Magnesium? Yes! Magnesium!

Well it’s that time of year when the race reports start rolling in! Actually not much to report except a half marathon where some running miles paid off. I was pleased because I was not super rested and felt pretty darn good! So what in the world does this have to do with magnesium? Several weeks before the race, I had to start supplementing with Mg for a number of reasons and it really opened my eyes as to how many roles this mineral plays in the function of our bodies and how much better I felt.

Long story short, I started to get very odd and persistent calf pain, even while not running, basically all the time. I was beginning to think I was going to be the only person in the world that was going to tear a calf while just sitting in a chair or rolling over in bed. It was “odd” pain though, not normal stuff you’d expect from training. Very hard to describe, like my calves were very hard, swollen and sore to the touch. Turns out this is a big sign of a MG deficiency, which as much as 70% of Americans have. I also felt as if I could not take a deep breath along with other weird things I never linked together.  And here goes the standard disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist and you should not be looking for sound nutritional advice on a random blog. This is my personal experience only.

Magnesium, like iron, is one of those things that is very much depleted during running and is hard for the body to absorb through food sources, as is iron. Your body will absorb about 20 to 50% of the magnesium that you ingest. And it goes without saying that I am a ridiculously heavy sweater, I’ll pretty much pass out if I don’t get about 1000 mg/sodium/hour while training much less racing and we’re sweating out all electrolytes of course, not just sodium NA. You’ll absorb a small portion of magnesium compared to what you take in.  And like iron, it depends on the form of Mg and taking it with vitamin C helps it absorb more. More was going out than going in. There were also several other odd “symptoms” that I never would have linked together, much less linked to Mg. This is one interesting little mineral.

So, what does Mg do for your body? It’s responsible for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady (I was at the doc before finding this out with bad heart palpitations, but did not link the calf pain to this either) and it is extremely necessary for proper ATP synthesis (ATP often being called the “molecular unit of currency” of intracellular energy transfer). ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism.  Only 1% of magnesium is found in the blood, but the body works extremely hard to keep blood levels of Mg constant. It also plays a role in blood pressure and blood sugar levels. It cannot be made by our body, so it has to be plentiful in the diet in order to get enough.

Where do you get Mg from?

First, another thing that Mg and iron have in common is that foods high in oxalates inhibit absorption. So, if you eat veggies high in oxalates, it inhibits both iron and mg from being absorbed well. Ironic, since we all hear to eat spinach for iron,( it’s also very high in Mg) . However, spinach, swiss chard, kale and beet greens are high in oxalates, actually inhibiting absorption.  So, it is better cooked than raw in this case. That being said, green leafy vegetables are a great source of Mg. Highest in Mg are: pumpkin seeds (I don’t know about you, but I rarely, if ever, sit around eating pumpkin seeds except around Halloween), spinach, swiss chard, soybeans, sesame seeds, Halibut, black beans, quinoa, sunflower seeds and cashews. Yes, it’s all a little confusing since some of these foods will also be on lists of what inhibits absorption.

Another benefit of taking Mg is that I feel like I can BREATH, wow!! Funny how things can slowly sneak up on you until it becomes normal. So after doing some research and taking a liquid Mg supplement which is not agree with my stomach, I am taking 2 Slo-Mag tablets, 2xday with vitamin C. Love it! Also, the First Endurance Multi V has 250 mg of a very highly absorbable Mg chelate. This is the only multi vitamin where I can feel a huge difference when taking it regularly. I have tried some really expensive vitamins like the Bionic Supermodel, which is outrageously expensive, and just could not justify it. The FE Multi Vs have some solid studies behind them. It’s entirely anecdotal, but a coworker of mine was still having heel pain after having a stress fracture there ages ago, she started taking the Slo-Mag and the pain totally went away, which was cool to hear (you can’t absorb calcium well if you don’t have enough Mg).   So, there ends my little speech on Mg. Hope it helps a few people out there!

