Protein Supplements: Everything You Want to Know (and the biggest mistake I see athletes make!)2/5/2020 After posting last week’s Wellness Wednesday Blog, which was focused on meal replacement smoothies, I got a lot of questions about protein powders! First off, questions are GREAT! I love to hear them, so keep them coming. They help me tailor my information to YOU. But I realized that a quick post on social media wouldn’t suffice for a topic as large as protein powders, so I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to it. First, let me be CRYSTAL CLEAR that in most circumstances, I am a REAL FOOD FIRST person. Typically, the less processing we do to any natural food, the more nutrient dense that food will remain. That means, not only will we get our dose of protein, but we will also benefit from the other nutrients in that food such as vitamins and minerals. Both which are important in the utilization of the macronutrients, including protein! Just check out the chart below from Stephan van Vliet, who conducted a review of research with colleagues on the efficacy of whole foods supporting muscle remodeling and recovery: THE REALITY Now that I’ve talked a bit about the importance of real food taking the front seat, let’s get real! Sometimes eating a real food meal, especially post workout, isn't always an option for a variety of reasons. That means, our second best option is a meal replacement smoothie you make from scratch with as many real food ingredients as possible. It's pretty easy to get a natural liquid base (homemade nut milk, coffee, tea, or even plain water), natural fiber (from things like chia seeds, ground flax meal, and vegetables), natural carbohydrates (from things like cooked sweet potato, cauliflower and leafy greens), and even natural fats (from things like raw nuts, seeds and avocado). But protein. Who wants to blend a steak into a smoothie. Ummmm...not me. Enter, the protein powders! Since we're trying to stay as close to REAL FOOD as we possibly can, I'm going to avoid even talking about protein powders that are full of chemicals and additives. You know, the ones made with junky ingredients such as gluten, soy, dextrins (such as maltodextrin), artificial sweeteners (such as saccharin), thickeners and gums (such as cellulose and xanthan gums) and emulsifiers (such as polysorbate 80). These ingredients are usually added to protein powders to improve the flavor and to make the powder mix easier, but they often come with a price of gastrointestinal distress, inflammation, headaches, bloating, and even disrupt our hormone balance. Those are the things I highly recommend you steer clear of. There are so many great natural options out there like whey, casein, hydrolyzed beef, hemp, pea, and rice. I really don't see the point in using a bunch of synthetic ingredients. So, let's look at the different protein powder options (pros and cons) and you can decide which is best for you and your needs.... A PRIMER ON PROTEIN Before we get into the powders...we have to talk about protein itself! Protein is a macronutrient (along with carbohydrates and fats) that we consume in our diet. As a food, proteins are comprised of long chains of amino acids. These individual amino acids are what are taken up by cells throughout our body to do their jobs at that particular location. Whole proteins can not be taken up by cells, they MUST BE broken down! That means, a HUUUUUUUUUGE part of making sure our body has all the protein it requires is having optimal digestive function! We can be consuming all of the protein we need but if our GI tract isn’t digesting it properly, we won’t be able to utilize them (I’ll save the topic of digestion for a whole other post!) There are 20 different amino acids that make up all the different types of proteins in our diet. Out of these 20, 9 are considered essential. That means we have to get them from our diet, in the right quantities, in order to be healthy. The other 11 amino acids can be manufactured by our body. The only food sources that naturally contain all 9 essential amino acids come from animals, such as meat, dairy and eggs. Plant foods contain some of the essential amino acids, but not all of them. If animal based foods are being avoided in the diet, eating a wide variety of plant sources is recommended to ensure you get all 9 essential amino acids in the diet from different plant sources. POST WORKOUT RECOVERY IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE WORKOUT ITSELF The fact is that we all workout in order to create a healthy stress on our body, but the GAINS from that workout comes from that workout's recovery! Yes, you read that right. We break down muscle during our workout, and build it up in our kitchens and our beds! AFTER the workout has finished, our body does the biggest job of all...it adapts to stresses from that workout. It's trying to respond to the stress you just created by making metabolic changes so next time that same stress is created, you are more equipped to handle it (in other words, you are stronger next time). For example, in the time after a workout, protein synthesis increases, muscle fibers are rebuilt, fluid is restored to help deliver nutrients to organs and muscles, and metabolic waste products (such as the acids built up during a workout) are eliminated. So many endurance athletes spend so much time focusing on nutrition during their workout, and completely fail to address the most important fueling (AND HYDRATING) window of all...post workout. Now of course there is more to optimizing recovery than just food (like sleep, hydration, and stress reduction), but for this conversation, we are going to focus solely on protein intake post workout. WHAT DO AMINO ACIDS HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Extensive research has been done on optimizing post workout recovery and much of the evidence keeps coming back to protein. Besides supporting the rebuilding of muscle, protein intake shortly after a workout can actually help with the development of new muscle. Much of the benefits we experience from protein is due to amino acids. Besides being considered the “building blocks of protein”, our body needs the full spectrum of amino acids (all 20) to build cells, support muscle growth, and promote energy production. As I already mentioned, our body can make 11 of the amino acids. That means we want our post workout focus to be on consuming all 9 essential amino acids (EAA) that our body CANNOT produce. Of those 9 EAA's, 35% of what makes up our muscles are the three “Branched Chain Amino Acids” (BCAA). These include:
These BCAA's help preserve muscle glycogen stores and reduce the amount of protein breakdown. When it comes to muscle growth and recovery, leucine has been shown to be the most important BCAA of all while Isoleucine has been shown to play a role in blood sugar regulation. All of these amino acids (essential and non-essential) are present in different amounts in different types of protein sources. But since getting an adequate amount of them in post workout is key to optimizing recovery, just eating protein isn't always going to cut it. Making sure you are consuming a protein source that has a complete complex of essential amino acids, and especially high in leucine, can optimize recovery. Foods that are naturally rich in leucine include:
But if you aren't able to do this due to time constrictions or preferring a plant based diet, protein powders can come in handy! MY PROTEIN POWDER TIPS! To get the most out of your protein powder, you need to know WHAT benefit you are trying to get out of it. It is always best to pick a protein powder that you love, that loves your body back, and meets your health and fitness goals. Sure, whey protein has been hailed by many as the best protein powder out there, but if your body doesn't like whey, it is NOT the best one FOR YOU. Here is my list of favorite protein powders, for different goals, as well as their pro’s and con’s: GOAL = WEIGHT LOSS CASEIN PROTEIN Casein is a slow digesting dairy protein that is often considered by many as a "time release" protein. Casein makes up approximately 80% of milk protein (the other 20% being whey). PROS:
CONS:
MY FAVORITE BRAND: Naked Nutrition Micellar Casein Protein Powder which is made from rBGH free dairy cows from the US. It is gluten free, soy free and made with non-GMO ingredients. It has no Artificial Sweeteners, Flavors, or Colors. GOAL = MUSCLE GROWTH Option #1 - WHEY PROTEIN Whey protein is the other 20% of protein derived from dairy sources. Research has consistently shown that whey protein powder is the best for promoting muscle growth and recovery. PROS:
CONS: Excessive consumption of whey protein can potentially cause digestive distress. Similarly, many people have a dairy sensitivity, and some don't even know they have it. If your body doesn't love dairy, using whey protein powder can create an underlying level of inflammation that will negate the benefits of working out! MY FAVORITE BRAND: Vital Proteins Organic Whey which is a cold pressed organic whey protein, with no added ingredients or fillers. It has 5g of BCAAs and a complete complex of amino acids in each serving. Option #2 - HYDROLYZED BEEF PROTEIN A protein derived from an infusion process of beef that preserves critical nutrients, amino acids, peptides, nucleotide fractions, vitamins and minerals. It’s a complete protein derived from a 100% natural, Non-GMO, raw beef with absolutely no hormones or other additives. PROS:
It contains less leucine than whey protein does (and remember, leucine is the BCAA known to support muscle building and recovery) It often doesn't blend well without a blender and it can become gelatinous fairly easily when it has sat for a few hours. So, if you blend your smoothie in the morning before your workout, let it sit, then go to drink it later, you may need a spoon. MY FAVORITE BRANDS: Equip Prime Protein which is gluten, dairy and soy free; made from hormone-free and antibiotic-free beef; has no artificial flavors or preservatives; and is made from just 3 ingredients: grass-fed beef, natural cocoa powder and stevia. GOAL = MEET THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS FOR PROTEIN... without eating a bunch of meat! MIXED PLANT PROTEIN POWDERS Since we're aiming for complete amino acid profiles, and no plant source has this by itself, it is best to look for a protein powder that has blended 2 or more of the following plant proteins. This ensures that you obtain the adequate amino acids needed by your body post workout:
PROS: These blended protein powders are free from animal products for those that are looking for a vegetarian or vegan option. CONS: These blended protein powders are often blended with many other fillers too, so read the labels carefully! MY FAVORITE BRAND: Thorne MediPro Vegan protein supplement which has a complete multi-vitamin/mineral, digestive enzymes and probiotics. MediPro Vegan is more like a multi-vitamin/mineral daily protein supplement, which makes it great for a meal replacement shake. It also contains a complete amino acid profile, so it is great for a post workout shake. COLLAGEN... A BIG NO NO! I can't leave this post without addressing the BIGGEST MISTAKE I see athletes make when using a protein based shake post workout. And that is...using collagen as their only protein source post workout. The reason for this is that collagen protein, although being the most abundant protein in our body, is made up of a different mix of amino acids and does not include all essential amino acids. Collagen is high in three amino acids - glycine, proline and hydroxyproline - which are important to building collagen in your body, a protein that provides strength and structure. Whereas post workout protein focuses on building and repairing muscle, collagen intake leads to improved connective tissue function. This actually lends itself to supporting muscle and can help in the post workout recovery process. However, you still need a complete source of protein to support protein synthesis and exercise performance otherwise you’ll have strong connective tissue without any muscle to support. You can certainly continue to use collagen post workout, but timing of collagen intake is less important than timing of a complete protein source. So if your goal is to improve athletic performance, gain muscle, or lose fat, then utilizing one of the protein sources I listed above should be priority whereas collagen can be used as an additional support supplement. IN SUMMARY If I am being honest, I can write tons more on the topic of protein and protein supplements. But at least now you have a fantastic starting point to understand why a complete protein post workout is essential to reaching goals and what sources of protein are best for you to choose from. Personally, my body doesn't love dairy. My protein powder of choice right now is the Equip Prime Protein and I will add in a scoop of Clean Carb Vanilla if I need some added carbohydrate and I can’t add in a real food option, like a green tipped banana or pre-cooked sweet potato. I use a little battery operated handheld blender (like THIS ONE) to mix it up , but honestly, it is still a little chunky. There are so many great, natural protein powders out there. Do you have a favorite that I didn't mention? Leave me note in the comments about which one you use. I'd love to give it a try! RESOURCES:
