So exactly 2 months ago, I embarked on a journey to challenge myself to new levels. I remember I had started to begin swimming and found it very enjoyable. It was a way to have an active recovery as well as work the muscles without any joint pain.
After spending a week swimming, I thought to myself “what about if I combined biking and running with this?”… Long story short I began to explore different training protocols for this event and saw that triathlons are classified as 4 different types:
Sprint Triathlon—750 meter (0.465 mile) swim / 20 kilometer (12.5 mi) bike / 5 km (3.1 mi) run
Standard or Olympic Triathlon—1.5 kilometer (0.93 mile) swim / 40km (25 mi) bike / 10 km (6.2 mi) run
Half-Ironman or 70.3 Triathlon—1.9 kilometer (1.2 mile) swim / 90 km (56 mi) bike / 21.1 km (13.1 mi) run
Ironman Triathlon—3.8 kilometer (2.4 mile) swim / 180.2 km (112 mi) bike / 42.2 km (26.2 mi) run
In examining these options, I was at an endurance level of fitness capable of doing a sprint distance triathlon so I pushed myself to an olympic one. When separated, each workout isn’t too bad, but when you combine all three – it can be a monumental task.
I regrettingly didn’t write down my journey as I went along, but to give you an idea of my workouts leading up to the event – you can use the following link which provides a pdf to the 8 week program I followed from Triathlete.com:
Click to access 201608_OlyTrainingPlan.pdf
The workouts themselves weren’t too difficult, however, the issue was just the time as I was only able to train after work. Luckily due to my job, I was out early afternoon before everyone else and live in a community with access to a pool and a gym.
Throughout the entire time I spent training, I methodically began to see ways in which I could maximize my performance. Within the first week I quit smoking cold turkey and it sucked! The urges were there for around 2 weeks, but I committed myself to my program and knew it was for the best.
Another thing I did from day one was to use myfitnesspal to track my calories along with weight. My starting weight on the weekend before training, I was 160.7 lbs. and on the day of the race had dropped down to 154.7 lbs. Still haven’t reached my goal weight of 145 lbs., but that is where the third major change came into play.
Around 2 weeks prior to race day, I adopted a whole foods plant based diet – the same as I had done in the past. I kept it high carb, low fat (Carbs ~ 70-80%, Protein ~ 10%, Fat ~10-20%). This meant I cut out all animal products from meat to dairy and everything else in between. I also had threw out all of my beer and liquor, and quit coffee at the same time. For the first few days, I was a wreck, but I quickly bounced back more ready than ever.
Despite much animosity from my family, I kept pushing through my workouts and diet plan. I am the type of perform that does best in extremes with tight limits. Moderation kills people, and it’s only the most independent thinkers that actually create favorable change.
It’s at this point now I’d like to outline what I did prior to race day in case you’d like to give it a go!
2 days before the race: It was a complete rest day…no working out except a 40 minute walk back from work and some grocery shopping. I stretched out a bit before bed (10-15 min) and focused on three main things:
-Drinking as much water as possible (peeing clear every 2-3 hours)
-Getting enough sleep (8-10 hours)
-Eating enough carbohydrates (10g. per kg. of bodyweight per day to maximize glycogen stores)
I am ~ 71 kg which means I *tried* to consume close to 700g. of carbs for the next two days. I logged in a mere 393g. which was due to the fact I hadn’t worked out so I had no appetite.
1 day before the race: I followed the day tenets the day before, except I had a short practice run of each event to get my transitions down from each event and prepare my bag of supplies for race day so I don’t have to worry about it in the morning.
Now before I continue, I am not a professional athlete. The reason why I workout is that it’s a replacement for depression medication. I came from a past history of getting diagnosed with clinical depression at the age of 14 and battle with it ever since. Most days I enjoy working out, but some days I don’t. However, I push myself through because I know it will make me feel better.
Back to the story, when considering racing nutrition, an Olympic distance triathlon isn’t excruciatingly demanding. However, I did have a few things prepared for the race:
- Racing Gel – Now I know you can buy them, however, I forget so I made my own out of the following ingredients: I blended up 1 tbs. of chia seeds, 2 tbs. of maple syrup, 1 mandarin orange, 2 dates, 1/4 cup of orange juice, and 1/8 tsp. of Himalayan salt. When blended finely, I put it on the frying pan for around a minute to dissipate any excess liquid then transferred it into a glass jar to have 30 minutes prior to race time.
- Cherry Blade Lemonade Bang Energy Drink – Now this will only work if you don’t normally have caffeine which I quit 2 weeks so my adenosine receptors was highly sensitive towards it.
- Gatorade – Now I know you can use any other sports drink, or literally put sugar and salt in a bottle. However, I had this around so might as well use it.
I also got in 541 g. of carbs this day – not too bad, but it ended up biting my in the ass in the race during the biking event….
DAY OF THE RACE
I went to sleep at around 2100 the night before and planned to wake up at 0500 to give me a full 9 hours of sleep. However, due to numerous factors like my dog smacking me with his paw to take him outside (multiple times) along with my body temperature being extremely high – I was up at 0300 and laid in bed thinking about everything, but sleep.
By 0400, I decided to call it quits and just get myself out of bed. First thing I did was knock back around 8 oz. of water along with 1/2 of my racing gel. In hindsight, I shouldn’t had the entirety of it, but I was super anxious for the race. While giving myself around 30 minutes to digest that, I did some light stretching because I was going to start the race at 0500. I guess at this point I should mention I didn’t go to an actual event, rather I planned out a course myself with the allotted distances and was going to time myself – pretty lame right? I actually do worse when I need to perform in front of people athletically as I’m super intrinsically motivated.
