Funked Up Triathletes - Season 2 - Olympic/Sprint Focus - Closed (Page 4)

Seth,

too bad about the toe. I'd take it easy on that thing.

Regarding nutrition...opinions are going to vary. The pre race nutrition sounds similar to what I do. Nuun tablets are not nutrition. They are good for hydration (that's what I use), but they are not much different than Gatorade in terms of caloric value. I would think you would want something in addition to the Nuun tabs. If you don't do Gu, you may want to check out some of the other options like Chomps, honey stinger waffles, etc. Like they always say, "nothing new on race day" so you should be experimenting with what woks for you during training. Personally, I've used Gatorade, Heed, Nuun, GuBrew, Powerbar Ironman mix, Skratch labs and a few others. After trying all those, I've found that Gatorade works for me. I started using Nuun because I have a Shiv and the tabs work really well for the built in hydration.

There is a company here in KS (I met the owner at a race) called Blendrich Nutrition that has a liquid "nutritional" drink. I've used a sample, but have never raced with it. If you want to stick with liquid, you may check that out: http://blendrich.com/online-store.html.

For me personally, I eat a small breakfast of toast and a banana and coffee (I normally workout on an empty stomach, so I probably start out with less than most people). Then, I'll do a Gu just before the swim, one on the bike and then 1 or 2 on the run. I try to go through 1 full 20oz bottle of Nuun/Gatorade on the bike and then usually will rely on aid stations along the way. In May, the race was not very hot, so I just took water once.

Now that the weather is much warmer and more humid I will do more at the aid stations.

The sponge is just to minimize the splashing of the hydration system. Be sure you practice with that thing. Some of those are tricky and people can take a while to get used to using them.

20/28 with a bike on the trainer today - pouring out. Starting to realize I may not make the 28 s/b/r workouts I hoped for without doubles for the next few days and I have a 10k on Saturday. I will press on and see where the chips fall.
As Patton said, "Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."

Oh, I was given a suggestion to put a gps (watch or whatever) in my bathing cap - top of head is generally out of the water, and track ows that way and use strava. Brilliant!! (So I don't have a gps but it might others)

Best,
Jenn

Strava is great. Except for when I go out with the intention of doing a nice easy spin because I have a race coming up, but as I start riding along my typical short workout route I start thinking "I'm feeling pretty good today and my average speed so far is better than normal, I bet I can hammer up the hill and set a new personal best and move up that segment's leader board, which I shouldn't care about, but part of the fun is seeing where I end up on there". So that's what I did- averaging almost 18mph going uphill. I'd been using a particular segment called "1" on the ride as a sort of test run to gauge how my speed and fitness on the bike have been doing- I'd given myself a goal of 11 minutes or less last year and failed to hit it many times, finally making it last month. Yesterday's run came in at 9:38. Here's the ride for you data junkies:

http://www.strava.com/activities/158166098

Alright, enough bragging Feeling a little sore in the legs from it today, but I think I'll be alright by Sunday. Today is the race walk through, which will be nice but will also keep me from doing any swimming. I'm at 19/28 activities for the month, so I'll probably finish at 22 after the race (maybe even 21, the swim might be short enough to not count). I like having a goal but next month I'll be on the road a bit, so I'm thinking that "better than June" might be a challenge for me to try to hit.

Nothing this morning but did about 13 miles on the bike yesterday. The toe still hurts, but I think it's on the mend. Hope to be able to run on it by Sunday. Taking tomorrow off work, hopefully, so I should be able to get in a long ride, at the expense of the swim.

Cool Strava data. I personally have never used Strava and hesitate to do so. I think once I get on it, I'll go hog-wild with it and it will create another headache for me. But it is cool data and seems like a great way to keep checking your improved fitness.

If you do this sort of thing, please pray for my family and I as we drive to Chicago for the triathlon and then subsequent vacation. Travelling 9 hours with 4 kids is not always easy and getting good rest before the race will be even tougher. Coupling triathlon with family vacation is one way I'm able to keep the family on board with my training and racing!

Also, wish me well that I'll get my head on straight. When I was young I played soccer and basketball (in high school) and I developed the reputation of a pretty fierce competitor. Someone who was a bit crazy and could be counted on to play very physical every game. Not to relive my glory days -- I just haven't been able to capture the same intensity on game-day in triathlon. I know comparing myself as a teenager to myself as a 37-year old is silly, but I really think I tend to psyche myself out and do not throw caution to the wind (and just race!). This weekend's race will present some challenges due to it's sheer size and technical bike course. So, wish me luck that I can just ignore all the distractions and just put together a race I will be proud of.