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We’ve made it to the end of the month! Which means, many of us are on our final days of our New Year’s detoxes, cleanses, dry January, etc. How exciting is that? I am very much an advocate for doing diet based resets throughout the year. They allow you to give your body a break, as well as yourself! Because technically, when you limit your diet, you also want to focus on slowing down a bit and giving yourself some love. I just finished a 15 day liver detox myself that included 2 shakes per day. The focus over the course of this detox was lifting the burden off of my liver so that it can rest and re-energize. (If you want to learn more about my particular program, you can click here to shoot me an email). The shakes, which were used as meal replacements, were packed full of nutrients! This allowed me to eat minimally while still getting in the appropriate nutrients to support my body’s natural detoxifying capabilities. Now here’s the truth: by day 15, I was completely sick of the flavor of these shakes and so glad to be moving on to more dynamic real food meals! But what I found was that it didn't take long before I was missing the ease of a so-called “meal in a bottle”! I know I'm not the only one who is busy and needs a quick meal in liquid form from time to time, so I wanted to talk a little bit about making meal replacement shakes/smoothies that you can use in the long term. Not just during a detox or reset! Meal replacement shakes certainly have their place, but in certain circumstances, they shouldn't be used. I want to make sure we’re clear on when that is! On the flip side, they are incredibly convenient and can be a great way to get a ton of nutrients into a small, easy to drink meal. REAL FOOD SHAKES OVER STORE BOUGHT SHAKES I’m sure most of you are thinking “oh, I just buy X brand!”. Yes, there are so many brands of pre-packaged meal replacement shakes available on the market. But have you looked at the ingredients? If I am going to be relying on these more often, I want to know that the ingredients in the shake are just as high quality as the food I put on my plate. So since I have yet to find the perfect pre-packaged meal replacement drink (maybe it exists? If you found it, please let me know!) I am going to continue buying clean ingredients and making my own. Yes, I hear you over there shouting “but you can just buy a smoothie at a smoothie shop!” Of course I can, but again...have you ever looked at the nutrition facts of a fruit smoothie from somewhere like Jamba Juice (or really any place similar to it)? I agree, they're super tasty! You know why? Because they are overloaded with SUGAR! For example let's look at their Whirl'd Famous Mango-a-go-go Smoothie: a small (16oz) has 73g of carbohydrate, which includes 63g of sugar!!!! OMG! That one small drink has over 3x more sugar than the FDA recommends a woman get in an entire day!!!! And in liquid form which means it's going to hit the bloodstream FAST! Talk about cutting the entire line and jumping on the blood sugar roller coaster! And just as fast as your blood sugar goes up, it will come shooting down leading you to experience excessive hunger and reaching for MORE SUGAR! That's not the type of meal replacement smoothie I'm talking about here. MAKING YOUR OWN NUTRIENT DENSE BALANCED SMOOTHIE Let's explore how to make a balanced smoothie that can act as a meal replacement that is low sugar and perfectly suitable during a REAL FOOD RESET… and beyond! TIME SAVING TIP Use small mason jars to pre-measure all of your dry ingredients at the start of the week. If that sounds annoying to you or like it isn’t going to save THAT much time, just try it! You will be glad you did that prep when throwing your smoothie together at the last minute! Every minute counts when we are trying to get out the door. THE PROS AND CONS As with anything in the nutrition world, meal replacement shakes are NOT for everyone! So let’s go through a few scenarios where meal replacements could be a great idea and then talk about when they might be a bad idea! If you aren’t sure and want more guidance, let’s get on the phone! WHEN MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA When you have poor digestion. Blending real food into liquid form is a little bit like thoroughly chewing your food, which is always great for digestion! Especially since so many of us shovel food into our mouths! Smoothies can act like a shortcut for you! When you are in a hurry. Consuming your meal in 5 minutes is awesome when you don't have time to chew an entire meal like a salad. That being said, try not to guzzle your smoothie! Drink it slowly so that you don’t overburden your system. Sure it’s pre-chewed due to blending but can you imagine what your body would feel like if you just ate an avocado, spinach and a banana all at the same time? Yeah, not great! So don’t slurp it down all in one shot. Take your time with it as much as you can! When you need to get a lot of nutrients into a small meal. If made properly, you can pack a serious nutrient punch into a smoothie. Even more exciting, for those of you who aren’t fans of leafy greens, smoothies can be the perfect place to hide them and reap their benefits without having to actually “eat” them! When you need to get a lot of calories in. This is great for people who need to gain weight. By adding full fat nut milks, MCT and other healthy fats, along with raw nut butters, you can make a seriously caloric dense meal replacement! WHEN MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES AREN'T SUCH A GOOD IDEA When you have poor digestion. I know, I just said it was great for that. But the problem with DRINKING your meal is that you aren't chewing your food! Chewing is a signal to our brain and digestive organs to release digestive enzymes and juices like hydrochloric acid into our stomach to help break the food down. Without chewing, we get less enzyme release which is problematic for digestion. If you have poor digestion and want to use meal replacement smoothies, consider taking a digestive enzyme complete with your smoothie. When you are in a hurry. Your body can only properly digest food when your parasympathetic nervous system (aka - rest and digest system) is active! So just as I mentioned above, while shakes are quick and easy to put together, you still want to drag out the time it takes to drink them so that you don’t hit your system with too much too quickly! This will allow your digestive system to actually work through the contents of your smoothie. When you forget that a complete meal includes fiber and fat. Fiber and fat are the 2 most commonly forgotten nutrients in a meal replacement shake. A complete meal is NOT just carbs and protein (that’s more of a post workout shake, which I will get to below). If you are going to be making meal replacement shakes, you absolutely have to replace the nutrients you’d normally get in a real food meal so that you do not end up malnourished! When you are trying to be mindful about eating too much. You can pack A LOT of calories into a smoothie if you aren't careful, so if you are trying to be mindful about caloric intake, pay attention to your ingredients and their quantities. This is especially important with things like nut butters, avocados, bananas, and even seeds! When the bulk of your meal replacement shake is mostly processed foods. The idea behind a meal replacement shake is to, well, replace your ACTUAL meal. This means REAL foods need to make up the bulk of your ingredients. If you do choose to use powdered mixes, pay attention to the ingredients. My suggestion is to only use those powders that are made from real foods that have been processed into powders. While this is still technically a “processed food”, it is still okay! If you think of it on a “good-better-best scale”, drinking quality nutrients, even if it includes some not ideal ingredients is GOOD; clean (chemical free) powdered real food is BETTER; and REAL food is BEST! MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES VS POST WORKOUT RECOVERY SHAKES There is a difference between a meal replacement smoothie and post workout shake to get necessary recovery nutrients in. Again, if we are truly going to be replacing a meal, we must consider all of the nutrients we would be getting from food and translate those into our smoothie! However, a post workout refuel shake is different. This is when we typically focus on replenishing lost glycogen and utilizing protein to help build and recover our muscles. From time to time, I will mix together a post workout shake that is very basic: 25g protein 30g whole food carbs 5g BCAAs 5g creatine That's it. I hardly call that a meal replacement because it's lacking a lot of healthy meal necessities like vegetables, fiber and fat. And that is okay because post workout recovery shakes are considered “snacks” that can be used to provide the appropriate recovery nutrients while knowing you are a few hours away from a real food meal! MY FAVORITE SMOOTHIE RECIPE (of the moment!) I wouldn't dare leave you with at least one recipe for inspiration so I am sharing with you my current favorite recipe for meal replacement shakes:
1/2 cup Native Forest Coconut Milk Simple (or another whole fat coconut milk free of guar gum) 1/2 avocado 1 scoop Designs for Health PurePaleo Protein Unflavored (or another clean protein powder) 1 handful organic greens (spinach, or chard) 2 tbsp raw cocoa powder 1/2 green tipped banana 1 tbsp chia seeds 1 tsp organic Dr. Formulated Brain Health MCT oil (or other organic MCT oil that is mostly C8) 1 tsp beet root powder (or 1/2 cup roasted beets) Water and ice to desired consistency
Still unsure about this whole approach? Let’s chat - we can get on a free discovery call to discuss what your goals are and if meal replacement drinks are appropriate for you! If you follow me, it is likely that you also follow a number of professionals in the health and fitness industry. You see them on social media and maybe you want what they have: a lean, fast, strong body with low body fat and powerful lean tissue. The problem I see is that if you have body fat you want to lose and lean tissue you want to gain (aka- lose fat and gain muscle), it’s not effective to go after both at the same time. I know for a fact that many of those fitness superstars you follow had to cycle their training and nutrition protocols to target specific goals at specific times. Now I know all of us want everything and want it now but if you want to actually see changes and have them be long lasting you will require a strategy! And a strategy can only be made if you choose one goal and focus solely on that goal right now. Stop trying to do everything at once because that will put you on the fast track to burnout and failure. So... Are you eating and working out to lose body fat? Or are you eating and working out to gain muscle? Rather than getting into the weeds about the types of exercise regimens you will be partaking in, we are going to focus strictly on the nutritional side of things (while making some general assumptions that a workout protocol to support your goal is being followed). This is because the eating style is different depending on whether you are aiming for fat loss or muscle gain. And I am not just saying this for the sake of it but rather this information is coming from experience I’ve had working with athletes in both the strength and endurance worlds! If you need help with programming the right exercise protocol for you, you can reach out to me for a free :15 minute coaching consultation HERE! GOAL #1 - LOSE BODY FAT Assuming your exercise regimen includes more low intensity cardio in the 'fat burning zone' with some HIIT sprinkled in, here is what I recommend: eating a low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet. The reason for this is to get yourself into ketosis! In case you aren’t familiar with what ketosis is, here’s a short review: Our body’s primary source of fuel is carbohydrates (ie., glucose). When our body does not receive enough carbohydrates from our diet to turn into glucose, it turns to an alternative source of fuel which is FAT. The body breaks down fat in order to get glucose from triglycerides. This is a completely normal bodily function. When the triglycerides are turned into glucose, their by-product is something called ketones, which are built up in the body and can be used by various body tissues as energy. Since ketosis is a state of burning fat, then following a diet that puts your body in ketosis is a great strategy for burning more fat! You can make sure you are actually in ketosis by measuring with a ketone meter, like the Keto Mojo. It’s important to understand that the state of ketosis isn’t guaranteed just because you are following a “low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet”! You can eat a lower carb, higher fat diet and still be utilizing carbohydrates as your main source of fuel. If this happens, the likelihood of you continuing to store dietary fat as body fat and continuing to burn sugar is likely. To get into a state of ketosis, there is a strict limit on carbohydrate intake. But this limit can be slightly different from person to person depending on their bioindividual needs and activity levels! According to Dr Jockers, you need to have three things lined up for yourself in order to get into ketosis:
Eating moderate protein ensures that you aren't losing lean tissue (because NO ONE wants that). It also ensures that protein does not interrupt the process of turning fat into fuel since protein can also be tapped into when glucose stores are low! This is why having something like a DEXA scan can help you know exactly how much protein you should be consuming so you aren’t eating too much or too little . To start, aim to consume the weight of your lean tissue (in pounds) in grams of protein each day. For example, if you are made up of 100 pounds of lean tissue, you should eat 100g of protein daily. If you are counting macros, the general guideline to get started with a ketogenic diet is 65-70% good quality fats (from things like avocados, olives, lard from wild or pastured animals, butter from grass fed animals, fish oil, and coconut oil) + 5-10% carbs (from non-starchy vegetables) + 20-25% protein (from organic, pasture raised animals). Again, these ranges are here because you are different from the next person and you have to find what works for you! If weighing and measuring food isn't your thing (for most of us it isn't!), then use the 3-2-1 rule for your meals: 3 servings of low starch vegetables + 2 servings of good fat + 1 serving of protein. (1 serving of veggies = 1 cup or the size of your fist/1 serving of fat = 1 tbsp or size of your thumb/1 serving of protein= the size of the palm of your hand) It can be incredibly helpful to know your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and basic caloric needs in a day and consume SLIGHTLY lower than that amount. By slightly, I mean 5-10% less of your caloric needs. For example, if your RMR is 1,200 calories, and your Garmin or Fitbit show that you burn an additional 1,000 calories per day from movement, your total caloric need to maintain your mass is 2,200 calories. If you want to lose body fat, consider consuming 2,000 calories per day so you are in a slight deficit. That may equate to just one less snack per day! If you reduce your caloric intake too much, your body will see this as a stress and lower your metabolic rate to meet the low caloric intake. No one wants to lower their metabolism! A DEXA scan can be used to calculate your RMR and basic caloric needs but in case you are unable to obtain one there are some formulas out there that you can use (although their accuracy can be questionable). Check out this article for formulas: Resting Metabolic Rate: Best Ways to Measure IT - and Increase It. THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GOING INTO KETOSIS: This is a tool. Sure, there is nothing wrong with eating this way forever (assuming you are eating clean keto that is mostly plant based), but once you have lost your desired body fat, switching your diet to support others goals is a great idea. This is particularly true for athletes who have different requirements depending on where they are in training. You need to be all in if you are going to do this. You can't eat a few keto meals, then eat a meal rich in carbs, then go back to eating keto. It won't work. Your body takes a few days to transition to burning fat and if you eat a carb rich meal every few days, you'll never get into ketosis. The first few days will be hard! You will likely feel fatigued, sluggish and unmotivated. Know that this won't last long and the most important thing you can do during this time is be kind to yourself! Allow yourself a nap if you can. Schedule yourself a massage. Take more gentle walks outside. And by all means, drink enough water with a pinch of sea salt. The dreaded 'keto flu' that so many people talk about/experience during the transition from sugar burning to fat burning is usually a combo of dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Eating higher fat is helpful at the beginning (sometimes more than 70% of your caloric intake). At the beginning, your body will be using the exogenous fat from your diet to make those ketone bodies that make you feel better. Eventually, if you want to actually burn your own body fat, you need to be mindful of your fat intake from your diet. If you've gotten yourself into ketosis (measurable on a ketone meter) but aren't seeing body fat loss as a result, you might be eating too much fat. Try lowering your fat consumption from your diet closer to 65% and see if that helps (whether you increase carbs or protein depends on different factors so be sure to speak to your coach to make sure you adjust accordingly!) GOAL #2 - GAINING LEAN TISSUE Before I jump into the nutritional focus, there are two things you must consider that have been proven to help athletes gain lean tissue:
