Sprint Race Nutrition

For a sprint race you want to eat as little as possible before and during the race.  Eating takes time and is hard to do when you are in upper zone 4 or zone 5. It also raises your perceived effort and your heart rate.

With that being said below is what I did with my nutrition for this past weekends sprint race:
Pre Race
Blueberry Muffin with a powerade zero for breakfast about 3hrs or so before race time.
1-2 Hours out I am drinking a mixture of 1st Endurance pre-race and GU Brew Electrolyte tablets containing 320mg of sodium.
At the same time I am taking my MST Cordygen5 and Citruvol Ultra.
10-30min out from hitting the water I took one MST Athlytes electolyte pill containing 350mg of sodium. I will never go back to Endurolytes containing 40mg of sodium.

Bike
1 Water bottle filled with a GU Brew Electrolyte tablet. I am supposed to get at least half way through this bottle and I did.
1 more MST Athlytes mid-way through the bike portion
1 Serving of Strawberry Chomps 90 calories, 23g of carbs and 50mg of sodium

Run
Passed first aid station and only dumped water on my head.
Second aid station threw a little water in my mouth.
Passed the last aid station and again dumped water on my head.

My hamstring cramped up in a dead sprint at the end trying to beat another competitor.
My issue was probably not on what or the amount of nutrients I took in but I do believe I did not drink enough water pre-race and during the bike to allow all the electrolytes I took on to take full effect.
I think the chomps was a huge waste of time for a sprint and will never do that again. I actually knew better but did it anyway.

Nutrition Goals going in:
Take on around 700mg of sodium per hour for the race and take on enough water to make sure it took effect.
I took on probably 800mg or so of sodium thanks to the chomps and GU. I was out there for 1.2hrs so I needed about 840mg.

Next race I will try to drink the entire water bottle and nix the chomps.

  

 

The Bridgeland Triathlon - Summary

This race turned out to be the biggest sprint race I think Houston has ever seen with other 1500 athletes competing.

This many athletes meant there was a lot of talent and as expected and expressed in my previous post I was not expecting a podium but man was there a lot of talent.

Overall, I improved on my time from last years race and had yet another bike PR but finished outside the top 10. Oh well progress is what matters in this sport and progress I am making.

Swim:
Today was the first race we had in out new Apex Endurance gear.  I have been wearing a full suit the last two season but went to a two piece this year for our jerseys. The jersey caused a lot of drag but with the help of an Xterra Speedsuit I will not have that issue any longer.

I have not been swimming much at all as that is the one thing that does not seem to fit into my life with the new baby and wife's new work schedule. So, going into this race I have put in one swim in 3 weeks. To my surprise I still swam the same exact time I swam last year. But was already way out of the running for the race. I was barely inside the top 30% of people outta the water in my group.

T1:
I was somewhat disappointed in my T1 time but passed several people in T1. I was 6th in my group in T1 out of 95. I think the extra exhaustion from the swim caused me to run a little to slow in transition and that led to my slower than expected performance.

Bike:
The bike is a fast flat course with two u-turns and two right hand turns. The wind was a crosswind it seemed as it was never really in your face. I did however find myself a few times inbetween gears which is why I am going to be changing my rear cog probably this week and go back to a 12-25 cassette. Best part about the bike is now two races in a row I have set PR's on the bike. I do think however doing this is hurting my run a bit but that is part of the experiment to know what I can do off the bike after putting it all out there. This whole season is a test case for me as my training is somewhat down so it makes since to make sure I am getting something outta every race.

T2:
This is the transition performance I am used to. 2nd in my group of 95 in T2. I am sure if you added total transition times up I was in the top 2 or 3 and I can live with that. Transition = Free Speed

Run:
Well as always I take off on the run and try hard not to look at my watch for a while and let my legs just roll and I did that this race but probably looked to early. When I look and see that I am running fast I let my brain slow me down.  Not a smart move when racing but it happens.  This race was definitely hot but for some reason I could not push myself to zone 5 on the run.  I averaged zone 4 and my final pace reflected such. So, my heart rate and pace told me I had some more in the tank but my brain would not let me get there. I need to really work on mental toughness over the next few weeks before the Austin Tri.

Take Aways:

• When you do not swim with good form more swim volume does not help speed just endurance.
• Change my rear cassette on my bike so I do not get stuck between gears.
• Do more bricks so my legs and brain will be used to it for race day.
• Run my intervals harder during my speed days.

Bridgeland Triathlon - Race Week

This event is the best sprint only race in Houston.

With that being said the best racers in Houston make it out for this race and the competition is tough. Last year I raced my tail off and only ended up top 10.

I have been using my races so far this year to test things. So, far through my three tests I am still not satisfied with the results. So, Bridgeland is going to be another one test.  My goal going in is the swim my normal swim and then bike with the higher avg/normalized power than my last two races and see where that leaves me on the run.

The run so far this season was good two races ago but I did not bike hard enough and last race I had a bike PR but ran terribly.  I think my terrible run was more a factor of lack of sleep than it was fitness or my bike effort.  This is why I am trying to bike hard again.

Main focuses this week are to hydrate enough and get some medium duration and intensity workouts in to keep the legs ready for the effort on Sunday.

Saturday I will go out and ride and run the course not hard but again just to keep the legs moving and to scope out the course again.

Fingers are crossed for a good test.