Jenn, good idea on the GPS in the swim cap. The only thing I don't like about this is I have a hard time hitting the right buttons to start the swim and then subsequent laps.

Good luck on the race and even greater luck on traveling with 4 kids! You'll find your groove, be patient! Don't forget to hydrate and watch your nutrition prior to the race. You're in my prayers! I only have 2 boys and they are a crazy bunch!

The guy who suggested the GPS in the bathing cap sets his to beep every 250 yds in an ows to track how far he goes - he doesn't use it in a pool, thus no button hitting for laps. It sounds cool, I don't have a GPS but I'm setting up Strava on my cell phone for cycling - then I can compare segments of rides I do both with myself and others.

22/28 workouts with 3 doubles in the last 4 days - I feel a bit weary but not sore
4.68 mile run in 41:45
1100 yd swim (time constrained so short)

Best,
Jenn

Follow up to my prior nutrition question. Where do you store chomps or bars on the bike? Do you use a bento box or something similar or do you tape it to the frame?

I can't speak for others, but I have a little Profile Design thing that straps on the crossbar by the handlebars I'm going to put my chomps in. I'm not elite so I'm less concerned with any drag that it might create. I picked it up at Performance Bike. I'm sure there are better methods but I'm going to give it a try at my next tri.

David- good luck with your race and trip. Chicago is a fun town, but for me it's half the distance with half the number of kids compared to what you'll be doing. We went there last year and took the kids to the Shedd Aquarium which was great. We'd gotten tickets through the hotel which avoided some big lines.

Seth- I usually just toss bites of something to eat in my jersey pockets or saddle bag. For anything less than 30 miles I don't bother with food. Training rides aren't more than that at the moment for me, so longer rides I don't mind a quick stop after climbing a bigger hill to catch my breath and grab food out of the bag if I want.

Jenn- look us up on Strava when you get in there.

I created a club on Strava for our group. The link is
http://www.strava.com/clubs/funked_up

Very cool! I'll have to check it out! I just used Strava this morning for the first time - though stopped to take some early morning foggy pictures and forgot to pause my timer so my time is a bit off. I look forward to climbing the leaderboard on the hill segment of the route. Only 12.4 miles but a good long hill in there I hadn't ridden up before.

23/28
I have a 10k tomorrow and am hoping to get in my first ows and test out the new wetsuit in the afternoon. I may miss my goal by a session or two - haven't had a day off since Monday (got back from camping that day and I've done 3 doubles already this week). We'll see, but I'm glad I made the goal - it helped me be a little more consistent. We shall see what comes to pass.

Best,
Jenn

Seth,
I just sent a request to join the group. Very cool!
~Jenn

Seth - To be totally honest I have no idea what the sponge is actually for. My only guess is that it would be for cooling off with water on the bike, but uh... really I have no idea. I know the aero bottle I used to have had this sponge that looked like a kitchen scrubby and I never really understood it.


As far as race nutrition goes that's something you've got to kind of figure out for yourself over time. Personally it depends on the time between when I wake up and when the race starts. I'm pretty much always eating a quest bar of some sort pre-race (not always a whole one, depends on time again). I wake up and eat my high protein whole grain waffles with peanut butter and syrup first thing. Depending on how I'm feeling it's 1 or 2.

An hour before the race - right before starting warmup I take my first gel. I use Accel Gel, it's protein based and its also much thinner than GU. Can still be sticky/thick if you're dehydrated, but not near as much water required to use it. During an Oly I'll have 3 more during the race. 1 in the first 5 minutes on the bike. Another 30 minutes into the bike and the last I keep in a 12 ounce gatorade bottle, pre-mixed with a small amount of Gatorade. I grab it on my way out with my race belt onto the run and take it almost immediately. I pre-mix it with the liquid so that if I'm dehydrated I already have enough liquid to take it and it's more of a shot. I rarely actually get the whole thing drank, but some of it is better than nothing.

I've used GU in the past, the Accel Gel just works better for me. I have a big feeling difference using it during workouts as far as keeping my legs "kicking out the jams" and really getting work done.

But with your race time, you can look at a variety of things. I'm not familiar with Nuun tablets (seen them, never taken them). You could check out your thoughts on GU Chomps (gummies) or some kind of liquid mixture in your water bottle. If you go with the liquid nutrition route, double up on bottles, one with your nutrition and one with water. Personally I'll cut G2 gatorade in half with water for my on bike liquid. Electrolytes, yay, but not so much as to make me nauseous.


