RECOVERY AND A FUN MONDAY (Guest Post by James' Better Half)



Waiting for the ferry to the
 Outer Banks!



With James' calf still a bit tender, we decided to take an easy weekend and went out to explore the Carolina coast.  We had great weather and James even got to swim in the Atlantic for the first time since, well... maybe the first time ever!  It's already 74 degrees in the water, quite a bit toastier than our old friend the NorCal Pacific, even at its warmest.



James' calf is definitely on the mend, but he still wanted to take it easy at the start of the week, so he decided to stick with riding and swimming. On Monday, James went for a fun ride with his better half (me) around Chapel Hill.  It was our first ride together in a long time, and it was nice to have to be James' wheel again. Plus, I'm a great action photographer. 

After our quick ride together, James hopped on the spin bike for another 75 minutes to put in some hard efforts. I request that you, dear readers, take note of  my awesome xtracycle in the back of the photo-- it's an amazing cargo commuter, and I commute to UNC every day on it.  James' tells all his friends that "she's in love with it." see: http://www.xtracycle.com/

After all of that, it was time to refuel and rest before James' evening swim.  James is gearing up for the rest of the week and excited to start running again.

INJURED AND SICK (APRIL 25 - MAY 8)

After the sprint triathlon I was looking forward to getting back into some high volume training with a focus on the run.  My run has underperformed this season and with a tweak in the training program I was to start to put in some more mileage. 

Monday's workout called for a swim in the AM and then a brick workout  (bike/run) in the PM.  The swim went well.  I swam 3500 yards and each day I am beginning to feel stronger and stronger in the water.  The bike workout for the day was a 20 minute warm-up followed by 25 X 1 minute low cadence/high watts intervals, with one minute recovery between each.  The bike was going to plan, I was really putting everything I had into it, riding at a cadence of 40-55 and putting out about 320-340 watts.  On the last few I gave it everything I had.  After the bike, I jumped on the treadmill which called for 4 sets of 5 minutes at 5:40 pace and 3 minutes at 5:20 pace (with a minute between each interval).  I only made it 9 minutes into the run before my left calf started to hurt with each step.  Deciding that this was not good, I ended the run and started to ice my calf.   I had strained a few tendons around the soleus muscle.   The next few days were spent only swimming, riding and icing.   

Saturday means the P-Ride.




As always the ride delivered a great workout. I love this ride and really pushed it today. I jumped on the trainer after the ride and put in an additional 45 minutes of riding. A funny thing happened on the ride. I made an attack on a long climb, trying to really push the pace.  While climbing, I looked down at my cycling computer and thought, that's good I'm riding 18.4 mph up this hill. Then I looked again, I was going 18.0 mph, but the number I saw was my heart rate, 184 beats a minute! I did not think this old man's heart could get that high. I chuckled a bit and then kept hammering away.

After a training regiment of only swimming and riding, I had not seen any improvement in my calf and was still unable to run.  After Thursday's (5.5.2011) bike workout, I decided to take some time off my legs and only swim.     

In addition to my calf giving me some issues, my Crohn's has flared up and I am struggling to get it under control.  Each flare up impacts my daily activity and also my affects my confidence as an athlete.  That is, it is tough for me to think I'm a top triathlete when I know first hand my body is not functioning the way it should .  I've seen a couple doctors, started a new medication program, and hopefully will put out this flare up shortly. 

Time to rest up and heal.   

TRIANGLE ORTHOPEDICS SRPINT RACE AND UPDATE (APRIL 18 - APRIL 24)

I was not too pleased with my performance at Memorial Texas 70.3.  After a week of rest and recovery, I was back to full training with a new focus on running.  Why running?  Well, I seemed to have lost my run in my move across country.  Hopefully I will find it soon. 

The week of training went well.  I continued to swim well and put together some strong rides.  The key workout was a track/treadmill workout consisting of 13 X 800s on Thursday night.  After the workout my legs were toast, super tired.  It felt great.   

