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Showing posts from July 8, 2018

7 triathlon nutrition myths and misconceptions

Within every sport, there are "must try" nutrition strategies for athletic success. While some are effective, most are extreme, unhealthy, unrealistic and unsuccessful. In the sport of triathlon, combining three sports together can be challenging. The longer the distance, it becomes more difficult to master the art of fueling to delay fatigue and optimize hydration while minimizing GI issues. There's also the mindset that a lean body will outperform a body that is "overfat" because less is best when it comes to body weight. Sadly, more and more athletes are using extreme endurance training in an effort to achieve a certain body image over attempting to improve performance. Therefore, triathletes will often gravitate toward any style of eating that provides food control and helps take away the guessing of what to (and not to) eat in order to improve the odds of race day success. To help with the dietary confusion and to ensure that your health isn't c...

Ironman Austria '18 Race Report - 26.2 mile marathon

I was really hoping to write a run race report about a stellar run but that’s not the case. Another marathon run off the bike where I felt like I ran far below my potential. However, this is racing. If it was easy to improve, I probably wouldn’t do this sport. My fire for a faster marathon run still burns strong and I know I’ll get it done in one of these races. Nevertheless, the most important part of Ironman racing is managing what’s given to you on race day. A strong mind can power a tired body. If I gave up every time an Ironman was hard, I would not have 13 Ironman finishes behind my name. I was given a very tough marathon run to tackle, with an empty mind and body. While the marathon fatigue is normal and expected, I just didn’t imagine it would hit me so hard and so early in the marathon. While I wanted to quit so badly as the fatigue and empty feeling was so intense that I thought there was no way that I could finish, somehow, I found deep inner strength and a soft voice ...

Ironman Austria '18 Race Report - 112 mile bike

Since we rode one loop of the bike course on Wednesday afternoon on race week, it was nice having that recon ride fresh in my head going into race day. There was no part of the course that I was dreading as this bike course is fast but also includes a significant amount of climbing – around 5600 feet. I felt like I knew the course well enough to make tactical decisions when to push, hold back and where to take risks. With no rain predicted for race day (unlike the rain that we experienced the last two times in 2014 and 2016, although both were record breaking years), I was excited to show off my bike fitness on this course. When I got on the bike after the swim, I enjoyed the short 90-degree turn with spectators lining the barricades. It was nice to hear all the cheers. The energy is so extreme in any Ironman but at Ironman Austria, it's really easy to get around for the spectators so the hot spots are super HOT with noise. There was a short out and back section coming nex...