2017 Triathlon Season
Today was a wrap on the 2017 triathlon season! Since my first one last year, I have fallen in love with this race. I completed 3 Tris this year – one was suppose to be an ocean swim, but due to rough waters it was cancelled (Islandman Triathlon in Avalon); another in a pool which I’m not a fan of the serpentine style race (Lititz RecCenter Triathlon); and a lake which was awesome, even if my shoulder was acting up and I had to breast stroke the entire distance (Marshman Triathlon in Marsh Creek State Park).
Like all my half marathons, I really do need to start properly training for these events. I do believe going to CrossFit a few times a week does help build strength and endurance, but CrossFit does not prepare you for sitting on a bike for extended period…Luckily you can swim however you want so there is always breast stroke. I would actually like to do better so I really need to start freestyling and conserving my energy for the other 2 legs. Maybe next year I’ll properly plan and train for any Tris I decide to compete in….I do always say this for whatever race I sign up for…one day tho!
MARSHMAN TRI
Today was the last tri I’m competing in for 2017. Just a few thoughts during today’s race…”crap, why didn’t I train more?! I hope I don’t drown out there!”….”why the hell did I think signing up for this race was a good idea”…”FUCK these hills!”…”I could just DNF right now”…”woohoo I’m going to crush this!” haha no logic whatsoever.
Marshman included a .25 mile swim, a 12.5 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. The swim was in a lake which was way better than I thought it would be. We entered the water on the boat ramp which was slimy with algae and covered in rocks. The start was probably 50 feet out into the lake where we treaded water for a few minutes before starting. My legs didn’t get wrapped around any plant life, didn’t see any fish, and minimal human crashing!
The bike, oh my god, the bike. I thought Lititz was hilly. Nope not at all. Downingtown you are hilly AF! Constant rolling hills, didn’t seem like there was any flat parts. Couldn’t remember how the gears worked and burned my quads and glutes out in the first 3 miles. There was no grace period to remember how to shift in and out of gears to get up those hills. Now maybe if I biked at least weekly, I would remember how they worked! Overall the elevation gain was 777 (loss was 752). My time on the bike was almost the same as Lititz, whose bike was 4 more miles!!!! Whatever, I didn’t walk up any of the hills, so I’ll consider this a win for me.
Oh running, how I’ve actually fallen back in love with you after a couple of years of disagreements. The run was on a trail in the park, out and back 1 mile. On the mile out there was a hill, which only meant decline for the last mile! Somehow, I strangely felt good on that run…actually had something left in my legs after all those hills I just biked. Completed the 2 miles with an average of 8:11!! I have no idea where that came from….maybe all the training the BFF has me doing on a weekly basis and me showing up OCCASSIONALLY to do hill workouts is actually paying off.
Overall, I was happy how today went. I do need to start training for these events. And I need to start paying attention to the courses I’m signing up for. Those hills on the bike course are NO JOKE!
NUTRITION
PRERACE DAY
Today is day 13 of the nutritional challenge. I do think cleaning up my diet 2 weeks before the race was beneficial. However that being said…the day before race day was not ideal. We celebrated my cousin’s wedding yesterday in NJ with family, so we weren’t perfect:
9am Breakfast was solid as usual: 2 eggs, baked plantains (don’t ever bake them sooo dry, blah), tomato, bell peppers, kale, and ground pork (salt & pepper, dried sage, and cinnamon)
11am drive to NJ: bone broth with collagen peptides and ghee
2pm – 7pm wedding: plenty of apps (chicken skewers, stuffed mushrooms, crab cakes)… dinner (salad, pulled pork sliders (didn’t eat the bun), ribs, salmon, roasted veggies)…and dessert (cookes, mini pies/cupcakes, cannolis). Needless to say, we most likely consumed sugar and gluten. We didn’t have any dairy, knowingly at least – no cheese. I didn’t consume any alcohol, only got asked by one cousin if I was pregnant. We enjoyed ourselves and had fun with family…I wasn’t stressing about the food. I also drank a lot of water, I knew that is something I couldn’t forget or I’d really pay for it today. I did not want that cramping to happen again that happened last tri…that was not fun!
8:30pm on the drive home: made Zach stop at Wegmans. Got sushi – tuna and rice, blueberries, figs, and a couple of RX bars. I only ate the sushi, the others were a just in case I was extra hungry, need to have healthy options!
We were in bed by 10:30pm
RACE DAY
4:50am alarm – snooze for 8 minutes
5:15am breakfast – 2 eggs (there was no other food to eat…poor planning), packed a half pint of blueberries to eat in the car. Also packed 3 oat fat balls in case.
6:15am – a friend drove us to the race and I was able to eat a couple handfuls of blueberries in the car
7am race jitters – ate an oat fat ball
Transition 1 – ate another oat fat ball
Race over!!!! – grabbed a banana they were handing out while we watched others finish. As we were leaving I ate the last oat fat ball I brought
TIME BREAKDOWN
- Swim (.25 mile): 10:10
- T1: 2:58
- Bike (12.5 miles): 54:21
- T2: 1:49
- Run (2 miles): 15:29
OAT FAT BALL RECIPE
I was trying to help out the BFF with snack ideas so I was recipe testing some balls for her. I came up with this only to remember she wasn’t eating oats <face palm>. But lucky for me, I thought they were perfect for fueling my endurance activities.
All of the following goes into the food processor and then I use a cookie dough scooper to make the balls. I store them in the freezer:
- 1 cup of oats
- 4 dates, pitted
- 1/4 cup of sunflower seed butter
- 1.4 cup of tahini
- 2 tablespoons of cacao nibs
- 2/3 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil