I’m sometimes asked why I would willingly put myself through all this training, let alone a full Ironman. My usual answer: “It’s fun.”
That’s an excellent summary, but of course it isn’t all fun. There’s plenty of misery, plenty of mornings when I didn’t get quite enough sleep but still drag myself out of bed to go swim those laps. There’s times on the bike where my ass is hurting like crazy, where I nearly die several times from jack-ass drivers or surprise pot-holes of doom. I’m forced to be ridiculously consistent with stretching my legs throughout the day, every day, to keep from hurting my knees when I run. I’m constantly saying no to social outings I’d love to attend, not just during the week, but most weekends too, since they conflict with either a training session or sleep the night before a training session. I have to be careful with what I eat and when, not just for the veganism, but to make sure digestive issues don’t mess up training.
So, yeah, there’s a lot of suck, but most of it is in the parts of my life that aren’t training or racing. Once I’m out there, even in training, I’m usually having a good time. Often, I’m having a great time. Every now and then, I’m having the time of my life. Crossing the finish line, especially when everything clicks and I’m able to really give it everything I’ve got, then dig down and find a little more, and a little more, until by the time I’m done I’m nearly in tears from the relief… that’s straight up magic. That’s unicorns on roller skates gliding along rainbow-glitter slip-n-slides serving you moonbeam milkshakes. It is, in a word or two, the point.
Join me, won’t you?
Ice Breaker Triathlon, Granite Bay, CA – 4/15/2012
I wanted to do a Sprint distance event for my first race of the year, to shake the cobwebs off, remember how to pack, set up transition, etc. I found one that let me combine a race with visiting my sister, which was awesome.
I waffled as to whether or not to taper before the race, as I didn’t want to lose progress in my Ironman training, but also wanted to see what I could do performance-wise. I ended up doing a 50 mile bike ride the day before (instead of my training plan’s 60 miles), and I took it very easy. An added variable, though, was that I was on my brother-in-law’s bike.
I brought my bike seat with me, but I couldn’t get the pedals off my own bike, so those stayed home. This meant using flat pedals for the first time in 2 years, and straight handle bars, which felt very strange. Being without my pedals/shoes meant that all my pedaling was very quad-centric (when you’re clipped in you can pull up on the pedal, which evens out the muscle use, and makes you faster).
For my 50 mile “taper ride” (the quotes denote sarcasm, as this is NOT how one tapers), I traveled from Suisun City to Napa, via this northern route. The elevation profile revealed I’d have a bit of climbing to do:
It was a little tiring, but not that bad (though it would have killed me a couple years ago). And the views were fantastic (from flickr):
Seriously, it was two solid hours of views like that, but better. Then I had some delicious lunch w/ Sis and Bro-in-Law at the Oxbow Market, and a wee glass of the best sangria ever (from Pica Pica Maize Kitchen):
And then it was time to head back. That steep climb was considerably less awful than I thought it would be (I actually kind of liked it, which is concerning), and I couldn’t say whether the sangria helped or hindered the experience. I was having fun, at any rate.
I did get a little lost in the last few miles, though, and ended up taking a detour through scenic Rockville. I passed a massive estate which read “Villa de Madre” on the gate, and a cemetery where I spotted a tombstone reading “Figurate”, which made me giggle.
The evening was spent making sure all my race gear was in order, lubing the bike chain, eating a massive, pasta-based dinner, and going to bed around 8pm. Then it was up at 4 and out the door at 5 to make it to the race site by 6:30.
And then came the dawn (rest of the pics are credited to Sis)…
I picked up my registration packet with the numbers to affix to bike and self, and set up my transition area. I also got body-marked (bib number on the arms and hands, age on the calf), and then we watched the “Dash” racers get going (200yd swim / 6.5mi bike / 2mi run).
I also demonstrated the vital importance of flexing while applying suncreen…
A word on food. For breakfast at 4am, I had two muffins with PB and J, and two packets of oatmeal. During the drive and setup I was sipping on a 24oz bottle of Cytomax w/ a half a Nuun dropped in for extra electrolytes. I also visited the porta-john three times. And now you know.
