Today is Not That Day

Race report: Big Kahuna

Finally... my second half Ironman! My first was June 2011 in Hawaii, which was a total sufferfest. It took me 7:20 to complete that one thanks to a terrible swim and having to walk most of the run. 

My original goal was to cut a full hour off that time. Thanks to my recent setback I modified that to a goal time of 6:30. As I'd feared, I had a lot of problems on the run and had to walk most of the second half... but fortunately my swim and bike were good enough to get me close to my goal time. Garmin says 6:33, official time was 6:36. Whatever. I'll take a 44 minute PR any day. This was a good training race as I made some mistakes on the bike that contributed to my lousy run. Now I know better for Miami 70.3 next month!

Pre-race

It was a beautiful day to drive down to Santa Cruz. I hit registration (with the tiniest expo I've ever seen!) and then headed to the rental house that I shared with 5 others from the tri club. Chivalry wasn't exactly flowing as the two single guys claimed the twin beds leaving the girls to make do with a cot on the floor and the pull-out couch... I got the couch. Yay. (tiny rant: everyone thinks it's ok to split the total house bill equally, even though one couple got a gorgeous master suite. Something seems wrong with this picture but apparently this is how it's done with this group? Is this normal in the tri community?) Anyway... I didn't sleep great but it didn't faze me. I was just excited to be there. 

Race morning: my overnight oats plus a swig of Ultragen and I was good to go. We rode our bikes in the dark for 10 minutes to transition, and then had 40 minutes to set up before they cleared the area. Yes, they don't allow anyone in transition after 6:45 am, so it's good to get there early! All athletes headed down to the beach and were greeted with a fogless sunrise and a totally calm ocean... absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had a photo. We acclimated to the 57 degree water and then waited for our wave start. We saw that there was a current pulling people to the right, so the goal was to start left and get pulled in towards the buoy. 

Swim: 37:08 (Honu: 51:08; 14 minute PR!) 

I like ocean starts... plenty of room and no one gets beaten up. I need to do a better job starting out fast; I tend to settle right into my sustainable pace, but since everyone else starts out faster it leaves me quite a ways behind. I think the current shifted right after we started, because everyone kept swimming to my right... I couldn't get on anyone's feet and I ended up swimming alone for almost the entire way. By the back half I was swimming scared. I was pretty sure I was dead last in my age group, which was such a crappy feeling! Fortunately I got out of the water with a very experienced gal from my tri club, so I figured I wasn't too far off base. (Looking at the final stats, this woman finished 4th in our AG with a 5:45 but had a pretty slow swim time. Makes me wonder what the point is of working hard to improve my swim!) 

T1: 6:29

This race has a looooong run from the beach up to transition. Times here ranged from 5:27 to 12:48, so I was in the mix. 

Bike: 3:18 (Honu: 3:29 on a flatter course... 11 minute PR!) 

This bike course is billed as "relatively flat." Relatively being the key word here. It's 2500 feet of climbing with a couple pretty good hills. If you're used to the 3k - 4k types of rides around San Francisco, it's a piece of cake. I, unfortunately, am not good on hills -- or headwinds -- and this course has plenty of both. 

The headwind going out was pretty ridiculous. Not Honu-strong, but close. People were swearing out loud. A couple pelatons went by. I went out harder than I should have, both hating the slow pace I was seeing on my Garmin and thinking that "hey, I pushed harder the bike at my last Olympic race and it didn't hurt my run, I can do the same here!" Yeah, doesn't exactly work that way, as I learned later on the run. 

About 1.5 hours in, I had to pee. There was no place to pull over, and I figured there'd be a porta potty at the turnaround. So I stopped taking in fluids (bad idea) until I could find a place to pee. No, I couldn't make myself pee on the bike... too many people around! I hit the turnaround... no porta potty. Great. I started drinking a bit -- most of my calories were in the bottle and I didn't bring enough gels -- but it wasn't until my porta potty stop at mile 45 did I really restart my hydration and take a couple more gels from the aid station. 

So... went too hard, only took in 2.5 bottles, and back-loaded my calories. Not a good recipe for the run. Good news, it's a lovely course along the ocean and the tailwind coming back is FANTASTIC. I was flying. 