Once you know these two are in place, then prioritizing protein consumption and eating enough calories will be key to reaching your goal! First you’ll want to start off by learning what your lean tissue amount currently is. You can do that by getting a DEXA scan done (as you can see, a DEXA scan can give you a lot of helpful information!). If you want to maintain your lean tissue, you need to consume AT LEAST your body weight of lean tissue in grams each day. For example, if you have 100 lbs of lean tissue, you need to consume at least 100g of protein per day. If you want to GAIN lean tissue, you should consider eating 5-10% more protein per day (105-110g in this sample example). The protein needs to come from complete sources. What I mean by complete is that the source of protein you eat includes each of the essential amino acids your body needs to function at its best. Animal proteins are ideal, but plant proteins in the right combinations can also create a complete protein profile. You don’t always have to eat plant based protein sources together. Instead focus on consuming a variety throughout your day to ensure you consume each of the essential amino acids. Here are some of the best sources of food that can help you gain lean muscle mass due to their protein profiles:
Besides protein consumption, if you want to gain lean muscle, you need to make sure you are in a slight caloric surplus. Again, to calculate this you should know what your RMR is! This will provide you with a baseline to work off of. Why do we need more energy? Simply put, if you want to GROW lean tissue, you need to have the energy (aka. calories) to do that. If you are in a caloric deficit, your body will choose to burn tissue to obtain the extra calories it requires to meet its needs. Ultimately resulting in a loss of lean tissue! However, we also want to be careful that we do not overdo it. Our body can only work so fast and if we over consume calories, we can end up storing excess energy as fat without noticing any difference in changes in lean tissue. WHAT SHOULD I BE EATING? Now that we have covered HOW you should eat to reach each of your goals, I want to briefly discuss the WHAT! At the end of the end of the day, the food you fill your calories with MATTERS. Sure, if you stay in caloric deficit eating junk you may still lose weight HOWEVER you will not be getting the appropriate nutrients your body needs to function optimally which means you may not see the gains and experience more fatigue. Which, as I understand it, is not something you want when you’re aiming to improve your performance! I also do understand that eating chicken, broccoli, and rice all of the time isn’t exciting so I like to suggest to clients that they follow an 80/20 approach when it comes to their diet. Keeping in mind that they will still need to hit their required numbers, 80% of intake should focus on consuming whole, nutrient dense, real foods! These are the foods you find on the perimeter of your supermarket such as veggies, fruits, meats, poultry, nuts, seeds, dairy, and eggs! The other 20%? That’s leftover to allow you to loosen up a bit and not feel so restricted! It can also help you feel better about some of the “not-so-perfect” fitness supplements out there. To make your life a little easier, I have decided to provide you with a FREE download that includes my list of FOODS TO EAT and FOODS TO AVOID. Click here to get yours today and make sure you print it out and hang it on your fridge. SUMMING IT ALL UP I get it, most of us want to lose body fat and gain lean tissue at the same time like….yesterday. But if it is ideal to be in a slight caloric deficit to burn fat and a slight caloric surplus to build lean tissue, you can see how these things don't really work together. My advice: Pick one, then the other. Besides, it’s sometimes easier to just focus on one thing at a time. This doesn’t mean you have to stop lifting if you are trying to lose body fat or stop conditioning if you want to gain muscle. Instead, you are just shifting priorities until you reach one goal and then shifting once more to reach your next goal. Helping people like you is what I love most so if you are interested in learning more about setting yourself up for success, then do not hesitate to reach out! We can setup a free discovery call to talk about your ambitions and how I can help you achieve them! REFERENCES:
1. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180858.php 2. https://drjockers.com/keto-vs-low-carb/ 3. https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/the-beginners-guide-to-building-muscle-and-strength/ 4. https://sportslabnyc.com/sleep-muscle-recovery/ 5. https://www.verywellfit.com/vegan-protein-combinations-2506396 6. https://breakingmuscle.com/healthy-eating/top-10-foods-to-gain-muscle-mass 7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23679146 You Can't Manage What You Can't Measure (including my favorite measuring & testing resources!)1/15/2020 There’s an old business adage that says “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Meaning, you can’t expect to know how to improve something unless you track it’s progress (or lack thereof). It’s sort of like trying to win a game without keeping score. Now while business managers everywhere use this quote to motivate their employees, it can also be applied to the health and fitness world! Just think about it. We look at things like blood pressure and cholesterol levels to monitor our heart health as well as reps, time splits, and weight on the bar to measure our performance. Without these numbers, how would we truly know if we are progressing or regressing? I plan to spend the first few weeks of this new year sharing some of my favorite tips to making your health and wellness goals a reality in 2020! And since we are officially 1/2 way through the first month of the new year, most of us are back to our regular routine or trying to form new habits that lead to self-improvement. I am going to be kicking off talking about why measuring different variables related to your health and body are important to crushing your goals. First we will discuss why measuring can be helpful! Then I will take you through some of my favorite measuring techniques which include things like food sensitivities, hormone levels, weight, lean tissue, and bone density. I also am going to touch on when measuring might not be so helpful and providing you with creative alternatives so that you can still be successful in your health and fitness endeavors. WHY MEASURING CAN BE HELPFUL I hear a lot of my clients say they aren't going to get any testing done because they know it's going to be bad. I get it. Seeing numbers makes your status a reality and sometimes that reality is a harsh one. But listen up, I see this OVER and OVER and OVER again...when you see the results, even if you are disappointed in them, you will be motivated to change them! Don't avoid testing until you think the results are going to look good. Getting over the fear of measuring our health and/or body status can be helpful because it is a proactive vs reactive approach to your goals whether they are health, body, or performance oriented! And at the end of the day, you won’t be able to improve when you don’t know where you are starting from! Measuring can also be helpful because it goes beyond weight, and our health status is definitely more than our mass! Sure, stepping on the scale is easy and FREE (after purchase of said scale) but the number we see does not give us the full picture! Using various testing we are able to get deeper and understand more about our actual health status in the moment which will allow us to formulate a plan to move forward with! Testing or measuring can also be used to make sure we are not over doing it! This is particularly important for the athletes out there. As an athlete you already have the drive to push your body beyond its comfort zone. Yes that can make you stronger and faster, if done right. But it can also lead to burn out and loss of progress! Regular testing or measuring can help you utilize your rest and recovery periods so that you can train smarter and not necessarily harder than your body is equipped to do so! SOME OF MY FAVORITE MEASURING AND TESTING OPTIONS Now that you have an idea of why measuring and testing can be a great idea, let’s talk about a few of my favorite options! First up is the DEXA Scan. For everyone, but especially athletes, I am a HUGE fan of DEXA scans. DEXA stands for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The most common reason a DEXA is used is to scan bone density but it is also used to measure other markers such as lean tissue, body fat, visceral fat, resting metabolic rate (RMR), and muscle imbalances. In fact, it is considered to be a more accurate measurement of body fat percentage than any other option available coming in at an incredibly low 1-2% margin of error. When you utilize the DEXA, you are better able to understand whether changes in weight are attributed to fat, muscle, or bone! This can allow you to formulate the best nutrition plan for before, during, or after workouts and competitions/meets/races, etc. It also gives you information to create a workout plan that is tailored to your specific goals whether they are to lose fat, gain muscle, or both . Many large cities have mobile DEXA trucks that will offer a scan for around $55. Another of my favorites is at-home blood glucose testing. And yes, again this can be incredible information for athletes! Blood glucose (aka - blood sugar) imbalances don’t only affect the unfit or obese. It is a problem that many of us so-called “healthy” athletes deal with. Exercise and training does increase insulin sensitivity, which is a good thing because this means our cells are responding to insulin and allowing glucose in for conversion to energy. However, it has been shown that despite this fact, athletes actually suffer from hyperglycemia (aka - high blood glucose levels) due to their high energy expenditure which leads to the release of cortisol, which floods our blood with more glucose and puts them at higher risk of metabolic issues like diabetes. Couple that with the recommendation to eat more carbs in the post workout period and you are setting yourself up for chronic high blood sugar and the issues that come with it! It is important to note that carbohydrates tolerance differs across individuals so some athletes may be better equipped to handle more carbohydrates than others! But this just leads me back to my point that using an at-home blood glucose monitor can allow you to see how your blood sugar levels are fluctuating so that you can respond with an appropriate training and nutrition plan! The last form of testing I want to highlight is salivary hormone testing. This is one I feel strongly about, especially for women between 30-50 years old. As all females are aware, we go through a cycle each month where our hormones fluctuate. These hormones have a direct effect on our energy, hunger, and mood, just to name a few. Utilizing hormone testing can allow us to check in on whether or not our hormone cycle is normal and the more we know about how our hormones are working, the more we can use that to our athletic performance advantage. Also, training can negatively impact our hormones if we over do it. Unless you are a professional athlete who relies on high performance to make an income, most of us are training to be healthier! The last thing you want is to wreck your hormones in the name of fitness. And, unfortunately, too many of us are unknowingly doing this. If you wanted to, you could get your hormones checked via blood test but those results aren’t able to tell you what portion of your hormones produced are actually being used by your body (aka - unbound or free hormones). Salivary hormone testing is more comprehensive in that it looks at “free” hormone levels which allows you to better understand what is happening in your body. The better you understand what your hormones are doing, especially in response to your training frequency and intensity, the better equipped you will be to design the appropriate diet, supplement, and lifestyle plan for yourself! WHEN MEASURING OR TESTING IS OUT OF REACH Hopefully at this point you are starting to understand why I feel strongly about using various measuring and testing techniques to help you hit your health and fitness goals and monitor your progress. But I would be naive to expect everyone out there to have the resources necessary to get the testing done. While the DEXA scan is relatively affordable, many other options can easily cost you several hundreds of dollars. So even if you are able to get it done once, you may not be able to use it as a monitoring tool over time. Also, it is important to point out that for some people, measuring body composition may backfire. Instead of empowering you to use the information to change your diet and exercise routine, you may become overly obsessed or tie the numbers to your self-worth! Although the numbers may be important, they are by no means a measure of your self-worth and so there are other ways to monitor your progress that I am going to share next. CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES For those of you who want to continuously do self check-ins to monitor your symptoms but do not have the resources necessary to run a blood or saliva test every three months, a Medical Symptom Questionnaire (MSQ) may be your best option. An MSQ is an objective form that you can complete every 30 days to three months and allows you to get an idea of what your underlying issues may be as well as track improvements you are experiencing. Despite many of us being aware of how we feel, we often don’t take time to connect the dots and a form like this can do just that for you allowing you to forgo constant blood testing. (Want your own MSQ? Click here to download! Use this form whenever you want to do a self check-in!) Keeping a food journal is an enlightening habit, even for those of us who believe we eat healthy! You don’t know how many clients I have who have said “I have a great diet” and then, after keeping a 3-5 day journal, realize they have more bad habits than they were aware of! Besides gaining awareness of your own behaviors, you can also learn so much about how your body responds to your diet (both physically and mentally) with a food journal if you make notes of mood, energy, brain fog, etc. Utilizing a food journal in this way can be a wonderful alternative to frequent food sensitivities testing. For my female readers, tracking your basal body temperature (BBT) is another inexpensive tool that can help you get more in-sync with your cycle if you are unable to obtain a salivary hormone test. A fabulous resource to learn more about your cycle is the book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler. In it you can learn how to track your BBT as well as other signs and symptoms that allow you to learn what your body is doing through each phase of your cycle! One last option to leave you with is purchasing a fitness tracker such as a fitbit that can monitor your steps, heart rate, and sleep habits! Although this does require an investment, it is a one time cost vs the recurring cost of testing over time to monitor your health and fitness status. INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?
