the art and science of low carb performance and triathlon

After 7 years of triathlon training, calorie counting, fat restricting, and yo-yo dieting I got down to 175 pounds, I was fast but was miserable with hunger all the time. I was also grouchy a lot and injury prone. I finally fell off the wagon earlier this year and my weight shot back up. I read the book The art and science of low carb performance and am trying this whole low carb thing with triathlon training. So far I'm loving it. Yesterday and today I did brick workouts (a bike followed immediately with a run) that was long enough I needed to eat and drink to have enough energy to finish the workout. The book said once I'm keto adapted I could eat fat rather than sugary sports drinks and bars during my ride to sustain energy, so today I added a TBSP of olive oil to each of my water bottles. Today at the end of my 2 hour brick I felt great, still had energy, and hadn't bonked. I had a bit of a head ache from not taking in any salt during my workout, the book said I was supposed to drink bullion to avoid head aches and cramps, but I'm ever the critic and rarely do what I'm supposed to.

This morning I weighed 224 pounds.

Lessons learned today:
#1 Olive oil and water works as well as power bars, gels, and Gatorade for long workouts but I need to add bullion for the salt.
#2 Don't ride a mountain bike 20+ MPH down a bumpy trail 2 weeks after having a vasectomy.
#3 Don't try to bunny hop a curb on a mountain bike on fatigued legs after a long run.
#4 Crashing on a mountain bike trying to bunny hop a curb hurts much worse shortly after getting a second vasectomy performed by a mountain bike seat.

White Sands Missile Range 2013 multisport Race schedule

Brent Jones emailed me the WSMR multisport schudule. Looks like WSMR wont be having as many multisport races in 2013 as they usually do.

White Sands Missile Range 2013 multisport Race schedule
2 Feb 2013 Missile Man Duathlon
7K Run/40K Bike
Start time: 0800
Email: brent.k.jones.naf@mail.mil
Register online at Active.com: www.active.com

1 June 2013 Howling Coyote Triathlon
5K Run/30K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0730
Email: brent.k.jones.naf@mail.mil
Register online at Active.com: www.active.com

7 Sep 2013 Yucca Triathlon
7K Run/48K Bike/400m Swim
Start time: 0730
Email: brent.k.jones.naf@mail.mil
Register online at Active.com: www.active.com

7 Dec 2013 Polar Bear Triathlon
5K Run/30K Bike/400m Swim
Start time: 0800
Email: brent.k.jones.naf@mail.mil
Register online at Active.com: www.active.com

running and being loved

I took my 3 year old to the track today. While I ran my son hunted for flowers and gave me the ones he found when I finished a lap. There's nothing in the world as wonderful as one of my children expressing their love to me.

In this picture you can see him pointing out his favorites.

cyclng outdoors

Cycling on rollers or indoor traininers are good for cycling fitness, but I dont think riding on rollers or indoor trainers create as much cycling strength, explosiveness, endurance, or speed as riding outdoors.

I've had a problem riding outdoors since I got ran over by a vehicle a little over a year ago. I don't know what to call it, fear, anxiety, PTSD? I need to figure out a way to be able to ride outdoors so today I tried listening to comedy routines on Pandora radio while I rode. I was a little nervous about riding while wearing ear phones and not being able to hear the things going on around me so I rode out near Galisteo NM where there isn't much traffic (see picture).

It was a success! I was able to finish an entire bike workout! I wasn't fast, but by George I finished it!

While on my ride I found my dream house! #60 Camino San Cristobal, Galisteo NM. It's for sale too! Only $536,000. Look at those views! See picture below

a boy and his bikes

During my bike ride on the rollers yesterday I hit 6,700 miles on my Cadillac RLE1.8 Road Bike.

I currentyly have 8,003 miles on my Cannandale carbon slice triathlon bike.

And I also have 2,760 miles on my early 1990's model Raliegh Tangent regid frame mountain bike that I use to comute to work on.