T2: 2:49

Yeah, I could have done a lot better at this. With some calf cramping on the bike I decided to pull on my compression sleeves for the run. But then forgot once I got into transition. So I pulled on my shoes, then remembered my sleeves, took off my shoes, then dug through my black tri bag for my black sleeves... pulled them on, got my shoes back on, started to run and then remembered I wanted to bring more salt tabs. Not smooth, Jen. Again, good practice for Miami. (Question: if you wear compression sleeves while racing, do you put them on before your wetsuit and swim in them? Or put them on in T2?) 

Run: 2:32 (Honu: 2:50, 18 min PR) 

My plan was to run easy at 10:00, then drop to race pace of 9:45. Went out too fast... 9:20 felt really easy! But managed to get it down to 9:45 by mile 3. Ok, now is when the legs start coming back around, right? Nope. Mile 4 I was trudging, mile 5 I realized I needed plain water and a LOT of it, but I had another mile to go before the aid station. My legs were sore and my energy was lagging. I first started walking at mile 6... uh oh. This is going to be a long run. 

Miles 6 - 9 were pretty bad... I blame my poor nutrition and hydration on the bike for a lot of this. But I got enough fluids in and my energy started returning. The remaining problem was my legs... both from my recent setback (tight hamstring, piriformis) and I suspect from going too hard on the bike. The entire back half was a run/walk combo that wasn't pretty. The last stretch of this race is on sand -- through kids, families, tourists having a beach day, which was pretty bizarre -- and I was able to run through this part to the finish. 

Here's the only race photo of me! You can see how deep the sand is at the end of the race, which is somewhat cruel. 

For a good part of this run I was thinking, I should cancel Miami. I can't do another sufferfest on the run. But now I look back and I know that part of this is attributable to nutrition and pacing and thus are fixable. I'm also going to put a focus on some targeted strength training (core, hips, glutes) to address muscle imbalances and get some regular bodywork. I might try a chiropractor as it feels like my left hip is locked up. 

So I have mixed emotions about this race. Partly I'm excited... I'm pretty sure I can get down to a 6 hr race next year if I put in the time working on strength/power this off season. Partly I'm discouraged as I'm not sure I can fix these muscle imbalances that have plagued my longer-distance running. But damnit, I'm going to try. 

If you're considering doing Big Kahuna, I recommend it. Scenery is gorgeous and it's well organized (other than limited porta potties... I only saw one at mile 6 on the run). Prepare for headwinds and rollers on the bike, and 3 - 4 miles of dirt trails in the middle of the run. And sand at the finish. Plan for aid stations every 2 miles vs. every one on the run. 

 

Leading up to the race...

I haven't been blogging much... work took over my life for a bit! Before I post my race report from Big Kahuna, I'll back up and talk about my training. 

For a couple months, my training was going pretty well. Great, actually. I had a 13 mile training run three weeks ago and I felt strong. Ran it in 2:05, by far the fastest I've done the distance, and it was done pain-free. All those funky muscle imbalances I'd been working through seem to have vanished. I also did the Marin metric century around the same time, and rode with a much stronger rider who pushed me up the hills... we pretty much treated the ride like interval training. Go hard in between aid stations, then chill out and gorge ourselves at each station. It was great. 

But I had some pretty tight muscles, and it was time for a long-overdue body work session. My regular therapist, my magic man, decided he was burned out and just vanished, so I made an appointment with the owner of the place. He was great... worked on my uber-tight psoas and quads and hips. He also did some hip flexor stretches. 

The next day... uh oh. My legs were worthless. I couldn't walk up the stairs. The next day it was even worse. My chronic issues with piriformis and hamstring started making themselves known. 4 days later I tried my 13 mile run, but by mile 3 I turned around and walked most of the way back to the car. My legs felt like spongy noodles and an old hip flexor pain came back. 

Crapola. Just a few weeks out from my race. What to do?? I ended up seeing my neurokinetic therapist. If you're not familiar with NKT, it's freaking magic for anyone with recurring injuries. The theory is that there may be pathways for brain signals that are firing compensatory muscles instead of the right muscles. So the therapy "teaches" your brain to properly fire the intended muscle groups. Last year I went in unable to do a front lunge, and he fixed that in 10 minutes. Sounds crazy but it's really effective. 

