Internal Mono(b)log

Took my GoPro with me on a shake-out ride on Hwy117 the Friday before IM MT.

Enjoy 🙂

I had the fortune of having a set of RecoveryPump legs to aide in my post Ironman recovery.

For those of you who haven’t seen or heard of the RecoveryPump system, it’s a set of 2 leg-sleeves each with 4 air compartments and a timed compressor pump.  The pump compresses air at 80psi sequentially into the air compartments starting at your feet and moving up your legs, holds for a few seconds and releases.  The idea is that the squeezing pushes the metabolic waste up out of your legs and then with the release fresh blood is allowed back into your legs thus speeding and enhancing recovery.  This is along the same idea as compression socks/tights, but with significantly more force.  Also the forces applied are sequenced and controlled (rather than just constant with compression wear) and so further aide the flushing of waste.

Shortly after I finished my Ironman race in Mont Tremblant, I headed back to my hotel, did my normal post exercise stretch routine and then put the legs on for about 2 hours while laying in bed.  The compressions release cycle is very soothing and relaxing and while I didn’t sleep with them on, I probably could have. 🙂  After 2 hrs, I took off the leggings and my legs (which didn’t really feel terrible after the race) felt pretty good.  Tight and fatigued but certainly far from crippled.

In the morning when I woke, I lay in bed dozing and surfing the net and put the legs back on for another 1.5 hrs.  When I got up, my legs felt “almost normal”. Stairs weren’t a problem, walking wasn’t a problem.  Sure, I wasn’t about to go out dancing, but my legs have definitely felt worse after just a long training ride then they did post Ironman and RecoveryPump treatments!

Walking around in the Ironman/Mont Tremblant resort village on Monday I saw many people who looked like their legs had been run over by trucks.  They were walking with a great deal of pain and stiffness.  I almost felt guilty that my legs felt so good.

Almost. 🙂

So BIG THUMBS UP for RecoveryPump!  Definitely need to get me a set of these and build them into my training/recovery program.  If they can do this for me post Iron-distance race, the differences in day-to-day training will also be awesome!

Wow!  Just wow!

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Sitting in a cafe at Tremblant drinking green tea and passing time til dinner, I figure now is as good a time to write about my race day nutrition plan as any. So here it is:

My nutrition plan has changed a bit over this summer: I’ve started including more solid and natural nutrition into the mix. I still heavily rely on FirstEndurance liquid shot and drink but now have added my home-made energy bites into the mix with great results.

Today, the day before the race, I’m eating a lower fibre diet, still whole foods and largely unprocessed but no big salads, mostly cooked veg and light, easily digested fish and/or eggwhites for protein. I’ll aim to eat to a zero calorie deficit today and each time I wake at night to pee, I’ll top up with a banana.

For breakfast I’ll have a coffee and a banana, granola and cottage cheese (normal brekkie).

Pre-swim I’ll eat 2 GU Rocktane with some water.

Out of the swim, for the first 5-10k I’ll drink just water and let my system settle before putting any kind of fuel in. On the bike I have 2 flasks of EFS liquid shot diluted with water in a speedfil a2 (800 calories) and 2 bottles of EFS drink (200 calories), a bottle of water and 10 energy bites (500 calories) and refills for each of these at the Special Needs tent. This works out to about 500 calories per hour and since I hope to finish the ride in a little less than 6 hrs, my goal is to consume most of this.

The run is similarly planned. 10 bites, 1 flask and 1 EFS drink per 2 hrs with refills in special needs.

I expect that this will be my last blog post until Monday. Though I may try to do a quick finish time post Sunday night. I’m #1176. You can track me on ironmanlive.com or with the irontac app on a smartphone.

Cya on the other side of hearing: Rick Yazwinski… You… Are… An… Ironman! 🙂

I tried to record a podcast while I was driving and recorded about 60 minutes of content and then this morning, accidentally erased a huge part of it, so… I’ll try to, from memory, recreate the content here.  It was an ok experiment, but I really hate the sound of my recorded voice, so I’m not sure it’s one that I’ll repeat.

The drive was not terrible, except for a speeding ticket.  The officer was nice enough to knock it down to $50 and no points, so given the alternative, I’ll take it!

Today (Friday) is carb loading day.  So I’ll be doing my normal ~150g of protein, < 15% dietary fat (good fats) and trying to eat 700g (1g per kg of body weight) of carbohydrate.  I don’t normally succeed in the full 700g, but get close.  It’s hard when you don’t eat grains, bread, pasta, etc.

