THE SLAYER RULES-FULL Up (Page 40)

get nice and hydrated the night before and eat an early dinner that you feel will be lucky. id get up and have a solid smoothie or your normal workout breakfast but keeping fiber low. it would have a nice balance of ingredients like banana, yogurt, whey powder, avocado and berries and would give me plenty of energy and keep me feeling satiated.

then i would stick to what i have been doing in training. but for me that would be one bottle of ucan gen on the bike and one bottle of water with nuun and salt tabs. i may eat some raisins right before the event. perhaps a shot of red bull before the swim or in t1. on the run i would hit coke only as i needed it.

I have to call foul. 

Last year the advise would have been Honey Buns , candy and a 16 oz can of energy drink. The night before our HIM in Anderson, Slayer left  his goodies out on the counter at my house. Unfortunately I had a phat-azzed live in babysitter at the time who ate every bit of his nutritional plan before morning. The Slayer was going through full blown carb withdrawl by the time he woke up and barely made it alive to the closest gas station for his fix. 

I am not a static man Peter. I believe in fluidity. At one point I was advocating for the FIRST model (intensity training), now I say stack up the easy miles.

I firmly believe after my massive weight loss and my 4:26 70.3 that my diet was a limiter as you had hammered me about so often. The sooner y'all figure this out the better. Carbs are not evil but sugar is. Cheats are ok but you really need to get a hold of your general nutrition especially if you struggle with your weight generally or if you have GI problems or bonking in racing or training. I've not tested my new method out on the IM distance and truthfully don't think it will hold up. But, based on my current fitness, I think it will work up to 70.3. 

I should say that I forgot to mention that, along with my smoothie, I also had a powerbar protein bar race am. So that is now a part of the plan.

Slayer, what do you attribute the 4:26 to, the weight loss or MET specifically?  Is MET really a huge performance enhancer for you or does it fall more into a nutrition plan (Im not going to call it a diet) that fit for you and allowed you to drop the weight?  Based on the previous posts, I got the impression that you felt MET was more of a performance enhancer.  But this last post, it sounds more like a path to losing weight , which was ultimately the reason for the improved performance (so in theory, youd have similar performance with any "diet" that helped you drop the lbs).  I realize MET falls into both categories, so its not "fair" to have you pick one or the other, but this is the first time that I felt it was more weight loss and less MET. 

Hopefully that makes sense.  The ultimate reason for the question is to get a feel for how much improvement you think there would be in using MET when not trying to lose weight.

Vibratinp00

This: "it sounds more like a path to losing weight , which was ultimately the reason for the improved performance (so in theory, youd have similar performance with any "diet" that helped you drop the lbs)."

I think I am faster than I was performing to date due to the extra weight. MET helped me lose the weight. I think its a good race day nutrition too so far up to 70.3 though. However, lets face facts, drop nearly 30 with my engine and you are bound to go much faster (esp on a suitable course). Now the extra part you didn't ask for:

Let me add that I went back to Shanks and Scotty's coach and asked how the heck it happened. Scotty's coach said weight loss and the training program. I asked him should we up my zones or train faster now that I am a contender for Vegas or possibly in my wildest dreams KQ. He said to keep doing what I am doing because its working. So I will keep at it with the high volume heavy Z2 emphasis.

Shanks said I need to validate the setup events (regional with low pressure) race with a big day on a mdot/wtc event with more pressure and higher competition. He's still warning me off of IM yet. Wants me to keep training the same with possible re-test to make sure zones didn't change much given the weight loss. He suggested Steelhead or Augusta, which I am very leery about. 

All this got me thinking that I may be a better 70.3 than 140.6 guy and that my big goals should be vegas and not kona. This is something I am thinking about currently and seeing if I can come to terms with. Sorry to ramble but always welcome to all of your input.

Slayer,

Don't let Shanks downplay the field. There were some seriously fast guys in the Charleston race. The second place finisher is the only back-to-back Ultraman winner and the 6th place finisher was a multi Kona qualifier who won the race last year. It was a fast field and a great tine. If you had a better swim you would be right there with them.

I really think the key to getting faster is to work on your weakness and limiter. You were really fast before in spite of your weight. Your volumes are huge so asking you to add volume doesn't make a lot of sense. You FTP of ~360 is fine so to do more bike threshold work would be a marginal benefit. Your diet was a mess and something fairly easy to change. You called it MET. I would call it LTSOYP. Either way it worked. Your weight fell about to where you would function most efficiently. You identified your weakness, conquered your demons, and kicked azz in Charleston.

IMHO I don't think a normal weight person with a reasonable diet would expect to see much improvement by switching to "MET" alone.

I hope I can be there when you  KQ  

(or it was the Shiv)

Man, these bike numbers seem so unreachable to me...

Thanks Peter. The bike shop asked me how I did so well and I said the SHIV! The more I talk to people about MET the more I think it will work for some and not for other based on their genes. Like Noakes said, some of us are just more reactive to Carbs, especially the unhealthy ones. Regardless, I think Peter sums it up well. to get faster you have to work on your limiters and weaknesses. Thats why i wanted him targeting his run all winter.

My weight under control, my next weakness is the swim. I just can't see devoting as much time to something that doesnt give me enough ROI (return on investment). Thus I am sticking to the bike and run heavy training. What are you all doing to get faster?

Good luck to our racers this weekend! Peter, did you decide on that sprint?

I won't be doing much until I get my current work situation under control. I made it about a half mile before being called in this morning. Frustrating. I really doubt I will do the sprint.