Long story short, he thinks that I was training with compensatory muscles like my psoas, and when those got released (because they were tight and overworked) my signals got messed up. My quads weren't firing at all, and he got things working again. Then he said, "as your therapist, I strongly urge you to reconsider doing a half Ironman. I don't think your legs are ready for it." To which I said, "sorry, but that's not an option." I've had to bail on my last 3 races due to injury or sickness, and damn it, I was going to do this race! 

My training slowly improved, but I'd lost the strength I had previously. I needed to train the "right" muscles that have not been firing properly... and I'm pretty sure there's another component: I remembered that I'd been on prednisone until my last Olympic race. Prednisone is a steroid and a very powerful anti-inflammatory. It's highly likely that I was overtraining and never knew it because of this wonder drug. If it didn't have such nasty side effects I'd go back on in a heartbeat. I just want to be able to train like I was on prednisone all the time!! 

So... that brings me to Big Kahuna. Next post... 

My poor beat-up bike

Training has been going pretty well and I'm getting psyched for Big Kahuna in two weeks! This weekend was a training ride down in Santa Cruz where we rode the course and did a brick run. The course is hillier than I'd expected (2500 ft of climbs) -- always need to remember to add 30% more elevation than what MapMyRide.com tells me (1800 ft). 

The drive home should have been 1.5 hours, but it turned out to be close to 3 as I missed my turn and ended up driving the wrong way on Hwy 1. My friend and I were deep in conversation when she interrupted, "Hang on, that sign said we're going to LA." Oops. Eventually we got back to SF, I dropped off my friend from the tri club and then drove home. I don't know if it was being in the car for hours, or perhaps my brain thinking I'd already removed my bike from the top of my car, but I ended up driving into my garage with my bike still on top. ACK! 

Fortunately (or unfortunately), my bike is in better shape than my car. But I took it in to the bike shop today and it looks like I need to replace the fork:

See the black part? I was hoping that was just chipped paint, but turns out the carbon has a deep crack in it. They are hopeful that they can order a new one from Cervelo pre-race but told me not to hold my breath. So... I have a race in 2 weeks and maybe no rideable bike. Trying to find a place that will rent tri bikes now... cross fingers... 

Oh, and check out my lovely scratched up top tube:

So sad. The guys suggested markers and nail polish... either that or send the entire frame in for a paint job. I'll try the markers. 

My gear shifters are scratched up too, but t least I didn't crack the frame. I have to look on the bright side, right? 

Pesto pizza with shrimp and kale

Yum... this turned out well enough to share. 

Ingredients

• Gluten-free pizza crust -- I used Udi's. I found it to be a little sweet and chewy, so I may try another brand or make my own next time
• Pesto sauce (store-bought)
• Shrimp
• Kale 
• Triple-cream goat chese from the farmer's market. Delish. 

Preparation

• Brush olive oil on the bottom of the crusts and put under the broiler until you get a nice crispy but not overdone crust... then drop the temp down to 375. 
• Peel the shrimp if needed
• Lightly saute the kale in a little olive oil so it doesn't get crispy in the oven

Assembly

• Spread a couple tbsp of pesto sauce on the crusts
• Top with shrimp, kale and goat cheese
• Bake at 375 for 7 minutes

Ta da! A perfect combo of protein, carbs, veggie and fat. I know, this is not a low-fat dish, but at least it's healthy fat :-) And I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. 

 

Santa Cruz Olympic race report

FINALLY... my first triathlon of the season! It's a nice little race in Santa Cruz put on by Finish Line Productions... I think they did a great job organizing and I'd do it again. This was a warm-up race so I could gauge fitness and work out the kinks prior to Big Kahuna in a few weeks. The last time I did a race was Honu in June 2011... but while I was definitely out of practice (noticeable in T1), I am now in a lot better shape and did much better than I expected! 

Pre-race: dinner of salmon, rice, avocado and green beans. Prepared my overnight oats (recipe by Hillary Biscay.... so tasty and easy! I added raisins instead of bananas) and popped it in the fridge for breakfast the next morning. Was in bed by 9:30 but I can't seem to fall asleep before 10 regardless of what time I'll need to get up! 