If you’ve gotten to this point and testing is something that interests you, I offer a variety of testing options in my nutrition practice including comprehensive hormone testing, comprehensive blood testing (to look at markers like iron, Vitamin D, and metabolic panels), food sensitivity testing, and organic acid testing (OAT). I am happy to hop on a FREE discovery call to help you figure out which test would be the best option for you as well as discuss how I can best help you utilize the results so that you can achieve all of your health and fitness goals this year! Click here to schedule your FREE call today! Also, stay tuned for other tips on staying committed to your 2020 goals past the first quarter in upcoming blogs! To get you excited, here are some topics I will be diving into:
If you have other ways of measuring your progress that you want to share with me, leave me a post in the comments. I'd love to hear about them! Thanks for reading! REFERENCES 1. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324553.php#purpose 2. https://www.dexafit.com/services/dexa-scan 3. https://www.dexafit.com/blog2/athletes-and-body-composition-but-important-for-everyone 4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5094325/pdf/10.1177_1932296816648344.pdf 5. https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/hormones We all have that friend or family member who has everything, which makes shopping for them rather difficult. When it comes to kitchen gadgets, I am definitely that person. Since I've purchased and tried so many things, I wanted to share a list of some of my favorites. My hope is that the wellness minded person in your life could use one (or more) of them! 1. Rechargeable Travel Milk Frother This is probably one of my most used kitchen gadgets. I actually own 3 of them (one for my kitchen, one in my travel kit, and one in my travel trailer). This handheld frother is what helps me create the perfect morning coffee with thick coconut milk foam on top. There are many options out there, so depending on what you are looking for, make sure you check out all the features. For your eco-minded friend, consider the USB rechargeable version HERE; for your friend who loves to travel, consider one with the travel case HERE; and for your friend who loves to cook/bake, consider one with multiple speeds and whisk options to choose from HERE. 2. Silicone Straws This is an especially thoughtful gift to your eco-minded friends and family members. Silicon straws are a thoughtful alternative to glass, stainless steel, or bamboo. They are unbreakable and temperature-safe, so they won’t get too hot or cold to the touch. Reducing single-use plastic in general is an important goal of mine in 2020. Back in 2018, I saw a national geographic picture of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose. It tugged at my heart strings and ever since then, I've been trying to reduce my use of plastics. There are nearly 7.5 million plastic straws lying around America’s shorelines, according to one estimate. Switching over to these bendable, eco-friendly, and perfectly portable silicone straws lets you ditch the disposable plastic versions for good—it’s a small, practical, and doable-for-everyday change. Food 52 has a fantastic kit with 10 dishwasher safe straws, 4 carrying cases and 4 squeegees complete in a biodegradable, compostable box for $25 HERE. 3. Tea Mug with Stainless Steel Filter Let's face it, most of us need to be better about drinking water! These filter bottles are fantastic for herbal teas, fruit infused water, iced drinks and cold brew coffee. I use a double walled odor free glass tumbler which keeps my drinks cool or warm for much longer without sweating and leaking. There are many options online, but my favorite has a neoprene sleeve for safe travel and removable lids on both sides for easy cleaning HERE. 4. Himalayan Salt Lamps Himalayan salt lamps are decorative lamps that are carved out of pink Himalayan salt. They are believed to have various health benefits that can include cleaning the air in your home, soothing allergies, boosting your mood and helping you sleep. The Wellness Mama wrote a great article on Himalayan salt lamps HERE. I personally have one in both my living room and bedroom and love the warm light they omit. Styles and sizes vary largely, but you can find great lamps for around $20 online HERE. 5. Microplane Stainless Steel Herb Mill 6. 100% Pure Cosmetics I love this company! 100% Pure creates cosmetic products that are all natural (defined by them as "an ingredient or formula composed of plant, mineral, and/or marine vegetation that undergoes chemical changes due to biological processes such as fermentation, distillation, and cold processing") and actually work! Their coffee bean caffeine eye cream ($29) is one of my favorite items, but I use the makeup line too. They have a fantastic skin care line that is great for both men and women. Check them out HERE! 7. Reusable Beeswax Food Wraps Part of my personal mission since 2018 is to use less plastic. These wraps have been a wonderful alternative to single use plastic wrap. Like many people out there, I don't always finish my food. These washable, reusable beeswax wraps have helped preserve leftovers while creating less waste. There are many companies out there creating colorful, multi-sized wraps, but Sweet Green Studios is one of my favorites. Check them out HERE. 8. Book Lovers Bundle For your book loving friend! Digital and audio books are convenient these days, but reading (and sharing with friends) an old fashion book can't be beat. This kit is a fun addition to any book lovers library and especially thoughtful when gifted with your favorite read. This kit can be purchased from Knock Knock for $22 HERE. 9. Sous Vide Wondering what sous vide is? It is a method of cooking that involves preparing food in pouches, submerged in water that is held at a precisely controlled temperature. A sous vide will cook your food to the precise temperature needed to achieve the best cooked texture and results. One of my favorite recipes for sous vide is this Paleo Salmon Recipe HERE. You can find many styles of sous vide online, but the one I use is HERE. 10. Instant Pot It's 2019 and the likelihood that your wellness minded friend already has an Instant Pot is high. But do they have 2? I do, and I love them both. I have a large pot (8 quart) for my savory dishes and a small pot (6 quart) for my sweet dishes. To be honest, I only really cook 1 thing in my small pot, and that is coconut yogurt (you can find the recipe HERE). The glory of having 2 instant pots is that your sweet foods don't have the aroma or flavor of that chicken curry dish you cooked last week. If 2 instant pot just seems excessive, consider an accessory kit instead, which you can find HERE. From the kitchen connoisseur to the eco-minded, my hope is that this list of a few of my favorite things helps make your holiday shopping a little bit easier this year!
From a very young age, I have been a competitive athlete. Until age 13, I was a competitive gymnast at a world renowned gym in Southern California, Charter Oak Gymnastics. The owner and head coach of Charter Oak was so gifted as a coach that he landed a job as the Assistant Head Coach to the USA Women’s Olympic team in 2000. This came well after my time as a gymnast, but his build to that position started well before my time. He understood that a successful athlete needs more than just training in a particular field. He invested time and money into us beyond the skills of gymnastics, which included weekly ballet classes along with a meditation/visualization coach. Every Friday night, we spent time lying on the floor, with our eyes closed, being guided through visualizing perfect routines. We used these sessions to create a mental image of what we wanted in real life. It was these Friday’s nights that helped me understand how regular visualization can actually train the body to follow the mind. Long after my days as a gymnast, I still use visualization to help me get more clear on what I want in real life, both in sport and beyond. Most of us have heard that we learn in one of three ways: kinesthetic (through touch), auditory (through hearing), and/or visual (through sight). However, when you consider the amount of neurons in the brain that are devoted to vision, it is easy to argue that humans are mostly visual beings. In the brain, there are hundreds of millions of neurons devoted to visual processing. These neurons take up approximately 30% of the cortex, as compared with 8% for touch and just 3% for hearing. In recall tests, humans are able to recall images with much greater accuracy than word recall. This is likely because visually seeing an image creates associations with other knowledge about the world which helps us recall them more efficiently than words alone. Beyond the anatomy and physiology of the brain, many of us are familiar with the philosophy of "the law of attraction". This philosophy is the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life. When we imagine our body taking an action (like a back flip on a balance beam, for example), our brain will quickly run through that action to help the body understand what it needs to be done in order to achieve that action. When you consider the power of positive visualization and the law of attraction, there is no tool more powerful than a vision board for making your dreams a reality. A vision board is a physical object that can and should be seen daily in order to help you move towards what you want in real life. Here is how it works: 1. Start by imagining your life as it is now. It can be helpful to use a tool, like a wheel of life, to help you get more clear on different areas of your life and how satisfied you feel in each area. Once you know where you are, you can imagine where you want to go. Do you wish you were more successful in a specific area of your life? If so, how? For example, if you desire financial freedom in 10 years, but you are currently spending more than you are saving, it might be desirable to make a few adjustments to your life to obtain your goal of financial freedom. 2. Once you know where you want to go, imagine exactly what that looks like. Close your eyes and picture it (this is the visualization part). To carry on our example from above, what does financial freedom in 10 years look like? Does it look like hiking with friends on a weekday? Or traveling to Europe? Or sleeping in and taking naps whenever you feel like it? Whatever financial freedom looks like to you, you need to be able to see an image that makes you feel how you want to feel in 10 years when you obtain your goal. 3. Next, find objects that represent your vision. You can use catalogs, magazines, business cards of people that inspire you, books, and anything really that helps you feel the way you want to feel. Cut or rip them out and start a pile of your objects. 4. Once you have a pile of images, words or objects that sums up your future vision, find an object to attach them to. This can be as simple as pinning them to a bulletin board, or as creative as sticking them to an object. I personally use the wheel of life to help me get clear on my vision before I create my vision boards. Below, you can see a picture of one of my original vision boards where I took 1 image from each category on my wheel of life and found a picture that best represented where I wanted to go in that specific area of my life that year.
5. Lastly, and the most important part of the entire project, is place your vision board in a prominent area. You need to SEE your board regularly. Body follows mind, so the mind needs to use those hundreds of millions of neurons devoted to vision to see your dream. The brain will use these images to prepare the body for the actions it sees before you. Consistency is key. If you create a vision board and store it away in a secret location, your vision is less likely to come to life. If you already have the healthy habit of brushing your teeth for 2 minutes, twice a day, placing your vision board in your bathroom and creating the habit of looking at it every time you brush your teeth can add up to a powerful mind body connection over the course of days, weeks, months and even years! It is important to have fun with the project (which usually means wine for me). No part of the final project needs to be perfect. As a matter of fact, if your vision starts to shift as the months pass by, it can be quite easy to add new images to your board either covering up images with less meaning to your now, or adding them in open areas on your board. Not only is your vision board a great way of keeping your eyes (and mind) on your goals, but it is a powerful way of helping push those goals into reality. Let me just start with...it's an absolute HONOR to have been given the opportunity to race my 4th Ironman 70.3 World Championship! I know that there are thousands of athletes who race this sport every year who would love this opportunity and I do not take it for granted. However, I entered this race with a serious lack of enthusiasm this year. I was (and still am) disappointed in my performance from Ironman Canada (and this year in general) and I am in serious need of a break from all things swimming, biking and running. I am EXTREMELY grateful for a two things that kept the fire lit up to this point: 1. this is the first time that my parents were going to get to see me race a World Championship, and 2. I was racing with 4 friends and very well respected athletes who would be racing their first ever World Championship and they were EXCITED! Their excitement (both the athletes and my parents) were helpful in getting me to start line without throwing in the towel in early August. Despite my desire to do anything but swim, bike or run from early August-early September, I ticked all the training boxes I knew I needed to tick to get ready for this race. I also kept true to prioritizing my sleep and recovery. I did, however, more or less give up in regards to nutrition (which, mind you, I am a nutritionist, so me 'giving up' on nutrition looks 1,000 times better than most folks best week). I started a re-introduction of foods that have, in that past, caused known inflammation (with the goal of doing some food sensitivity retesting as soon as I return home from Tennessee). I don't think this had anything to do with my race, other than, I did feel a bit sluggish leading into the race. Hard to say if that is from the food I'm eating, or being mentally ready to take a short break. Travel from Sacramento to Tennessee was smooth. With 5 of us traveling together, I knew it was likely that at least 1 bag was bound to get lost/delayed (just the nature of travel). After loading the airplane in Atlanta to catch our final flight to Chattanooga, the pilot announced that their was not enough room on-board to load all the bikes and that some would be left behind for a future flight. I sat in the window seat above the wing and watched 1 of our frame bags (we had 4 bike bags in total) get loaded onto a luggage truck to be taken away for a future flight (along with 20+ other bike bags). I LOVE my Ruster bag, but this is the downside to having to break down your bike into 2 separate bags. If one is lost, the other bag is useless...especially when it's your frame bag that is missing. Luckily, 3 of the 4 bags arrived on that flight and Delta Airlines was extremely responsive in getting the final bag to us ASAP. It arrived to the door step of our Air BnB the following morning (Thursday) at 7:30am and we were not set back a bit. We were able to get bikes rebuilt with plenty of time to test them out before turning them in pre-race. In the days leading into the race, we did ALL the pre-race events that Ironman had to offer, including: the organized swims (both Thursday and Friday), the expo, the parade of nations, the welcome banquet and the athlete briefing. They were all great. Even the food at the welcome banquet was half-way decent! 3 of our 4 support crew arrived on Thursday evening, just in time to join us for the welcome banquet and the remaining weekend festivities. Race Day |
Up until my pre-race dinner, my daily nutrition stayed the same as it always does. Real foods which are high amounts of vegetables, high amounts of healthy fats, moderate amounts of protein and minimal starchy carbs and fruits. Pre-race Dinner- at The Keg Steakhouse in Tempe. 8oz Top Sirloin Steak with steamed vegetables and a potato with butter (lots of butter). And a glass of red wine. |
@4:00am- 12oz bone broth (which I brought from home) with 1/2 cup white rice and pink salt.