Your ROI from swimming will be huge. If my out of shape self can get down to consistent 1:20/100s by doing 10k a week swimming you can to. You are going to have to learn to relax in the water and not fight it so you don't spend an hour and a half splashing around. You can easily do a 1'10" IM swim with minimal effort if you put the time in now. 

Thanks for everyone's kind words re my london marathon.

Now that i'm recovered it's all about the bike in prep for the ironman in 11 weeks.

Just invested in my 1st indoor trainer. I know it's no substitute for riding outside but sometimes i don't get in from work till turned 21;00 and i feel guilty about going straight out to get some training in. So at least i can set it up in the house and at least catch up with a bit of family time.

I love my trainer more than most. In fact I have 3 at the moment, my fave is the powerbeam pro. Peter is right. Time to amp it up!  Just remember to stand up a bit or your taint will hurt really bad.

PS that race sim nearly killed me yesterday. check my logs. Waiting on some results from our half mary and rev3 guys!

Great job, everyone!

A trainer is a necessity, at least for me.  No excuse to skip your ride because of weather or darkness when you have a trainer.  I kinda hate it, but it works.  Try TV bribery.

Did my first 100 mile bike ride of the year today.  It was 1 hour faster than the one I did last year before the IM.  It felt pretty solid.  Glad I still have some time to improve.  Looking forward to a bunch more 100 milers before Vineman.  Used Infinit for the entire ride for nutrition.  Didn't feel bonky at all, but I did start to feel a bit hungry.  Going to explore some solids on future rides.

Sorry about your Stalker, Slayer.  Guess you really are a Rock Star!

Considering my Half-Marathon yesterday, just a slight report, to keep you informed:

My net time Half-Marathon 01:44:22. The weather was cloudy, no rain – ideal. I wasn't completely recovered from training, I felt my legs, but I decided to run, not to race. The goal of keeping 5min/km was consistent from start to the finish. I have to say the course wasn't easy.

Italy invest plenty and cares much about triathlon sports, and you can see that on every event. Even small (so to say) village races are filled with great results and numerous competitors. I completed this race solid and as I wanted, despite the pain. Now it's time to recover, hopefully swimming will help.

 As far as bike trainer is concerned, bikers say that doing it more than 60-90 minutes is not advisable. I don't have it (yet) but i can see their point because I frequently use my elliptical trainer.

 p.s. Slayer, your ROI swimming will no doubt be positive and consistent, as you are some sort of freak of nature. 

Great job Gladiator on the half.

Don't listen to anyone who puts a time limit on the traimer. I have done up 6 hours on the trainer do to weather. It sux but it's still better than not doing a ride. I do think you can get a better workout in 1-1.5 hours by using the trainer by following a plan. The most efficient workouts involve staying in the aerobic zone or hitting the anaerobic zone for short intervals with a recovery. It is harder to do this outside than inside doe to hills, wind, weather and traffic. It can be done but just not as efficiently. There are a lot of brutally fast cyclist (including Slayer) who do most (and some all) of their cycling on a trainer and they go muck longer than 2 hours on some of their sessions. Some of the Pros wahe up, get on their trainers, and ride all day as if it was their job.

Gladiator- that is a solid half time. Great job. 

Just another vote here for a trainer. I put a lot of time in on the trainer this winter and I think the work is starting to show up. I would obviously rather be outside riding but sometimes the weather or just time won't let you. As for time, I have gone up to 4 hrs.  

Well done to Scotty and gladiator! howd you like the course Scotty? Any things you'd do different leading up to or during the race?

Its so true what Peter says. Especially on flatter courses where you have to work the whole time like IMFL, Charleston or Gulf Coast you get way faster on a trainer than riding outdoors. I especially like the trainers with built in resistance like my powerbeam pro, so you can mimic hill work better.

Jordan will call the trainer rides blasphemy but he's just a casual triathlete who doesn't like to compete (wink wink).

Gotta give shout out to Ashley too for her century! Who else did what this weekend?

One thing I would do prerace would have been to get an OWS in with my wetsuit. I hadn't swam in it or open water since Augusta last year. I forgot the strange feeling of it. Strange to me anyway. I got kicked in the face right off the bat, and managed to inhale some water. From there my HR was up and all I could think about was how constrictive my suit was. It really isn't. Just a mental thing. That went on for about 300-400m. Before, that would have sent me into full on panic mode. Luckily, I was able to calm myself down and get into a good rhythm. Now the problem was, I was off the back and I didn't have anyone to draft off of, so I had to pick my way through a crowd.

One thing this showed was how far my swim has come. Even with a near meltdown, my average pace for the swim was 1:53/100m. Last year my swim times were much slower than that. So I am happy with my progress, but upset that I think I lost a couple minutes on the swim.

Good tip from Scotty on practicing OWS with your wetsuit!  The first couple OWS for me are always a bit panicky, so you don't want your first OWS of the year to be your race.

Got a 12 mile run in Sunday.  Rested yesterday.  Going to run Tuesday, Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sunday this week.  Couple of trainer rides.  Longish ride on Sunday (only about 65 this week) and a few swims.

Forgot to mention the hill I climbed last Saturday.  It was insane!  So crazy that when I saw it in the distance I turned around and started biking away from it, thought WTF, and then turned around and conquered it.  18% overall grade with stretches of 22-24%.  Here's a link to a pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughb/214757628/sizes/l/in/photostream/

dp

tp

Good god!  quadruple post!