In other news, I have a local race coming up and then will be back in KS since I just love the race but love the company at the race more. It will be a nice little reunion with my friend Julia and also Ben! Not to mention our very gracious homestay peeps that let us take over their upstairs with us turning it into an area where it looks like a transition area exploded. What did we do to the nice clean, very white sheets awaiting us in years past? Got body marked the day before and imprinted our numbers all over the bed while we were sleeping.

Kansas 70.3 involves a crazy amount of walking to pick up your packet and then set up. Seriously. Like so much you feel like you need to taper for the T1 and T2 set up. Julia and I cannot figure out a way to make this easier. I am pretty sure we took a nap last year after setting up. Otherwise, we have a few things down, like how to avoid the long lines into the park race morning and how to find our car afterwards. Trust me, things look totally different at 4am when you’re parking your car in a pitch black field. We have an alarm to get up, another goes off for when we should be eating, another for packing the car and one even goes off for when we should be pulling out. BUT THE WALKING!! We have not cracked the code yet on this part, but we’re going to try We are not VIPs so we can’t roll on up to the main area, we’re stuck parking in a hot field on a 100 degree day humping all of our equipment up and down hills and fields of tall grass. This year we’re going to try to figure it out……

The Shoe Whore Chimes In

My friend Julia affectionately and appropriately calls me the shoe whore. I have a problem, and it’s a running shoe problem. I’m a little obsessed with them. I get some to try, I buy some to try, people give me some to try and some are worth writing about and some are not. I’m not the technical type that can go on and on about what foam and blown rubber is used and this and that. I just know what I like and what I don’t. There are a few rules. They have to be under a certain weight, and the ramp can’t be more than 9mm and NO stability features whatsoever. After being way over-corrected for years on end, I have found a super light neutral racing shoe works the best. That might not be the case for everyone of course.

Mind you, despite the moniker, I’m quite monogamous. I’ve been running in the Brooks Green Silence for 2 years straight. A record. Then, on the urging of my coach, I tried this:

It was love at first sight, or first run. The picture above is the Puma Faas 300. I also recently got a pair of the 400s which are equally amazing. I can tell within about 3 seconds of putting on a shoe if it’ll work or not. These were the most pleasantly surprising, underrated shoe I have ever worn. I immediately put on a ton of  miles in them in a couple weeks and could find nothing wrong. To be very objective, I like a wide toe box and these seem to be a nit narrow and this is standard for Puma and how their shoes fit. The suggestion to go a half size up was not necessary, they fit true to size. I can see though how some feet may need to size up by a bit. And the price tag? I scored a pair for $47. HA!!! RoadRunner tried charging me $80 but the Puma sight was almost half of that. I shake my head that I paid big bucks for Newtons for a bit. But, hey, I liked them quite a bit and they were the shoe that made me chuck my orthotics so they served their purpose. I hate the lugs now, if they made a shoe without those lugs I’d probably buy a pair.

It has a slight rocker shape and the sole is actually blown rubber. Very natural feel. If you’re running in Newtons and hate the price tag, these could be your perfect go to shoe.

The First Time

 

 

 

I woke up from a classic anxiety dream this morning and had to laugh. After a long layoff from the distance,  I’m doing an IM this year and it’s about 7 months away. The dream went something like this…I had a huge PR coming out of the swim and then, no gear bags to be found. No bike shoes, no helmet, nothing. The next thing I knew, I had a 2 hour transition while some girl refused to lend me one of many pairs of bike shoes she had. When I finally talked her into lending me a pair, I looked down and realized they were rhinestone studded high heels with bike cleats on the bottom. This is when I woke up. In the dream, I was still super confident I could run everyone down even after a 2 hour transition. HA!

Since the anxiety dreams have already started, I’d figure I’d tell you all the mistakes I made prepping for my first ironman. If you’re reading this and doing your first one, maybe you’ll take something away and not make the same mistakes.  And on that note, while we’re at it, all the right things I did too.