Through a friend a learned of a local sprint triathlon scheduled for Saturday, so I decided to give it go.  I want to work on my transitions and just get more racing under my belt.  I'm still a little rusty when it comes to some of the finer points of racing, such as, swim starts and T1 and T2 transistions (swim to bike and bike to run, respectively). 

With my legs still sore from Thursday workout, I woke up early Saturday morning headed over to NC State. 

TRIANGLE ORTHOPEDICS SPRINT TRIATHLON 54:l9 (Course Record)

Swim -- 9:05 (2nd Fastest Swim; 9:04 fastest swim of the day)
The one aspect of this season that has been going very well is my swimming.  At the beginning of the year I thought it was going to be my weakness, but through the first 4 months of training, I have made huge improvements and I am almost back to my 2006 form.  I credit Dave Williams and his Tuesday/Thursday pro tri swim workouts.  The workouts are great, the fellow athletes super training partners, and the combination of the two have me swimming fast.

The plan for this swim was to swim with a friend and fellow pro swim training partner.  In the pool Thys is a bit stronger of a swimmer than I, so I just wanted to jump on his feet and stay with him through the 750 meters.  As we warmed up, Thys pointed out another athlete that was strong, so now I had two sets of feet to swim on.  The gun sounded and we were off.  We swam the first 250 meters at a nearly all out pace.  At 300 meters I jumped on the feet of  the other competitor and we swam together the rest of the way.  I exited the water one second behind the first swimmer and had a good lead on most of the other competitors.  This was a great swim for me.      

Bike -- 25:33 (Fastest Split of the Race)


Start of the Bike.  I get up to speed then put the feet
into the shoes



I had a quick transition and was the first athlete onto the bike.  Now in first, I wanted to stay there.  The plan here was simple, ride the bike as hard as I could and build a lead.  The course was fun, with some rolling hills that made it challenging.  I rode the first 10 minutes of the ride at an almost all-out pace before I settled into a more comfortable pace.  With no fellow athletes in sight, I headed into T2 to transition to the run.

Run -- 17:32 (Fastest Split of the Race)

Not sure what to write about the run other than it's still missing.  The run was around the NC State campus, it had some challenging hills and my legs definitely felt the track workout I did on Thursday.  I settled into a decent pace and worked on pushing through the hills and running strong.  I came through 3 miles in 16:48 (see Garmin file below) and the 5K course in 17:32. 

I had built a good size gap on the bike and increased my lead by about 40 seconds on the run.  In the end I came away with the win by 3:08, with my friend and training partner Thys coming in second.

On Sunday, I followed up the race with a nice ride and saw more of the great riding here in Chapel Hill. 



In all it was a fun week.  Elizabeth's parents were in town so they were there supporting me on Saturday, and Elizabeth and I had a fun time with them over the weekend.   

Podium at the Triangle Orthopedics Srpint Triathon

Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3

After Oceanside 70.3 I felt very confident that I could put together a strong a performance at Texas 70.3.  Competing in back to back 70.3 races is not easy but I felt my performance at Oceanside was not indicative of my fitness level and my legs felt surprisingly good throughout the week.  I was looking forward to having a great race in Texas. 

The week of workouts was relatively mellow.  I joined Tower 26 for a few swim workouts and was feeling great in the water.  I only had two concerns going into the race, my ear was still bothering from getting kicked on Saturday and my feet were full of blisters.  I saw a doctor about my ear, and I had a few tricks up my sleeve to treat the blisters (crazy glue), so I was ready to race. 

On Thursday, I headed out to Dallas to meet up with a friend and then drive to Galveston on Friday.

Swim: 23:35

I wanted to avoid the hits to the head that I received last weekend and lined up in the first row of athletes.  I lined up to the right side of the starting line and soon realized I may have lined up on the wrong side.  The gun sounded and a pack of 15-20 athletes formed about 30 meters to the left of me.  At this point I had to make a decision, stick with the four swimmers I was with, or cut to the left and try to join the first group.  If I cut left, I feared I would not make the group.  I decided to stick with the group on the right in the hopes that we would merge at one of the buoys.  From that point on, the swim was rather uneventful.  I did swim the 1.2 mile course with one of the greatest triathletes in the world, Chris Lietto (the eventual winner of the race).  I exited the water in 24th place about 1:00 behind the main group. 