@4:30am- a smoothie, (blended in my NutriBullet, which I brought from home) which had unsweetened coconut water, small handful of soaked cashews, 1 packet mushroom coffee, 1 small banana, 1T MCT oil, 2T Great Lakes Collagen, 1 scoop Vital Proteins unflavored whey protein powder, 2T raw cacao, water and ice.
@5:50am (1 hour prior to race start)- VESPA CV25 and 6oz water.
@6:40am (10 minutes prior to race start)- VESPA junior.
In T1- VESPA Junior
Bike- 2 1/2 Go Macro Bars, 1 Huma gel and 2 packets of Honey Stinger gummies. I had an alert set on my watch to alert every 15 minutes. I took 1/6th of a Go Macro bar (40 calories), 1 Honey Stinger gummy (16 calories) and 1 salt stick (200mg sodium + other electrolytes). At the top of every hour, I took 2 Honey Stinger gummies, 1 BCAA tablet, and 1 Salt Stick. At the final turn around, I stopped eating Go Macro Bars and took a Huma Gel instead at the top of the hour. I felt GREAT with this fueling strategy!
In T2- VESPA Junior
Run- the plan was to aim for 100-150 calories per hour with Huma Gels and Honey Stinger gummies. It's hard to say what I actually ate. I think (if I'm being generous), I got about 2 cups of coke, 1/3 Huma Gel, 3-4 Honey Stinger gummies and 4 pretzels. I managed to get approximately 400-600mg of sodium down per hour and approximately 2g of BCAA's over the course of the run. It wasn't enough. I have to learn to eat, even when I really don't want to.
Post Race- @ the finish line- 2 scoops First Endurance Ultragen @ 1 1/2-2 hours post race- brick oven pizza on vegan gluten free crust. I slow sipped water all night until bed. I stopped eating food at 10pm as I had a complete blood draw the following morning, so a 10 hour fast was in order. Check back for the results, which I'll share in a future blog post. |
In the end...
1. Finish <11:00:00
2. Set a new Ironman PR (which was previously 11:37:29 (set at IMAZ in 2014)
3. Finish top 10
All in all, I got 2 out of 3 of my race goals completed. I raced my race, learned more lessons and crossed the finish line looking forward to doing it again. I couldn't ask for much more than that. I also was using this race as a "test" to see just how much I've been able to grow as an athlete with TS Life and Kristian. I've been so happy with the direction I've been going the last 2 years, but it's always nice to see the growth on paper. And that is exactly what I see. A 41 minute PR is nothing to look over. It's just another confirmation that Kristian is the right coach for me. I look forward to many more years of work together...and hopefully another 41 minute PR in the future! But, if not, I know I'm growing with TS Life...I've become healthier, happier and, for now, faster.
1 week later...
It's always amazing to me how quickly I get onto an emotional roller coaster after these big races. For the first 2 days post race, I was on cloud 9. I was thrilled with my results and just felt an overall feeling of accomplishment and happiness. On day 3, I started analyzing my race (or, as Kristian likes to say, over thinking things). I got a little frustrated that I wasn't able to do more. Mostly on the run. Why did I let myself slow down in the middle of the marathon? I obviously had more to give, because I gave it at the end! I was frustrated with myself. It's been a week, and now I have mixed emotions. Mostly feeling sad and doubtful about the future. I love full Ironman, but I'm still experiencing physical pain from race day (my right calf still feels like I got hit by a baseball bat from the cramp in the swim) and I know that recovery from a race like this (and a long season that included 2 full Ironman races) is a long road. I know that I'm capable of so much more and I really do look forward to working on those things. But there are times when I feel like I'm dragging Sean and my family around (and myself) trying to reach a goal (Kona) that might never happen. Back in 2015, I promised myself 5 years to try to get to Kona. I'll keep pushing and challenging myself to grow more, both as an athlete and as a human. I'll continue to stick with my goal until I make it to Kona or I loose my love for the sport. Or, in 2020, I'll have decisions to make. Hopefully the decision is what hotel to stay at in Kona...
For now, I look forward to some rest. In the off season, I'll be back at CrossFit Gold Rush working with Cameron and the other coaches there to help build more power and strength specific to this sport. It's very obvious to me that I have A LOT of mental work that still needs to be done to make the advances that I want to make with Ironman. Although I'm sad that Sean will be taking the 2017 season of triathlon off, I'm SOOOOOOO looking forward to gaining a training partner who can help me with the mental aspect of this sport that I need so much. I look forward to a solid training phase into Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa in May 2017 and then back at the full distance racing at Ironman Canada in July 2017. Onward and upward...
This year, I made the decision to change my focus to Iron distance racing. I want to get to Kona. That means that most of my training has been endurance focused. After Ironman Canada in July, I tried to keep up on the endurance training (for Ironman Arizona coming up in November) while adding in some shorter speed work to get ready for this race. After just 1 week, I knew it wasn't going to work. Mentally, it was too much. In May, I received a Hashimoto's diagnosis (which I am still trying to figure out) and in June, I lost my business partner. Between those 2 changes and trying to keep up on training, I was feeling overtaxed. Rather than adding in more stress and trying to burn the candle from both ends with training, I gave up any focus I thought I should have for this race and just kept my focus on Ironman Arizona in November. Looking back now, this is the absolute best thing I could've ever done for this race! Instead of a having a primary focus on a result, I entered this race with a strong focus on form, power, cadence, and most of all, attitude. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want a better finish result than Austria World Champs last year, but I knew in my heart that if I could achieve my other goals, that result would come. And it did.
Fast forward to race week. Sean and I left from SFO on a direct flight to Sydney on the evening of Friday, August 26th. That landed us in Australia on Sunday, August 28th...exactly 1 week prior to the race. If anything went wrong during travel or one (or both) of us didn't acclimate well to the time change, we felt that 7 days would be plenty of time to adjust. Luckily, everything went perfectly. Bikes arrived without any damage. We both traveled extremely well and adjusted to the time change immediately. I have an international flight protocol that I give to my private clients who travel internationally and we both followed that protocol pretty strictly for this trip. It landed us feeling rested and very fresh! Having the Marc Pro on the flight REALLY helped as well!
Since travel went so well, the seven days leading into the race were long. By the third day in Noosa, we were both getting antsy to race. We tried to find tourist things to do to fill our time, but many of them involved activity (hiking, surfing, etc), and we both wanted to have a proper taper. If I had this to do over, I would have cut a few days off of the early part of our trip. Some people can sit on the gorgeous sandy beach and relax for days. Sean and I are not those people. We managed about 45 minutes on the sand on any given day and then got bored and had to move.
On Friday, we checked out of our hotel in Noosa and moved down to Mooloolaba where the race was being held. This gave us an opportunity to see the race venue. We swam in the ocean where the race swim was being held, we drove the bike course, and we rode the run course. The weather on the days leading into the race were less than ideal for confidence building (windy and a little rainy). I know I'm a blonde haired, blue eyed girl from California, but this girl did NOT spend time in the ocean as a kid. This led to a bit of trepidation about dealing with the surf on race day. Luckily, Saturday was rough on the ocean. I got a fair amount of practice dealing with waves and rough seas. I drank my fair share of that extremely salty ocean water. All this so I could tell myself "it won't be this bad on race day." And it wasn't.
The other chatter happening around town was around the bike course. Traditionally, the 70.3 race here is a 2x out-and-back on the highway that parallels the sea. It doesn't get any flatter than this road. For this race, they changed the course. They removed the second out-and-back and added in a 2 loop area in the Hinterland. This course change added about 2,200' of elevation gain in about 20 miles of the course. The first real hill you hit was a 20% grade that was obviously adding a tremendous amount of fear to many of the athletes who saw it pre race. I thought, "it can't be that bad," until I saw it myself. I'm use to the hills, but even this hill looked intimidating. We drove it (twice) before race day, but never actually rode it on our bikes. I knew it was going to be a tough hill, but I also knew I could do it. I'm a firm believer that body follows mind, so I just kept telling myself that coming from the Sierra Foothills in California, this was the part of the bike course where I could smash my competition, even if it was just for a short period of time.
NUTRITION (PRE-SWIM): Broth, white rice and chicken breast for breakfast at 4:15am. Regular coffee, Great Lakes Collagen, 1 scoop Ultragen, and a banana (blended with ice) at 6:15am. VESPA junior at 7:05am and again at 7:50am (15 minutes before my wave start).
The first 2 miles of the ride is getting out of town. Once we left town, we were immediately onto the flat highway heading towards Mount Coolum and bike turn around. This area was horrible. The crowds were thick and it was so challenging to find 7 bike lengths ahead of you. Groups were forming and all I could do for the first 20 miles was focus on keeping my space. I wanted a legal race. It seemed like those first 20 miles were spent either dropping back, or surging ahead. Just another time in a race when I'm ever so thankful for my Tuesday power interval session on my KICKR. The deep focus on having a clean ride left me unable to focus on my bike goals for the day (cadence, smooth and complete pedal strokes and equal power from left to right). I won't lie, there were MANY moments in the first 20 miles where I was ULTRA frustrated. Mad at Ironman for creating a course that made it extremely challenging to get into a groove but REALLY mad at athletes for choosing NOT to care about the rules. Everywhere you looked there was drafting and blocking. Thankfully, I did see penalties being handed out, but not nearly as many as they could've handed out. At the end of the day, I feel really good about my race. I raced clean and I'm proud of that.
Once we got off the highway and into the Hinterland, we hit hills. At mile 30, a gal rode up next to me and said, "you wouldn't happened to be Tiana, would you?" It was Vicki Hill from TriSpecific (also coached by Kristian). She gave me a few encouraging words which I quickly exchanged back to her and before we knew it, we were at the base of the dreaded hill. I hit the hill slightly before Vicki, but she was close (legally close) behind. We made quick progress of the hill, passing athletes (some of whom were walking their bikes) the entire way. We crested the hill together and she said, "thank god for power intervals!" Damn right. A few miles up the road, I came up on Ross Oakley (coached by Pete), another TriSpecfic athlete and friend from Austria World Champs in 2015. I gave him a pat on back, and just like with Vicki, we encouraged each other before we split up. The rest of the Hinterland was manageable. I felt comfortable on the ups and the downs and I felt like I was finally in my own race. The last 10 miles back into town we were faced by headwinds. Oh how I hate wind. Thankfully, nothing will ever be as bad as Ironman Cozumel and I just kept reminding myself that it could be SO MUCH WORSE. I kept with nutrition, hydration and salt all the way to T2. I got myself out of my bike shoes on the bike so I wouldn't have to deal with them once I dismounted.