Coaching Certifications - USAT and USAC

Well I have completed all my requirements now to be both a USAT Level 1 and USAC Level 3 certified coach.

I have learned a lot going through the both processes and have already started implementing this knowledge with my athletes.

I am very excited about the future and what it has to hold for myself and Apex Endurance Sports.
There are some exciting things happening in the background that I hope will come to fruition soon.

Tri-Clips and Yankz product Reviews

This past weekend was the first chance I got to review some of my corporate partner's products on race day.

This weekend I used Tri-Clips proprietary Tri-Clips and their transition mat. I used Yankz T2 transition bag.

Both partners products worked great and were all a step up from what I have been using for other races. So, I will continue the use of all three of these products and can recommend them to others.

The Tri-Clips were great because as you are sprinting out of T1 to get on the bike your shoes are not dragging the ground and they are elevated and ready to go at the mount line. As a bonus they are attached via a velcro strap so after the race you can easily remove them. I have added a pic to the right so you can see the set up.

The Tri-Clips transition mat was also great as it was soft, a perfect size and stood out making my whole transition area look a little more professional. You will be able to see a picture of the mat below.

The Yankz T2 transition bag worked better than I thought it was going to. I have been using another transition bag for a couple of years but like I said in my earlier post it was a seemingly bottomless pit when looking for something. With the Yankz bag everything has its place and the bag opens up flat so you can have easy access to the contents. This made setting up transition a breeze.

I would like to thanks both Tri-Clips and Yankz for making quality products with the triathlete in mind and then partnering with us at Apex Endurance.

Shadow Creek Triathlon - Race Report

I want to start off by thanking my wife for putting up with this triathlon addiction. This past weekend was our 5 year anniversary and she was awesome enough to let me race.

We went out Saturday night while my parents did the babysitting and I got in bed a little after midnight.

Then I woke up at 3:30am ate my blueberry muffin and went back to sleep for another hour. I did this so that my stomach would be empty prior to the race by giving myself 3 hours to digest all food.

Swim: The swim was a 500m straight point to point swim in a neighborhood lake. The first 100-200m or so was definitely crowded with no clear water but then people started to fall off as I am sure they hit a wall and remembered they could not swim that fast.

I could have swore according to my data I had the swim I was expecting just under 2min/100m as I have only been swimming 1-2 times per month with my schedule being crazy but they timed me at 7:26 for the 500m swim. That pace is ridiculous to me and put me in 3rd coming out of the water.

T1:My transition spot could not have been in a worse location. Most of the times a transition spot will balance out during the race because of different entries and exits. This race swim entrance was the same as run exit and bike exit and entrance was in the middle. My spot happened to be on the last row against the fence farthest from the swim entrance and run exit.

With that being true it is a good thing I am decent at transitions.
I had the 3rd ranked T1 time and was a second away from 1st.

Bike:This was my first race on my new custom Apex Endurance bike and second race using power. After learning not to put a top end power during the race from my last experience I rode much better this time. I averaged right where I wanted to ride and had a PR on the bike at 22.7 mph. It was a flat course but had lots of 90 degree turns and 3 u-turns I believe. This race I watched my power, HR, cadence and speed to make sure I was working hard and smart enough. I avg a 179bpm and 92rpms. Even though I thought I killed the bike and I did for me there were some good riders and I ranked 5th on the bike. This dropped me to 4th place which is where I would stay.

T2:Again, I would be affected by my bad transition spot but I managed to kill the field and rank 1st in T2, with 2nd place being almost 9sec back. I even mad a small mistake racking my bike.

Run:Well I started the run great in the low to mid 6's but that did not last long. By mile one my fatigue hit me hard. My HR was up around 190bpm which is where it should be but my speed for that effort was not there. So, I just managed my effort according to HR and tried the best I could but that was not good enough to catch anyone as it shouldn't have been. Finished the run with the 4th best run but it was about 40sec/min slower than it should have been. Oh well.

Final Result 4th place. Crazy part is I was second during awards on race day and got the belt buckle for it but according to online results I am 4th.

Good race overall and I know now I definitely need more sleep and I am going to start working more short race pace brick runs in after bike workouts. I guess even though they say my swim was good I need to swim more and goal is to swim 2x's a week.

Next race is www.bridgelandtri.com the first weekend of August. This is a super popular race here in Houston and I will be lucky to get a top 10.

Race Nutrition:
I am trying very hard to get my body away from using/needing carbs to workout and race. So, the only carbs I got were at 3:30 with my muffin. Pre-Race I had a couple Hammer Race-Supreme caps and 3 Endurolytes.
On the bike I took in another 3 Endurolytes fairly early and another 3 just before getting off.
For liquid I used www.gozym.com catapult tablet in my water. During the run I drank some water and swished cytomax.  Did not swallow.

My goal is the get my body more efficient using fat stores because our bodies have a lot more of that than they do glycogen.  Plus our body stores about 90mins worth of glycogen so you can get through a sprint without any.

Ironman Texas

Well I finally took the plunge after 2 months of delaying the inevitable and signed up for IMTX.

I will be attempting it on a less than ideal training load but it is a good test to see what time starved athletes can do if they follow one of my plans.  I will be the guinea pig on this test.

I am excited but knowing that it is 10 months away is killing me.  Oh well I have a race Sunday and then several more before then.

 

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