  

Bike: 2:13:59 

The swim had not gone as planned.  I had hoped to come out with the first group and then work with the first group on the bike.  The bike course was flat, however, there was a 15-25 mph headwind/crosswind for the first 28 miles and a tailwind/crosswind on the last 28 miles. 

After a quick transition, I jumped onto the bike and began looking for athletes to ride with.  I came out of the water with Chris Lietto, maybe the best cyclist in the world of triathlon, Kevin Everett and Michael Lavato.  Lietto is too strong, so I never thought of riding with him, but Lavato would be a good guy to try to stay with.  Unfortunately that would not be the case today.  The crosswind prevented any benefits of riding with another rider and I rode the 54 of the 56 miles solo, either passing athletes that were struggling in the wind or being passed by stronger riders.  The ride was going well for the first 20 miles or so when I then started to have some stomach problems.  I am not sure of the cause of my upset stomach, but over the next 35 miles, I the fluids I took in over the bike all came back up.  The only nice thing about the strong winds were that when I got sick, it blew away in the wind.  This affected my caloric intake.  I am not sure how many of the 800 calories I wanted to consume actually stayed consumed but I struggled into T2 and wanted to give the run a go.  

Run 1:30:11

I started the run with a positive attitude and I thought I could put together a sub 1:20 run and come in under 4:00 for the race.  The run course was a four loop course and within each loop there were many turns and round abouts. 

The run started off well and I put together a sub 6:00 minute first mile.  However,  after the first turn around I started to cramp in my right hamstring and began to lose my focus.  My form was falling apart and my mile times were increasing.  Miles 2 was a 6:40 mile.  Mile 3 a 6:33 mile.  Then it went down hill, the next 10 miles were very tough.  I was now running 6:40-7:30 minute miles and losing ground to the guys ahead of me.  The guys behind me were also running up to me.      

After the first lap I really planned on stopping and calling it a day some where on the run course.  Today was not my day and I was running poorly.  I thought, I'll run 3 laps, about 9.5 miles, and that will be a good workout.  However, with about a mile to go in the third lap, a fellow pro and friend. Lewis Elliot caught me.  I've known Lewis for about 10 years, since we first met at the Malibu Triathlon in 2001.  Both Lewis and I were having a tough race, so after a short hello, I told him I was planning to quit at the turn around.  Lewis quickly replied don't quit, walk this in if you have to.  He was right, it's not my day, but I needed to keep going show some perseverance and finish this race.  The final lap was similar to the first 3 laps I never felt good and slogged my way through to the finish.  I was not so proud of the time or my place in the race, however, I am proud I kept going on a very difficult day for me, it will only make me stronger for future races.  

Final Thoughts

I definitely did not perform up to my abilities today but as to why I am still searching for a few answers.  It's unlikely there was a single reason for my sub-par race but rather a combination of causes that affected my performance.  First, my fitness level on the bike and run need to improve.  Second, I need to work on nutrition and avoid getting sick on the bike.  Third, I need to minimize my mistakes on the swim.  Fourth, and finally I need to take into consiferation my health.  I've been experiencing a bit of a flare up the past few weeks and it likely affected my performance towards the end of the race.   

Next up is some lots more training.  I need to refocus on my bike and run and hope to have some better legs for the next race.  The next race will be Florida 70.3 on May 15.   

OCEANSIDE 70.3 (First Race of 2011)

I arrived in Los Angeles on the 26th.  On Sunday, I headed out for the last tough workout with my twin brother, as we did three hill repeat loops, with each loop about 25 to 27 minutes.  I felt great on the bike, very strong climbing, but strugggled a bit on the descents and with the headwind. 




Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were full or work and little rest.  However, it was great to see all the Orrick LA people and get a couple of transactions closed. 

