July 4th, 2010
The amazing thing about your first IM is that no matter how much you have experienced in the sport and no matter how much you “think” you know, the day is going to be an eye opener for you. I have done somewhere close to 100 tris and multisport events and still felt like a rookie during much of this race. The reason being…..I had no idea how my body was going to respond to 10+ hours of racing. The variables are just too great. Crazy weather (oh, we had that…more on this later), nutrition, pace and your mental state all are “what if’s” in the overall scheme of things. Sprint and Olympic tris are a joke compared to IM distance races. I never would have said that until today. Don’t think for a second they are comparable. It’s for this reason that I am about to write the following (and it may annoy some people but hey, this is just my opinion). If you have not felt what it is like to need to rely on nutrition in order to finish a race, meaning ran a full marathon or at least a ½ Ironman race, you have no place attempting a full Ironman. Yes, you very well may finish under 17 hours but will you enjoy the experience? Learn how your body responds to these variables the best way you can….through actual racing of the shorter distances.
Off my soapbox, onto the report.
I slept like crap the night before. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter how you sleep the night before because all you need to do is sleep well the night before the night before, and that did happen. Up at 3:30 AM to Kats pre race meal of oatmeal, Lara bar, and 24 OZ Infinite energy drink. Got in my 800 calories 3 hours prior. Then sat around the hotel room for 2 anxiety- filled hours looking out the window watching the transition area come alive. We happened to have booked the hotel room closest to the race venue (surprise right!). Got to transition at 5:30 to pump up the tires from the day before when we left the bikes in the hot sun then threw on the wetsuits to go down and jump in the water. This took place in 75 degrees and glacier Smokey blue wetsuit “legal” water. Pretty nice. Janda Ricci Munn (our coach) and his wife Michelle showed up just as we were getting out of the water. How cool is that to have your coach at the event. He was on his honeymoon and drove 5 hours out of their way to watch us race. After some last minute chatter, we walked over the far left facing the water to get our place among the crowd of 2600 hard-core, mostly male (88%) and mostly European triathletes. These guys are so scary- ripped muscley looking that they make me look chunky. They are also uber-serious and the euro swim starts have a rep of being wild. So the far left seemed to be the smartest place to start. It is not easy to stay calm for the last ten minutes. Especially when there are two hot air balloons right behind you, helicopters hovering overhead, 50 boats in the water directly in front of you all filled with spectators and all these quiet, robotic looking athletes all around you. You had better know how to swim in a crowd. I give Kath a quick kiss, wish her luck take a few deep breaths and the gun goes off. 2.4 miles to go.
Within seconds, I know I am not at Spring Hill anymore. These guys are just hammering, fighting for position. I get punched hard in the head and my right goggle goes half off but I fix it quick and get back in the mix. I then get a hard whack in my right calf and I hear some guy screaming at me in German or something. All I know was he sounded like Sergeant Shultz. I was totally expecting this and found myself laughing it off. The entire goal of the swim was to get on feet and just chill. Effort was a 2/10 scale. And that’s what I did. It was awesome to swim the last 900 meters in the canal with 1000’s of spectators screaming just feet from your face on both sides of the water. Finished it in 1:07 and in one piece. No worse for the wear. Not bad as I wanted 1:05-1:08.
T1 went as planned also. There were lots of neked people in the changing tent which was weird coming from a nudity-phobic society. The weather was still coolish and around 75 degrees but there was humidity in the air and you could tell it was unstable as there were T-storms all around. The bike course is flat, and curvy to begin with then gets up into the foothills of the Alps. I have never seen such a crowded, fast moving group of people in my life. My watts were steady at 210-220 with a 260 max on the hills and I was getting passed left and right by huge draft packs, but in their defense, there really was no where to ride as parts of the road were tight. The course is as pretty as you could imagine with lake, forest and mountain views throughout. All the little villages you road through had hundreds of people cheering you on and the three big hills on the course looked like a mountain stage of the Tour de France with all the spectators lining the road. You had about 4 feet wide of the road to ride in with everyone around you screaming, “up, up, up” which means “go, go, go”. They also love to say your name on your race belt with one of two words in front. All day I heard.“super, Jeff!” or “bravo, Jeff!”. It kept you motivated.
I got through the half way point at 2:32 or so, right at 22MPH and my legs felt perfect. The next lap I decided to back it off as slow as I could on the three hills just to be safe, as Janda kept telling me the race doesn’t start until the bike is over. The goal was to get off the bike feeling like I never really biked.