Race morning: 

Up at 4:40 am, ate my overnight oats for breakfast, loaded up my gear and headed out at 5:15. Picked up a friend from the tri club and drove 1.5 hours down to Santa Cruz. Found a lovely available parking spot, where the very friendly policewoman directing traffic said I could park and wished us luck... and we came back to find it was a no-parking zone and I got a ticket!! Grrrr... 

Set up transition area, drank half of my Ultragen and headed down to the beach for a pre-race dip. I was pleasantly surprised to find the water was a few degrees warmer than it is up in San Francisco... cold, but not bone-chillingly so. 

Swim:

Garmin swim time (actual swimming) 27:10. Official time 30:35 which included the extremely long run from the beach to transition (like 2 or 3 city blocks). 

This was a beach start with plenty of room for everyone to spread out and not beat each other up, so I lined up 2nd row center and charged out of the corral at the start. A wave came in right when we got to the water and almost everyone dropped back... I'm proud that I continued to charge ahead with a couple other gals, so I had some pretty clean water and got a decent head start. Alas, my swim fitness needs some work, and a couple women passed me on the swim. Other than that first wave the water was pretty calm... very nice swim conditions, and I was pretty sure that I wasn't too far behind the leaders.

T1: Official time 2:35.

This is where I need some work! Even though I practiced this the day before, it's a different beast during a race. I'd brought some hot water to rinse off my cold feet, couldn't get the top of my thermos off, then forgot to dry my feet and got one sock wet, took off the sock to dry my feet, put on my socks... good grief. Just get on the bike already. :-) Haven't yet tried sockless and really should. 

Bike: 1:12:54. My Garmin had the distance at 22.5... definitely short. 

My stretch goal was to keep 19 MPH avg pace, and I came in at 18.8... close enough to make me happy! This was four loops on the bike, and my plan was to just blow it out. Last weekend I did the Marin metric century (60 miles) followed by a 25 min run, and I was pleased to discover that even though I rode hard in between aid stations it didn't affect my run. That was enough of a confidence builder for me to decide to go hard on the bike during this race. I managed to keep heart-rate in high zone 3/low zone 4 the entire time, and keep the pace mostly the same for all four loops (although the last one I started lagging a bit.) 

I had to laugh... one guy just hated it when I passed him. He'd pass me back, and sure enough, 10 min later he'd slowed down and I re-passed him. This must have happened at LEAST 6 times during the race.  I did pass a couple women in my AG early on, and then I was mostly alone with the guys (whose wave went 5 min after mine) so I had no idea where I was in the rankings. But I knew I'd been out of the water maybe in 5th or 6th, and I passed a couple women, so I figured if I kept up the pace I *might* earn a podium spot.

Nutrition: 1.5 bottles w/1 scoop EFS and 1 scoop CarboPro each; one Bonkbreaker bar, one gel 10 min before the run

T2: 1:25... better, but still room for improvement!

Run: 2:40:52. 

This was a HUGE PR for me. My stretch goal pace for this was 8:45 and I came in at 8:38. The carrot of a potential podium spot was a nice motivator. This was a lovely run course along the coastline, and the sun finally came out after the first mile or so. I didn't really look at my Garmin much... just continued my effort I'd set on the bike of "hard enough to sustain but not totally blow up." I think I had a bit more in the tank if I'd really needed to turn it on. 

Nutrition: other than 1 cup of water at the start, I didn't take in anything else. My stomach was sloshing a bit and I felt fine energy-wise. 

Here's the run course view (source: virtualtourist.com)

Overall: 2:40:52, which is a 25 minute PR from the last Olympic on a similar course (Pacific Grove). I'll caveat that by saying that the bike course was shorter, so it was probably more like a 15 - 20 min PR. But my bike pace improvement (from 17 MPH to 18.8) and my run improvement (from 9:00 to 8:38) is huge. I'll take it :-) And it was good enough for 2nd AG! (not sure where 1st and 3rd went... I was the only one around to claim my prize.)

Honestly I'm not sure what I'd do differently. I feel like my nutrition was spot on, I was able to line up near the front of the swim without freaking out, my pacing was good... other than needing to work on swim fitness and T-times, this felt like a good race overall. 