RACE

I was not sure what to expect from this race, the professional field was stacked and this was my first race with the top athletes since October 2006. 

SWIM 24:52

I have been putting some good time in the pool, and I am regaining the form I had back in 2006. However, I made a key mistake in lining up for the swim start. I placed myself in the second row of athletes.  I thought I could just follow the guys ahead of me, and therefore be right on their feet. Well, that plan did not work. Once the gun went off the guys in front of me sprinted away (that was planned), but then the guys to their right and left moved to the center to try to get on their feet and in doing so, kicked and punched me a few times. My water polo days taught me how to deal with this, I deflected most blows with my forearms, kept my head up to avoid a direct kick to the face and nose, but I did receive a perfectly placed foot to my ear which I am still feeling today. After about 300 meters the water became choppy, my short polo stroke helped me here, I swam around some slower atheltes, found some clear water and joined the tail end of the firtst pack of swimmers.  I came out of the water in 12th, not great, but ahead of a lot of guys and a good place to start the bike.

BIKE 2:20:36

My bike is my weak link right now. I still need to develop some of the strength for the full 56 miles. At around mile 5 I was caught by a big group that included, Rapp, Hoffman, Lietto, Symonds, Liegh and Schildknect (some of the top cyclist in the sport). This was perfect, my plan was to work with this group through the bike and get off the bike ready to run. All was going well until mile 25, at which time I ran into California's budget woes and lack of infrastructure improvements; I hit a large pothole and out went one of my water bottles; so much for those 200 calories. Next mishap occurred at mile 30 and the first climb. I hit the climb feeling great but my bike did not feel the same. I tried to climb in the 21 or 23 but the bike would have none of it, so I was stuck climbing in the 19, which meant climbing out of the saddle. This was not too bad, I crossed the hill second in group and hung on as the heavier guys flew down the hill. At mile 35 or so, I had a nice introduction to what cycling is all about. Mike Weiss came flying by and blew the up the group. I was at the end of the pack, and by the time I realized what was happening, a big gapped had formed, and I was not with the faster guys. I would ride with Symonds and Hoffman until mile 52 and at that point, the wind was too much for me, and I rode last 4 miles alone.

RUN: 1:24:26

My run had been on fire the last few weeks and I anticipated a sub 1:18 run. However, the bike was a bit too much for me. I started off well, plugging away at 6:10 pace through the first 7 miles, but at mile 7, it went quickly to 6:40-7:00 pace. I was passed by 4 guys in the last 4 miles and finished in 4:13 and 22nd place. Not bad for my re-entry to the pro world and I expect some much faster performances to come.  Finishing 22nd was not my goal, but a 4:13 on a tough course is a good result, and I have lots of room for imrpovement. 

Lastly, thanks to KAWAMI, the race kit is awesome.  

Next up Memorial Texas 70.3 on Sunday, April 10.

GETTING FIT (March 7 - March 13)

I have put in some great workouts over the past few weeks and I am beginning to see the results of the hard work.  In addition, I signed up for my first two races of the year:

IM 70.3 California April 2 (Oceanside, California)

IM 70.3 U.S Pro Championships April 10 (Galveston, Texas)

Also, I'm happy to announce that Kiwami has offered to be my racing kit sponsor.  Kiwami produces the fastest suits in triathlon and I can't wait to race in the new kit at IM CA 70.3. 

My Monday Brick turned out really well this week; a relief after I really struggled with it the last two weeks. Coming into Mondays my legs were feeling trashed and I couldn't stick the really tough intervals at the end of the workout. I took Sunday's run easy (following my workout program) and came into Monday ready to put a huge effort in on the brick and make the times, and I did! Not only did completing the workout make me feel good, but it also reinforced that I need to stay on my program and get in quality efforts and easy sessions.

The workout calls for a 60 minute bike ride.  The bike consists of a 20 minute warm up and then 20 x 1 minute hard efforts with 1 minute easy in between. 