My first IM was Wisconsin-the pics above were from CDA, where it was FREEZING. Nothing like jumping in 50 some degree water while people watched wearing their winter coats. I raced for quite a few years before my first IM race and built up to the distance. I had a great coach at the time that focused just as much on the mental side of things as the physical. This helped tremendously because the day will never go as planned. Looking back, here’s what I would have done differently for that first IM and what worked.

• I did all my long runs on a soft surface. The good? They always involved running part of the run at race pace so I never slogged out long easy miles all the time. The downside, and I consider this one of my biggest mistakes  in prepping for that race, is that I did all my long runs on a soft surface/trail. I was never injured but guess what happened? When it came time to run 26.2 miles on concrete and asphalt, it destroyed my legs. I was not used to it. I still run on the trail at times but do a lot of my training on the surface I’ll race on.
• I would have biked a lot harder. Yes, the long rides are important, but I’m a big believer in frequency over long slow rides. Everyone’s different, but I don’t respond to the long, easy ride with no intensity. The more bike fitness you have, the easier the run will be. You can be in the best run shape of your life, but if the bike destroys you, you won’t get to realize your potential on the run. I would have bike A LOT more. That being said I had a pretty decent bike split for not knowing how hard it would be. I think everyone realizes how hard it is at around mile 90 of the bike and mile 18 of the run. Those are two big reality check points in the mileage.
• I would have done much more to bike on a similar terrain as to what I would be racing on. That’s a no brainer, right?
• Nutrition: this falls into the what went right category. I trained with the exact thing I would use in the race over and over. However, that being said, I still cannot look at a cliff bar years and years after that race. I’d have to be pretty desperate to eat one even now. I would have packed a WIDE variety of flavors in special needs and even a few different things on the bike because what I thought I’d want was not what I wanted at all on race day.
• Race day turned out to be in the 90s with 25+ mph winds. What went right? I did not freak out at all. The weather is one of the top things you can’t control in any way so why fight it? I saw a few people pulled over on the side of the road during the bike with their heads in their hands freaking out about the wind. On the run it was the heat. I remember the announcer talking while we were getting ready to head down to the water and he said “it’s going to be extremely hot and windy; DEAL WITH IT”. If you’re doing WI, it could be 50 and freezing cold or 90 with humidity.
• Enjoy the moment right before the swim starts. I know, you’re freaking out, everyone is. But stop and turn around and take it in. In WI, it was overwhelming because they had to shove 2000 people into the start area, there were thousands of screaming spectators at the helix/convention center, a huge jumbo-tron and helicopters above. It was nuts in an awesome way and you’ll only be in that first time spot once.
• That being said, figure out where you’re going to start in the water and be a bit more aggressive than you normally would. There is nothing worse than being stuck behind hundreds of people going a lot slower than you and having nowhere to go. The first 5 to 10 minutes are going to be chaotic anyhow so take the chaos and get a good spot.
• Good decision: taking literally 4 seconds to change out of my stinkin’ bike shorts in transition to a pair of running shorts. It felt SO good and made me feel like running. Not sure I’d do it now for some reason, but at the time, it felt good!

 

• Chicken broth and coca cola are your friends and saved my a$$ the last 10 miles.
• If at all humanly possible, stick around at the finish line and take it in. I could not since 1/3 of the field picked up this super weird nasty eye infection thing during the race. I remember I went to the med tent and they said “everyone is coming in with this eye thing”.  Could have been the lovely lake or the wind blowing stuff around, who knows. But, I got the heck out of there as soon as the race ended and would have liked to stick around a bit. If you’re not pooping your pants or passing out (unfortunately two real possibilities ) stick around and enjoy the party till midnight!
• You’re not going to want to do another IM immediately after the race so don’t make any decisions. You’ll swear you’ll never do another one, EVER. But a few days later, you will…..
• Last but not least, enjoy it. Like I said, there is only ever one first time.