NUTRITION: 1 VESPA junior (immediately outside of T1), 3 Huma gels, 1/2 Go Macro Bar, 6 Honey Stinger Chews and 8-10 salt stick caps (all taken in small "bites" spread out throughout the ride). Approximately 595 calories and 1,720-2,150mg sodium + trace electrolytes.
BIKE GOAL- <2:40
ACTUAL BIKE RESULT- 2:50:58
AGE GROUP RESULT- 49/141 (34.75%)
1. Keep a VERY INTENSE focus on my stride rate. Think of NOTHING ELSE. Just my stride rate. 1 hour and 50 minutes of focus on nothing but that.
2. Smile and have a good time.
3. PR.
4. Negative split.
I knew if I could complete #1 and #2, #3 would happen, even though my last 1/2 marathon PR was back in 2014. I had my watch set up to alert me with my pace every mile. Rather than looking at my watch every few minutes the entire run, I only glanced at it 13 times, when it alerted me with my 1 mile run splits.
When you exit T2, you immediately hit a climb. With adrenaline leaving T2, I make quick use of that hill without much effort. I also knew that the TS Life crew was posted up somewhere on that hill and I wasn't about to be caught struggling. Through the HUGE crowds, I spotted them as I started to decent down the back side of the hill. Although Sean wasn't there, Pete gave me confirmation that he has already finished! GO SEAN! Another hit of adrenaline in the tank! As soon as I hit the flats, my watch went off with my first mile split...7:45/mile. WHOA. I knew damn well that a 7:45/mile was not a sustainable pace to me for 13.1 miles so I backed off a bit and got right back to my main focus, stride rate. I felt fairly good (comfortably uncomfortable) heading out to the turn around. As soon as I made the turn, BAM, wind in the face. Ugh. It's amazing how a tailwind can go unnoticed until it's a headwind. Immediately, focus back on stride rate...don't think about the wind. Before I knew it, I was back to the hill and the TriSpecific Crew. This time, Sean was there to give me a high five along with Jared (another TriSpecific athlete coached by Pete Lever) who had also finished. It was great to see them finished and smiling! My goal was to complete the first lap in :55 minutes. At the turn around, I was at :52 and change. For one second I thought: "ugh...this is going to be nasty second loop," but immediately, focus back on what matters- stride rate. Kristian said to me before race, "be ready to show grit." HA- it was about to get gritty. I made the turn around, back up and over the hill. Ironically, I don't really remember the hill ever hurting. I didn't notice a huge drop in my pace either. It was just another part of the race that was completely lined with cheering crowds and was over with fairly quickly. To be honest, on my final lap back towards the finish line, the hill couldn't come soon enough. I knew "my people" were there and as soon as I hit the hill, I knew the race was almost over. The finish line was RIGHT THERE. I just wanted to see that hill again!!! At mile 11, I did the math and knew that I was on track for a PR. I also knew I had enough in the tank to keep up the pace...even up that hill. I was thrilled. And smiling. And enjoying every last step of those 2.1 miles. Pete met me at the top of the hill to hand off the American flag to me. As soon as I hit the finish shoot, I opened it up and let it flap on my back the entire way through the finish line. Just like in Austria, USA fans cheered and I tried to soak up every moment of that finish shoot. I finished the run with my 70.3 1/2 marathon PR time, but most importantly...feeling amazing. What a great feeling!
NUTRITION- VESPA Junior (immediately after leaving T2), 3 Huma gels, 2 small cups of cola and approximately 6 salt stick caps (all spread out by 2-3 miles on the course).
Approximately 400 calories and 1,290mg sodium + trace electrolytes.
RUN GOAL- <1:50 and negative split (<:56 first loop and <:54 second loop)
ACTUAL RUN RESULT- 1:48:29 (not a negative split...but close)
AGE GROUP RESULT- 75/141 (53.19%)
RACE GOALS-
1. Smile often
2. Keep mentally focused on form
3. <5:17.18 (current 70.3 PR from Vineman 70.3 from 2013)
4. Finish in top 40% of AG
FINAL RESULT- 5:22:53
AG RESULT- 53/141, 37.58% of AG
There is nothing like racing an Ironman 70.3 World Championship. Surrounding yourself with elite age group athletes and the best pros in the world is something that I hope will never get old. Although my future focus is to get to Kona (which I hear is off the charts amazing!), I still have hopes to race in the 70.3 World Championships in 2017 in my home country in Chatanooga, TN.
I am FOREVER grateful to all the support I have received for this race, both in Australia and across the pond. The TS Life crew was and always is beyond inspiring. I absolutely LOVE every opportunity I get to surround myself with these amazing, hard working, elite level athletes. My GCTC family at home who inspire me everyday to be the best athlete I can be. My parents who believe in me beyond measure. Coach Kristian who pushes me out of my comfort zone to help me be the best athlete/human I can possibly be while helping me reach my silly little goals. And, Sean, who never says "no" and encourages me to always chase my dreams.
Another adventure in the books that will NEVER be forgotten.
My family (parents and husband) arrived on Wednesday evening. Once they arrived, I felt like time flew by. Before I knew it, race day was here.
My pre-race dinner was at our hotel (BBQ meats, salad, roasted potatoes, gluten-free beer and ice cream). It was not a traditional pre-race dinner for me, but it seemed to work out just fine. I was able to get a full 6 hours sleep the night before the race. My alarm went off at 3:15am race morning. By 3:45am I had down 2 pieces of gluten free (and egg free) toast with apple sauce and had warmed 1 cup of rice and bone broth for the road. Again, not a traditional pre-race breakfast (the toast part), but I had no blender in my hotel room for my traditional pre-race morning smoothie. We headed out the door at 3:45am to walk to T2 where I dropped all my run nutrition in my run bag. I said goodbye to my parents and Sean (who were body marking athletes before they left T2) and jumped onto the 1st shuttle to head over to Lake Alta. I was the first one on the first bus. I put in my headphones and started to wrap my brain around my goals for the day. On the way over to the lake, I ate the broth and rice (most of it). All my morning nutrition was down 1 hour and 45 minutes before race start.
Once I arrived at Lake Alta, I headed straight into T1 to load nutrition on my bike, pump tires, etc. With so much time to spare, I had time to walk to waters edge and visualize my swim and T1. The lake was beautiful. There was a slight fog hovering over the water which let me know that the water would be warm. And it was. 18.2C/64.76F which felt like the perfect temperature for racing!
As soon as I got out on the bike course, I immediately took the VESPA Junior. I had my watch set up to alert with a vibration every 15 minutes so I would be reminded to eat, drink and take salt. My nutrition plan for this course was to eat often and start early. This course is harder than any other Ironman bike course I've done and I didn't want to get behind on anything. I packed 1,400 calories of food on my body and had extra bars in my special needs bag just in case I dropped something. My nutrition goal was 200cal/hour and 800mg sodium/hour. All 3 of my bike bottles were full of clean water and I wanted to get as much water down as I could. My race goal was to finish the bike as close to 6 hours as possible. I wanted to get up the climb to Callahan and back into town in 2 hours, then through the Pemberton meadows and back onto the highway in 4 hours and 30 minutes. I had my watch set up on average mph pace and I knew I wanted to leave the Pemberton meadows with an average of 20mph. I knew it would only drop (and drop fast) from then on as I climbed back up into Whistler.
Nutritionally, I had packed Go Macro Bars, Endurance Bites, Honey Stinger gummies and 2 Huma Gels on my bike. I ate the Go Macro Bars and the Endurance Bites on flats and descents (I made sure I chewed them well...but they still required more digestion) and saved the Honey Stinger gummies and Huma Gels for the climbs when I needed the sugar to hit my blood stream fast. I also took 5g BCAA at mile 56 of the bike course. I stayed true to my nutrition plan. I think I only missed one salt tab during the ride when I was climbing a steep section of the course and didn't feel my watch go off. I never felt hungry. I never felt thirsty. I didn't run out of food or water. I felt like I nailed my nutrition plan. Timing was more or less spot on as well. I was able to keep my goal pace up to Callahan and back into Whistler. I told my family to expect me at the top of Blueberry Hill at the 2 hour mark of my ride. I passed them at 2:00:57. Ok, 57 seconds off my goal. Pretty damn close!!! I continued to ride at my goal pace down to Pemberton and through the meadows. During this time of the ride I was passed by both Brad and Ian (both TS Life athletes). Brad was focused and in the zone, but Ian and I chatted for a moment about the swim before he headed on with his race. My goal to get out of the meadows at 4:30 on the clock was SPOT ON. I turned the corner out of the meadows to head back to Whistler and my watch read 4:30.22. BAM! But, now for the hard part. I remember at the 3 hour mark of the bike ride thinking, "I'M 1/2 WAY DONE!" only to realize that the last 3 hours were going to be ALL work. No coasting. Just constant pedal pressure the whole time. Deep breath...you got this!
Like always, I was happy to finally see the finish chute. I found Kristian, Dane, Mack and Charlotte and was able to give them high fives and then found my parents and Sean closer to the finish line. This is when I REALLY wish for a mass start. I was the only female in the chute, but because of the way they start the race now, you don't actually know where you stand in your age group. I would have loved to have stopped and given hugs and kisses, but instead, it was high fives all the way across the line. In the end, I was off the podium by 38 seconds. 38 SECONDS! ARGGGGGG...it's really hard not be upset over that, but that is how the cards fell on that day. And I can honestly say that, besides my loss of composure in the swim, there is nothing I would have done differently. I'm sure that by pushing on the bike I outdid myself for the run, but I don't regret it. I feel like that was what I needed to do to feel confident on my bike again. I ended with the 5th fastest bike split in my age group on the day and I am proud of that. Despite being 30 minutes off my run goal time, I still had the 10th fastest run split in my age group on the day, which might show how hard it was for all of us.
Although I hate this picture of me in the finish chute (I was happy, I promise), I love that Kristian, Dane and Charlotte are all in the background smiling. (Dane is probably smiling because he knows he can finally hit the bar for a beer.) I was the last TS Lifer to finish, but I don't think I gave anyone enough time to go home and shower first (or maybe I did, I don't really know if that's true).
I can't say enough about my parents and my husband who bust their buns to be everywhere they can be on race day. The support they provide during all the training day and on race day are invaluable to me. Especially to Sean. I don't EVER take for granted how damn lucky I am to have the best husband in the world. I feel so lucky to have a best friend/husband who supports everything I do. He is the reason I stay sane, can get through these long days mentally and believe that I CAN. Thank you, Sean. You mean the world to me.
We left the Sacramento area on Thanksgiving morning (Thursday) and had a full day of travel. Sacramento to Dallas. Dallas to Cancun. Cancun to Playa del Carmen. Playa del Carmen to Cozumel via the roughest ferry ride I've ever been on! When we arrived in Playa, the winds were fierce! When they docked the ferry to load us, the boat was rocking away from the dock and then crashing into the dock. Rising up, and then crashing down. I knew it was going to be a rough ride. The workers from the ferry company were taking our luggage and throwing the pieces from the dock onto the ship. They set all the race bikes off to the side (there were probably a good 20-30 bikes on that ferry) and afterward walked them up a ramp to the top of the ship. Unfortunately, while loading, they lost someones suitcase over the edge of the boat and it immediately sunk straight to the bottom of the ocean. It was your typical, black zippered suitcase and no one was there at that moment to claim it. So after a very rough 40 minute ferry ride (lets just say they handed out plastic bags about 20 minutes into the ride and lots of people were using them), when the boat docked in Cozumel, we would discover who's bag it was by the last man standing on the dock. Unfortunately, that man was our friend Jason. It was actually his girlfriend and fellow racers bag. Luckily, she is a smart athlete and carried ALL of here race gear on her back in a backpack. So, although she lost everything else (training clothes, casual clothes, cosmetics, etc), she had everything she needed for her race on Sunday (except her nutrition, which she was able to get at the expo).