Next up: Big Kahuna 70.3 in Santa Cruz on 9/9! Can't wait. I could possibly pull out an hour PR at that distance. AND... I just signed up for Miami 70.3 on Oct 28... geez, my season just started! gotta take advantage of my fitness. 

I'm back!

So after a couple months of no training due to ulcerative colitis, I've signed up for my new A race this year: Big Kahuna 70.3 in Santa Cruz in September. So training commenced on July 1 and I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I'm still not 100% yet... this bugger is mild, fortunately, but also tenacious. And so while I continue to lose weight while training (and I have very little left to lose) I'm piling on the calories to make up for it. Thanks be to Carbo-Pro which I now mix into everything!

This morning I swam in the 1.2 mi Catfish Crawl OWS, which I was concerned about as my stamina in the pool is just not there yet. But it was a gorgeous day, totally calm water, and I cut 3:46 off last years' time and lucked out by getting 2nd AG!

I say "lucked out" because 39:15 Garmin (39:50 official clock) should not have gotten me 2nd, but there were only 6 non-fast swimmers in my AG. I have never been remotely close to a podium spot, so during the awards I was sitting on the bus chatting with the girls waiting to be driven back to the parking lot. Then a friend came through and said, "hey, you should go claim your award, they called your name." Doh! 

So my one chance at a lovely podium photo went out the window. Needless to say, it was all quite motivating, and I've needed a bit of motivation on the swim. I'm pleased with my sighting... I wore my Garmin in my swim cap and was happy to see a near-perfect map. Let's see if I can replicate that on race day. 

Last thought for today: I've been on an experiment with a lower carb, low sugar diet as it's needed for ulcerative colitis, but of course with all the sugary gels and drinks it's tough to do this as an athlete. My next post will share more about how I'm doing it and how it's working. 

Spectating Honu, plus big island travel

Just got home from a week on the big island. While part of me really wished I was out there on the course, the tough conditions made me a teeny bit glad I was watching from the sidelines this year! It was great to just relax and be "on vacation" for an entire week (it's been ages since I've done that.)

My boyfriend flew out on Friday to meet me and we checked into the Prince Hotel at Hapuna Beach... right at the swim start.

Overall I'd give this hotel a thumbs up if you decide to stay here for a race. Location is fantastic, price is reasonable. It was $200 per night for a small first-floor room with no view, but they'll send you a follow-up email with an invitation to upgrade for only $11/night more. Occupancy this time of year was low (like, REALLY low) so we got the upgrade and ended up in a 7th floor room with a partial view of the ocean. Since occupancy is low it sorta felt like a ghost town -- if you're more social you'd be happier at the Fairmont -- but we ended up visiting the other hotels for dinners and it worked out fine. The only drawback would be getting back to the hotel after the race finish, as it's about 8 miles down the road; there are shuttles but I'm not a fan of waiting for shuttles. All that said, next year I'll likely do the condo rental again; I love being able to cook my own food. 

My guy isn't a triathlete but he is a really good sport, so he was game to play tri geek with me for the race. I couldn't find my friends for the swim start, but it was so cool to watch everyone take off. Weather started out quite nice, although I heard that the swim got a bit rough...

Lance coming out of the water...

Lance running into the finish, crushing the course record...

While we were waiting for the pros to finish, we were literally getting blown off our feet. I almost fell over when one big gust hit. I felt so bad for the folks still out on the bike course and relieved about sitting this one out! 

Then it was time to play. The next day we drove over to the other side of the island and went to the Botanical Gardens just north of Hilo. My favorite spot was just outside the gardens watching the waves crash on the rocks. 

... and then watching them almost crash on me! 

Highlight of the trip was kayaking with dolphins in Kealakekua Bay. My only regret was not getting in the water and taking underwater pics as 2 groups of them swam on either side of our kayak... it didn't occur to me until they'd gone by. We'd seen dozens by that time, and were on our way back in, so I didn't get another chance. 