 

The Sale Continues…

Just a quick update-the Genius frame is SOLD, as is the short sleeve DeSoto wetsuit.

Still for sale, long sleeve Desoto top and bibjohns AND:

Argon 18 E-112 frame, fork, base bars (blackwell) and aerobars (HED). Will separate the base bars and aerobars for separate sale.

$200 for carbon blackwell base bars and aerobars

$799 for frame not including shipping. I have yet to take a real picture of the frame and bars, but here is a peek. Of course I am standing in front of the majority of the frame, but you get the picture-no pun intended.

Triathlon Fire Sale

I am selling a few items which I’ll post here. No, I’m not quitting the sport and running away,  just time to clear out a few items!  Contact me if you want anything, or have any other questions. *I will also be selling my gorgeous, super fast Argon 18 E -112 frame soon*. I’ve pretty much smashed every PR on this bike by MINUTES and minutes, love it. Now, that could have something to do with my coach who gives me bike workouts that make me cry like a little girl (wish I were kidding) but hey, it’s a really really nice bike to say the least.  I’m very happy to announce I’ll be on the new Argon E- 118 this year, wohoo! Very excited about this.

Desoto First Wave wetsuit: Size 2, bibjohns and long sleeve pullover. The bibjons are pretty much brand new, worn twice maybe $150. Full sleeve top: Slightly more used $75. Plus shipping if applicable.

Fuel Belt: it’s brand new, but missing one bottle. Size M, black and pink! $10

Genius Chronometro Time Trial Frame:

$499 plus shipping if it needs to be shipped. Frame only. Carbon, size S. I am 5’7 and this frame fit me nicely.

 

Gluten Free Treats

Here is a great recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies. You’ll never tell the difference and they taste even richer without the flour! The recipe could not be easier. Now, I did not say these are necessarily healthy, it’s a cookie after all and it’s a yummy sweet/salty treat. I saw this on the 5 ingredients or less show on the Food Network.

1 cup of natural peanut butter

1 cup of sugar

1 large egg

1 ts of vanilla extract

Course sea salt

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients above with the exception of the sea salt. Spoon 1 tablespoon or so of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Press down lightly on the cookie dough with a fork and sprinkle the course sea salt over each cookie. Bake for about 10 minutes and transfer onto a rack to cool.

*You can get creative with these and add butterscotch chips (which I did, very good), chopped up peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, whatever fits your mood.

Enjoy!

 

No Flour!

Tick Tock

It’s been a while. Lots of drafts written, nothing exciting to say. It’s winter in WI, not much going on! Then…..I remembered I got really dumb and signed up for an IM this year. Ahhhh, the siren song pulls you in every time and when you get to the beach all you find is pain and suffering   I have a feeling I’ll have a better handle on it this time.

I remember when I first heard about IM Louisville. I thought “How stupid! An IM in KY in AUGUST, what a bunch of idiots”.  And now, count me in. There are several reasons I chose this one. WI was a one and done for me despite living 70 miles from the course. Did not love it. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful location, the best spectators ever and a very unique race. I just have no desire to do it again. I strongly believe you have to be really fired up about the race and location to do this distance!  Did not like the other one I did AT ALL. I was very much against doing another M-dot branded IM and was “thisclose” to doing Challenge Copenhagen, which I will do,  just not this year most likely. So, at some point last year, I had a really good reason to sign up for Louisville. I’m sure I’ll remember it one of these days….

Has the training started? Yes. Everything I’ve been doing for the past 5 years counts at this point I think. It’s long-term consistency over years and years. On that note, I heard something, from my manager actually, that I loved. I think of it all the time if my brain starts to think too much about training. And, if I have not mentioned it before, I am not a fan of thinking about or analyzing my training in any way. Coach tells me what to do, I do it to the best of my ability on that day and it’s done, period.

“Do exactly what you’re supposed to do, when you’re supposed to do it, with the best attitude possible”. Why make it anymore complicated?