4:30am- Race Day Smoothie (coconut milk, raw cocoa, chia seeds, 1/2 banana, coffee, Great Lakes collagen, and ice) and 1 package of Beet Elite
6:30am- Vespa CV 25
7:15am- Vespa Junior and 3 salt stick caps
T1- Vespa Junior
Bike Course- Slow drip in 525 calories of Freedom Fuel (3T Brown Rice Syrup, 2x Skratch Hyper Hydration mix, 2x Skratch Hydration mix, squeeze of an orange and a handful of strawberries- blended), 1 Endurance Bite an hour (sprouted rice cereal, no corn syrup marshmellow, raisins, unsweetened coconut flakes, sprouted watermelon seeds and butter), 1 VESPA Junior at 56 miles, 1x The Right Stuff on lap 3, and 1 BCAA tablet per hour.
T2- Vespa Junior
Run Course- Slow drip 300 calories of Freedom Fuel, 1x Honey Stinger gummies, 9x salt stick caps (every 3rd mile or so), Vespa Junior at mile 13, and 6x BCAA caps.
In my Special Needs bags (just in case!):
Bike- Extra bottle of 300 calories of Freedom Fuel, 6x Endurance Bites, 1x Honey Stinger gummies and 1 The Right Stuff
Run- 1x Honey Stinger gummies, and 12x Salt Stick caps
My swim felt fantastic. I had open water nearly the entire swim. I was able to jump onto some feet here and there to get a little bit of drafting (and I could definitely feel that there were athletes doing the same with me), but in general, I felt like I had the ocean to myself. It was crystal clear and there were many moments when I was able to look around at all the amazing fish, coral, scuba divers, and even a few sting rays below. If only every swim could be like this. This swim is a long (2.4 miles, LOL), point to point swim along the shore from Marina Fonatur to Chankanaab Park. The are swirling tides, but it is mostly in our favor. There were a few moments in the swim when it felt like the turn bouy would never come, but it eventually did. I felt solid and steady with my swim. I never felt like I went anaerobic and I was excited to get out and see if I had beaten my swim goal of 1 hour and 10 minutes. Once I finally reached the swim exit, I got a glance at my watch which showed 1 hour and 5 minutes. I was elated. All the increased swim volume over the last year was definitely paying off (I went from about 4-5K per week to 12-15K per week and even managed a 6K swim 3 weeks before the race)! My coach, Kristian, (and Pete) from TriSpecific has mentioned multiple times the importance of getting out of a swim feeling fresh and that was exactly how I felt. Pumped up and ready to ride! My final swim time was 1 hour 4 minutes and 14 seconds and I was out of the water 5th in my age group. I saw my parents and Sean as I ran through transition and was all smiles.
Nutritionally, I had my watch set to vibrate every 20 minutes as a reminder to sip my Freedom Fuel. I did that for the first 2 hours and started to notice 2 things. 1- I was starting to feel full, and 2- I was running out of my Freedom Fuel faster than I expected. So, I decided for laps 2 and 3 to take 2 large sips of the Freedom Fuel every hour (instead of 3), which I think now was a mistake. I ran out of Freedom Fuel around mile 65 and shortly afterward started to feel hungry. By mile 80, my stomach was growling and I was hungry. About that point, I stopped at an aid station and put my feet on the ground. I opened my packet of The Right Stuff and added it to my empty down tube bottle with ice cold water. At mile 100, I hit my special needs bag and stopped again to get more food. The Freedom Fuel was hot and sounded terrible at that point, so I grabbed 4 Endurance Bites and immediately threw all 4 of them down. I knew it would be a lot to digest all at once, but I also knew I needed the calories and I needed that food to be somewhat digested in 12 miles as I had to start the marathon.
Looking back, I feel glad that I was able to push hard on the bike for most of it. However, I highly underestimated how much energy would be needed to push through all that wind. I expected to eat less because of the heat, but ended up needing more because of this wind. Next time, I would pack more on my bike. Despite Kristian's advice to use my rear bottle cage, I took it off for this ride because I didn't want the added weight of the cage and the full bottle. Next time, I would add a single bottle cage (I only have a double...but will be purchasing a single as soon as I get home) on the rear of my seat and add an extra bottle of Freedom Fuel back there (or Skratch, or something).
In the end, I hit "a wall" at mile 90 on the bike and just watched my pace drop for the last 22 miles of the ride. Despite that, I managed to finish the bike in 6 hours, 6 minutes and 41 seconds, placing me in 7th off the bike.
I saw my family standing in front of our house on every loop of the ride and on the last and final loop, as I passed Sean, he yelled, "5th, 5th, 5th." So I knew I was doing well, despite feeling like total crap at that point, hearing I was in the top 10 gave me a boost of energy I so desperately needed to get motivate to start my marathon.
In the end, my transitions weren't horrible. I had a goal to get out of T1 in less than 5 minutes (which I did) and out of T2 in less than 3 minutes (which I did not). If I had something to change, I would change T2. I might consider not fussing with a fuel belt next time around. Instead, use dry nutrition (likely, Honey Stinger gummies), Salt Stick caps and water. It's less fussing in T2 and less to carry. It sounds easier, and it 7+ hours into a race, simple is better. Way better.
Nutritionally, I went fairly scarce on food. I was completely sick of my Freedom Fuel by mile 10 and stopped drinking it. I got about 150 calories of it down. I also managed to get down 1 1/2 packages of Honey Stinger gummies (I stopped and got a second package out of my special needs bag at mile 13.1), all 6 BCAA caps, about 8 salt caps and 1 VESPA junior at 13.1 miles. I had a headache and felt nauseous for most of the run. I knew it was dehydration, but I couldn't manage to get any more water down. I was taking cups of water every kilometer and I had done well at getting water down on the bike course. I still hadn't urinated all day. At mile 15 on the run, I finally stopped to use a port-a-potty. Not so much because I had to pee, but mostly because I just wanted to stop and sit. How sad is that. I was so tired that I chose to step into a steaming hot porta-a-potty to take a break. LOL! It's laughable now. But that was how bad I was feeling at the time. I did manage to pee a little. But it burned and was just another indication that I was well under hydrated.
I the end, the spectators and my family was what helped get from one point to the next on the run. Sean had rented a bike and in true supportive fashion, managed to show up all over the run course. Also, looking for all my friends out on the run course was helpful. There were a lot of us out there. Mike Marschik, John Rutherford, Ian Taylor, Christopher Stubbs, Karyn Hoffman, Scott Williams, Tami Ralston, Christine Avelar, Tammie Lopez (who I never managed to find until the recovery area) and Jason Curran (who I also never managed to find until the very end).
In the end, I managed to make up a spot on the run. Not because my run was fabulous, but because I chose not to give up. And I didn't have any major malfunctions. All over the run course, athletes were walking, or even just sitting on the side of the road. Their bodies (and/or mind) had had enough. I managed to finish the run in 4 hours 19 minutes and 50 seconds. One of my slowest marathon times ever, but the absolutely best I had for the day. And I am proud of that. It landed me in 6th place on the day. And in the top 10% of my age group.
When I arrived in Arizona on Thursday evening, I threw on my running shoes in an attempt to shake out my legs from the long drive. I hit the same trail that I was on last year, for my very first Ironman, and I couldn't help but feel really emotional. It felt SO GOOD to be back on that trail and have those amazing feelings from IMAZ come back to me. My legs felt heavy, full of lead and tired, but it didn't matter. The weather was perfect, the sun was setting over Tempe Town Lake and it was beautiful! I felt happy.
That afternoon, I rode the bike course and made sure everything was working well. No problems there. At 5pm, Shelly, Flor and I attended the athlete meeting and picked up our packets. Water temp on Friday was 79F and it wasn't looking like it would drop below 76.1F by Sunday morning. For one second I was bummed about a non-wetsuit swim, but decided to shift my mindset to be excited for the opportunity to use this as the perfect training swim for Cozumel (which will definitely not be a wetsuit legal swim!). At 6pm, we picked up Sean and Jim from the airport, picked up their packets and grabbed a bite to eat for dinner (lettuce wrapped burger with sweet potato fries) before calling it a night.
Saturday was mellow. Breakfast at the hotel. I packed my nutribullet so I could use that to make a smoothie in the mornings (coconut milk, kefir, blueberries, Vit C powder, Great Lakes Collagen, chia seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes and ice). We all did a mini bike/run and then headed over to the venue to check our bikes. Lunch at the Original ChopShop (chicken salad wrap in a gluten free tortilla) was good, but the service was very slow. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was late afternoon. We used that free time to lay down, get into the NormaTec boots and rest. That evening we had dinner at The Keg Steakhouse and Bar. It wasn't cheap, but the food and the service were SO GOOD! I had a wedge salad with blue cheese, a 12oz New York Steak (which I couldn't eat all of), 1/2 baked potato with butter, steamed vegetables with butter and a glass of red wine. I drank a cup of CalMag back at the hotel and I was off to bed. I didn't have any trouble sleeping and woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm was due to go off...rested and ready to race.
Race morning was easy. Woke up at 4:15am. The usual morning smoothie (coconut milk, regular coffee, raw cocoa, banana, Great Lakes Collagen, chia seeds, unsweetened coconut and ice) at 4:45am (which I didn't feel like drinking, but did anyway). Left the hotel at 5am. We had a 5 minute drive to the race venue and easy (free) parking across the street from transition. I was able to get everything set up in transition and drop stuff back off at the car before they closed transition at 6:30am (including my wetsuit, as the water temp was 77F and not wetsuit legal if you wanted to be eligible for awards). I took a VESPA CV25 at 6:10am (1 hour prior to my race start). My wave start was 7:10am and they would not let anyone in the water until 4 minutes before your wave start. So I stood in the swim chute/corral talking with fellow competitors. I "made friends" with the gal who was racked next to me. She had an All World Athlete cap on and we quickly found out that we had both been in Austria for this years World Championships. She finished 52nd in our AG and I finished 61st. We obviously we're fairly close racers and I knew she would be one of the athletes to beat. 10 minutes before my wave start, I took a VESPA Junior. Once the wave before us took off, I was one of the first athletes in the water. We had a short swim (75 yards) to the swim start. It was a deep water start and I found a place in the front of the line toward the inside. When the gun went off, I was able to find clear water very quickly. About 1/2 way down the lake, the sun came out and made it VERY HARD to sight anything. Once we made the turn, the sun was behind us, but the water was starting to get pretty choppy. I felt like I was having a solid swim (I kept a great focus on form and a speedy arm turnover), but I also knew that there were a good handful of women from my AG who were well in front of me. When I got out of the water and saw my swim time, I was surprised it was as slow as it was. On another day, I would have been pissed. But today, my first thought was that "if it was slow for me, it was slow for everyone." Then the thought was gone and I was racing through transition. When I made it back to my bike in T1, I could see that the gal I had talked to before the swim start was still behind me...so that gave me a little boost of energy to get out of T1 quickly. I ended up 6th in my AG out of the water with a time of 0:37.53 (my slowest 70.3 swim EVER).
Nutrition on the bike was scarce. I took a VESPA Junior at mile 10. I packed 600 calories of fuel and 2,000mg of sodium on my bike with the intention of getting most of it down. Honestly, after the swim, I was feeling slightly nauseated and the thought of eating made it worse. So I managed to get down my Freedom Fuel (1 packet Hyper Hydration Skratch, 1 packet of Exercise Hydration Skratch, 1T organic brown rice syrup and the squeeze of an orange) and 1 Endurance Bite (a homemade glorified rice crispy treat). Over all, I got all 2,000mg of sodium down and about 350 calories in with multiple bottles of water. It felt like the right amount. I wasn't hungry, but I was still feeling strong.
