Buffalo Springs Update- a bit long Sorry!

Buffalo Springs 70.3 Race Report


It wasn’t the result that I was looking for yesterday. The past couple of weeks I have been fighting an illness that I have been some what hiding from a lot of people accept a couple of friends and family. So even though I was resting for the race, I was taking large doses of antibiotics through IV and in pill form, and since it wasn’t directly slowing down my training, I was in large amounts of pain and I was refusing to take the Codeine and other pain killers I was prescribed. Closer to the race, I had reduced my fever started to feel good, but still not peppy, I hadn’t had an appetite the whole week so my glycogen was most likely depleted before the start of the race. This blood poisoning that I had encountered could have not come at a worse time, as I was expecting to have a great showing in Lubbuck, as I had friends there watching, and more importantly I had my beautiful girlfriend Carley watching who came down to visit, and more importantly I wasn’t going to race poorly when she was forced to wake up at 4am on her birthday.

The weather was a change, it was very cold and bad storms had rolled in and viewing the lightening on the way to the race, I figured it was going to be a tough race, and very windy. Since I was using borrowed equipment I didn’t want to crash, and I didn’t want to end up in the hospital as I was getting sick of being sick. The start of the swim, I ran in and cut the corner with the rest of the group, and fell, hurting my foot badly and injuring my injured foot, taking off a nail. I was in a huge amount of pain, and running out of the water I knew I lost a bit of time to the leaders but still in a safe position. Even though I was used to fighting pain, it was no where near what I was going to face next. Getting an already hurt toe with no nail and a Cellulites infected swollen foot in a bike shoe was going to hurt. Every step hurt in and out of transition and I started to get in a groove on the bike, and noticed at the first out and back that the leaders had opened up a big gap but Paul Amey and Brandon Marsh where riding solo behind from the small pack at the front. I wanted to hurt for the next little while and try and keep them in reach. As the wind picked up and the rain started I found that my foot started to ache. I quickly lost motivation and found that I was so scared of crashing I road most of the race in a non aero position as a deep dish wheel and disk set up had me all over the road. Loosing motivation I was passed by 3 people and I was starting to get cold and I was in a large amount of pain and all I could think about was the run that was coming up. This wasn’t my race plan, my race plan was to be as close to the front as I could going into the run, so any pain in my foot would be some what masked by the fact that I was running for a great position and a much needed pay check. After a long slow run, some walking on the down hills to avoid anymore pressure on the front of my foot, I ended up being passed and came 11th.

This is very disappointing as my heart rate was 25 beats below the pace that it was in Florida and past races, so I know the lose of motivation and the pain I was experiencing resulted in a low effort and a poor placing. I am already excited to race next. I was very frustrated over the result but having great friends there watching helped. Since I had slowly put myself out of tough with a top 8 placing I slowly drifted back into a good pace, that made me evaluate what I was doing, I excepted I wasn’t at 100% and that the doctor was right telling me I would be crazy to race on my foot this weekend, and if he saw my foot after the swim, he would have probably pulled me out of the race. I started to experience what racing was all about when I first started racing, and I tried to cheer on all of my friends racing on my way back in who were heading out to start the ½ marathon. When I finished the race, I was pretty bitter, but when I saw Jack Weiss on the sidelines who yelled to me, I couldn’t help to step back and soak in that I am stronger for finishing and there are a lot of people that have loved to race today but couldn’t due to injury or illness so I should be happy to take part in such a great sport with great people and very sincere volunteer crew.

