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Showing posts from April 11, 2021

Don't Make These Race Day Nutrition Mistakes

Preparing for a triathlon is much more than checking off workouts to improve fitness and booking travel accommodations. Nutrition plays an important role in race day readiness. Whether you are training for an Ironman distance triathlon, half marathon or a local sprint triathlon, nutritional preparation is key. How you fuel during a race primarily depends on the duration of the event and your racing intensity (which is based on your fitness level). Proper fueling will help you maximize recovery, fuel your workouts appropriately, boost your immune system and to maintain a healthy body composition, alongside building confidence for race day. While you may be able to get away with a haphazard sport nutrition strategies (or not fueling at all) during short workouts, competing at your best requires you to constantly fine-tune sport nutrition strategies to help minimize the fluid, electrolyte and fuel depletion that will occur throughout the event. Because proper sport nutrition should be par...

How to pack for a half ironman distance triathlon

Anytime I think about the stress of packing for a long distance triathlon, I am reminded of this picture - from my very first half ironman. My first half ironman was in May 2006 in Orlando - at Disney. The event is no longer at Disney, but is now in Haines City - and is now called Ironman 70.3 Florida (the event we are competing in this weekend). For the past few years, Karel and I have returned to Florida to kick-start our triathlon season in Haines City. Every time I race IM 70.3 Florida, I am reminded of that first scary unknown experience of swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and then running 13.1 miles. It was a humbling experience to feel like a beginner and to have no idea what I would experience over 70.3 miles.  Despite feeling physically prepared for your upcoming long distance triathlon event, lacking actual race experience may leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. And with the logistics of racing for 70.3 miles, a lot of "stuff" is needed to get from start to fini...

It's race week for IM 70.3 FL!

  2019 IM 70.3 FL  Well, it's been a long time coming.  It's officially race week. On Sunday morning, I will join Karel, eleven of our athletes and many other excited triathletes for the start of Ironman 70.3 Florida in Haines City, FL.  I'll be honest with you. I've really struggled with training for an event over the past few months. The race specificity hasn't been well, specific but instead, I've been seeking ways to keep my motivation high for training. Group rides, gravel riding, master swimming and happy running has kept me super active and enjoying the triathlon lifestyle. Although I love riding my triathlon bike, it hadn't seen much action since November. Over the past week, I've made it a point to ride my bike as often as I could to get my mind into race mode. I've had a bit of ambivalence towards triathlon racing but over the past few days, I started to find myself excited to put myself into the race environment.  After nearly 15 consecuti...