Between the 3 bikes I currently own I have a total of 17,483 miles on them. I wish they made cars as well as bikes, we'd never have to buy new vehicles.

chasing Arnold day 4

I started my run this morning as soon as there was enough light to run safely, 6:50 AM. I had to cut it short so that I could be home to take care of my youngest when my wife left for school. I ran 3.5 miles. I haven't come close to rebuilding my endurance or speed yet, but I felt better than I had in a long time.

There's not much better than triathlon training on the highway 14 here in New Mexico, also called Turquoise Trail. It's much easier to get up everyday and train when I know I get to see views like these.

 

When I laid my son down for a nap today I hopped on the rollers and did a little cycling while watching The Walking Dead on Netfix. Thank goodness for streaming movies and TV shows, otherwise indoor cycling would be torture!

Currently my metabolic rate is a little above 3,000 calories. Yesterday I burned 822 calories and ate 2,607 calories. Another day of low carb diet success, I should hit my goal weight of 200 pounds no later than mid summer 2013. I'm currently 227.

triathlon fitness: a long way to go

Tonight after laying our three babies down to sleep my wife and I watched a 45 minute TV show on Netflix and I hopped onto the indoor rollers to gain a little extra cycling fitness. I felt this was appropriate since cycling is my weakest sport and it is Arnold's strength. Plus who couldn't use a little extra calorie burn? My average for the workout was much better than it was this morning. Tonight I averaged 12.9 mph, this morning I averaged less than 11. I'm out of shape, but it doesn't matter where I'm at, it just matters where I'm going. And tonight I moved in the right direction.

There aren't many wives who would be OK with their husband riding a bike, breathing heavy, and sweating in the room while she's trying to watch a television show. I'm a very lucky man.

This morning I weighed in at 227 pounds. I'm down 9 and have 27 more to get to my goal weight. 27 pounds is a total of 94,500 calories, but who's counting right?

chasing Arnold day 3

Friday was my first day back to training after having surgery on October 12th. I ran a little over three miles. Considering how little I've trained this year I felt pretty good.

Saturday was a triathlon rest/recovery day for my kids soccer and some time for my wife and I.

This morning I rode my bike for the first time in a VERY long time. I started a little before 7 AM when there was enough ambient light to ride safely. After only a few miles a large truck passed me pulling a horse trailer and I immediately came back home and finished the rest of my workout on my indoor trainer. A little over a year ago I got ran over by a vehicle while cycling, since then I've struggled to ride outdoors near traffic.

I've lost most of my cycling fitness in the last year, so my indoor cycling workout was terrible. My rpms kept slipping below 85 and when I tried to increase my cadence above 85 per minute my heart rate would sky rocket into zone 3. I wrapped up my workout after an hour so that I could get the kids up and ready for church. In that hour of riding the rollers my average pace was less than 12 mph. I have a LONG ways to go until I'm able to accomplish one of my personal goals of beating Arnold Ceniceros, the champion (multiple years) of the Clydesdale open division in South West Challenge series. At the Eagle in the sun triathlon in El Paso Texas in September Arnold Ceniceros swam 400 meters in 8:06, biked 12 miles keeping a whopping 20.2 mile an hour pace, and ran 5 kilometers keeping an average pace of 9:36, he finished in 1 hour 16 mintues. My average race swim and running times are comparable to his, but I've only had a few races in my life that I was that fast on the bike, and I'm no where near average right now. If I'm going to try competing against ol' speedy Ceniceros I have to get MUCH MUCH faster. There's a LONG road of training ahead of me.

2012 South West Challenge series year end results

The only race left that needs to be tallied for the 2012 South West Challenge Series year end results are the Cotton Country sprint triathlon. Rather than wait for the series point counter I looked up the Cotton Country sprint triathlon results and figured out who the winners for each division are on my own. I'm %90 certain these are correct. I listed some amazing performances for the 2012 South West Challenge series below, the SW series points are listed below that.