Chance and Doug came up to race the sprint and also cheered me on and I don’t think I could have finished with out knowing that they were watching, and knowing that Carley was up since 4am and standing on her feet for 4hours in the rain watching the race. As much as I wanted to do very well, even though I was out of the money I made a decision to finish and gain the boost in fitness that training and racing produces. I would like to thank everyone for watching and cheering, and especially for everyone that left me voice mails and emails before and after the race. I would like to apologize to all of the people watching online, I am sure my dad was at home trying to figure out if I had flatted on the bike. I would like to thank Alister from Life sport, the training since Florida has gone well, and I have noticeable improvements in power on the bike as well as my running felt like it had reached a whole new level, before I encountered a blood disorder in my foot. We did a lot of hill work on the run, and even though I wasn’t 100% I flew up the hills, I wasn’t able to run down them because of my toes, but I absolutely felt fast and light flying up them. I would also like to thank http://www.colonelsbikes.com/ for a deep dish set that was loaned to me for the race, also Dr. Roberson from www.pathtowellnesschiropractic.com for getting my back set up and ready to rock for the race. There are many people to thank for the support which I will need to send personal emails to, if I forget anyone I do apologize. And of Course, Mike Hay, and Jack Weiss, for everything, at the end of the day I realized they had taught me a lot more than I thought about the sport and sucking up your pride. Also a quick mention to Clay that I have one of your wheels at my place, and I hope your race went well.

A few lessons that I have learned from the race here in Buffalo Springs 70.3
1. Wear a Speed Suit for non wetsuit swims ( I was the only one not wearing it.)
2. Don’t use a disk and deep dish in tornado conditions when you weigh 130pounds.
3. Antibiotics Wreck havoc on your immune system, and even though you feel great, they take there toll on the body.
4. Wheat Grass can’t cure everything.
5. Starting a race with low muscle glycogen storages is like waiting 5mins to start the race once the gun goes off.


I am not sure what is next on the list for July Racing, I should have taken my spot for Clearwater 70.3 Championships when I got a spot in Florida, but for some reason I have set a difficult standard for myself and I do not want to race in Clearwater unless I am ready to come off the bike in the lead group. There is a lot of work to be done, but I need to evaluate everything, and determine the best possible racing schedule to set up me for success. Alister has done a great job and even though this race was not a good indicator of my fitness I am very excited to see the levels I will progress to as the season goes on.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,Brent

Congratulations to Dave for finishing the Relay across the USA. I know his team had some problems with flooding but they did a great job. Also a congratulations to all of the people that raced CDA i know they trained very hard, and are amazing people. I know the past few months of weather its been hot and i often find my self cursing and swearing if i am caught on the bike in a hail storm or doing hard run workouts in the heat, but often i see the tricowtown CDA group out training with big giant smiles so i cant help to suck it up for the duration of mine. Great work to everyone.

Friday i will be off to Buffalo Springs 70.3 i am excited it will be hot hilly and i know i will have some friends up there watching so i better step up. I feel great about how the last block of training has been going since Florida70.3 so i am excited. Carley is in town and she is great, its been a fun week and i am feeling even more ready to go with all of the meals that have been made and prepared. Sunday is her birthday so i have had a fun action packed week so far and i am trying my best to stay rested and off my feet. I can tell you a few things that aren't so great about her being here during a race week. She loves quaso and chips and i have been confronted allot by these lovely food choices but so far i have done well to avoid some of the damaging foods that could post a problem on the weekend. My eyebrows are still hurting from being made to have them waxed on the weekend, lets not forget that i am male, and swimming does count for showers. Oh well its great having her here for the week. I am not sure how i am going to get a birthday cake to lubbuck yet for her with out being wrecked by heat, and that leads me to my next dilemma of how i am going to get her something for her birthday, visit botanical gardens, go to 6 flags, go to hyenas comedy club, visit every mall in the metroplex and test queso out in every single Mexican restaurant before she leaves. And i forgot to mention get everything ready for the race, stay off my feet, work enough to not get fired, but those is my own battles, and i will survive, at least i have nice eyebrows, trimmed finger nails, and have now developed some sort of consitency in my showering patterns.

I will post some good pictures of the race and all of the adventures of the week and weekend in Lubbuck. Good luck to everyone going and drive safe, i know its not the most enjoyable drive.