Bang went the gun! I didn’t quite leave myself enough time to get in the water and get acclimated before the start, so I only had a couple minutes. I haven’t done any open water training yet this year (too cold!), and I’d utterly forgotten what 55 degree water feels like.
It feels like ice. Angry, mean, hostile ice, and it’s all over you, all at once, and it is trying to DROWN YOU. I spent the first several minutes of the start hyperventilating while doing a heads-up breaststroke, just waiting for my heart rate to drop so I could swim properly. That did eventually happen, and after the first turn I was warmed up enough to put on some speed. I ended up completing the swim only 11 seconds over my goal time of 17 minutes, which is fantastic considering the crappy start. Icebreaker, indeed.
The bike course was on lovely, well paved roads, but SUPER twisty, with athletes zipping along and passing each other in both directions. I don’t think I would have been much faster even if I’d been on my own bike, just because I was in near constant fear of colliding with someone. Of course, my legs were also a bit tired from the ride to Napa, but whatever.
Just after the above was taken, I passed a gal who I think was probably just starting her first lap. I said “nice day for a ride, eh?”, and she replied “It sure is!” And it was, at that.
By the time I started the run, my right knee was bothering me. It had actually started to feel tight a couple days before. I suspect I just didn’t stretch enough Thursday, and then getting on a plane just hours after a fast run Friday morning made it angry. The ride to Napa surely helped, too. In any case, it felt like it would last the 4 miles, but I knew I wasn’t going to be setting any personal records. I just kept myself moving at a steady clip, enjoying the view. And what a view it was!
The run course had WAY more climbing than the bike course, with several rocky, sandy beach climbs and a few muddy trail descents. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Shortly into the run, though, I was nearly knocked over (not really) by a 13 year old girl going twice as fast as me (yes, really). She was FLYING. I looked her up in the results… she took 3rd of the women, and 44th overall. HOLY CRAP. Kyra Hunsberger, I salute you, you terrifying little demon.
I had enough gas in me to “sprint finish” over the last hundred yards, and passed a guy two steps from the line that had just passed me a few seconds prior. I love doing that.
The finisher food was excellent, and consisted of a black bean burger patty, pasta w/ marinara, orange slices, and Oreos. Yum.
My sister had done some excellent searching in the ol’ interwebs to find a nearby Mexican restaurant with a full bar so that I could get my traditional post-race Pina Colada. She scored with Q’Bole. After downing the first Pina, I asked the waitress what was in it, hoping she’d say “vegan friendly coconut cream, of course,” but it was just milk. Drats. So next I had a beer.
Delish!
swim: 17:11 / bike: 56:35 / run: 38:20
(distances: .5 / 13 / 4 miles)
total: 1:52:05
placed: 21/22 in my division, 183/267 overall.
My head is in kind of a weird place right now. I’m popping down to California this weekend, both to visit my sister and for my first race of the year, a Sprint at Folsom Lake. I’m definitely excited, but conflicted as to how well I expect to do. I also suffer a mental double-take every time I catch myself thinking of it as “just” a Sprint, something that was rather daunting not too long ago.
I’m in the best shape of my life, but I’m in the middle of training for Ironman, and don’t plan on tapering much, if at all. Even without a taper, my regular training pace is faster than my race pace was 2 years ago, when I was training for my first triathlon ever, but I’ll be borrowing my brother-in-law’s bike, which will slow me down a bit, and my wetsuit is now a touch big for me, which will cause extra drag, and I haven’t done any open water training yet this year.
So… I just don’t know. I’ll have fun, no matter what, but I’m very curious to see what my times end up being.
Thinking about how far I’ve come got me to thinking of the minor differences between then and now:
Tune in next week (or so) to see how I did at the race!
I’ve been vegetarian since last October, when I began my slow foray into veganism. I’ve now been strictly vegan for just over 6 weeks, minus accidentally eating some butter-laced shortbread, and some rebellious “I’m sick and can eat whatever I want” cookies that contained egg.
During the transitional period I would examine the menu of any given bar or restaurant I was at, trying for vegan options but not stressing about it. When the food contained something that might or might not be vegan (bread, bun, etc), I would generally assume it was vegan, because it was easier than pestering the server everywhere I went.
I also applied my vegan assumption in very unlikely cases, and several times when I was told explicitly that something was not vegan. Cookies and brownies and cupcakes, oh my.