The Age Group that had that had the highest combined points total for the top 3 in their AG was the male 60-64 with 214 points between them. They finished 29 races between the top three!!!

The male 20-25 AG was the age group with the closest finish between the top 3 finishers, the top 3 were separated by only 2 points!

Sara Hall and Flip Lyle competed in the most SW series races with 14 races in 2012! Sara Hall also completed 12 races in 2011, 15 in 2010, 16 in 2009, and 8 in 2008 for a total of 65 races in 5 years!!!

Robert Browning had the highest points for the 2012 South West Challenge series with 80.75.

Scott Darling of the 60-64 AG had the most age group victories with 9 races finished in 1st place in his AG in 2012!

In 2012 Flip Lyle of the 65-69 male AG had the largest margin of victory with 33 points over 2nd place.

There are 3 athletes in the men 35-39 who are tied for third place with 48 points!

Below are the 2012 South West Challenge Series age group winners.
Clydesdale open division
Champion B. Laird 57 points
2nd place A Ceniceros 45 points
3rd placeJ Sanchez 41 points

Clydesdale masters division
Champion M. Mowles 79 points
2nd place J. McClure 54 points

Male 20 and under:
Champion Josh Gordon 69 points
2nd place- Ben Campbell- 68 points
3rd place- Alex Bradbury- 50 points

male 20-24
Champion William Kessler 31.5 points

male 25-29
Champion Michael Castaneda 49 points
2nd place Matt Gonzales 48 points
3rd place Gage Bonestroo 47 points

male 30-34
Champion Dustin Ward 65 points
2nd place- Randolph Knox 49 points
3rd place- Jason Atkinson 48 points

male 35-39
Champion Price Lawhon 65 points
2nd place- Cody Hanson 50 points
T- 3rd place- Matt Hall 48 points
T- 3rd place- Jeremy Harwood 48 points
T-3rd place Jan Grande 48 points

male 40-44
Champion R. Browning 80 points
2nd place A. Lugo 58 points
3rd place G. Heredia 51 points

male 45-49
Champion J. Kehrle 80 points
2nd place G. Garcia 68 points
3rd place S. Crane 64 points

male 50-54
Champion R. Reynold 68 points
2nd place B. Gonzales 60 points
3rd place G. Southard 56.25 points

male 55-59
Champion C. Armstrong 78.24
2nd place L. Barfield 72 points
3rd place J Jackson 71 points

male 60-64
Champion S. Darling 80 points
2nd place R. Wiggs 72 points
3rd place M. Strum 62 points

male 65-69
Champion F. Lyle 80 points (14 races)
2nd place G Sargent 47 points

male 70-74
Champion K. O'Connor 78 points
2nd place M. Greer 48 points

75+
Champion R. Park 70 points

Athena masters division
Champion S. Hall 76 points (14 races!!!)
2nd place P. Miller 35

Female 25-29
Champion A. Howell 45 points
2nd place I. Speer 41 points
3rd place A. Wagner 39 points

Female 30-34
Champion R Ruiz 57 points
2nd place S. Bailes 30 points

Female 35-39
Champion D. Sather 43 points

Female 40-44
Champion D. Steele 80 points
2nd place S Heredia 65 points

Female 45-49
Champion D. Steele 80 points
2nd place S. Heredia 65 points

Female 50-54
Champion K. Carlsen 70 points
2nd place H. Crane 67 points
3rd place S. Crewe 60.25 points

Female 55-59
Champion J. Herbert 50.25oints
2nd place P. Baker 50 points

Female 60-64
Champion M. Balsiger 47 points

Female 65-69
Champion C. Akright

a triathlete extraordinaire is back, and I want to race against him!