Training/Blew Wheel/Greens

Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend. Training the last couple of weeks has gone really well. I am getting excited to race, it seems like i haven't raced forever. This past week i had some great workouts, focus on the swim lately has been involving some race pace and faster than race pace work, i have also been building up a lot of pull/strength work some with paddles some without, each week and i am feeling allot stronger. The focus on the bike, has been a great progression since Florida involving some strength big gear work, and some threshold intervals as well as some higher cadence intervals to work on pedal efficiency. I have also of course done allot of brick workouts and longer rides. This week i had some great key run workouts a few leaving me pretty wasted but i am running very well and more importantly i am getting good at running in hot conditions. Since Buffalopsprings 70.3 will be hilly and very hot, this week had a solid tready workout, a great hill repeat workout in the heat. Staying hydrated has been interesting but i am getting better with it. But training in the heat brings a whole different element to fatigue, and some times a loss for appetite, so i have blended up some great greens and fruit smoothies to make sure i can get some quality nutrition in.

The picture on the right, is a picture of what happens when you blow a wheel in 100degree weather on the freeway. It wasn't a great start to my Friday afternoon, but luckily i am alive, and i didn't take anyone out during the ruckus. I really need to thank the Texas Traffic Police for helping me out, during rush hour they have curtisey vehicles out driving around looking for wrecks and situations like this.

This week, i am sure i will have some good hard sessions, i will also be in Philadelphia at US Olympic Gymnastic Trials Friday and Saturday and then Carley is flying down Saturday for a week or so, so i will be quite busy. I Would like to wish my father a "Happy Fathers Day" if anyone knows Kenny from over the years, he has put up with a lot of crap from me and my friends over the years, and i just want to say thank you.

Training in the heat and recovering from hard workouts, i have started to include allot of greens super foods in my smoothies, and they seem to be helping me keep healthy. I have been using Olympian Labs Ultimate Greens 8to1. I will list below about this greens mix, i often get asked allot when out training about some of the foods i eat, and other than chocolate and coffee here is a great addition, and lately i must note that since it is so hot here, i haven't had the urge to go for coffee. Anyway here is the speal on the Greens. Below it is an interesting read about How Green's effect performance! I will blog soon about the how the rest of the training goes leading in to Buffalo springs.