Over time, though, as I practiced being a proper vegan, reading more and more ingredient lists and bravely asking servers to check with the chefs as to the contents of buns and sauces and whatnot, it got easier, just as resisting junk food has become easier over the past couple of years. By giving bags of Doritos a mental middle finger every time I walk by them, I no longer even see them as something edible, let alone “food.”
I’ve now flipped the assumption on its head, such that I assume something isn’t vegan until proven otherwise. This is very handy in an office that usually has a plate of cookies or donuts out on the counter. Every now and then some sugar-laden goodie on the counter is still in its packaging, though, and I get curious and read the ingredients, and if I find its actually vegan I suddenly find my mouth full of it. SUGARRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! AAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
When I come out of my sugar-coma, I remind myself of my favorite quote…
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. –
AristotleWill Durant
(I’ve been attributing this to Aristotle for a while, but that is incorrect. It was Mr. Durant’s summation of Aristotle’s ideas)
… and then I get back to practicing being excellent.
The other day on the bus, as I was reading the latest issue of Inside Triathlon, the guy next to me asked “So, are you a triathlete?”
I replied in the affirmative, and he asked if I knew about a fighter (Nick Diaz, I think), who does triathlons as part of his training. I hadn’t heard of him, but we kept chatting.
Turns out he’s dropped 70 pounds recently by doing a run-a-block, walk-a-block routine everywhere he goes. Nice! He had the impression, as does almost everyone I talk to, that “triathlon” meant only “Ironman.” I corrected him, and gave him a quick summary of my own journey, which started with a Sprint distance race in Lake Chelan. He’s actually moving to Winthrop soon, which is only about an hour away from there. I encouraged him to check it out, sign up, and go for it!
In other news, a friend of mine is training for her first 5K in May, and has been asking me for advice as she goes along. Another friend has asked for general weight-loss advice, and I even helped my sister out recently with some tips on surviving Bikram yoga (more specifically, avoiding a splitting migraine afterwards).
Weird!
I don’t feel like I’ve ever been any kind of role model before. I just happened to finally find something I love doing, which has clearly benefited me in multiple ways, and in the course of pursuing it I’ve gained knowledge, which others are now asking me for. It’s a very strange position in which I find myself, but one I’m starting to get used to, and enjoy.
I don’t have any formal training or certification in this stuff, though, so all my advice comes with great big caveats along the lines of “this is just what’s worked for me.” That may need to be addressed at some point…
I decided to look up the nutritional properties of the grapefruit I was eating, and found this bit rather interesting:
Grapefruit contains large quantities of a simple polyamine called spermidine, which may be related to aging. It is known to be necessary for cell growth and maturation, and as cells age their level of spermidine is known to fall. Scientists have shown that feeding spermidine to worms, fruit flies and yeast significantly prolongs their lifespan. In addition, adding spermidine to the diet of mice decreased molecular markers of aging, and when human immune cells were cultured in a medium containing spermidine, they also lived longer.[42]
The cited reference goes to this article, in which the researcher states:
Humans are exposed to spermidine in quite high concentrations during sexual intercourse. Also grapefruit contains high concentrations, so natural sources are available. People could try to stay young by eating a lot of grapefruit and having a lot of sex – it might not work but I don’t think it would do much harm.
And how!
My preferred method (for eating grapefruit, of course), is to make two shallow, perpendicular, longitudinal cuts to make it easier to peel. Once peeled, I pry it roughly in half, then use the knife to cut the sections apart, and cut those sections into thirds. I put all the chunks into a bowl and eat them with a fork. Delish!
I’m sometimes asked what I think about when I’m out there training so many hours of the week. Well, here you go:
I also do a lot of race visualization, wherein I imagine how hard I’ll be pushing at various parts of the race, what my transition area looks like and what equipment I have there. I also run through packing lists in my head for each race I have planned. I’m going to try to pop down to California in April for a sprint distance race, in which I’ll borrow my brother-in-law’s bike, so lately I’ve been thinking through what gear I’ll need to take with me and what can be left behind.
