Sprint Tri on Sunday ...

This will be my first race in over 2.5 months and I am just itching to get out there and let 'er rip!

Here is the race map:

The race is at the Texas Ski Ranch and it is a  500 M Swim - 14 Mi Bike - 3.1 Mi Run.  Last year those distances actually intimidated me. This year I am thinking that additional training will need to be done on Sunday evening/  How things have changed!

The swim is pretty tight and the washing machine will be in full effect.  The water temp is in the mid-80s so no wetsuits.  The water is also a combination of mud and oil color - it is a disgusting lake.  If you look at the above map the little island in the center of the lake has goats on it.  Real goats.  Something you do not see everyday! Last year's swim I started in the back, this year I am going to start at the front of my AG and just hammer the first 100M to try and find some open water and maybe some feet!

The roads for a majority of the bike course were literally chip sealed two days before the race.  It was one tough ride.  Hopefully over the course of the year the traffic has hammered down some of the stones and the ride will be smoother.  The bike course is also extremely hilly.  Last year it was the first time I ever had a chance to ride on hills and despite the crappy road surface I really enjoyed it. Since I have been doing quite a bit of hill training lately I am looking forward to seeing how I do on them. My plan for the bike is to mash as hard as I can and just pretend that I don't have to run after.  

As for the run, the  course is a flat and fast out and back.  Nothing special but it will probably be pretty crowded with over 1000 triathletes this year.  It looks like the changed the run course slightly and have us circling the lake.  If I remember correctly this is a dirt trail - should be fun!

Some of you might be wondering why I haven't raced in 2.5 months and I'll let this next screen shot explain:

This is the forecast for Sunday.  The summers for us Texans is just too brutal to race in so if we do it is nothing but a Sprint Tri.  The good news is that the humidity is ONLY going to be 58% - that is going to make the air feel crisp to me! My wave starts at 8:15am so the sun should be up and blazing by that point.  Luckily it is a short race so I will just hydrate like a madman on Saturday and that should get me through to the free beer tent at the finish line.

So this race is in New Braunfels, which is about a 1/2 hour south of Austin, we have rented a little house on the Guadalupe river with some friends.  We are driving up tomorrow evening and planning on a couple of days of R&R.  On Saturday we are going to go tubing in the river.  The water temp of the river is usually around 60 degrees and the float is very slow. We usually rent an extra tube for a cooler of beer and snacks.  My goal is to not get drunk on the river.  Seriously, this is much harder to achieve than one may think.  Beer, bikinis, tubes, music, hot sun, cool river, drunk friends - these are all initiators to drunkenness.  I am going to volunteer to be the Designated Driver, my only hope.

Well, that is all I got right now.  Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

How To Train in the Heat and Humidity of Houston, Texas ...

Houston, TX

Average July High Temperature  -  93.6 F

Average Morning Relative Humidity  -  93%

Yep, that is my average day down here in the South East corner of the Lone Star State.  A lot of people who have never visited the Houston area are under the impression that because we are in Texas that we are surrounded by deserts, cacti, and armadillos.  Well, that is not the case!  The climate in Houston is very much like the climate in Central Florida.  Visitors are always amazed by the large amount of trees and inland bodies of water.  They are also amazed at the amount of humidity.  Which brings me to the subject of todays post.

Pain:

On May 17th of this year I did a local Half Ironman race in Denton, TX. Denton is 5 hours North of Houston and the temperatures were supposed to be in the low 70's with rain and overcast skies.  As is the case with most weather predictions, this forecast was completely wrong.  The temperatures ended up reaching the low 90's and the humidity was well into the high 80 percentile.  I crashed and burned, literally.  My body fell apart under these conditions as I suffered from severe cramping in my legs and experienced the effects of dehydration. Both my training and nutrition were completely unprepared for the day.  So instead of just chalking it up to poor and unexpected conditions I have been actively training in these conditions and experimenting with my nutritional needs so if this happens again I will be prepared.