If you go, a few tips:

• Go in the morning. It's a bit more crowded, but that's when the dolphins and the sun are out. The sun will vanish behind clouds in the afternoon... alas, as soon as we reached the other side and pulled on our snorkeling gear, it had just clouded up so I missed the beauty of sunlight on coral.
• Rent your kayak and gear from Kona Boys... they were super nice and extremely helpful. Great service. 
• Stop at the natural health food store (on the right just before Kona Boys) to get a sandwich and snacks for the kayak. I had the BEST gluten-free zucchini muffin there... seriously, you'd never know it was gluten free. Best. muffin. ever. I bought 2 more on my way home, and need to figure out a way to make them myself. So moist. 
• Bring a waterproof camera. You will regret not having one. 

The other highlight was getting in 3 open water swims in water with 200 foot visibility and no wetsuit needed. Ahhh. I swam here at Hapuna (and relaxed and read on the beach)....

... and here, off the private beach at the Mauna Lani. If you rent a condo in the complex (even on the Fairmont side) you should get a membership pass to the beach... it's definitely worth it. Not 20 yards off the beach you're looking at coral, fish, and we saw a honu! 

Overall a great trip. I ate very well... right now I can only eat fish, cooked veggies and some fruit, so every night was some fabulous fish dish with grilled pineapple and rice and fruity non-alcoholic cocktails (since I can't drink booze right now.)

And now at home I truly feel great. My colon is still not happy but overall my energy is much higher thanks to getting my vitamin D levels back up, eating twice as much protein (and infinitely more nutritious food) and cutting out the gluten. Went for my first bike ride yesterday and actually felt better than before I got sick. So then after deciding I could jump right back into training, I attempted to run 4 miles today... um, bad idea. Landed in the bushes sans toilet paper at mile 3, then bonked and walked home. Ok Jen... baby steps... (I'm not good with baby steps!!) 

Vitamin D and athletic performance

I got my blood test results back today and learned that I'm quite deficient in vitamin D. So I did a bit of online research to see what the side effects of D defiency are. You, my triathlete readers, should all know about this one!

A bit of back story: I've been struggling with muscle strength lately. Actually I've seen weakness over the past couple years, and it's gotten rather severe in the past few months. I'd compain to my coach that my muscles were always tired, I couldn't hit the numbers I should be able to hit, and I was even having trouble walking up the stairs to my apartment. I remember biking in Texas 8 years ago and gaining a lot of speed and pretty muscular quads that were too big to pack into my jeans. I haven't been able to replicate that while training for triathlon in the last two years, and I'd chalked it up to getting older and to possible overtraining. 

So back to Vitamin D, which is actually a steroid hormone: while it's most commonly known for bone density and strength (stress fractures, anyone?) it's also linked to muscle strength and specifically, fast twitch muscle fiber size. A recent study of 99 post-menarchal adolescent girls in England found a positive relationship between serum Vitamin D level and jump height, jump velocity and power. Russians and Germans experimented with UV light to boost the athletic performance of their Olympic athletes; the radiated runners improved their times by 7%. source

The optimal range for vitamin D is between 50 - 70 nanograms/ml, which is common among those who live in sunny Southern climes. 30 - 50 is considered "at risk" by the CDC. Mine is only 24... I'm sure a significant drop from when I lived in Texas. Now that I'm in SF, I'm not in the sun much. Unfortunately our diets, no matter how good, can't make up for the lack of sunshine.

And seasonality counts. Studies show a drop-off in athletic performance in the off-season. While there are a number of factors for this, a drop in vitamin D is thought to play a large role. Take a look at this chart from a fascinating article, Athletes Who Take Vitamin D Perform Better, that maps the amount of D you'll get from the sun by month:

Now, "compare the curve above with the one in the graph below, which is from a German study done in the fifties, where the researchers got seven test subjects to train their lower arms. The graph shows their progression, which was highest when the concentration of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in the blood was also at its highest." (Great justification for supplements in the off season!)

Even more important than performance is basic health. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to inflamatory bowel disease and gluten intolerance, along with low immunity and a host of other diseases like MS and bowel and breast cancers. It's not causative to IBD, but my hunch is that I had a predisposition to IBD and gluten intolerance my entire life yet living in the sun in Texas for decades kept the symptoms at bay. 6 years with minimal sun and no vitamin D supplementation in San Francisco, and my levels got low enough to become symptomatic.

My other symptoms of D deficiency include mood swings, fatigue, and depressed immune system. I'm sure these will go away once I get my levels back to normal, and in a couple months my muscle strength will return. The fatigue and weakness has been my biggest challenge for even thinking about training again, and I'm thrilled that it's such an easy fix. I'm sure my IBD won't just vanish, but perhaps it will go into remission and stay there with less struggle and diet restrictions.