I’m really torn about the whole concept of carb loading: for an event like this (10+ hrs of go go go), you’d exhaust your glycogen stores of 1600-2000 calories in the 1st couple of hours, you would either be constantly eating to keep yourself going (which you can’t), or you’d be burning fat.  Since the goal of endurance sport is to be in the fat-burning-zone what does carb loading have to do with anything?  Beyond wanting to make sure that your body’s glycogen stores are loaded, so that you have the glycogen to help metabolize fat, I’m not sure that carb loading makes sense.  I’ve never carb loaded for training (even the big days: big bike and runs) and never bonked..  That being said, I’ve done a carb loading protocol 2 days before the race for every race I’ve done and I’m not going to stop for such a big event.

Got a busy day ahead of me today so I’m going to stop here for now.  I have a short easy ride, have to checkin, have a massage at 2-3, meeting w. Ian at 4, athlete’s briefing at 5.   If I get a chance I’ll blog my race day nutrition plan later today or tomorrow.

CHARGE!

Just a quick note as I have my breakfast and coffee prior to departing for Mont Tremblant for my 1st full Iron-distance event.

The excitement is definitely building within me, though I’m (so far) managing to keep it in check. Also building is my typical pre-race, taper-induced, short-temper and edginess. [I apologize in advance if I seem curt with you in the next few days. It’s not you, it’s me. Really. Please don’t take it personally.]

The training is done. The miles logged. The nutrition sorted. The game plan (much as there can ever really be a plan for a race of this nature) sorted. Now all that’s left is to go and race my race, have fun, roll with the punches and pop out the other side an Ironman 🙂

I’m number 1176 on Sunday. You can follow my progress on ironmanlive.com for the Mont Tremblant Ironman. If you have a smartphone, you can use the Irontrac application.

I’ll probably blog a couple of times yet before the race and will do a race report on Monday or Tuesday afterward it’s done.

For now… I have a lot of driving ahead. Cya from Tremblant!

Oh! And if you’re at Tremblant and see a cyclist on a Storck Aero2is, say “Hi!” I’m probably the only one there on a Storck, so it’s 99% probable that it’s me 🙂

Hmm.. may have to try this!

The Food Lovers’ Primal Palate: Rice-Free Sushi.

This isn’t really triathlon related, but I just got my BigSkinny wallet and I just have to tell you about it.  I first saw the bigskinny wallet on the CoolTools Blog.  It looked pretty cool and inexpensive so I ordered one.  I have to say, I’m SO happy with it.

If you’re like me, your wallet has a mix of cash, 5-8 credit cards, a few ID cards (driver’s license, etc.), some affiliate cards (Starbucks, etc.), some membership cards, etc. etc. etc.  My old leather wallet, when loaded, was so big that I really couldn’t comfortably put it in my jeans or shorts pocket (I’ve long since stopped sitting on my wallet and now put it in my front pockets rather than rear, but still “too big” is “too big”).  My BigSkinny wallet, fully loaded with everything from my old wallet is… get this… the bigskinny wallet, full, is thinner than my old leather wallet _EMPTY_!.

This pic is from BigSkinny’s website, but it’s so true:

Pretty happy with it.  Check them out!

Well, I dunno about superstition or psychosomatic benefits, but in my “laboratory of 1” I can say, for certain, that I can tell the difference in my previously injured shoulder between wearing and not wearing KT tape for long swims, rock climbing, etc.

Frankly, I don’t care how it works, but I’m happy that it does!

Olympians Showcase Superstition With Mysterious Kinesio Tape, Scientists Doubtful | Singularity Hub.

In fewer than 7 days, assuming nothing goes terribly wrong, I will have heard the words “Rick Yazwinski, you… are.. an.. Ironman” for the 1st time in my life.  It’s all starting to get real.  I’m mid taper and my non-workout-inspired-angst is raising along with my desire to be excited and nervous.  I’m trying to keep all this rampant emotions in check and just focus on mechanical task completion.

• I have my race number from the site (1176).
• I’ve assembled my packing list.  I do this days ahead of time so I don’t forget things.
• I’ve built my race number holder for the bike and just need to get some longer bolts to attach it. (The Storck doesn’t really have a “good” place to attach a number, so I’ve made a bracket to attach under the Di2 battery holder.)
• I’m stretching a lot to keep flexible as muscles repair, strengthen and otherwise tighten up 🙂
• I’ve picked up 6 disposable water bottles that I’ll exchange on the bike ride (don’t want to ditch “clean bottles” or fancy souvenir bottles)
• And finally, I’m in the super-strict “race weight” diet stretch.  Super-clean eating, targeting zero deficit or excess.  No calories in after 9pm.

2 days of work and then I’m off for a week.  Wednesday will be a busy day: van pickup, packing, (hopefully none, but probably some) last minute pickups.  Thursday morning I hit the road for Tremblant. Hopefully I’ll leave early (6ish) and be there early afternoon.  I’m taking my laptop and my GoPro, so I’ll be doing some updates later in the week from on site.  My race-day nutrition plan has evolved since Panama and I’ll do an updated post on that here.

Weeeeee!