A transition run follows the ride.  The run consists of the following 4 sets of intervals:
(1) 5 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy)
(2) 5 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy)
(3) 5 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy)
(4) 5 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy)

I killed the workout and even dropped the pace to 5:15 on the last effort.  I'm feeling fit. 
 
In addition to feeling great on the run, I felt great in the pool too.  Two weeks in a row of great swims.  I'm feeling like a swimmer again.
Saturday's workout was the key workout for the week and completed an excellent week of training. 

73 mile ride with JP, including a 45 minute effort, 30 minute effort and 15 mintue effort; followed by a T-run .



Transition Run with JP

The T-Run started off well.  We went out in 5:35 pace and then threw in a 5:25 pace for the second mile and a bit before easing into 3 minutes at 6:30 running. The next 12 minutes wasn't quite as kind to me -- a coupld of minutes in I started to feel the effects of the first running effort (oh yeah, and that little bike ride we did too!). On a hill when JP put the hurt on me and started to pull away, I tried to surge and hang on, but my heartrate shot up to 178. I knew I needed to bring it down and focus on keeping good quality work for the next 9 minutes.  I slowed my pace from 5:30 to closer to 6:00 minutes, let JP get away, but still hung in there the best I could.  My heart rate lowered to 170 or so, and I was able to regroup and finish off the 12 minute effort with a 5:50 mile.




This was an excellent workout, thanks to JP's company (and he kept me honest!).  To put those efforts in on the bike and the run gave me the confidence that I can go to IM 70.3 CA and put together a good race. Only a few weeks til I get to put all of this training to the test. I'm getting fired up for the start of the season!     

BREAK THROUGH WORKOUT (February 28- March 6)

Over the past few weeks I have begun to see some real improvements in my swim.  My muscles are remembering what is to be a swimmer and with each workout I am getting a little stronger and fitter. 


Thursday was a break though workout in the pool.  A break though workout is a workout that takes your training to another level, it literally breaks through the training plateau you may be on.  It can be anything for anybody, for example, running 1 mile, when you're previous best was a half mile, or running 10 miles at a specific pace, when a few months ago that pace was too tough.  For me, I had a break through workout in the pool.

The set was a tough one:
300, 200, 100, 300, 200, 100 followed by 100, 200, 300, 100, 200, 300. 
The 300's were to be swum at a "brisk pace" and the goal was to swim the 100's all out.  The workout was tough, but at the end of it, I hit all the times the coach was looking for (300s in 3:20 and 100s under 1:05)..  A few weeks ago this workout would have been impossible for me to accomplish, but with 6 weeks of consinstent training, I did it.  I am very pleased to know I am progressing well.  Thanks Dave!  You're making me fit. 


Friday called for a long ride.  I with a couple of friends ventured to the North Carolina Mountains.  Nothing too strenuous, other than nearly FREEZING the first hour.  When we started the ride the outside temperature was 38 degrees (I missed CA at that time).  However, I enjoyed being back out for a long ride.  The mountains and scenery reminded me of some my favorite rides in NorCal and it was great to have some time on the bike to see the beautiful North Carolina mountains. 



After a long week of training, my legs were very tired.  A key aspect of my success this year will be understanding that I am a little older and little more fragile than I was when I was racing in my twenties.  Keeping that in mind, I stayed true to my program and ran 70 minutes easy on Sunday.  My better half joined me, offering excellent pacing and company, and we explored around the neighborhood; I think I may have a found another cafe to go to as well, I'll have to try it to relax after an upcoming long run or ride.

FEBRUARY 21-27 (Oh-No)

A friend and fellow professional triathlete Alex McDonald was unfortunately involved in a very serious cycling accident Thursday.  I just returned from visiting Alex in the hospital, he's recovering and in good spirits, but has two broken legs.  It's really amazing how positive Alex is considering the circumstances. 

Below are a couple of links regarding Alex's accident.

Alex's Blog

XTRI.COM Report

 

TRAINING SICK (Week of February 7 to February 13)

Monday (Great set of workouts after cheering on the Packers Sunday night)

3000 yard swim.