And, in other random news, I am doing an open water race series here this summer. It will start with a weekend being an open water clinic for newbies who are scared to get started and then the next weekend we’ll kick it off with 2 distances and do this for several weekends throughout the summer. It’s somthing that’s much needed here. I’ve gotten great feedback so far and am very excited about it. If anyone has any tips about measuring distances correctly, please let me know!

Humble Pie

If you do the same thing over and over, year in year out….you get the same results.  Which is how I found myself standing in a freezing cold gym watching someone roll out a tractor tire the size of my house and let it fall on the ground. “Idon’twantanythingtodowiththetire. Idon’twantanythingtodowiththetire. I don’twantanythingtodowiththetire”.  I had no idea what we were going to do with the tire, but I instinctively wanted nothing of it.  Then I saw what we were supposed to do with it and then thought “nope, no, no, no way”. So of course about 10 minutes later I was drenched in sweat, squatted down and heaving the tire up and over again and again on the verge of puking.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done something that has truly gotten me out of my comfort zone. Of course my sessions and training are demanding, but I love every second of it and I never doubt if I can do something or not. I’m not afraid, I know by now it will be extremely hard, but also that I am capable of a lot more than I thought. Just turn off the brain and execute. Of course I’ve done races that are challenging but nothing that has ever brought me to to 100% pure exhaustion as in I can’t lift my arms anymore or I can’t  walk  another step at all (although after crossing the finish line at Worlds this month I was chatting it up and feeling great and then about 15 minutes later had a period of about 2 minutes where my legs just said “NOPE! Not one more step for a while” So I stood in the parking lot on the way to get my bike mumbling “owwwwww, owwwwww”). But, I could WALK, just not well. Granted I was surrounded by a lot of other people doing the same thing, so it seemed pretty normal. You know it’s bad when you come up on a curb and have to bargin with it in order to step up. “All right, here we go, just turn a little, lift the leg a bit, swing it up and there….now to get the other leg up…..”

My coach is always coming up with different ways to bump me to the next level. I know whatever I am doing now is a stepping stone to something else, as was the work I started doing almost 2 years ago with him. Oddly enough, a lot of what I do is based on repetition, yet it’s always different in a way. Not sure how that works….Anyway, this has all brought me to flipping a tire around in a gym and doing KETTLEBELLS!!

So you’re probably saying “so what?” So it’s freakin’ HARD, that’s what. It’s something that has completely, 100% taken me out of my comfort zone in every way. Personally and physically. I’ve never done something that require so much brute force, finesse, coordination and POWER. Guess what I don’t have too much of? FORCE AND POWER. Sure, I have some or I would not be able to do what I do, but it’s lacking. And yes, I am a big huge believer in that you train these things in your sport, so low cadence work on the bike and hill repeats on the run. But sometimes you need an intervention.  The endurance stuff needs a rest this time of year, and it’s always good to work hard on the mental side. The longer you go, the more this comes into play. This is taking me out of my comfort zone personality-wise also which I know is good. I’m being confronted with things in the class that I am physically unable to do right now and it really pisses me off, ha! As you can guess I am just slightly uber competitive and I’m having to learn to do something I’m not super good at-YET, he he.  Even the warm ups look really easy. I went to the first official “class” (after barely being able to walk after the “we’re just going to show you how to do this so you don’t kill yourself or somebody else” class) thinking “this is the warm up?  Ha. This is not going to warm me up” to being about 3 minutes into it thinking “WHY IS THIS SO HARD?? WHY CAN ALL THESE PEOPLE DO THIS SO FAST!!?.  Ha!!

After the first class I could not lift my arms anymore at the end. My husband was laughing at me because when I got home we ate dinner and he looked over at me and my fork was shaking when I tried to bring it up to my mouth.  It took me a really long and time and some creative thinking to get my shirt off over my head. It’s pitiful, I know.