As far as where anything goes, the gels get taped to the top tube on the bike for me. I started doing this after watching some of the Elites at Hy-Vee do this back in 2010 do pre-race prep (I believe it was Cameron Dye I was watching, but there were a couple US guys I recognized there). You can get little packs for your bike to put the chomps in. Usually if I don't have a second water bottle with liquid in it I'll stick it on the bike without the lid. It can be used as a trash can since you aren't officially supposed to toss gel packets on the course (it does happen and I'm guilty of it when I forget my bottle), but it can also serve as a secondary storage if you don't have a little bag. Just make sure to be able to get whatever you want out of it easily.

Edited by funkj25 2014-06-27 5:51 PM

I would be curious to try Accel Gel as I absolutely cannot use Gu - I choke and gag on it. I have also found sugary drinks such as Gatorade upset my stomach and I have used Nu'un which works well. For strictly running races I've used Shotblox by Clif which work really well for me but the blocks are pretty big and so I don't think will work well in a triathlon so I'm experimenting with Organic Honey Stingers as they're quite a bit smaller. I plan to put some in a snack sized ziploc and leave it open in the design profile I have on my bike for easy access.

For liquid hydration/recovery I HIGHLY recommend EPIC (not the soft drink!) I've added the link below. A couple of professors at the University of Vermont (next to my hometown) developed this for the school's triathlon team. I have had great results with this. As Jesse said, race nutrition is really individual - what works for one may not work at all for someone else. Good luck!!

http://www.epic-h2o.com/about/

Cheers,
Jenn

Definitely right Jenn. I don't know pretty much anyone else that does race nutrition like I do - nor do I know anyone else with the same pre-race dinner. Over the last 2 years I've found that the night before a race I am most likely to eat chicken, a baked potato and some other "neutral food" in this case apple sauce. Where possible I end up at Texas Roadhouse to eat said meal along with some delicious rolls.

One of my coach's pre-race meal before her races was pepperoni pizza, no cheese. So she would order this pizza and have it delivered to her hotel room so she could eat peacefully by herself the night before the race. This worked for her all the way through the highest races in professional triathlon, but I really have no desire to eat this before a race myself. My personal emphasis is on protein intake and I've found in general most protein oriented things have worked well for me. There's always exceptions. These kind of things you generally try out beforehand or in a "scrub" race, but not at your "A" priority race.

Edited by funkj25 2014-06-28 10:42 AM

I had my first ows in my new wetsuit today! As I swam through the lovely tentacles of seaweed I discovered an algae bloom. The water had very little visibility with particles of green suspended - very eerie. I pressed on for about 15 minutes as this was just a test of the new suit - seemed to work fine though I found it seemed my rib cage couldn't expand to breathe. There was very little wave action so that wasn't an issue. I found out later my upper back is very subluxated so I'll hit the chiropractor tomorrow and try to get things snapped back into shape. Definitely want to do more ows - there is a whole comfort thing with getting used to ows versus a pool.

10k on Saturday turned into 6.37 miles instead at 51:30 so about 8:05 per mile. I ran another 1/2 - 3/4 mile past this and didn't count it. Lots of hills and it was hot, my legs feel it today.

So I stand at 25/28 today and will probably miss this by one if I can pull off a double tomorrow. I hope to bike in the early am but the upper back is still tight.

Cheers all,
Jenn

Raced today! As promised, the report is here:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...
Bottom line- the swim was cancelled due to rain in Pennsylvania and West Virginia swelling the Ohio River, so bad currents and lots of debris. As I watched logs speeding downriver I think they made the right call. Instead they put in a 1200m run. I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get to really run my first tri, but I still had a fun time. The first run was ok, I was able to hold about 18mph on the bike which was my goal, and the 5k time was under 30 minutes, so not bad. So not dead, not dead last, and a smile on my face; mission accomplished! Overall there were 143 people registered for the sprint and I came in 72, so 71 in front of me, 71 behind me. Exactly mid pack. In my age group I was 17/28, although my bike segment was 10/28 so that was pretty good I thought. Especially considering my 20 year old bike. There's something satisfying about dropping a guy on a $4000 Cervelo when I'm riding on that thing

I learned a bit about what slows me down and what to work on, so it was good from that standpoint. The next month will be pretty busy so my goal will be to get back into a routine and keep training. I'd also like to start going for longer bike rides, not necessarily for a longer race but just because I enjoy them. And maybe run another race later in the year, we'll see.