1 hour on the trainer with 20 times 1 minute efforts riding a big gear (lots of resistance) 1 minute easy.

Immediately followed by a Transition Run:

4 Sets of:

5 minutes at 5:20/mile pace; 1 minute at 8:00/mile pace; 3 minutes at 5:25/mile pace; 1 minute at 8:00/mile pace;

10 minutes of easy running. 

Tuesday morning (Hard swim)
Great swim 4500 yards.

Uh-oh, while having breakfast with my better half after the swim, I sneezed a couple times, and I never sneeze.  She too found this interesting.  I thought, oh no big deal, must be the chlorine from the pool, or the cold air outside, I am not sick.  Tuesday called for no more workouts.  I had a bit of work to take care of so I decided to get on with the day and get on with work. 

Sure enough, Tuesday night, I was super sick. 

In hindsight, I may have backed off the effort I put forward Tuesday morning (I swam hard).  I usually take my heart rate every morning when I awake and when things are good, it's between 37 and 42 depending upon the previous day's workouts and how well I rested that night.  On Monday morning it was 37.  However, on Tuesday morning it had elevated to 49.  That's a good indication that my immune system was beginning to battle something.

I remember reading an article in the NY Times regarding training while sick. 

[S]cientists from the University of Illinois and other schools first infected laboratory mice with flu. One group then rested; a second group ran for a leisurely 20 or 30 minutes, an easy jog for a mouse; the third group ran for a taxing two and a half hours. Each group repeated this routine for three days, until they began to show flu symptoms. The flu bug used in this experiment is devastating to rodents, and more than half of the sedentary mice died. But only 12 percent of the gently jogging mice passed away. Meanwhile, an eye-popping 70 percent of the mice in the group that had run for hours died, and even those that survived were more debilitated and sick than the control group.

I realized, I was likely exposed to a bug Saturday, Sunday or Monday, and my 16 mile run on Sunday, followed by a bike ride, coupled with the tough workouts on Monday put me the "eye-popping" category of the poor mice that had the 70% mortality rate.

Time for action.  Another study concluded that:

[O]nce you’ve caught a bug, intense exercise can make the symptoms and severity worse. In work at the University of Illinois, reported last month in the journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Review, some of the same scientists who’d studied mice and flu looked at just what was going on inside the cells of the affected animals. They found that the leisurely jogging rodents showed signs of a very particular immune response to the flu. In general, and this is true in both mice and men, says Jeffrey A. Woods, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois and one of the scientists involved, viruses evoke an increase in what are called T1-type helper immune cells. These T1-helper cells induce inflammation and other changes in the body that represent a first line of defense against an invading virus. But if the inflammation, at first so helpful, continues for too long, it becomes counterproductive. The immune system needs, then, at some point to lessen the amount of T1-mediated inflammatory response, so that, in fighting the virus, it doesn’t accidentally harm its own host. The immune system does this by gradually increasing the amount of another kind of immune cell, T2-helper cells, which produce mostly an anti-inflammatory immune response. They’re water to the T1 fire. But the balance between the T1- and T2-helper cells must be exquisitely calibrated.

In the mice at the University of Illinois, moderate exercise subtly hastened the shift from a T1 response to a T2-style immune response — not by much, but by just enough, apparently, to have a positive impact against the flu. “Moderate exercise appears to suppress TH1 a little, increase TH2 a little,” Woods says.

I was throwing my lot with the moderately exercising mice.  Now how to do moderately exercise like a mouse?  I contacted my coach, we decided to throw all the hard workouts out until I felt better.  Every workout was downgraded and nothing was to be strenuous on my aerobic system and really elevate my heart rate.

I now had a plan of action, no hard workouts, only easy/moderate workouts.  I could not afford to tax the aerobic system. 

Wednesday, I ran 5 miles (the worst of the sick days).  I ran slow and easy, always keeping my heart rate under 150 beats/minute. 