Since I'll be racing as a Clydesdale next year I was looking at some of the race results and found a name I hadn't heard in a long time: Arnold Ceniceros. He was one of the fastest Clydesdales I'd ever raced against, but a few years ago he graduated from UTEP and moved away. I was very excited to see Arnold Ceniceros is back in the area and racing again. Not only was he a tremendous athlete but more importantly he was a great person.

When I was looking at some of his race times I saw he is still one seriously FAST triathlete! I've raced him dozens of times and never even came close to beating him. One of my bucket list goals had been to beat him in a triathlon. Now that he's back it looks like I have a new goal for 2013, to beat Arnold Ceniceros in a triathlon. That's a pretty lofty goal, one I've never even come close to accomplishing before, but one I'm very motivated to accomplish. Looks like a season of ultra endurance trail running will have to wait awhile, because I'm on the hunt! Time to start healing up from the surgery I had on Friday and get into serious training mode!

This is Arnold:

South West Challenge series points almost totaled!

There's only 2 more races left to be tallied for the 2012 South West Challenge Series! The Elephant Man olympic triathlon and the Cotton Country triathlon. So far, with just 2 more races needed to be counted, there are seven triathletes in the 35-39 age group who are still in contention for the coveted top 3 awards in the South West!!!!

35-39 Age Group
58 points- Price Lawhon
49 points Cody Hanson
48 points- Jeremy Harwood
48 points- Jan Grande
46 points- Mathew Hall
44 points- Mike Edwards
38 points- Valentin Ramirez

I'm still 232 pounds and the first two races of the 2013 multisport season are only 7 weeks away so I'm certain I'll be racing in the Clydesdale open division next year. These are the top in the Clydesdale open division with 2 more races left to be tallied. This divisions year end points aren't nearly as close, but the athletes in contention are very fast.

Clydesdale open division:

57 points- Brett Laird
45 points- Arnold Ceniceros
35 points- Jeremy Sanchez
28 points- Martin Hedge

My daughter is only a few years away from competing in adults triathlons so I looked up their points totals for the season for the female 20 and under division and there isn't a single female under the age of 20 who completed the minimum 5 races to be eligible for awards in the South West Challenge series. Looks like my daughter will probably be able to take top 3 in the Female 20 at the age of 10 just by completing 5 races!!!!

temporary digression

I'd been on a low carb diet I'd read about in the book "The art and science of low carb performance" for two and a half weeks. In that time I'd lost 17 pounds. Although I was getting fantastic results I became frustrated because that book didn't go into a lot of detail about how to eat their version of a low carb diet, so I started eating a more traditional diet for endurance athletes and promptly shot back up to 235 pounds. The book "The art and science of low carb performance" mostly explained why a low carb diet works for ultra endurance athletes. The book said I should buy the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" for a more detailed explanation of how to eat his version of a low carb diet. So I purchased the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" and started reading it last night. I'm back on the low carb diet as of this morning and am expecting a lot of the confusion I had previously to be worked out by this book.

Today I went on a 9 mile run and it hurt. My problem during the run wasn't my endurance. My endurance was sufficient. My problem was that I'm just to heavy to run long distances right now. My body was beat the heck up after that run. I'm very motivated about training for my first 50k ultra endurance trail run, but I'm afraid I need to postpone training for an ultra until I'm at a lower body weight. Hopefully now that I have the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" I'll be more capable of getting to that lower body weight so I can resume training for my goal of earning my 1st ultra endurance trail run belt buckle.

The 2012 Warrior triathlon race report

On Sunday October 7th I competed in The Warrior triathlon, it was my 1st off road triathlon, and my 82nd multisport race. This year the Warrior triathlon was held at the Albuquerque Academy. It was a 5k run, 12k bike, and 400 yard swim. The run and bike utilized the dirt and sand trails inside the Alb Academy. There were plenty of help, over 60 volunteers. The course was a ton of fun, it was well marked and had multiple volunteers at every twist and turn so we never had to worry about getting lost or turned around.

