I haven’t blogged since Ironman 70.3 Ballarat, which was on
November 16. Following that race, I competed in a sprint distance event, at
Elwood, on November 30.
The Elwood event was a 500m swim, 20km ride and 5km run. I
had a pretty good race with an average swim but followed up with a personal
best 20km ride of 30 minutes 10 seconds, an average speed of 40km/h, and
finished off with a run of 18 minutes 36 seconds averaging 3:43mins/km. I
claimed 6th spot in my age group and had an overall time of 1 hour
and just 28 seconds.
In the week after that race, I really noticed the fatigue in
my body from the two races and promptly stopped training completely for 5 days.
With my next race being Challenge Melbourne on February 1st, I gradually
returned to training for the 3 weeks prior to Christmas, knowing I had planned
to have a rest period around Christmas as well.
During the past couple of months, I have been doing a lot of
research into nutrition to continue looking for what works best for me and fuel
my training and racing. What I have discovered is the enormous benefits of
fueling with fats. That’s right, fats, not carbohydrates. I bet this is
confusing some of you reading this because, particularly when associating
fueling with an endurance sport, such as triathlon, common theories speak of
carbohydrates needing to dominate the diet and race nutrition.
I have researched and discovered how much better and more
sustainable fuel from fat is. I will discuss this more in a future blog but you
will get a sense of the benefits of energy from stored fats from my Challenge
Melbourne race experience below and how it contributed to my best race so far.
FYI, my pre-race breakfast was 4 scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and
asparagus. I also had a coffee and I drank about 600-700mls of water in the
following two hours before race start.
So, Challenge Melbourne on Sunday February 1st
over the half-ironman distance of 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run. The
conditions were wet and windy all day. The swim at Brighton Beach was tough in
the choppy 1 metre swell. I really struggled with rhythm but was surprised to
be out of the water in 34 minutes. It felt longer than that. I was happy with
some aspects of the swim such as, I kicked more often and consistently. I have
often neglected or just forgotten to kick in race swims and I know that holds
me back and affects my momentum. Also, I was reasonably happy with how my arms
felt, not feeling as fatigued as usual and my ability to complete a full stroke
when I was tiring was much better than previous races. In the end, the
conditions held me back because I only train in the pool but I take confidence
that I have improved my swim to a degree but I won’t see the full extent of
improvement until I race again in flatter conditions. I anticipate that won’t
be until
December at Ironman 70.3 Ballarat.
After a long run from the water, through transition and out
to begin the bike course I was quickly aware that my sunglasses wouldn’t be
very useful as the rain came down. So, I put my glasses in my back pocket and I
didn’t use them again. The first few kilometers were nervous as I assessed the
condition of the wet road and the gusty crosswinds coming off the water. It
wasn’t long before I tucked in and felt comfortable to ride hard and I didn’t
hold back despite the on and off rain and constant wind.
My race nutrition was the most interesting point from the
day. You may say that the cool conditions contributed but I raced in cold
weather at the Ballarat race and still felt the need to consume 800 calories
and 2 litres of fluid during the 90km ride. However, in this event I only took
in 470 calories during the 90km bike leg. This was in the form of 1 PowerBar
(220 calories) and one Honey Stinger Gel (120 calories). To that, I had one
250mls can of ‘V’ which has approximately 130 calories. As for fluid intake, I
only consumed approximately 800mls of my mild electrolyte drink, so, add the
‘V’ and that makes only 1.05 litres. My 90km split was 2 hours 21 minutes and
17 seconds, which is a new PB and my speed was very consistent throughout the
entire ride.
Some other interesting points to note about my nutrition
intake were that I didn’t have anything to eat or drink until the start of the
second bike lap. The 90km was split into 3 x 30km laps. This meant I didn’t
consume anything until 1 hour 25mins after my race start at which point I had
half of my PowerBar. I then had the other half at the 45km turn around. After
60km, I had my gel and finally my ‘V’ at 75km. I drank my electrolyte mix with
each bit of food and a little more just before I finished the ride. This is
about half the quantity of what I have consumed in all of my previous half
ironman distance races, yet I felt as good as ever, if not better, as I started
the run.
The run was 3 x 7km laps. Unfortunately, the rain had left a
lot of puddles on most of the course and caused the gravel trail sections to be
very slushy. This definitely affected everyone’s pace. My legs felt as good as
they ever have, when starting the run of a half ironman, being slightly heavy
but not feeling like they wanted to cramp. I found my stride and rhythm very
quickly which was only broken slightly when trying to find the smoothest or
driest part of the course to run on. There were also two rather steep inclines
to negotiate as well as a slippery downhill to descend.
I took a gel at the start of the second lap and a mouthful
of water but I’m not actually sure I needed it. To my surprise, I maintained a
highly consistent pace for each of the 3 laps and the only thing I consumed for
the last 14kms was a mouthful of electrolyte drink from one of the drink
stations. In fact, my first and last laps were exactly the same time with my
middle lap being one minute slower. On the last lap, I actually felt amazing.
Although my legs were tiring, it only made the uphill sections difficult and
once I was back on the flat areas, I felt like I was flying. My posture and
turn over were as good as they have ever been. My final run time was 1 hour 29
minutes 27 seconds. About 3 minutes below my PB from Ballarat but, I believe,
it was only that way due to the wet course conditions and the added uphill
terrain.
My overall time was 4 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds. 6th
place in my age group and 54th overall finisher. A solid day out and
I am calling it my best race to date. Although 5 minutes below my PB from
Ironman 70.3 Shepparton, 2013, that was in absolutely perfect conditions. I
genuinely feel a much better athlete these days with greater technique and
strength, and now, much better nutrition.
In the past couple of months, I have taken on a higher fat,
lower carbohydrate way of eating. Also, I look to avoid all refined and
processed items, especially anything with refined and added sugar. This includes
no bread or pasta and only using gels or energy bars during really long rides
and races. What this race experience shows to me is that this approach is
working. I only needed half of my regular amount of calories during the race
because I have trained my body to use its most efficient and long lasting energy
source, fat.
In the near future, I will blog to explain further why a
high fat/low carb approach to eating is not only safe and effective to use in
endurance sport but is essential for greater health.
A massive thank you to Dr David Riordan at Holistique Helath and Spa and
his wife Mandy (please check out her awesome website devoted to clean eating – www.mycleaneats.com.au – and like her
facebook page – Mandy’s Clean Eats) for their continued support, but more
recently, advice and inspiration towards greater health through clean eating.
Learning to eat cleaner and experience so many wonderful, natural foods that
not only taste amazing, are enjoyable to cook and/or prepare, but provide my
body with so much goodness, is truly gratifying.
I hope I can inspire some of you to give clean eating a true
shot.
Leave a comment or question below about anything nutrition related.
Talk soon,
Lincoln.
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