Description

Gluten Free - Great Tasting:-- Now with Xylitol-- 4845 Antioxidant ORAC units (per dose)-- Whole Food Multivitamins-- pH Balanced Enzymes-- Probiotics-- Hypoallergenic Pea Protein Isolate-- Patented Fiber-- Branch Chain Amino Acids-- Antioxidant Protection-- Gentle Detoxification & Cleansing Greens Protein 8 in 1 is a great tasting, nutrient-rich, complete, whole food drink mix that contains a blend of eight products in one!1. Whole Food Multivitamins - Greens Protein 8 in 1 contains whole foods that are rich in naturally occurring, highly assimilated vitamins and minerals. Consuming "nature made" nutrients is the most natural way to assimilate nutrients necessary for optimal health. In theory, taking whole foods in capsule or tablet form is great. Unfortunately, you just can't get enough in pill form to make a difference. Greens Protein 8 in 1 contains 15.5 grams per serving of whole food nutrients providing you with the natural quantity of vitamins and minerals needed for optimal health. . . just look at the label and see.2. Enzymes to Assist in Nutrient Digestion and Absorption and Reduce Inflammation - Optimal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract ensures that digestion and absorption of nutrients critical to good health happens efficiently. Greens Protein 8 in 1 contains both alpha and beta amylases and four different plant proteases uniquely combined to optimize the maximum digestion of starches and vegetable proteins in the various pH ranges in the body's digestion system. Some people can't digest foods with cellulytic content (high fiber and fruit skins). This results in the build-up gastric gases. The cellulase enzyme in our blend relieves this problem. HemiSeb® contains a special blend of xylanase, beta-glucanases, phytase and other hemicellulases. These enzymes reduce the viscosity of foods in the stomach, resulting in better absorption and bioavailability of nutrients.3. Hypoallergenic Pea Protein Isolate: a plant based protein that yields a high biological value (65.4%). The BV is an accurate indicator of the biological activity of protein. It measures the actual amount of protein deposited per gram of protein absorbed. High BV proteins are a better choice for increased nitrogen retention, enhanced immunity and IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor) stimulation. They are superior for reducing lean tissue loss from various wasting states than proteins with a low BV score. Nearly all of the greens drinks available on the market today contain little or no protein. This can contribute to fluctuating blood sugar levels. Pea Protein Isolate is easily digested and helps balance the vegetable carbohydrates and protein ratio needed for complete nutrition. This is also a perfect protein choice for those with allergic dietary concerns.4. Patented Fiber Protection - The recommended daily fiber intake based on a 2000-calorie diet is 25 grams per day. Most American diets rarely achieve this goal. Beneficial aspects of dietary fiber include decreased intestinal transit time, delayed gastric emptying, increased pancreatic secretions, provide bulk to stools, improved intestinal flora and may also help decrease serum lipid levels (cholesterol). A low dietary fiber diet can lead to serious health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, gout, gallstones, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, ischemic disease, constipation, hemorrhoids and irritable bowel syndrome. Greens Protein 8 in 1 has added patented fiber (Fibersol™) that yields 10% of the RDA fiber requirements to help fortify and protect your intestinal tract.5. Antioxidant Protection - Antioxidants are our best defense against the damaging effects of free radicals on our cells. It is vital to include adequate amounts of antioxidant rich nutrients, like those found in fresh vegetables, to help fight free radicals every day. Greens Protein 8 in 1 contains nutrient-dense cereal greens, vegetables, herbal extracts and fruits for potent antioxidant protection. Each serving contains the antioxidant activity of over 7 cups of fresh fruits and vegetables! It is measured using the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) lab test. The ORAC assay specifically measures the scavenging capacity of antioxidants in nutrients against the peroxyl radical; one of the most common reactive oxygen species found in the body. It is estimated that a scant 10% of the U.S. population consumes the recommended six servings of fruits and vegetables per day. This means that 90% of Americans don't meet the minimum standards! The average serving of fruits and/or vegetables yields approximately 500 ORAC unites and the USDA recommends that to provide meaningful antioxidant health benefits, you need at least 2,400 to 3,000 ORAC units in your daily diet. Greens Protein 8 in 1 offers excellent antioxidant protection by providing 4845 ORAC units per serving!6. Gentle Detoxification & Cleansing - Greens Protein 8 in 1 contains amino acids and herbal detoxifiers to purify and cleanse your blood and help remove destructive toxins, such as heavy metals and pollutants, that we ingest every day. These toxins will gradually weaken our tissues and lead to disease unless removed from our bodies daily.7. Probiotics are friendly bacteria that play in important role in digestion, proper metabolism and overall health. Current scientific literature supports that regular use of probiotics promotes normal digestive health and helps to restore intestinal balance even for those who suffer with conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).8. The Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's) leucine, isoleucine and valine are important, essential amino acids that positively affect skeletal muscle growth, enhance fat loss, help to stimulate protein synthesis and inhibit its breakdown. BCAA's are critical to human life and are particularly involved in stress, energy and muscle metabolism.Benefits of Greens Protein 8 in 1:-- Balances blood sugar levels.-- Enhances the immune system.-- Helps to neutralize excess acidity.-- Naturally and gently helps to detoxify our system.-- Improves digestive function and increases regularity.-- Provides excellent antioxidant protection against free radicals.-- Increases energy levels naturally without the use of stimulants.-- Provides a wide variety of nutrients to support cellular metabolism.-- Establishes a proper pH in the intestines leading to a healthy colon environment