The run was mostly hard packed dirt with a few sandy sections. It was uphill and challenging on the 1st half, down hill and blazing fast on the 2nd half. My run time was a slow and grueling 29:19.

The bike course had some flat hard packed dirt sections, some asphalt, some sandy technical sections, and even a couple ravines that we had to dismount and run our bikes through. I was nervous about the bike, this only the 3rd time I'd ridden a mountain bike off of the black top, so i knew I was out of my realm. Considering my total lack of experience riding a mountain bike and on trails I was content with my performance. My bike time was 41:47.

The swim course vastly different than any pool swim I'd ever done. It was held indoors and utilized two two hundred yard pools. The 1st 200 yards was in a salt water pool, then we exited the 1st pool and ran to a 2nd pool that was a normal pool. I'd never swam in a salt water pool, that was awesome. Having to get out of one pool half way through the swim and run to another to finish the last half of the swim reminded me of Ironman Florida's swim. I felt the split swim with a salt water pool was great fun and made for a perfect end to a fantstic and unique triathlon. Over all this was the most fun I'd ever had at a triathlon. My swim time was 8:16.

I take my hat off to Mark Mico, the race director of the Warrior triathlon.

My total race time was 1:19:20, I finished 7th out of ten in the 35-39 age group and 62nd out of 220 overall.

Just before the start of the race my front tire went flat. Turns out I'd forgot my tire irons at home. Thankfully a guy by the name of Brian Gutierrez jumped in and lent me his. While changing my tire I broke one of his tire irons, but he was ok with it. I was grateful for his willingness to help out. If anyone knows this guy, tell him I said thank you.

The South West Challenge series male 35-39 AG standings

In one of my recent posts I blogged about the South West Challenge series male 35-39 AG points standings. That post was actually incorrect because I forgot to include the results for the Cotton Country triathlon that happened a couple weeks ago. The only triathlete who competed in the Cotton Country triathlon who is currently in contention for the SW Challenge series 35-39 AG was Cory Adair. His strong finish at the Cotton Country triathlon shot Cory Adair up to a solid 3rd place tie with Matt Hall. The 6 triathletes who are in contention for 2nd and 3rd place in the 35-39 AG in the series are only separated by 8 points!!!!!!!

I'm not going to be able to compete in the Holloman triathlon this weekend, so it looks like any one of the 6 triathletes who race the Holloman triathlon may end up knocking me out of the top 3 and taking 2nd or 3rd place in the series.

The SW challenge series 35-39 AG points standings is currently:

1st place Price Lowhon with 65 points
2nd place Cody Hanson with 46 points
T-3rd place Matt Hall with 41 points
T-3rd Cory Adair also with 41 points
T-5th place Jan Grande with 38 points
T-5thplace Valentin Ramirez also with 38 points
7th place Mike Edwards with 36 points

Rebuilding my base fitness or programming the Garmin forerunner 305 heart rate limits

In my opinion the most frustrating part of training for endurance sports is having to rebuild my base. An athlete needs to rebuild their base after they finish a workout routine that is based on periodization, or after taking some time off from training.

Since I took off nearly 4 months from training my base fitness is horrible. When I jog my heart rate shoots up into zone 3 very quickly. Then I have to stop and walk to get my heart rate back into the base building zone, or zone 2. Running slowly, even jogging with frequent bouts of walking is a frustrating but is a necessary aspect of becoming a fast runner.

One of the things that has helped me to run in the proper heart rate to build fitness is programing my Garmin Forerunner 305 to beep anytime my heart rate rises above zone 2. Here's how:
Go to the main menu, highlight training, push enter (bottom right button)
Highlight training options, press enter.
Highlight alerts, press enter.
highlight HR alerts, press enter.
Highlight Max HR Alert, press enter.
Highlight which zone you want to avoid exceeding, press enter.

Now you can run knowing your training in the proper zone without having to look at your heart rate monitor every few seconds.