I'm in Chicago with the family. I'll post a full race report within a week or so... We're on vacation now so not sure when I'll get to it. I'm happy to report a time of 2:31. That's a PR by 10 minutes. I was turned in my best bike split (23.7 mph) and best run (8:03pm). Saw the pros race live this afternoon. Amazing time and venue. I would highly recommend everyone check out draft legal Triathlon. You be amazed and also realize what Jesse it working toward.

Nice job, especially such a high speed bike split! Enjoy the vacation time with your family (lots of walking?).

Hi all! Just checking in.

Well I came up a couple of workouts short for June but considering our camping for 4 days and almost a week off when the kids got out of school I'm pretty happy overall with my first ever challenge. Had a 10k this past Saturday - hot and hilly run at 8:05 min/miles.

Here's how June finished up for me:

Swim: 3 hrs 35 min 8,350.2 yds (7,635.5 m)

Bike: 7 hrs 59 min 30 sec - 117.61 miles (189.27 km)

Run: 5 hrs 41 min 40 sec - 37.79 miles (60.817 km)

The swim and bike seem a little short but I'll try to pick those up some more. Husband is traveling for the next 3 weeks so it will be very interesting trying to fit any kind of distance in for any of the disciplines (kids home and too little to leave alone). My first sprint comes up in about 3 weeks (July 27th) and I'm starting to freak out a little bit about the ows. I have a bad chest cold right now and it was hard this past weekend to breathe in my wetsuit - couldn't expand my rib cage. This too shall come to pass, hopefully it's due to the cold.

2/28 this morning with a bike ride yesterday (using Strava for the bike - so cool) and a run this morning while hacking up a lung. So pleasant - determined to drive it out of my body.

Cheers!
Jenn

Great job, Andrew!

That was great they had another option instead of the swim - sounds like they were prepared (nice pace on that initial run!). (though I definitely understand wanting to do the swim!) I should think those transitions will come along with practice and racing - nice race report, it will be helpful to you down the line.
Are you signed up for another one? You're all prepared now!

Best,
Jenn

Great job Jenn. Just make sure you don't work too hard while sick. It'll hurt you more in the long run.
I've been MIA the past few days as work has been killer busy with trying to prep for vacation and a death in the family forcing me to take tomorrow off as well.
Sunday did an awesome Brick- 15.5 mile bike and 3.2 mile run. Taking most of last week off definitely helped as both of my speeds/paces were elevated, despite not exerting any more effort, especially on the bike.
My totals for June were:
Swim: 1:49 (3650 yards)- This NEESD to improve and will once I join a gym in August or September
Bike: 7:28 (115 miles)- a new high for me
Run: 5:06 (26.65 miles)- Need to increase this one some more.

Total mileage for the month was 143 miles (14.5 hours training), a new high for me, and i know I can improve on that.

So far this week I did a recovery run yesterday and a 5.5 mile run this morning. I'm having an issue with my Garmin heart rate monitor strap- Garmin is sending me a new one--so I'll have correct data again. Probably no workout tomorrow as I have to leave the house early for a funeral, but may try to get in something on Friday/Saturday. The weather's looking bad here, so I may ride indoors on Friday morning. Sunday we leave for vacation so it'll be mostly treadmill running, and maybe an open water swim or two that week.

Have a great day all.

Ps, and now for something completely different, Jersey cows





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Seth, so sorry to hear about the funeral.

Nice cows though! LOL

According to my log, I ended with:

SWIM1h 50m 43s - 4662.34 Yd- Actually 1hr 45min ~3300yrds
BIKE5h 14m 44s - 85.21 Mi
RUN5h 39m 26s - 31.40 Mi- Actually 5hr 45min- 32.2Mi

The discrepancy was because of the race, first leg was still a swim in the log.

Seth, sorry to hear about your death in the family. And Jenn I hope the cold clears up quickly. I've had some nasty chest colds in the last year, one that turned to pneumonia. Certainly sucked for training. I tried to train while on medication; very bad idea! Pseudoephedrine in Mucinex D drove my resting heart rate way up, so when I started to exercise even a little I'd gas out in no time. Misery for sure.

It's back to work for me here- about a 10 mile ride at a fairly relaxed pace, but enough for my legs to remind me they're still a bit sore. Storms had gone through a little earlier so it wasn't hot for the first time in a few days. Still not sure on my weekend plans though, so I wanted to get a ride done in case I skip town and can only run over the weekend. Since I'll probably be away from the bike a bit this month I may work on longer runs (for me, that means 6-8 miles).

Have a fun holiday weekend all!