Around mile 90 the sky got very black and a huge storm rolled in. The kind where if you were at home, you would run inside because everything is blowing around your backyard. We then road through 40-50 MPH gusts, lightning all around us, and torrential rain for the next 15 minutes. This occurred on the course where there were very fast downhills with sharp corners at the bottom. The speeds on the first lap were approaching 50MPH here and we all knew it so the entire pack slowed down. If not we were going to end up crashing into something or someone.
Bike done in 5:18 or so with just about zero fatigue in my legs. I think this is because I never felt any lactic acid like burn in my legs on the ride and my nutrition was spot on. Each hour I got in 2 salt tablets, 350 calories of a combo of E-Load Heat Formula and Carbo Pro with a little bit of NRG BAR. I also dumped all the 5 dollar per bottle mineral water I could grab on course all over me (free race day) while drinking as much as I could. I did not expect to feel this great and was a very happy camper at this point. As weird as this sounds, my legs felt worse coming off the bike at the two Olympic races I had done as warm ups in the month before.
The only issue now was the storm was gone but in its wake, it left a humid, soupy 90+ degrees with lots-o’ sun. If I was hanging out by the lake I would have been very happy, but I was now starting the marathon, so it was going to be a tough 26.2 miles ahead. The goal here was to run 4 hours. My PR free marathon is 3:15 and people say you ad about 45 minutes on to that so off I plodded at my 8:30 pace. I had 4 GU’s on my race belt along with a tube of what was to be my best friend of the day, salt tablets. Within the first mile, I chucked the GU’s knowing I was not going to stomach them. I then walked every aid station doing the exact same thing in each of them.
1. Grabbed two sponges and dumped them on my head
2. Grabbed an Infinte energy drink and took two big gulps & popped a salt tablet.
3. Grabbed a water and dumped it on my head, then started running again.
This process took about 15 seconds at every station and I know it saved my race.
For the first 13 miles or so I had some light, annoying pressure in my colon, kind of like having to pass gas but nothing is coming out. But the best thing was the legs were run strong. I was not fatiguing nearly as quickly as I thought I would. All I really wanted to do was to run to 20 miles before the wheels fell off and I would have to walk, but as the 20 approached I knew I was going to be able to run the whole way. I started to drink Coke at the aid stations at this point and it was like a burst of energy. I would get about 1 mile out of it then need more though. The course is two loops with the finish line in the middle of the loops so you go by the crowd 4 X’s which was cool. I saw Janda and Michelle again and he yelled out, “it’s a mental from here on in” as I went out for the final 10K. This is where I really started to feel the 9.5 hours behind me as fatigue was settling in. But I got to 24 miles or so before I really had to concentrate on moving or should I say slogging forward. The last ½ mile is through a park lined with 1000’s of people all cheering in German. Its amazing what adrenaline can do for you because I don’t remember feeling any pain at this point as the finish line shoot materialized before me. Crossed the line in 10:34. Marathon was 4:00:30. I think I stuck to the plan considering I had predicted a 10:26.
I then stumbled over the food tent to get some solid food in me. I can’t say I was feeling too great at this point, but hey, I had just finished an Ironman. At least I wasn’t as bad as all the guys they were carrying off in stretchers or the guys vomiting in the bushes. But one hour later after a couple of cokes, soup, pizza and watermelon I was good to go. Except my legs were like bricks and still are two days later as I write this.
They had a big screen and you could watch people finish from inside the food tent. TOTALLY AMAZING production put on by Triangle Events. Spot on with everything. I then sat in there for 1.5 hours staring at the screen waiting for my lady to cross the line. I had seen her once on the run and she said she wasn’t feeling too good, but looked good to me. But I was still worried for her.
Then the best part of the day for me happened when I saw her cross the line on the jumbo-tron. I found myself standing up in the tent cheering with tears in my eyes. They say human beings pair off in this world because sharing with a partner heightens your life experience. And this is a perfect example. The race would not have been nearly as fun if I were doing it alone. To be lucky enough to have a wife like Kat there with me was amazing. And to have us both finish without getting hurt was even more amazing. Overall it was a great experience. But not one I am going to do again for sometime…..yeh….right!
