Hello fellow athletes! It is July already and lots of racing has taken place in the last couple of weeks. In this Monday Minder, I would like to catch you up on a few IMJ athletes race results, tell you about a few races some of our folks will be doing in the coming weeks, and lastly, talk about race nutrition. I would also like to cover race day nerves as well as how to deal with results you aren’t the most happy with at the end of the day.
The last week of May through the last week of June produced a lot of race results from a good number of our athletes. With major races like Ironman Brazil, Armed Forces National Championships and Ironman Coeur d’Alene there is plenty to report.
IMJ ATHLETES RACE RESULTS
My long time training partners Paul Hert and Stu Gibson journeyed down to Brazil in May to toe the line in Florianopolis. Both Paul and Stu trained hard through the winter to be ready for this early season Ironman. Stu got out of the water in amazing fashion, rode better than he ever has and soldiered home in a solid 11:41, demolishing his previous effort at Ironman Arizona last fall. Stu is now training for a 100 mile mountain bike ride in Leadville, CO later this summer. Paul, who we all know got his first Kona finish ever last year, laid down an amazing effort beating his personal best ironman time by over 22 minutes with a blistering 9:40 to take third in his age group. Paul will now be on his second trip to the Big Island to compete in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships October, 9, 2010.
Armed Forces National Championships was the next race on the calendar for IMJ athletes Hunter Hobson, Tina Eakin and Kristin Barnes. This was Hunter’s first time as an All-Marine team member. Hunter is deep in his training for Ironman Canada and to go out and pepper an Olympic distance ITU draft legal race was exciting and eye opening for the marine colonel. The young kids go really fast and 10 or so of these young studs are national and world class pro’s. Hunter held his own and more than represented for the USMC. Next up for Hunter- Ironman Canada.
Kristin Barnes has been on other All-Navy teams and proudly represented for Navy while, too, training primarily for Ironman. Kristin is also the All-Navy selection to compete as my teammate at the Hawaii Ironman in October. Kristin recently returned from an arduous one year deployment to Kuwait working with the U.S. Army. For any of you out there that hate riding your trainer, just imagine Kristin doing 8-10 hours a week on hers, thanks to yours truly. Kristin kept occupied in Kuwait by doing crazy stunts like swimming the distance of the English Channel in one week (34,000 meters/21 miles if you didn’t know how far a swim that is). Kristin is a former F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer and these types of accomplishments are no surprise to anyone who knows “Rosie”!
Lastly, is Tina Eakin. Tina has a world class resume in our sport. You can look up her bio on our website. Tina has been on numerous All-Navy and All-Army teams and represented famously at Armed Forces. She, too, is deep in her build toward Ironman- competing next month in Louisville.
Ironman Coeur d’Alene and Ironman France were the big races taking place at the end of June. Longtime IMJ athlete, Ben Lane, who I have written about before numerous times, laid down a terrific 10:23 effort bettering his pr by some crazy number like 90 minutes or so. Ben is the picture of consistency and improves each month by leaps and bounds due to his ability to stay disciplined and maximize his workouts even though he is the busy father of two boys and in a leadership role with the Seattle Fire Department. Ben trained with us at our May IMJ Camp and Ben has my full respect as an athlete and even more so as a man. It was wonderful to see him do so well at IMCDA. Next up for Ben is IMC where he is targeting a coveted Kona slot. I will be there to see it and cannot wait!
Sal Lancaster and wife, Michelle Schwartz, finished our May Camp and were off to Nice to race Ironman France. Sal had a magical race on an extremely challenging course and got home in a personal best 10:40. Sal is in international Finance guy and travels as much as I do. He is amazing in his ability to stay consistent no matter what continent he happens to be on at the time. Sal brought tears to our eyes with his wonderful sense of humor at our May camp. Sal, Ben and I got plenty of quality time jumping up big mountains in May and forged a friendship together through more than a few hours of bleeding from our eyes above 7,000’ in the steep climbs. I will always remember those rides with the “three amigos”. Easily the highlight of my summer-so far!