Go Green – How Green Foods Can Improve Your Running Performance
By Rick Morris
Green foods aren’t anything new. They have been around since the first plant sprouted from the soil of Mother Earth. Our ancient ancestors were the first to discover the benefits of eating green. They didn’t eat green foods because they thought they were healthy – they ate them because they were readily available. Early man survived on what they could hunt or gather. The green foods growing all around them made for easy picking.
In modern society the convenience of fast food restaurants and pre packaged foods have become a new and much less healthy way of eating. Instead of enjoying the health and fitness benefits of freshly harvested vegetables we are chowing down on processed foods, pre-packaged meals and deep fried fast food.
It is a well known fact that these high calorie, high fat, low nutrient foods are not good for your general health. But does it affect your running performance? You bet it does! As a runner you need to pay close attention to how you fuel your body. You need lean, high quality, high octane fuel. Not watered down, over processed fuel that provides a lot of empty calories and few nutrients.
Green Food Basics
All foods contain energy in the form of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. But where does that energy come from in the first place? You know from your physics classes that you cannot create energy from nothing, so where does it come from? It originates with the sun. The carbohydrate in plant life contains the sun’s radiant energy and represents the first link in the food chain of life. Green plants make carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, the chlorophyll (green pigment) in plants traps the energy from the sun and uses it to convert carbon dioxide and water to carbohydrates. So - green foods contain the most pure and nutrient rich form of carbohydrate available. Of course, all fruits and vegetables aren’t green. Some are blue, red, purple and nearly every color under the sun. All of those fruits and vegetables are healthy food choices, but pound for pound you can’t beat the nutritional value of green foods.
Types of green foods include leafy green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage), grasses (wheat grass, barley grass), algae (chlorella, spirulina), vegetable sprouts and sea vegetables.
Benefits of Green Foods to Runners
You know green foods are healthy because they are low calorie, nutritional power houses. But why are they great foods for runners? It starts with the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is more than a pretty green color. Chlorophyll has been shown to stimulate the production of hemoglobin, increase your oxygen uptake and energize your body. Does oxygen uptake sound familiar? Your VO2 max is a measure of your maximum oxygen uptake. Chlorophyll can increase your oxygen uptake and your VO2 max. Your endurance, recovery time and energy levels all improve.
Green foods are also slightly alkaline in nature. One of the causes of running fatigue is a rise in the acidity of your blood. If you consume green foods on a consistent basis, the alkalinity of the green vegetables will help buffer the acidity of your blood and improve your running performance.
Green foods also contain a lot of phytochemicals. These are compounds that will aid in your recovery and protect your cells from the oxidation caused by free radicals produced by strenuous training.
Including Green Foods in Your Diet
Green foods have their highest level of nutrition when eaten fresh and raw. Green foods start to lose some of their life-force as soon as they are picked because their source of energy has been cut off. So – the fresher the better. Eating raw foods is also better because heating above 120 degrees will destroy the living enzymes they contain.
It is not always possible to eat freshly picked vegetables so the next best choice is fresh, raw vegetables, preferable organic, from your local grocer. Juicing is also a good way to go. You can purchase your own juicer or buy fresh juice at a local juice bar or natural grocer. Wheatgrass juice is a popular type of juice that is a nutritional giant.
Nothing beats fresh, whole green foods – but if you are in a hurry or just can’t get to your organic grocer, you can also go the supplement route. Spirulina and chlorella are available in both powder and tablets. Try to consume green foods on a daily basis. Both your general health and your running performance will benefit from it.
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What Hard Work Is All About

This illustrates allot of hard work, First off Tich your the man, Colin my roommate of many years, i am proud buddy. This is going to be a crazy Olympics, my old room mate Colin, and then Jarrod married Alicia, another room mate. Crazy stuff, i will be getting the pop corn ready to cheer on the boys.