So I have been training now for 6 years, did over 100 triathlons of all types and distances EXCEPT an Ironman. So I will be racing Ironman Austria in 4 days on July 4th. The training has not been all that bad and has been injury free. And the weirdest thing is that I am not really nervous, just excited to go and see how things will turn out. I guess when you prepare properly, then good things happen (at least that is what I am telling myself). The swim should not be an issue, just relax and find some feet. The bike….well I knew I was ok there during my last 105 mile ride when I found myself daydreaming at mile 98 while still keeping race pace wattage. The run…..this is where all the question marks come in. If I was to have trained a bit more I would have spent some more time here, but I also feel this is where injuries come into play. I got a great marathon base in last fall and did a long run of 17 miles but I know it is going to hurt out there. Just so I can see how I do prediction wise, I will put my predicted numbers down in print and revisit this blog afterwards to report how it went.
This would assume an A race, great day, everything goes well nutrition wise and I dont fall apart too soon on the run.
Swim: 1:06
Bike: 5:10
Run: 3:56
For a grand total of 10:12….thats seems kinda fast I think…..maybe I am too optimistic. My true goal is to finish the race and not leave in a stretcher. It all comes down to when the wheels fall off on the run. I am really hoping this doesnt happen until 20 miles but we will see. Either way, mega thanks to Janda Ricci Munn for coaching me through all of this.
Soy and Breast Cancer
By G. Douglas Andersen, DC, DACBSP, CCN
Epidemiological studies have noted an inverse relationship between dietary soy and breast cancer.1-3 However, in vitro
and animal studies on selected isoflavones have found that they stimulated cell division and tumor growth rates.4-5 Cell
studies have also shown positive6-7 and negative8 effects between soy isoflavones and tamoxifen, a drug used to treat and
prevent estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer.
Tamoxifen works by binding on estrogen receptors of breast cancer cells. With the receptors occupied, estrogen cannot
bind on an ER + cancer cell membrane. This prevents the hormone from stimulating growth and proliferation of the
cancer.
Scientists have thought soy protein and its phytochemical constituents work the same way. Therefore, when some
experiments showed that isoflavones may be enhancing cellular replication, it caused a great deal of concern. This was
even more troubling since soy has been shown to reduce cancer1-5 and improve heart, vessel and bone health.9 It was
thought that some of soy’s effects were due to the estrogenic isoflavones it contains.4-5,10-11 Unfortunately, what had been
considered a dietary weapon for those with breast cancer was no longer a sure thing.5,10,12
The Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study
This study included over 5,000 breast cancer subjects in China (ages 20-75) who were diagnosed between 2002 and 2006
and followed up until 2009.11 Data was collected every six months after the diagnosis of cancer and there were follow-up
interviews at 18 months, three years and five years post-diagnosis. The researchers also evaluated a host of other factors
including sociodemographic, socioeconomic, treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, surgery, and hormone
therapy like tamoxifen), education, income, supplement use, dietary patterns, activity levels, body mass index, ER (+/-)
status and cancer stage. Most importantly, this was a study on free living humans, rather than cell cultures or rodents.
Results and Observations
I’ve presented the results as direct quotes from the study, followed by my comments. These results are so powerful that I
did not want to paraphrase, summarize or reword them due to the important decisions providers, the afflicted and their
families must make.
• “Soy food consumption after cancer diagnosis, measured as soy protein intake, was inversely associated with
mortality and recurrence. The association of soy protein/isoflavone intake with mortality and recurrence appear
to follow a linear dose-response pattern until soy protein intake reaches 11 grams a day (or soy isoflavone
intake reaches 40 mg a day). After these points, the association appears to level off or even rebound.”
COMMENT: No matter your age or the disease stage, a serving of soy each day is a good habit. But, just
because some is good does not mean more is better.
• “Tamoxifen was associated with reduced risk of relapse or breast cancer-specific mortality among women with
ER-positive breast cancer.”
COMMENT: No surprise here.
• “In our study, we found that soy food intake was associated with improved survival regardless of tamoxifen use,
while tamoxifen use was related to improved survival only among women who have low or moderate levels of
soy food intake. Tamoxifen was not related to further improvement of survival rates among women who had the
highest level of soy food intake. More importantly, women who had the highest level of soy food intake and
who did not take tamoxifen had a lower risk of mortality and a lower recurrence rate than women who had the
lowest level of soy food intake and used tamoxifen, suggesting that high soy food intake and tamoxifen use may
have a comparable effect on breast cancer outcome.”
COMMENT: Expect a push-back from Big Pharma.