So I’ll enjoy the break from the endurance stuff for a bit and can’t wait to see if I’ll get less sore as the weeks go by. No wonder my friend laughed when she brought me to the intro class. She knew the pain that would follow! It looks like I’ll be eating some humble pie for the next few weeks. Better now than later

The Race

So now that I’ve explained what happened to the swim, etc (see below) I’ll get into the actual race. I was really excited for this one, and very prepared. Back in Oct, I cracked my ribs so it was excruciating to swim for a few weeks after that. Actually, I couldn’t really swim. I would “swim” for 50 yards, be on the verge of tears and needed help getting out of the pool (not to mention getting out of bed, sitting up, etc). Not an ideal situation a few weeks out from swimming 2.4 miles. At one week out, I was able to work up to 4k in the pool. Kind of funny the swim was canceled. All that drama for nothing!

So as I mentioned, this was a split transition. I woke up at 4 and started to wonder how I was going to dress. The day before the weather changed and there were 25 to 30 mph winds, pouring rain and colder temps. This was stressing me out more than anything. History has told me I do NOT bike well in the cold. The temps were in the 30s on race morning, but it was set to be a pretty nice day.

I ate my standard breakfast of a GF bagel, Justins nut butter, and banana, coffee, etc, grabbed my wetsuit and headed out. ITU rules state you cannot alter or cover up any part of your uniform, so I planned on wearing a long sleeve shirt under the uniform. However, due to the abnormally cold temps, we were thankfully allowed to wear any compression sleeves, jackets, shirts we wanted. I never race in compression sleeves but for the extra warmth I put them on.  I was wearing my Team USA uniform, a long sleeve shirt, coat and winter hat. I stepped outside and it was cold, no doubt about it.

We drove over to  Lake Las Vegas, parked and I grabbed my wetsuit and started my walk down to the changing tents and transition. A lot of people were walking in the opposite direction. Someone walked by and said “the swim is canceled”. I said “ha, sure” and kind of laughed. I really thought he was kidding!

Then another person walked by and said the same thing, then a third. So, I was beginning to think this was reality. I was not happy, nor disappointed. I simply shifted my mind to what I needed to do to have my best possible race. It was out of my control and nothing I could do. I also was wondering if it was a rumor so I brought my wetsuit just in case. But, after hearing it from about 10 more people, I put the wetsuit back in the car.

We checked in our gear bags and bikes the night before. The bags were lined up outside the changing tents and sat out in the pouring rain all night. Yes, they were tied up, but everything was still soaking wet. Bike shoes, gloves, jackets, etc. The scene inside the changing tent was a little chaotic as everyone was crowded around the heater trying to dry off gear. We had a long wait, it was about 6am and we were set off to go out around 8:43. So there was nothing left to do but shiver, wait, shiver and wait.

 I opted to wear gloves, long sleeve shirt and a jacket. I wish I had leg warmers, but other than that I was fine. It was a little windy, but not nearly as bad as the day before and the sun was shining.

We lined up by our number and went off 5 seconds apart. They did a good job with what they had to work with last minute. Forget about drafting on this course! The hills and topography of this course would eliminate that. The start involved climbing “out and up” out of the Lake Las Vegas area, so I would say we climbed for about 15 to 20 minutes then headed out to the Lake Mead area. I thought with starting out 5 seconds apart I would start to pass people fairly quickly. But, I was cold and my legs did not want to work. I ended up passing a couple people and then seemed to hold my place until we were well into the Lake Mead Nat’l Park. So from then on it was a loooooong climb, followed by a looooong downhill, repeat and repeat. The scenery is amazing here. I felt good but my legs were not working as well as I needed them to and I was not warming up. Overall it was not bad though. I saw a huge tarantula on the road and a girl pedaled up beside me and said “Wow, did you see that??”, it was quite large and a cool sight! I did my standard infinit and EFS liquid gel but also ate since I knew I needed more calories with the cold. I grabbed bananas and ate snickers which no doubt helped my run.

