Donut Parties n' Gold Medals

Nicholas Sterghos and I always celebrate a race with a donut sampling party from the local donut hole. Munster Donuts, Munster IN

Every endurance athlete I've ever met has a very special relationship with food.  I would argue it's as unique as the training program from person to person.  Some folks want sushi before the race, some skip a traditional dinner pre-race and eat only 4 snickers bars.  Personally, I can say that I've tried just about everything.  Keeping it simple and familiar and FUN is key! 

Having spent countless hours calculating calories, processing exact meal macro nutrients and learning about how my body handles the lot, I've finally figured out what NOT to do right before a 70.3.  If you read about my St. George experience, I drastically under estimated my taper week calories because I failed to change gears out of weight loss mode.  Also, losing weight in peak-season is just silly...you end up losing some GRIT and raw power.  Feeling flat on race day is a serious bummer!!

I just completed Raleigh 70.3 a couple weeks ago and backed it up with an Olympic ITU type tri the following weekend.  Donuts were defiantly part of my fuel plan....no more cutting calories on race week. Pre and post race was nutrition was relaxed and I felt stronger from a power and endurance standpoint.  I obviously need to continue fine tuning this protocol but let's just say it'll be much more relaxed.  I'd also like to highlight I still kept to 90% of my normal eating habits...I didn't go willie nillie on twinkles, hobo's and ding dongs.  I just added a few extra treats I would normally shy away from...#YUM

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Raleigh 70.3 turned out to be a solid experience in that:
- I came out leading the second swim pack despite having a sluggish start
- Rode within 2% of my BestBikeSplit.com race plan
- Made it through the first half of the run feeling strong...before fading, sigh
- Had a TON of friends and family on course to support my emotional needs.

At the end of the race, I rode myself into 8th and ran myself into 13th.  Note to self----run faster you NARP!! (Non Athletic Regular Person) 

Armed Forces National Championship @ Leon's Triathlon

Two races with a long heritage combined once again for a tremendously moving event! Initially, I have to say that my heart was a little broken when I heard the California race was moved to Indiana.  It's no questions that staying a the beach hotel, being lulled to sleep by the Pacific is ideal (sorry Indiana).  However, the Pt Mugu race location is very isolated and lacks community support...mainly because it's on a isolated military base.  

On the other hand, Leon's Triathlon has YEARS of heritage, is proud to support veterans and couldn't have been better hosts!  I think it's safe to say as much as the Air Force team missed the beach, we couldn't have been more amped to race in front of a larger crowd and bring some more limelight to what Leon's Triathlon stands for.  They really rolled out the red carpet for all of the armed forces teams.  

For me draft legal racing is always a blast...if I manage to nail the swim.  Unfortunately, this swim will not make the "nailed it" list.  Despite being incredibly unorganized at the start and incredibly violent for 3 to 4 minutes, I couldn't get a solid line close to the buoys.  I still swam 20 min BUT know I could have brought a low 19.  Other highlights include...

- Lots of hard work on the bike (no thanks to the Navy)
- Working harder on the bike so the 3 AF guys in our group could run stronger!
- Running sub 6 min pace despite having blasted the legs
- Air Force WINNING GOLD!!  (after 3 years of silver)

After the race I planned to take my first ever WEEK OFF.  Again, unfortunately this was a forced week off anyway since I ended up getting pretty sick after.  I noticed after my recon swim Friday am, my voice was getting coarse and I started feeling a cough coming on.  I suppose the drop in temperature, downpour on the run and howling wind took my immune system down a bit more post race.  We even put our wetsuits on after the race to try and stay warm!! Either way, this week is an off week.  The rest of the race schedule is still going to plan so on 5 July I'll race in Canada for the first time!

Also...next time you see me on a bike I should be rocking my new Scott Plasma 5....

Thanks for reading, please let me know if you think you've found the best donut place EVER so I can add it to my list.