• “In our comprehensive evaluation of soy food consumption and breast cancer outcome using data from a large,
population-based cohort study, we found that soy food intake was inversely associated with mortality and
recurrence. The inverse association did not appear to vary by menopausal status and was evident for women
with ER-positive and ER-negative cancers and early and late-stage cancers.”
COMMENT: Human studies trump animal and test-tube experiments every time. The huge news is that soy
helped across the board – early stage to late stage of the disease, pre- or post-menopausal status, and both
receptor positive and negative classes. Until opponents of soy present compelling human data, the dangerous
advice for anyone with breast cancer is that they should avoid soy.
• “In summary, in this population-based prospective study, we found that soy food intake is safe and was
associated with lower mortality and recurrence among breast cancer patients. The association of soy food
intake with mortality and recurrence appears to follow a linear dose-response pattern until soy food
intake reaches 11 grams a day of soy protein; no additional benefits on mortality and recurrence were
observed with higher intakes of soy food.”
References
1. Trock BJ, Hilakivi-Clarke L, Clarke R. Meta-analysis of soy intake and breast cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst,
2006;98(7):459-471.
2. Wu AH, Yu MC, Tseng CC, Pike MC. Epidemiology of soy exposures and breast cancer risk. Br J Cancer,
2008;98(1):9-14.
3. Lee SA, Shu XO, Li H, et al. Adolescent and adult soy food intake and breast cancer risk: results from the
Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Am J Clin Nutr, 2009;89(6):1920-1926. Taylor CK, Levy RM, Elliott JC,
Burnett BP. The effect of genistein aglycone on cancer and cancer risk: a review of in vitro, preclinical, and
clinical studies. Nutr Rev, 2009;67(7):398-415.
4. Helferich WG, Andrade JE, Hoagland MS. Phytoestrogens and breast cancer: a complex story.
Inflammopharmacology, 2008;16(5):219-226.
5. Constantinou AI, White BE, Tonetti D, et al. The soy isoflavone daidzein improves the capacity of tamoxifen to
prevent mammary tumours. Eur J Cancer, 2005;41(4):647-654.
6. Tanos V, Brzezinski A, Drize O, Strauss N, Peretz T. Synergistic inhibitory effects of genistein and tamoxifen
on human dysplastic and malignant epithelial breast cells in vitro. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol,
2002;102(2):188-194.
7. Ju YH, Doerge DR, Allred KF, Allred CD, Helferich WG. Dietary genistein negates the inhibitory effect of
tamoxifen on growth of estrogen-dependent human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells implanted in athymic mice.
Cancer Res, 2002;62(9):2474-2477.
8. Cassidy A, Hooper L. Phytoestrogens and cardiovascular disease. J Br Menopause Soc, 2006; 12(2):49-56.
9. Velentis LS, Woodside JV, Cantwell MM, Leathem AJ, Keshtgar MR. Do phytoestrogens reduce the risk of
breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence? What clinicians need to know. Eur J Cancer, 2008;44(13):1799-
1806.
10. Sau XO, Zheng Y, Cai H, Gu K, et al. Soy food intake and breast cancer survival. JAMA, 2009;302(22):2437-
43.
11. Messina MJ, Wood CE. Soy isoflavones, estrogen therapy, and breast cancer risk: analysis and commentary.
Nutr J, 2008;7:17.
Click here for more information about G. Douglas Andersen, DC, DACBSP, CCN.
Source:
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54686
Kat and I were just tested metabolically by my coach Janda Ricci Muun at Seaside Cycles in Manchester, Mass. The primary goal was to see from where I derived my calories during training. What percentage do I get from free fatty acids (HUGE RESERVE SUPPLY) or muscle glycogen (LIMITED SUPPLY)? We want to know how much I will need to supplement during my Ironman race in Austria next month. This is ground breaking stuff and really opened my eyes to my personal need to stay on top of nutrition. Lets just say, I am not genetically made to go long distances without resupplying food wise. Kat on the other hand, is made for this. Maybe I should stick to sprint racing. Here are the numbers.
My sweet spot is 200-215 watts. I am burning about the same amount from fats as I am glycogen. ( 6 – 7 calories of glycogen per min. at that zone + 7 – 8 calories worth of FFAs)
At that rate, we’re looking @ 360 – 420 calories worth of glycogen per hour being expended. We’ll call it 420 just to be safe.