I also think about what can go wrong, and play through different scenarios in my head. Like, what if I crash or someone crashes into me. Am I too injured to continue? Is my bike OK? Can I keep going and be one of those extra bad-ass bad-asses who finishes a freaking Ironman while bleeding profusely? The answer is yes (in my head, anyway), as it’s too heartbreaking to imagine having to pull out of the race.
So, yeah. That’s what I’m thinking.
IHOP’s free pancake day was yesterday, and while I cheer and applaud their raising money for charity, I was horrified to see what people were eating in exchange for their generosity.
IHOP kindly has their nutritional information listed on their website, but leaves out the (admittedly old and questionable) RDA/RDI percentages, which we’re all used to seeing on packaged food. Adding those, you can see why they were left out:
| RDA | ... Short Stack (3) | % of RDA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 2000 | 490 | 25% |
| Fat Calories | n/a | 160 | |
| Total Fat (g) | 70 | 18 | 26% |
| Saturated Fat (g) | 20 | 8 | 40% |
| Trans Fat (g) | n/a | 1 | |
| Cholesterol (mg) | 300 | 80 | 27% |
| Sodium (mg) | 2400 | 1610 | 67% |
| Total Carbohydrates (g) | 300 | 69 | 23% |
| Fiber (g) | 25 | 4 | 16% |
| Sugar (g) | 36 | 13 | 36% |
| Protein (g) | 50 | 13 | 26% |
*note: The RDA doesn’t have a sugar recommendation, so I used the American Heart Association‘s.
Wow! Nearly half your saturated fat for the day, a third of your sugar, and a whopping 67% of your sodium, the max for which is often disputed as being too high already. And that’s just with the short stack of 3 pancakes. The regular serving of 5 pancakes is, of course, even more heinous.
What really upsets me, though, is that gram of Trans Fat, a substance that has been banned in several countries, and has multiple possible, and several confirmed, very very bad effects on health, most notably as a contributor to coronary heart disease. As one study states it: “from a nutritional standpoint, the consumption of trans fatty acids results in considerable potential harm but no apparent benefit.” It tastes good and gives food a longer shelf life, but it will MESS YOU UP.
Of course, so will alcohol in large quantities, candy, tobacco, narcotics, etc etc. There’s two big differences, though:
Pancakes are a pretty staple breakfast item. People aren’t expecting there to be such an epic amount of crap in there, and won’t think to look up the ingredients, especially when it’s for charity.
People expect food to be food, and with smaller, local restaurants, that’s usually what they’re getting. The big business chains are out to maximize profits, and for them that means filling their “food” with stuff that is perfectly legal, but really shouldn’t be eaten. McDonald’s is, of course, an even worse offender. Back when I didn’t care, I was a big fan of the double quarter pounder w/ cheese, which I now see has 2.5 grams of Trans Fat, and over half a day’s sodium. Plus, the third ingredient in the bun is High Fructose Corn Syrup, which has its own host of concerns. Yuck.
I’m fortunate to live in an area with abundant sources of fresh produce, and the means to purchase it, but that isn’t the case everywhere. When you have a family to feed and you’re trying to make every dollar stretch as much as possible, you’ll go for the most economical source of food around, which in some places is McDonald’s, IHOP, and the like, or even just packaged items at the grocery store. Part of what makes their “food” so cheap is all the “not food” it contains, as well as the massive government subsidies that makes meat, dairy, and especially corn (and its derivatives) cheaper than fresh produce, when it should be the reverse. It’s a cruel system that makes the poorest in the country into the fat, diabetic and poor.
Since the FDA and a great many politicians are in the pocket of Big Agriculture, getting laws passed at the national level to stop all this is next to impossible, and extremely difficult locally. Those of us who have the means to choose where and what we eat, though, do have the power to make them change, by not giving them our money. We can choose to look up the ingredients to our favorite indulgences and see just how bad they really are, then find a healthier, or at least more local alternative.
I’m not asking you to stop eating pancakes, I’m asking you to stop eating garbage that is dressed up to look like pancakes.
Here’s a little day-in-the-life-of coming at you.
I’m still struggling to get enough sleep, but getting better. What helps a lot is doing a crapton of cooking on Sunday. This past Sunday that meant:
So, yeah, most every day is packed like this, and I’m loving it. Weird.
I’m supposed to be asleep right now… dangit.
Goodnight!