Driving down to the community facility it was still dark, but extremely muggy and hot which I was thankful for as nobody enjoys jumping into a cold pool. I tied myself to a swimming cord, adjusted my goggles, and dove in pumped up with caffeine. I decided to split in my head to 1500 m. into 100’s alternating my stroke between breast and freestyle. For the first 500 m. I swam at an intensity level of around 8-8.5 out of 10. My arms were burning and began to think in my head that I had under trained in swimming before for the prior 2 weeks I only was able to make 3 swimming sessions.
But I pushed those thoughts into the deep recesses of my brain and kept moving forward. At the 500 m. mark I decided to do the next 500 m. alternating my style of stroke every 50 m. while also easing back the intensity to around 7 out of 10. It was at this point I began to feel gurgling in my stomach, not from hunger pain, but instead of carbonation from the Bang. It was at this point I regretted having it and in the future would resort to a non-carbonated caffeinated beverage i.e. coffee.
Finally for the last 400 m. I alternated my stoke every 25 m. and increased my intensity to a 8 out of 10 as I began to get into a flow state. The reason why I alternate strokes throughout the process is because I sorta don’t become conscious of my swimming which is great for training to build endurance, but I was timing myself to complete in under 3 hours so each alternation allows me to reset and stay focused on my goals.
For the last 100 m. I brought the intensity to a 10 out of 10, swimming into a butterfly position with little movement from my legs to conserve them for the bike and run afterwards. I envisioned the finish line in front of me and pushed forward as fast as possible to the point where I felt as if I was a jet ski on the surface of the ocean crashing along the waves I created.
I hadn’t lapped my timer, but I jotted down real quick that it took ~23 minutes for this event which i had projected to take closer to 30 minutes. Immediately when I got out of the pool, I tried to compose my breath while carrying my bag, running to the community center to change real quick.
Once instead I went into the sauna, which I preheated and threw all of my wet clothes/apparatuses inside and dried off with my towel. I took a quick piss as well during this process. I then quickly changed into my running gear and hoped on the bike. All and all it took ~ 3 minutes for this transition.
While on the bike I drank 1/2 a bottle of gatorade and started to cycle, keeping myself at an RPM of 120-130, a perceived effort of 6.75 out of 10. I felt great in this process and sorted zoned out for the first 8 miles. At around mile 9 I had an insatiable urge to use the bathroom so I brought my RPM to 140 to make it to 10 miles and relieved myself in the bathroom. Afterwards, I hoped back on and brought myself back to 120-130 RPM and downed the last half of the gatorade.
I felt amazing and in the zone until around mile 19 where I noticed my RPM was falling below 120. I felt like a machine slowly losing power and was trudging along sporadically similar to that of an electrical malfunction. The wall was kicking in and suddenly my stomach roared out of hunger. Did I fail to project my fueling needs for this race? Should I have packed an extra gatorade or perhaps ate the entire gel.
Here we go again, the negative voices trying to have me question what I can’t change. So instead I ramped up my RPM to 135-140 and let the pain block out the hunger. The reality is when the sympathetic nervous system is active, the parasympathetic is suppressed and I pushed towards the finish line at ~1 hour and 40 minutes in total (meaning the biking event took ~1 hour and 10 minutes). This left me with a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete the run.
The transition from the bike to the run was another 3 minutes (as I ran to the bathroom again). When getting on the treadmill I hadn’t thought of a pacing plan prior because I didn’t how I’d feel so I played it safe going at 5 mph for the first 4 miles. While this wasn’t ideal and I felt I could go faster, i didn’t want to bonk towards the end and miss the sub 3 hour mark. I also figured since I had extra time cut from the swim, I could manage to run a little slower.
At mile 4, I bumped myself up to 5.5 mph. to test a faster speed. I thought I could go quicker, but I also remembered I was hungry before and was worried about my glycogen stores. I kept this pace to mile 5 where I felt my legs starting to drag a bit so I upped the speed to 6 mph. utilizing the same concepts as I did with the bike to become more conscious. I focused on form and tried to become more aware of my legs, chest, and arms.
In this state of hyper awareness, I noticed a sharp pain at the center of my right breast. I peeked into my shirt and saw blood…I had gotten chafing during the run and it began to burn so i took my shirt off and threw it on the side. I never dealt with chaffing before so I was a bit annoyed by this, but thought “hey at least it’s not in between my thighs” because I can’t take my pants off mid-race.
I began to get into the zone, but felt fatigued with every step I took trying to get closer to each quarter of a mile. Finally between mile 5 to 5.5, I brought my pace up to 6.5 mph setting myself up for a strong finish.
At mile 5.5, I brought my speed up to 7 until 5.75. Once there, I brought my speed up again to 8 until mile 5.95. Then I brought it up again for the last .5 of a mile to 10 – sprinting like my life depended on it. I thought about each training session; I thought about the negative comments people gave me in the process; I thought about all the hardships the year before from my divorce to my old colleagues I missed deeply; I thought about the continual frustrations of dealing with depression and anxiety; I thought about how finishing this race would be a slap in the face to everyone who ever laughed at me, used and abused me, or just simply didn’t bother to give me the time of the day.
2:49:52.94 – This was my official end time and I was happy about it! While gasping for air I began to laugh out of joy (and endorphins) knocking back a bottle of water. The race was now complete…I conquered the task I placed before me…I quieted the beast inside me (at least momentarily) because in a week – I will begin my 3 month training plan for a Half-Ironman Triathlon!
Undead Knowledge 