Sweat Rate:


About 6 weeks ago I found an article (HERE) in Runners World about calculating your Sweat Rate.  Look at the article to get the calculations if you are interested.  My overall opinion of the Sweat Rate Calculator is -  Ehh.  It may work for others but here in Humid-ville I found it to be unreliable.  The problem is that in the mornings our humidity is usually in the 90th percentile.  In the afternoons the humidity drops by 20-30% but the temperature is up in the 90's.  This means I have a different sweat rate depending on what time of day I decided to train and I have a completely different sweat rate on the bike too.  It might work for others but for me it is just too much to calculate and I do not want to have to get a weather forecast every time I run or bike.  I'll go over hydration a little later.  IMO, Sweat Rate Calculator = FAIL.


Trial & Error:


Now a normal person would probably just be happy with the Sweat Rate Calculations and leave it at that!  But I decided I'd like to do it the hard way and just experiment with hydration and nutrition while doing my workouts.  Sort of like practicing transitions, it would just become something I do!

First, on any run or bike of an hour or more my gel's of choice would either be GU Vanilla or Chocolate #9 Agave Gel.  I'd carry water on either a Nathan's Hydration Belt or in bottles on the bike.  On a couple of long rides my quads and calves would feel some cramping but overall this seemed to be working.  I had a system of a gel every 40 minutes and about 10-12 ounces of water every half hour.  In addition to the above I also began to try out Succeed S! Caps to get my sodium needs met.  I began taking one S! Cap every 30 minutes during training and all of a sudden I no longer was having muscle tightness during workouts.  Life was good!

Then a buddy of mine in the Tri Club introduced me to the EFS Liquid Shots from First Endurance.  As I looked over the ingredients I noticed the Liquid Shots had a much higher quantity of Electrolytes (1500mg) and still had 400 calories in a little 5oz reusable container:

(Click on image to see larger view)

I ordered the Liquid Shots ($30 for box of 6) and began my trial and error test again.  At first the taste was a little bland but after the first 5oz bottle I became accustomed to the taste and actually like it now.  After using 6 bottles and testing on some long runs and long rides of 84mi, 60mi, and 52mi all I can say is this stuff is awesome!  To me the difference from GU or Chocolate #9 is the higher electrolyte count in the Liquid Shots. With the other gels I would take them and get an immediate "boost" - almost a sugar rush feeling.  This is great but the problem is that after 40 or so minutes I would also experience a sugar crash.  This does not happen with the Liquid Shots.  Just a sustained boost throughout.  

Now back to the purpose of this post and how does the Liquid Shots help in the heat and humidity?  It replenishes the body with sodium which is essential to keeping the body and muscles hydrated.  I figure if I am going to take a gel it might as well do more than just give me calories like GU, Hammer, or Chocolate #9 do.  

So to recap:  To train (and race) in the brutal summer conditions my nutrition is 1-oz of Liquid Shots every 40minutes and 1-Succeed S! Cap every 30 minutes.  Now in addition to the nutritional needs let's talk about keeping  hydrated.  I have been riding with 3 -20oz bottles of G2 and this gets me through about 3 hours.  When running I carry 2-10oz Nathan's Bottles or 1-22oz Nathans Hand Held Bottle of G2.  This gets me through about 8 miles.  Simple and repeatable.

Everyone is going to have different needs and opinions on what works for them.  These are what works for me and could be the exact opposite of what you need.  What I am trying to say is don't blindly take my advice and go off and race using my strategy.  Practice and Train, Trial and Error.

**Disclaimer:   All products were paid for by me and these are my opinions and my findings alone.  I am not a doctor or physical therapist or coach or anything of that nature and I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  So take everything said above with a grain of sodium.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Week 5 Training Recap ...

This was Week 5 of the Fitzgerald HIM Training Plan.  It was a very productive week in that not a single workout was missed or modified.  Actually a few minutes were added here and there so I guess some of the workouts did get modified?  Oh, well ...

