Zealand: Race Date March 7 2015. Gone are the mornings of sleeping in until 5:30 and going to bed late at 9:30 J And I couldn’t be more excited or nervous.

 

Things to be excited about:

• We’re going to New Zealand!
• Kelly (BFF) is in New Zealand!!
• Kelly’s family is coming to the race site to spend the whole week with us and cheer me on!!!
• Tanner and I get to stay and explore NZ for an additional 2+ weeks with Kelly and her boys!!!!
• OK, enough about NZ and Kelly. Can you tell how excited I am about that – I’m typing faster just thinking about it.
• Attempting Ironman #2 and getting it in the books – hopefully a tick faster than IM #1.
• After giving birth to a child, pretty sure I’m invincible or at least that my aerobic capacity has increased by about 5% because of my increased blood volume – The ‘new’ blood doping.

Things to be nervous about:

• Traveling with a toddler half way around the globe – ‘nuff said
• I’ll have 3 days to be on a bike on the actual road before the race to make sure I can still balance on two wheels because I’ll have been strapped to a stationary bike trainer for all my bike riding.
• For IM #1 I trained for 6 months with a ridiculous amount of volume (time spent swimming/biking/running). For IM#2 I am training for 3 months at a reduced volume (by almost 40%) – three reasons are 1)I’m a mom and I don’t have much extra time, hence wakeups will now start between 04-04:30 every day, 2) I’m a wee bit older and need more time to recover and spend on stretching instead of training and 3) I live in the Nordic North so all of my biking and most of my running will occur indoors, in a basement, so two multi-hour rides on the trainer over the weekend will reduce my brain (and other parts) to complete mush….not good when training for an IM, when you need all the head space you can get.
• Attempting Ironman #2 and getting it in the books.  I haven’t completely forgotten the amount of work and pain required to get me to the starting line and through the finish line. 
• Race Start time for my body because of the time shift = 12:00AM……yup Midnight. So not that far from typical wake up time of 4 AM right??? No big deal…..
• Setting goals – My husband asked me the other day what my race time goals were…..I told him I don’t’ know . He said I was lying. He was right – but I’m scared to say them out loud…..or write them down.

So all the above being said – I’m beyond over-excited for this trip, for this race, and for this experience for my family. It is an opportunity I’m glad we grabbed at first thought, and I’m so glad that I have a husband who encourages me and pumps me up every time I come up from that basement, or home from the pool. And the voice that I can hear as I'm coming up the stairs or open my car door “Mommy!”  - with that face and those little feet running so fast to get to me - never fails to keep me moving. 

I'm back!!

So, I figured it was time to dust off the Try Mom, Tri blog in pursuit of my first Ironman distance triathlon.  I was hoping to have a profound first entry, but as I started making notes, I realized that each idea deserved a post of its own, so I’ll start with a quick update of where I left off at the end of the 2013 season – Yes, It’s been that long – sorry.

This blog came to be out of a sense of obligations to Moms, triathletes or not, TO TRY.  After I became a Mom for the first time, I had no idea what I was in for.  Almost two years later, I still feel the same way.  I’m someone who has always tried to fill all my time, multiple jobs, extra University – then I found triathlon, and soon after – Ironman.  I still do other things, but I LOVE focusing on Triathlons, training, helping others train, plan their training, race calendars, swim form, run speed – anything to keep me ‘moving’ in the sport of triathlon.

When I was pregnant, I took that season off as my son was due around Christmas.  Fortunately for me, I got my husband hooked on triathlon, so I still got to go on the beginning, easy, part of his rides until I couldn’t reach the handlebars anymore J  And I still got to get up stoopid early for race days.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to watch a race.  Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to race.  But as you Moms know, being pregnant is a different kind of ‘purpose’.  I wasn’t one of those women who loved being pregnant, but it was pretty cool and I did love the focus it gave me.  And of course, now looking back, and looking at my son, knowing that his little body started in my body – is still completely amazing to me.

OK, enough about pregnancy, back to tri training.

Pretty soon after my son was born, I started thinking about what that tri season was going to be like.  I really thought I would just get after it, lose the pregnancy weight, may be shaped a bit differently, but overall, just focus on training like I had before…holy crap…obviously I knew nothing about being a mom.  A nursing Mom.  A stay at home mom who also had a full-time telecommuting job.  So I signed up for a half ironman distance, near my folks home (built-in babysitters for race day), in early September.  And I did it.  And it was hard - Not just the race - Everything about getting to that race.  But I did it.  And you can too.  Whatever it is that gives you purpose outside your family/kids.  Find a bar, and set a goal above it, and then do it.

2014 season was pretty cool too.  My husband completed his first Ironman distance race at Lake Placid, New York.  My son and I got to go on the adventure with him.  As hard as an Ironman is, lemme tell ‘ya, spectating one with an 18 month old is no piece of cake.  In fact, I think I’d rather race than spectate J  Thankfully we had some AWESOME friends and family members help us with a roof over our head when we arrived, get to the race, through the race, home from the race, in general ‘crewing’ us.

I still raced in 2014 and finally reached one of my long time goals – Top Three Female overall.  It was an Olympic distance  - which is a very good fit for me. The swim is longer, so it gives me more time to get a head start on the bike (where everyone starts passing meJ ) but the race is shorter, so at the end, I can truly race the run.  Plus the training is doable with a family and not so much that you feel like it’s too much.

Now, I’m training for an Ironman in March 2015.  In New ZEALAND!!!!  Thanks to wanting to visit my BFF, who moved her family there over a year ago, I figured, why not do a race while we’re there – how cool would that be?!?!?!!!  So I signed up last March, and it’s already within 5 months of race day – how did that happen?  Currently doing out-season training (usually done in the winter months), and will start my official IM training load in early December…LOTS AND LOTS of time swimming, biking, and running indoors L  I also am using a coach and racing with a team this time around - more news on that to come as well.  More reasons to blog about it and pass on all the knowledge I will gain through this adventure.

Thanks in advance for all the support and I’ll start outlining my ideas for each week of progress!!