Canadian men’s triathlon team set for Olympic Games June 9, 2008
Vancouver (TC) – Two-time Olympian and 2000 gold medallist Simon Whitfield of Victoria will be joined in Beijing by first-time Olympians Paul Tichelaar of Edmonton, and Colin Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Whitfield qualified for the team based on 2007 results of a top-8 finish at both a World Cup event and the World Championships, while Tichelaar and Jenkins were nominated to the team for submission to the Canadian Olympic Committee late Sunday night by Triathlon Canada’s selection committee.
“Our men’s team in Beijing will be among the strongest of any country,” said Triathlon Canada’s Executive Director Alan Trivett. “The addition of Jenkins and Tichelaar adds the opportunity to race as a team with Whitfield; however Tichelaar has been very consistent on the World Cup Circuit over the past year and is equally capable of producing a top result for Canada on his own.”
Whitfield, the No.3 Canadian at No.12 in the World Cup rankings, won the gold medal at the Ishigaki BG Triathlon World Cup in 2008 – the only World Cup race he has competed in this year. At age 33, the veteran completed eight World Cup races in 2007 and ended the year ranked second in the World Cup rankings. With his heart set on a second gold medal after his well known gold medal performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Whitfield finished 11th at the 2004 Athens Olympics. At the World Championships in Hamburg last year, he finished fourth, following that up with a sixth place finish in Vancouver yesterday.
Tichelaar, 25, is the top Canadian male on the World Cup rankings, sitting at an impressive No.6 thanks to top-8 performances at Mooloolaba, New Plymouth and Tongyeong BG Triathlon World Cup Events. He proved yet again that he can compete with the best of them when he came in ninth at the World Championships in Vancouver this past weekend. His breakthrough year came in 2006 when he notched his first World Cup top-8 finish (in Edmonton) and came in eighth at the Commonwealth Games. Tichelaar didn’t slow down in 2007, posting three top-8 World Cup performances including a silver medal in Cancun.
Jenkins, also 25, had four top-20 World Cup finishes in 2007, including in Vancouver where he finished in seventh place. Ranked 47th in the World Cup rankings after the 2007 season, Jenkins is an incredibly strong swimmer and cyclist and has been named to the team to help Whitfield’s efforts to the podium.
The Women’s Olympic Triathlon Team will be named within the next two weeks.

Jr Worlds

Here is a KEwl Pic from Jr. Worlds in Vancouver today. I have thrown off my helmet leaving transition before so it happens to everyone for sure once in there life. I could have used a helmet on this morning running 10x3mins on the tready at a very quick pace. Regardless a good 90min tready session but on the last interval i am sure i came close to going off the back. There is something about hard workouts when completed well, it seems to give you a bit of a grin once its over. But ice session will be key tonight so i am not supporting a frown tomorrow walking up any stairs.

You Got to do What you got to do.

i am back at it training is going well, and i will be looking for a top 5 performance at Buffalo Springs 70.3 in a few weeks time. Its Carley's birthday so she is expecting a little higher of a placing based on that factor but all you can do is show up and race and hope that your ready to rock. I watched a great movie on the weekend, The Great Debaters with Denzil Washington. I really believe everyone should rent it and experience it. A classic line in the movie that really caught my attention is when a father tells his son " you got to do what you got to do, so you can do what you want to do!" Then he asked his son what do you got to do? And the boy answered my home work. It was brilliant i feel, every aspect of your life is based on this quote. People often don't graduate from high school and become corporate CEO's or train for 1 year and win races. Life is all about working hard so you can enjoy it when you have put it in your time. Anyways great movie, so get your pop corn ready.
Talking about working hard, My home stay David Rideout is about to start a Cycling Time Trial across the USA with a team relay, and of course they are going after the World Record, so everyone check out this link it is truly amazing, Dave you rock. I received this email from Dave yesterday, check out this training that he is doing to get ready for the TT.
Brent,
Thanks for checking in last weekend was our hardest single day effort, we did 6-30 min time trials at max effort
by the end of the day we logged 95 miles, 60+ at max effort, the weekend before that we did a test run out to
Brawley, about 120 miles practicing our exchanges, it was great, especially my last pull, we were in the desert
with a great tail wind, for 10 miles I averaged 38 mph. This Saturday we will repeat our first hill climb and time trial
from 4 months ago to see our improvement, then we leave on Wed. I think you have the web site but just in case you
don't here it is.
Dave
http://www.nccyclingclub.com/North_Coast_Cycling_Club/Welcome.html

This is very motivating because i thought my cycling this week was tough. But now i will shut up and do what i got to do.
I have a great week of training so i will briefly explain some of the highlights of this week so far,
4x800m in the pool, swim fast and hold it. A good strength session on the bike, 2x20mins at low cadence big ring work, i am starting to feel strong and this big gear work is really helping out. This morning i did a hard threshold cycling workout of 5x5mins at Threshold Power and hrt, very tough with 2.5mins ez. I will report towards the end of the week, when i have some better storys about training and life but right now i am just doing what i got to do.
Cheers