About 1/3 of Americans are in the "at risk" category or below. You might be more likely to be at risk if you're in climes like the Pacific Northwest where we don't get as much sun. But even if you're in normal ranges, you may benefit from a vitamin D supplement. I'm not sure if you'll see such obvious symptoms unless you're in the 8% like me who are truly deficient, but who knows, it may be your magic performance boost for training.

IBD: The diet

The worst part of ulcerative colitis (IBD) is figuring out what I can and can't eat. The 'can't eat' list includes much of what comprises a healthy diet: whole grains, raw veggies, most fruits, legumes and nuts, eggs. Also nothing spicy and no caffeine. Oh, and minimal sugar. I can have an occasional glass of dry wine. Here's the diet I've now formulated:

Protein/carb shake

• Whey protein: A recent study showed a possible healing effect of whey protein and IBD
• Carbo-Pro: Glucose polymers are easily digestible and give me some much needed calories without the sugar
• Banana. I'm trying pineapple today due to digestive benefits; it's gotten mixed reviews on the forums so I have my fingers crossed. Blueberries are another fruit I think would be ok to try. 
• Yogurt

Hot rice cereal

• I love oatmeal but it's not sitting well right now. Neither is granola. Neither are eggs. So... rice cereal with honey for breakfast it is.

Almond butter on GF toast

• The week I went gluten-free I had more energy, less cramps, less stomach discomfort. I loved it. But the doc said I needed to go back to gluten to (essentially) keep damaging my small intestine so they can test for celiac in my endoscopy 6/12. This topic merits a separate post so I'll save more for later. 

My staple meal for lunch and dinner

• Protein: chicken or fish. Salmon is supposed to be one of the better foods for IBD
• Carb: I make a big pot of white rice and eat it for days
• Veggie: I can do green beans or zucchini so far. No broccoli or cauliflower (bummer).

Re-do: Veggies with coconut milk

• I made a yummy dish with potatoes, carrots and green beans with coconut milk, curry and some other Indian spices. Bad move... spices killed my gut. I'll try this again just with turmeric, which is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties. 

I haven't yet tried:

• Sweet potatoes are supposed to be ok (without the skins -- ack, that's the best part!), but I normally eat them with cottage cheese. Dairy is supposedly off limits for UC but cottage cheese might be acceptable. 
• I could try a low-fiber cereal like Cheerios. I'm really unenthused. 

As I figure this out I'm creating a spreadsheet (and hopefully some more interesting recipes) that I'll post. 

An even bigger set-back: IBD

Went to the gastroenterologist on Monday who is fairly convinced I have ulcerative colitis, a form of inflamatory bowel disease. I'll get confirmation after my colonoscopy on 6/12. I've started on anti-inflammatory medication which may take a few weeks before easing symptoms. In the meantime I've halted the weight loss by stopping all physical activity and essentially working in bed for the past couple weeks. I just started walking and very light jogging to keep my body moving, but I can't lose any more weight by doing anything more right now. 

I'm having a tough time finding information online about athletes with IBD. Once I can push this into remission I should be able to start training again. But from what I'm reading, a good number of people have atttained -- and more importantly, sustained -- remission through the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which I don't think is viable for endurance athletes. No carbs other than veggies. No sugar. It's basically a Paleo diet. I tried it for 2 days and my blood sugar crashed hard. Somehow I think other folks do it but this foodie considers that diet an 'option of last resort.' Well, the option before surgery.  

I'm going to start logging my trial-and-error efforts to work my way back to full health and triathlon. I'm hoping my account can help fill the void in IBD athlete blogs and information. My coach pointed me to Teresa Nelson's blog... she's a pro triathlete with UC that's in remission... so good to see a success story! But it's hard to find her posts on this topic as I think her last flare-up was two years ago. 

So for the next couple weeks/months, I'm afraid this blog is going to be rather boring on the training front. My hope is that I can start training for a fall Olympic, but long course will be totally out the window until I have this under control. There are enough nutrition and GI problems with the longer distance without layering on UC! Wish me luck.