The numbers:

Swim -  4 Workouts - 4hrs 40mins - 10,100 yards
Bike  -  4 Workouts - 6hrs 31mins - 115.81 miles
Run   -  4 Workouts - 3hrs 54mins - 24.45 miles
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                  Totals - 12 Workouts - 15hrs 05mins


Long Bike - 60 miles
Long Run - 10 miles


Here is the Week 6 Schedule.  I am doing a race on Sunday so Saturday is going to become my Off Day and Monday will be my Long Run Day.  This is not a big deal because my training weeks begin on Tuesday so it actually works out.  It is funny how race days just screw up long term training goals!

(Click Image to see Larger View)

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Best. Movie. Trailer. EVAH --- SHARKTOPUS

I had a post that was going to go up this morning about hard work, motivation, blood, sweat, tears ...yada, yada, yada.  BUT then this little gem came across my email from my buddy Mike.  I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll just offer a few teaser phrases:  Julia Robert's brother, Shark + Octopus = AWESOMENESS, and SyFy Network.  Turn up your volume, sit back and Enjoy:



Yep, That Just Happened.  Boom!

*Release Date not yet announced.  Sigh.

Jeff

Week 4 of HIM Training Recap & Katy Century Ride

This was the first recovery week of the 20-Week Matt Fitzgerald Half Ironman Training Plan and here are the totals:

Swim - 3 Workouts - 3hrs 55mins -  8200 yards
Bike  - 3 Workouts - 6hrs 04mins -  116.75 miles
Run   - 4 Workouts - 2hrs 05mins -  14.03 miles
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            Totals - 12 hours 04 minutes

I know those numbers are a little higher than a normal recovery week but I did take it pretty easy except for the weekend.  On Saturday I went on a group ride with a bunch of people from my Master's Swim club. It was only 22 miles but the pace was fast and then a few of us did a short 2.14 mile run to complete the Brick workout.

And today was the Katy Flatlands Century Ride.  It was already 80 degrees (topped out at 97) at 6am and the humidity was at 90% so I loaded up on EFS Liquid Shots and the S! Sodium Caps (ended up taking 12 of these). There was at least 2000 cyclists on this ride and you could choose from a number of different distances - 24,40,62,84, and 100.  I was in the fourth or fifth flight and it was extremely crowded for the first 10-15 miles or so.  After that it started to space out and was much more comfortable.  My plan was to try and not draft too much and I did an okay job of this.  But as you can imagine with that many riders and huge peletons you sometimes just got sucked into them - which I did not mind all that much when I needed a little rest (-:

The ride was going pretty well.  For the first 50 miles I averaged 20.6 MPH and then around mile 55 I started to have trouble with my right cleat.  It kept slipping off the pedal and would then unclip and each time it tweaked my knee - not good times!  It did this 4 times so I pulled into the rest stop at mile 60 and luckily found the SAG vehicle. I gave the tech guy my right shoe and he said it was pretty jacked up.  I kicked off my other shoe and went over and refilled my bottles and ate a banana and some Oreo's.  I also took this moment to wring out the sweat from my headband and jersey - you could have filled a five gallon bucket with the sweat!  I went back and got my shoe and the tech told me it needed replaced but he tweaked it and should be good for the rest of the ride.

So I took off and within 5 minutes the cleat slipped off again and then again.  Needless to say this was not fun.   Well, about 2 miles later (mile 65) the split came and you either went left for the 100 miles or right for the 84 miles.  With the pain-in-the-ass cleat it was a no brainer to cut it short and take the 84 mile route.  I was a little bummed because I really wanted to complete the century and I was still feeling pretty strong but these things happen and at least I didn't discover the cleat problem during an actual race.  Think I might just get new Tri Specific shoes?

Oh, the best part is that the last 20 miles of the ride the cleat didn't misfire once - had to laugh at this!

The main positive take-away for me was that despite the extreme heat I had an excellent ride.  My average over the 84 mile course was 19.4 MPH and the last 10 miles I averaged over 20 MPH and my legs felt great at the end of the ride.  Six months ago I would have struggled to average over 17.5 MPH over this distance so all the hard work is paying off!

This coming week is back to the grindstone.  The plan calls for about a 15 hour week of training and then next week I have an actual Sprint Tri - can't wait  Here is the Week 5 Schedule:

Thanks for Reading and have a great week,

Jeff