Thursday, it was a longer run, 8 miles, but still very slow and easy (I actually walked the steep hills because running shot up my heart rate).  In the evening I rode an easy 1 hour and 10 minutes, again focusing on having a low heart rate throughout the ride. 

Photo by Chris Devers
Is that me or a moderately exercising mouse?

Friday was heavier work day, so it was 2 times 1 hour and 10 minute rides on the bike (1 in the am and 1 in the pm).

Saturday, still not 100% an easy 7 mile run again nothing hard.  

Sunday 2 and half hours of easy riding. 

Let's hope I kick this bug and get back to full workouts soon. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

LIMITS OR NO LIMITS (Week of January 31 to February 6)

Limits or No Limits:

Racing, training, or working, each of these activities press us to our limits and each of us have a different threshold for how much we can take. With respect to work last year, I counted 4 all nighters.  Since my days in law school or college, the all nighters have become more difficult and recovery takes much longer.  In my early racing days, I suffered through miles 20-26.2 of each marathon I ran, always running out of energy.  Even now, I sometimes find myself going too hard on a bike ride, only to struggle home the final few miles. 

As for working without sleep, that's simple, do it less and feel better.  However, that's not always an option when racing or training?  What’s the reason for the cracking, bonking or whichever word you prefer to use for the meltdown? Is it psychological or physiological? Is it a combination of both and how can we avoid it?

A key aspect to racing and training well is to make sure you are sufficiently replenishing your caloric needs while exercising.  As someone who suffers from Crohn's disease it can be even trickier.  When do I listen to my body and say enough is enough, and when do I push through and potentially cause some permanent damage?  Also, what can I do minimize these events and what can I do to make sure my body is in a place to really perform at the highest level.  It's a juggling act.  Below is a short description of my thoughts on the matter. 

I am often not absorbing the nutrients that I need to recover from tough workouts so in addition to taking my medications, I take the following supplements.     

Curcumin Phytosome
Omega 3-6-9 Fish Oil (liquid)
Zinc
Calcium/Magnesium
Vitamin B12 Floate

When I am racing, in order to avoid the bonk/blow-up/burn out, I need to ingest a certain number of calories per hour.  Every one's caloric number is different and our caloric needs depend on how big and lean one is and how fast one goes.

On the bike I need 500 calories per hour.  

For the run I use the following "back of the envelope" calculation: 

(1) Determine caloric expenditure per mile
     .63 x lean body mass

(2) Determine running pace and number of miles covered in 1 hour

(3) Calculate hourly expenditure based on running pace
     (Number of miles in 1 hour x step 1)

(4) Determine hourly caloric replacement needs
     (Research indicates runners can physically absorb 30% of what they expended)

For me and a half marathon:

(1) .63 x 144.6 = 91.1

Lean body weight is body weight less your percentage of fat.  For me, I weigh 154 lbs, with 6% body fat.
6% of 154 is 9.4.  My lean body weight equals 154 minus 9.4 (144.6)

(2) 5:20 per mile; covers 11.3 miles in 1 hour

(3) 11.3 x 91.1 = 1029

(4) 1029 x .3 = 308

In other words, for a half marathon, I need to consume roughly 310 calories per hour (which is about a drink of Gatorade and 2 Gu or Gel packets). 

I stumbled upon this Radio Lab episode and I found it most interesting.  How far can we push ourselves?  At what point do our bodies and minds simply say no more (click here for the episode)? 

As for training this was an especially fun week.  With the help of some motivated fellow swimmers and a great coach, I continued to make progress in the pool.  Thursday's swim workout was amazing, hard but amazing.  The main set was 100 yards sprinting immediately followed by 300 yards at a strong effort (we did this 4 times).  This type of workout is perfect for triathlon training, as it simulates the start of a race, when each athlete is sprinting to the first buoy and then settling into their race pace. 

I had four great runs and I am slowly but surely coming into good form.  The week ended with a long run and ride. The long run was fantastic. JP and  I ran in Umstead State Park.  The weather was perfect, the sky beautifully blue, and the hills, terrain and trails were some of the best I have ever run.