420 x 5.5 hours on the bike = 2310 calories worth of MG depleted. In other words, I dont store this amount of sugar in my muscles and I will bonk by the end of the ride if I dont eat during it.
If I consume 350 calories per hour on the bike (i.e. 25 oz. of sport drink + 2 x gels), that reduces the deficit to 385 calories. Add to that the swim (we’ll say 500 calories worth of MG depleted) and we’re down 835 (roughly 1400 calories worth of MG remaining). Assuming 10 calories of MG per min. on the run, we’re looking at 600 calories of MG per hour expended or a little over 2 hours until bonk.
Consuming 250 calories of sugar per hour = we only lose 350 per hour on the run.
350 x 3.5 hour run = 1225 calories expended and I cross the line with about 175 calories worth of MG left in his system in 10.5 hours.
Tad da…..its as easy as that. LOL
Now that we are heavy into the high volume weeks training for IM Austria, its strange to see the change in my thinking as far as the long workouts go. I find myself looking forward to the challenge vs. the dread I initially thought I would feel towards the workouts.
Its cool to be able to get up at the crack of dawn, get on my bike and head either north, south or west (cant go east as that big pond gets in the way). I never really have a plan and that is the adventure in it. Kat is totally the opposite in that she has all the gadgets and sticks to exact wattage and effort where I kinda just hover around where I am supposed to be power- output- wise. There is no way I am going to ride for 5.5 hours glued to numbers. The reason I do all this is to get out and enjoy riding the bike. This is why I dumped my Garmin GPS device. It made running and cycling too clinical for me. In my mind, endurance sports are about freedom. A time to kick stress out of your body. Its the time new ideas and dreams are thought up. To look at my pace and think, “man, I just ran a 7:33…..I should be at 7:25….” disrupts the whole thought process. What it comes down to is I guess I would rather sacrifice a bit of race day speed, for more enjoyment in the entire training process.
So far so good.
Devilman in Southern NJ was our first prep race for July 4th when we are racing IM Austria. Its tough when you havent gone the distance at the effort you want to go, so today was all about giving it a solid try and be conservative. The last thing you want is to leave race #1 of the season frustrated having busted your butt all winter. It was a good plan and worked to a T.
The water was supposed to be .8 mile but it was more like a mile. Just sat back and kept a solid tempo effort throughout and tried not to swallow what was the nastiest water I have yet to swim in on this planet (actually I fell into the Cocheco in Rochester years back and that was pretty bad). The visibility was about (and I am not exaggerating here) 10-12 INCHES. I could not see my arms at all and to find bubbles or feet to grab a draft was impossible. So I swam it myself and weaved in and out of all the slower sprint racers who went off before us.
Bike was 41 miles on the flattest course you could ever imagine. The wind was a major issue here as the cross winds were blowing above 30 MPH with higher gusts. Very difficult to hold on at times. Averaged 23.4 MPH on the new P4. Watts were 250 and I took in 2 Gu’s and 2 – 24 OZ bottles of Eload. Ride took around 1:45 or so. The great nutrition advice from Coach Janda left me feeling strong coming off. Almost too strong as I ran out of transition on fresh legs onto what was a completely flat, hot and windy course (temp was 86 with overhead sun). I was determined not to kill myself out there and 9 miles would be just enough to do it, so I stayed at marathon pace (about 7:15-7:30) and felt pretty comfortable. Around mile 7 the comfort started to slide and fatigue settled in but not enough to slow down. I actually ran down the leader in my age group who looked like total crap…then again I bet I did also….(but I almost never get to run anyone down, I am always getting run down) so at least I had the age group thing wrapped up, but I also kept telling myself it wasnt about that, it was about testing out the engine. Oh yeah…for the first time ever I walked to aid stations. Its all about IM prep right. Felt good to dump water down my back and actually drink the whole gatorade they offer vs. just a sip.
I was glad it was over in 3:22. 8th place overall. Lots of very fast young guys raced. Cool to see 20 somethings kick butt. The sport is now attracting this group more and more. Also Kat won the masters division too. She has dropped weight and ran in with a smile on her face looking uber-fast. Watch out N.E. 40 and over women 
The whole gluten free thing worked well but I am now on a gluten-watching diet. Not bread or pasta but I am not going to deny myself the occasional AWESOME Kobe beef burger (see pic) that I chowed down after the race at one of the best places we have ever eaten in Philadelphia (cant remember the name though…something like Vitalinos?????. 