Another highlight of my summer was watching Michelle Schwartz show amazing grit and toughness in our camp, which resulted in a little over 12 hour finish in France. Michelle came to camp with a terrible bike fit. Poor Michelle wrestled that damn bike up beyond category climbs day after day. We were able to get Michelle a great bike fit (thank you Ryan at Colorado Multi-sport!) and Michelle started cranking up the hills with aplomb! I spent plenty of quality time with Michelle in the mountains as well. I have done a lot of camps and I have ridden with a lot of tough customers, both pro and amateur. Michelle is crazy tough. One of my uncles would describe her as “they ain’t no quit in her!” My only wish is that I could have been in France to see Sal and Michelle race so well. Maybe next year!
RACE DAY NUTRITION.
I recently had one of my athletes report back to me that he actually bonked (a term in our sport which means you basically run out of steam and cannot go much further due to lack of calories) in a sprint triathlon. At first when this athlete told me that, I thought there is no way you can bonk in an hour or so race. After thinking about it for a day or so and mulling it over with Teresa, I thought I would ask my athlete what he had for breakfast. He told me he had only taken onboard about 100 calories that morning because he didn’t feel hungry, probably due to nerves. This is a great example of what our bodies will do when we apply the gas pedal in races. It is absolutely imperative that you focus on your pre-race nutrition before toeing the line for a race, regardless of distance. It is up to you as to what you actually eat prior to the race in order to get those pre- race calories in your body, but you need to start the day with full stores onboard. Nobody would go flying in an airplane without gas in it would you? In future Monday Minders we can get down to exactly what should you eat before a race and how much, but for now, I want to make sure that each of you is getting a minimum of 1,000-1,200 calories in your body before you go out and do battle on the course. ‘Nuff said.
RACE DAY NERVES
This has to be the most miserable aspect of our sport. I absolutely hate race day morning, especially the two hours or so before the race. I absolutely suffer mentally…that is, I used to. Who out there wakes up on race day morning and they have that uneasy feeling in their stomach? It is even more fun when you feel like you constantly have to use the bathroom. You get to body mark up and the negative chatter starts up in your brain “did I train enough, that guy looks so much faster than me, am I ready…” it goes on and on. It is a little piece of hell for sure. It is only after about 5 minutes of swimming after the gun goes off that you are actually relieved to be racing. We have all been there. I still struggle with it for sure, but I have come up with a sort of coping mechanism to minimize the dourest aspects of that chatter that goes on in my grape. In the days leading up to the race, I just don’t think that much about the race itself. When that nervousness seeps through, I just focus on something else and am successful in managing it. I have to admit that when I first wake up in the morning, I get that feeling like “Oh no, race day!” What I now do when that feeling hits is I reassure myself that my brain is not required for this race. I have proven over 60 or 70 times now in races that my body knows exactly what to do when the gun goes off and no brain required. I go into what Mark Allen calls flat mind. When the nerves hit, I just let my brain go flat and I don’t think about anything at all. It has taken some time to get to that point and I still have my moments, but for the most part, I am able to shift into flat mind very successfully prior to the race. The other thing that I do is I have little chants that I repeat to myself during the race and that helps to flatten the chatter as well. When swimming, I just continue to repeat “stroke, stroke, breath”. When cycling, it is “wind and grind, wind and grind” and when running, it is “float and flow, go go go”. That works for me, you need to come up with your own and give it a try.
RACE DAY RESULTS
Lastly, let us once again talk about how we handle our race day results. First off, when you do an ironman, remember that most of your friends and family have no idea the difference between an 8:30 hour effort and a 15 hour effort. All they know and care about is that someone they love is doing an extraordinary race and they just want to be proud of you and happy for you. PLEASE do not cross the line and then immediately go into your 27 item laundry list of why you went 13 hours vs 10 hours. Just be excited about another ironman finish and when your family and friends congratulate you, take a minute to stop, file your OCD tendencies deep in your body, and just muster a humble smile and say with all your heart “thank you, I did my best!”.
Save your sad story for me, your coach, or your buddies during beers later, but PLEASE think about the family first! For you married or committed folks out there, remember that your significant other gave up things and sacrificed for your race too. Don’t tinkle in their Wheaties with your ironman drama. Let them be happy for your accomplishment! After all, don’t they deserve that?
