Mission Accomplished Fasted

I survived. I completed the 28th Annual Callaway Gardens Triathlon. I performed all morning workouts in a fasted state and broke my fast around three pm on most days. My training was sport specific and is listed below.

Food Intake:

Most of my workouts were done in the morning in a fasted state. I did perform two workouts a week in the afternoon after work once I broke my fast. Most days I break-fast around 3:00 pm. My afternoon workouts start at 5:30 for the bike and 6:30 for the run. My break-fast is typically piece of fruit, some nut butter and sometimes whey and glutamine mixed with water. For dessert sometimes a Chocolate Hammer Gel. For dinner I eat a typical Primal Diet, some protein, lots of vegetables, and some fruit. Relaxed on Friday night to enjoy my favorite Mexican restaurant.

Training:

• Monday: Morning: 100 push-ups, 20 minutes Yoga. Afternoon: One hour hard bike ride.
• Tuesday: Sprint work for Swimming and Running.
• Wednesday: Morning: 100 push-ups, 20 minutes Yoga Afternoon: 10K run.
• Thursday: Morning: Long Swim-1K+-
• Friday: Morning: 100 push-ups, 20 minutes Yoga
• Saturday: Morning: One hour bike ride-followed by 2 mile run.
• Sunday: Morning: 5k-5mile run. Depending on how I felt.

This was my workout schedule for about twelve weeks.

Event:

Awake at 3:00 am. Had some coffee as I do each day. My buddy Dan picked me up at 4:00 am and we headed to Callaway Gardens. No stops along the way, just drank water.

We arrived around 5:45 am and a handful of people has started setting up in the transition area. We parked, unloaded our bikes and picked a location near the exit and entrance of the bike leg in the transition area.

Since we were early registration was simple and pain free. We signed the waivers, picked up our timing chip and proceeded to get set up in the transition area.

My bike is the Waterford next to the blue and white striped towel. This course favors a regular road bike set up. There are 17 ninety degree turns on the course, cancelling out the benefit you would gain in the aero position on a time trial bike. After everything was set up it was time to change and get ready for the meeting on the beach at 7:45. I was surprised at how long the course looked stretched out in the water. I had done one open water swim when we were on vacation so I was somewhat prepared for the swin.

At the start of the swim groups were sent off in six minute intervals. I was in the 45+ group and we went off third. We waded out into the water to waist deep and then started swimming. It started off hard as it did in training but I was able to clear most of the group and swim alone. After the first buoy I passed a lot of people in the group ahead of us. I had to stop twice; once when I could not get a fix on the buoy and once when someone swam at a ninety degree angle to the direction I was swimming. Luckily, I was the one headed in the right direction. It was similar to what I would imagine as an abandoned boat without life boats.

My transition time to the bike was long but expected for a first timer. The bike course was rolling hills and fast. I was amazed at the lack of bike handling skills by a lot of the riders. It was as if they were unaware that there were other cyclist on the road. Made it through that alive, transitioned better and was off on the run.

The run was purely a mental exercise. I had to force my legs to run after the hard bike ride. The course was an out and back loop. After about a mile I started to pick up some of the eariler groups comming back. Most of the people were not having a good time on the run. I suffered through the first mile and a half and then setteled into a pace and really suffered on about the last 800 meters. I finished with a total time of 1:57:57, good enough to take seventh out of twenty-five in my first triathlon.

Go here to view the full results, my times were:

• 1K Swim-Swim Rank 7th: 15:30
• Transition #1: 3:18
• 39K Bike-Bike Rank 8th: 54:46 Avg Speed: 20.4 mph
• Transition #2: 2:25
• 8K Run-Run Rank 8th: 42:00 Pace: 8:24
• Total Time: 1:57:57

I will continue to experiment with IFing and athlethic performance. And to be sure I will continue to train for athlethic performance and not just exercise.