Ben Greenfield reports on racing at the Laguna Phuket Triathlon and the Asia Pacific 70.3 (half-Ironman) in Thailand. He describes a strong swim and bike (wore an 03 Blue 70 suit; rode approximately 225 watts on a difficult bike course), but severe dehydration on the run (lost ~10 lb, weighed 165 lb post-race) produced a slow half-marathon split. Final time was about 4:45; run ~1:44. He earned a slot to the Vegas World Championships, credits sponsors and specific nutrition/products (Goo Roctane/goo chomps at ~400 kcal/hr on the bike, Beta-alanine preload, Zeal sunglasses, Specialized bike, Evia shoes, 03 Blue 70 suit, Champsis kit, Impact supplements, Whole Foods optimizer/Natural Vitality), and notes heat/humidity amplified fluid losses versus Hawaii.
Reported "I rode a 225" (stated in the video; context implies 225 watts).
Chapters
Well folks, I'm back in Chile, Washington State. It's snowy here and there's Christmas music playing at different places that I go to. But I did just get back from Thailand and I wanted to let you know how the races went. I left a race report over on the blog, probably the blog that you're watching this video on that told you about the Laguna Phuket Triathlon. Awesome race, international distance race and I really had a wonderful race there and had a lot of confidence going into the 70.3 the next weekend in the half Ironman started off on a swim. Felt great. I wore my 03 Blue 70 suit again. The new fabric one that's legal in a race like that worked out very well. I came out of the water as one one of the top age groupers and then had a fantastic bike. I rode a 225 on a very difficult course over there. I was second place overall age grouper coming off the bike. Really, really had a very, very good ride. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun on the ride and having such a good time that I kind of forgot to drink enough water. I weighed myself after this race and I actually lost 10 pounds. When I eat whatever I want to, I usually weigh about 185ish. When I'm at my fighting weight I weigh 175. After this race I weighed 165 so obviously did not quite drink enough water. I didn't really realize that going into the run, but about 5k into the run.
You know, I was a second place age grouper and pretty much knew I had my. I had won my slot to the Vegas World Championships and really, really slowed down at that point I had to start walking all the aid stations. I was kind of overheating. Really wanted to drop out at that point, but I kept running. Ran one of the slowest half marathons of the year.
Well, my overall race time was a 4:45 and I ran like a 144. So crazy slow on the run but I still finished. I still got my slot to the Vegas World Championship. So hooray for me for not dropping out of the race. And.
Yeah, learned some things about the bike, especially in that humidity. The amount of water that I lost even compared to Hawaii was well over and above what I'm used to. So.
Aside from that it was a good race. I feel like I was able to get my sponsors especially a lot of coverage during the race. Everything from the Zeal sunglasses to the Specialized bike, the Evia shoes, the 03 Blue 70 suit handed out lots of noon at the post race awards party. And basically everybody, the impact supplements that kept me healthy on the plane there and back as well as the Whole Foods optimizer from Peter Gillum's Natural Vitality all the Millennium Sports complex that I take. That stuff of course helped out tremendously. Loaded up with my Beta Alanine before the race. Felt great. So anyways, yeah, everything was good. The new kit from Champsis, the same one I wore for Hawaii, that one was really, really sweet. Again, does just fine in the heat. So to all my sponsors, thank you. I can tell you that 2011 I will be racing in some very visible races. I'm also doing some very cool things in 2011 that are going to get you as my sponsor, tons of visibility. So I thank you for your support and, and thank you if you're just watching this to learn a little bit about the race. And I also want to tell you about the nutrition and a few little things leading up to this race or during the race just because I know some of you are interested in that. Since I'm a sports nutritionist, I like to share that stuff. I used Goo Roctane and goo chomps about 400 calories an hour during the bike. I switched to very little in the run for a half Ironman. I typically only take in about.
Usually about 100 calories every half hour or so if that on the run. And I took four salt pills every hour on the hour without fail. I used the athletes from Millennium Sports and then of course water. Typically I do about 30 ounces of water an hour on the bike. Probably should have been closer to about 35 on this bike. Ride was just really low on water. And as far as training goes, you guys know what I do. I pretty much stick to my triathlon Dominator plan. The same one, it's over@triathlondominator.com and for my off season races I throw in a lot more tennis and basketball and all that jazz. And last thing, check out the article in Lava magazine. The new Lava magazine just came out and I wrote about exactly how I implement cross training like tennis and basketball and all these other sports and still maintain fitness for triathlon. So that's about it for today's video race report from Thailand. Next race coming up is going to be Abu Dhabi over in the Arab Emirates in March. So yeah, I'm going to go enjoy Christmas and Happy New Year and leave your comments or questions. Thanks for watching.