The run course was a flat, 2 loop run course with 1 out and back per loop. We had a fairly strong wind, so one side of the lake was definitely harder than the other. The temperature was hot (for me...I'm not so use to the heat) and it was very humid. Good training for IM Cozumel. I took my VESPA Junior at the first aid station (around mile 1). I carried 12 Salt Stick tablets and 1 packet of Honey Stinger gummies. There were 12 aid stations on the course. My plan was to take 1 salt tablet at each aid station with 2 cups of water and slowly eat the gummies throughout the run. I was on track with water, salt and the gummies until mile 4 when I went to grab out my bag of salt and it wasn't there. It had obviously fallen out of my pocket. Plan B- Gatorade Endurance. Not my favorite option, but the only option I had as they didn't have plain salt at any of the aid stations. So I stopped eating the Honey Stingers and switched to 1 cup of Gatorade Endurance and 1 cup of water every other aid station (still 2 cups of water at alternating aid stations). It seemed to work out fine.
When I hit the first out and back, I checked my watch at the turn around. The 2 gals from my AG were running side-by-side, 2 minutes back. Motivation. Keep up my pace. At this point, I started asking myself, "Is this all you've got?" I never said no. I was pushing as hard as I could in the moment. Some aid stations I was able to plow through, but some, I had to walk a few steps and regroup. As I write this and think back on the run, I never remember worrying too much about the two girls behind me (except for when I could see them on the out-and-back). I looked for ponytails ahead of me, but could never find any. I knew that the leading women were WAY ahead of me. I started racing the men (in my head). Spectators were yelling things that made me feel like I was one of the ladies at the front of the race, and for once, it gave me more energy. And so did the guys that I passed. Many of them were VERY supportive saying that I looked strong and to keep up the good pace. When I finally hit the out-and-back on the second loop, I knew it was my opportunity to see how much time was between me and the gals behind me. I checked my watch at the turn around, and again, exactly 2 minutes. They hadn't gained any time on me. At that moment, I knew they saw me and since I didn't know what they had left in the tank, I knew this was time to leave it all our there. I had a little less than 2 miles left and just started to push as hard as I could. Funny, I felt like I was going faster, but my splits were nearly identical to my first loop. Luckily, I was able to keep my position until the finish. The run was long. 13.6 miles. So when my watch buzzed at mile 13 and I wasn't close to the finish chute, it was a LONG .6 miles. As I approached the finish line, I saw Jim and Sean who were both all smiles. And then the announcer said, "And from Grass Valley, California, one of our top 10 women, Tiana Rockwell." I think that was the first time I smiled all the day. But then I never stopped smiling.
Definitely not a PR run, but the absolute best I had for the day. 1:59.03 and the 5th fastest run in my AG on the day. And with that, I finally reached my goal of getting onto the podium at an Ironman event.
The day felt like it kept getting better and better. All the GCTC athletes had great races! Jim had finished 5th in his AG (putting him on the podium!), Sean finished 6th in his AG, Michele finished 12th in her AG and most importantly to me, Shelly felt great, finished strong and took 11th in her AG. With those results, we (Gold Country Triathlon Club) won the division 5 TriClub category.
Today is prep day. I pick up my CSA box tonight and will put all those vegetables to use as soon as I get them. But until then, I'm low on a lot. Breakfast was a variety of sauted vegetables with 1/2 avocado and a True Story chicken sausage. I also had a small bowl of fresh raspberries. after enjoying my almond milk latte yesterday i felt inspired to make some homemade almond milk so I could have another latte this morning. It was the first time I used my espresso machine in a very long time and I was surprised it still worked!
I snacked on a handful of nuts around lunchtime and had a large taco salad around 4pm for my early dinner. I did my taco meat on the side and my husband did his on top.
The evening was consumed with a lake swim at Rollins Lake. Afterward, I drank a smoothie on my way home so I could get straight to work preping the remaining meals for the week. I have a meeting every single night this week, plus I leave on Friday for...yes...another race. I figure that I won't have time to cook much of anything the rest of the week, so I preped: salads, pulled chicken (in the slow cooker all afternoon), grilled chicken drumsticks and sausages, sauted vegetables, fresh salsa and fresh basil pesto.
I also soaked nuts all mornings started those in the dehydrator tonight.
In total, it took me about 1 1/2 hours to get all of this prepped and cooked, but I won't spend much more time in the kitchen this week. And in the end, I won't be reaching for something that I know is bad for me because I have all of these good choice to pick from instead.
Happy Sunday! We're still in Petaluma and plan to take our time before heading home. There's a really nice trail behind our hotel, so after a small smoothie (coffee, coconut milk, 1/2 banana, cocoa and Great Lakes collagen) to put something in my stomach, I headed out for a long run. After the run, I had a handful of raspberries and blackberries while I got everything packed up. We stopped at a wonderful breakfast joint in downtown Petaluma before pulling out of town. I started with an unsweetened almond milk latte. It came in a bowl! Breakfast was homemade corned beef hash with a side of avocado. I forgot to ask for no toast (I forget that it comes with every breakfast item you order in the U.S.!).
My husband had a salad with scrambled eggs on top with a spicy salsa and avocado.
Since breakfast was so late, we skipped lunch and opted for an early dinner in our deck. We grilled boneless pork ribs with homemade BBQ sauce and grilled broccoli with olive oil and salt/pepper. The side salad was fresh cucumbers, onions and tomatoes tossed in olive oil, white wine vinegar and mustard.
Today, we travel to Sonoma for another race. We were able to enjoy breakfast at my parents house before we hit the road. We ate spinach sautéed in bacon grease with bacon, mushrooms, onions and topped with avocado.
My husband topped his with 3 fried eggs.
The day slipped away from us as we were getting ready for the race (practice swim, pre race meeting, transition set up, etc). It wasn't until 3pm when we actually sat down in the shade under a tree and ate lunch. A pre-made salad from home with a handful of rice crackers (rice crackers are not RESTART legal...but I'm going to be adding startchy carbs into my diet today to get ready for tomorrow. Rice crackers aren't my #1 choice, but it was what I had in the moment).
For a snack, I had a cup full of organic berries.
Dinner was back to Pub Repuclic in Petaluma where I ate my traditional ore race meal: brick oven chicken over potato and Brussels sprout hash. I had a side of steamed spinach and added butter to it. I started the meal off with a cold Gazpacho soup that was delicious!!!
It's race day (I know....again?!?!) which means that today in off of RESTART (for the most part). I did do my typical race day smoothie in the morning which is a RESTART legal smoothie. It uses coconut milk, coffee, 1 whole banana, Great Lakes collagen and raw cocoa powder.
During the race (56 mile bike ride followed by a 4.5 mile run), I used Ultragen (1 hour before and :30 minutes afterward), Vespa, Skratch Labs hydration mix with 2T brown rice syrup, water and salt.
After the race, I ate 1 chicken breast and 1 hamburger patty wrapped in lettuce with mustard, 1 slice of watermelon, 1 plum and a few grapes.
For dinner, we were back to Pub Republic in Petaluma for dinner where I had seafood pallala for dinner. Yum!
Here is the photo of me and my team coming across the finish line! :)
Today is my Friday, as I am headed out of town after work for another race. This means that I'm going to get an early start to my day in order to fit everything in. As many of you know, I'm an endurance athlete. I'm 18 weeks away from my longest race of the year (Ironman Cozumel) which I expect will take me about 11 hours to complete. I'm well into my "build phase" of training and that means I've already started testing and training my body to get ready for that long day. This means I'm starting to train my body to Eat while workoutibg out. Today, I started off the morning with a fasted blood sugar test. 86mg/dL. Perfect.
Afterward, I made a smoothie with coconut milk, coconut water, 1/2 banana, cocoa, chia seeds, Great Lakes collagen and flax oil. I poured it over ice and drank most of it during my warmup on my bike.
After my workout, I finished off what was left of my smoothie, showered and headed to work. For lunch, I had a meeting at the Holbrook. I ordered a burger patty with no cheese, no bun and no sauce with a side salad with olive oil and vinegar on the side.
Around 4:30pm, I had a snack. 1/2 banana sliced with almond butter. I smashed 2 pieces of banana together and froze them. These are a fantastic little treat!
Dinner was late, but it was yummy! Lamb liver fried in bacon grease with a side of fried bacon, cabbage, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms.
Today was my typical Wednesday. Busy. I started with a fasted swim workout directly followed by yoga. Afterward, I headed over to Briar Patch to grab a few things and while I was there, grabbed breakfast. I had 2 chicken apple sausages on a bed of spinach and hot mint tea.
I ate a late lunch. Salad with grilled chicken thigh. This salad I made earlier in the week with mostly produce from my CSA box. Lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, pickled beets and homemade dressing with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper.
After I finished work, I did a fairly long run workout. When I finished, I wasn't hungry. By the time I got home and finished up some house chores, I started getting hungry...but it was late. So I threw a couple things in the blender so it would have a better chance of digesting before bed. I used whole coconut milk, 1/4 frozen banana, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp Great Lakes Collagen and ice.
Since I don't eat eggs, which completely limits my breakfast options, I thought I'd share my husbands breakfast with you guys this morning. 4 pieces of bacon, scrambled eggs with bell pepper and power greens.
My breakfast was very similar, minus the eggs. Instead, I did 2 pierces of bacon, 1 True Story chicken sausage, power greens, and tomato. It was delicious!
This breakfast got me through a 1 1/2 hour workout and my first client this afternoon. At 2:30pm, I ate lunch. Zucchini noodles cooked in kerrygold butter, tossed with basil pesto and grilled chicken thigh. All of this was prepared during breakfast and taken to work in a storage container.
Dinner tonight was all leftovers. The last of the veggie spring rolls, pork ribs with homemade BBQ sauce and grilled squash.
Monday is a prep day for me. So I spent the morning on my computer doing administrative work and didn't workout until much later in the morning. This allowed me to chew, chew, chew my breakfast (instead of drinking it in my normal fashion)! Breakfast was 2 strips of bacon chopped up and then fried. Then I added lots of vegetables (broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, cauliflower, purple cabbage and onion) and 1 True Story chicken sausage.
After a long swim and a little more work on the computer, I ate lunch which was leftover Thai cauliflower rice salad (I'm going to be eating this for a few days) and a pre-cooked chicken thigh.
After letting my lunch digest, I did a strength workout and followed that up with a green drink (handful of organic super greens, 1/4 banana, coconut milk, coconut water, Great Lakes collagen and flax oil).
I spend the later part of the afternoon/evening paddle boarding on Rollins Lake with my triathlon club family. When I got home, I sliced a few pieces of cooked steak and ate that with raw vegetables and leftover roasted garlic artichoke dip and enjoyed it on my deck.
I picked up my CSA box on the way home from the lake...so look for these yummy vegetables in this weeks meals. The water melon and corn will be frozen for future use. :)
Congratulations on getting over 1/2 way through the detox! Whoop whoop!
Here was how day 12 looked for me...started with a smoothie. I realize that majority of my mornings a start out the same way...smoothie. I start off nearly every day with a workout (sometimes two) and the last thing I want is food sitting in my stomach during this. So "pre-digested" food in the form of a smoothie increases digestion and my ability to absorb those nutrients. I'll start trying to mix it up (different smoothie recipes and different meals all together).
I did a 4 hour workout this morning (3 hour ride followed by a 1 hour run). During the workout, I had 2 servings of Skratch (definitely not RESTART legal, but quite necessary for this type of workout) and 1 pocket packet of organic raw coconut butter by Artisana. And lots of water and salt! It was warm out there!
When I got home after my workout, I ate left over spring rolls (Rice paper-a modification, carrots, cucumber, cabbage, kelp noodles and red bell peppers) from yesterday's party with a pre-grilled chicken thigh and chicken wing.
After a short nap, I spent the afternoon picking peaches off my peach tree. Hard not to indulge in them, but instead, I spent the night (and will be spending most of tomorrow) processing these peaches. I plan to dry, purée, freeze and make fruit leather with collagen out of them so the can be enjoyed in moderation after the detox is over.
For dinner, we enjoyed pork ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, leftover Thai cauliflower rice salad and grilled zucchini.
For dessert, we had coconut mound bites (recipe to come soon!).
Author
Tiana Rockwell is a certified nutritional therapist, avid endurance athlete and dark chocolate lover. She believes that by eating REAL food, we can balance our body and reach optimal health and wellness!
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