So up and down we went until we got to “the bike path”. How bad can a bike path be you ask? Bad. It was up and up and then I saw a mileage sign coming and it said “60″. I had 15 more miles on this thing?? I know 15 miles was not bad, but you have to understand it was lucky if I was going 12 mph.  It was evil. It ended with 3 hills, the last being an 18% grade. I was not overly pleased with my bike time but was not really surprised given the weather. I’d just have to run fast which I was prepared to do!

We came into T2 which was in Henderson and I noticed my left leg and feet were numb but luckily that only lasted a few staggering steps off the bike. I returned to transition with only one glove and one sock, they met an unfortunate demise on the bike path.My feet were numb and I was not used to wearing socks so I managed to get one off and I’m not sure where one glove went. I probably took it off while trying to pedal and take socks off at the same time.  I will say now that the volunteers were GREAT at this race. Someone took my bike and my grabbed my gear bag for me. I was a little out of it and forgot my race number so I got the wrong bag for a second. After that minor mishap, I put on my shoes, took off all my layers and took off. My legs felt awesome and I was ready for a great run. The run was 4 loops (30k total) which was half downhill, half uphill. I did my standard 6:20 mile off the bike, said “whoa!” and settled in the 7s which felt good. I started passing people quickly but knew I did not have a great bike. The run went by very quickly and I got to the 13 mile mark under 1:40 and said “hang on!!”. Third lap was great and then I started to feel it on the 4th lap, which I expected. It was not bad, I was just able to tell I had to work a little harder now. I was taking in the liquid shot and water and that seemed to work just fine. It seems with the liquid shot as opposed to traditional gels that I don’t need to take in as many calories, not sure why. My energy seems more even with it. Mile 16 came up fast and it was great to know I only had 2 more to go.  I started to take in some coke to get that extra energy. Since it was a looped course, it helped SO much to see my family that came down to see me including my mom, cousin Angie and my Aunt Janet and her girlfriend Nomi. Talk about superstar spectators, they gave me a huge boost every time I saw them.

It was great to run down the chute and I finished with a huge smile on my face. I wanted top 10 badly and got it. However it took days for me to find that out since the results took forever-most likely due to the TT start format. I then started to shake, my core temp dropped fast and I was freezing!! I put on 2 coats and walked over to grab my bike and gear. I wanted to stick around but I was just too cold. All in all a great race, I really hand it to people who do the full Silverman on this course. It’s one of the most beautiful areas I’ve been to and I can’t wait to head out here again to do some training.

So what next? A little much deserved rest and then some late season running races!

So here’s how it went down….

I just got back from Long Course Triathlon Worlds and will first say that the Henderson/Las Vegas area is amazing and has some of the most beautiful and challenging terrain I could ever race in. I will be posting some pictures shortly and doing a proper report.

As some of you know, the swim was cancelled and as much I try to avoid slowtwitch like the plague, I could not help but take a peek and see what people were saying. Of course, most people commenting how lame it was to cancel the swim were not there and had no real knowledge of the circumstance, the ITU rules surrounding the decision and how this was set up.

First, I believe it was about 37 degrees race morning. There is an ITU rule that takes the water temp and air temp and a decision is made to shorten or cancel the swim. Ours had to be canceled. So, when something like this happens out of your control, adapt, move on, and have the best race you can have. No use whining or wishing for something else. I was not happy, or disappointed, just moved to plan B and tried to find as many clothing layers as possible to put on!

Our gear was soaked from sitting in the pouring rain all night, even though it was in our gear bags. Shoes, jackets, socks, helmets, were all put in front of the heater in the changing tent. We were all freezing and debating what to wear or not to wear. I think the swim was possible, but how would we feel coming out of already very cold water onto bikes in 30-some degree temps? This is where whether we liked it or not, it was a smart decision.

For the people saying “why couldn’t they just do a duathlon with a run first?” Our shoes were over 10 miles away at T2 in Henderson. So an interesting start to an interesting day! More to follow with pictures.