Fit-Q: What weather keeps you off the race course?

Funny how last summer we were cursing Mother Nature for not giving us a summer--at least in the Midwest. Now she's lashing out and giving us one of the hottest on record in recent years, which makes the air conditioning, cool treat and waterpark businesses boom (my guess, anyway) but keeps race conditions for us athletes less than ideal. Or maybe I should say far from ideal, especially when we're sweating buckets, slowing our speeds in an effort to save our race, or opting to not show up in the first place.

So what keeps you from participating in a race? Or are you so determined to reach the finish line, you don't care what Mother Nature throws your way? What keeps you from a race weather-wise? Tell us!

Make Marathon Miles--Or Any Distance--Faster

Have a need for speed? Searching for more marathon motivation or a way to get to the finish line with your personal best? Want advice that can stick with you or three ways to prepare your body and your mind for the challenge? It's not every day a coach offers up free tips--while we wish it was the case, more often than not we learn through trial-and-error, a training program or personal coach, or reading material--but Mike Thomson of CoreFitness Chicago, a coach, leader of Core Running classes and a Boston Marathon-qualifier, has some speedy secrets. And he let Fit-Ink learn three key rules, applicable to the marathon as well as any race on your schedule.

Visualize. Racing is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental, so you want to know the race inside and out. Learn the course, its turns, its hills, its hydration stations and picture yourself running the route before the race. Then come race day when you hit a steep uphill, brace for a descent, or know that you need to refuel at miles 6, 12 and 18, your mind has already been there.

Taper volume, not speed. In the week leading up to the race you want to keep your speed but reduce the amount of training. Keep the epic workouts at bay especially those long runs and century spins. But do continue at the same intensity so you'll have that speed on race day.

Ban the expo eating. Free food? Who wouldn't turn that down? Well, you might want to if you don't want to mess with race performance. All of those energy bars, gels and gummies are great for giving you energy during a race or long ride, but that sugar high can spike insulin levels and dump glycogen if you're just sitting around. Don't use the expo as a grocery store unless you're stocking up for during or after the race.

That's not to say that these are the three golden rules of a fast race performance. Training, sleep and a good diet have to be present too or you might find yourself drifting off pace in the final miles. Or start off too quickly because you feel great (maybe leftover sugar-high from expo nibbling) and then sputtering at the end. Whatever the case, it's all about smart racing and smart prep. Posted by Kate

The Steelhead Short Report

There's a reason it's taken me forever to post an update about the Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon on August 1: I cannot finish my race report. I'm partially to blame as I'm always psyched to write reports about good races and less-than-thrilled to share the bad ones. And while we all dealt with the weather conditions that definitely affected my racing day, there was more to what I like to call my downfall than that. So while I'm still finishing up the play-by-play, here's an abbreviated version.

Happy Thoughts
*Good dinner the night before with my parents at Timothy's in Union Pier.
*Having my parents watch me compete, especially since my husband was stuck in Chicago on call and no one would trade shifts with him (which also falls into the not-so-happy category).
*The swim wasn't canceled this year. Hooray for not running 2 miles, then biking and then running 13.1 (my legs really didn't like that last year).
*Knowing several people who were also racing. My gym had really good representation, especially the Thursday night spin class, which also meant I didn't have to walk the 1.2 miles to the swim start by myself.
*Body surfing in the water. We had gentle waves building in Lake Michigan as the morning wore on, and if you caught them right you could surf across them, making the long swim go by just a little faster and more fun.
*The post-race party. OK, so it's not really the party because a local Benton Harbor restaurant does host an event for athletes after the race, but the finish line atmosphere is a fun one. After you've received your medal and had your chip clipped, you don't want to exit the athlete-only area right away. There are chairs to relax in--and they're undercover--kiddie pools filled with ice-cold Gatorade, soda and water, and tables that start looking like the Farmer's Market I was missing at home, filled with fresh peaches, nectarines and plums. Delish after chomping down on mushy bananas and Sport Beans on the course. And that's not even counting the Pizza Hut buffet that awaits after reuniting with your family outside the athlete-only zone. It sounds grossly unhealthy and yeah, it kind of is since you can beg volunteers to keep piling pizza, chicken, burgers, pasta, and garlic bread and breadsticks onto your plate, but it's oh so good upon finishing. And after a painful bike and run (more to come on that), it was well deserved too.
*Ideal water temperature. Lake Michigan can be finicky in terms of its temperature. Take the chilly temps hovering around Racine for the 2008 Spirit of Racine--I froze in 56-degree water--and again in 2009 where it measured 59 degrees the day before the race. I never heard the water temperature in Benton Harbor but it wasn't a brace-yourself-it's-cold day and the water felt pretty good.
*The volunteers at these half Ironman races are amazing. I didn't really pay attention to them on the bike because I carry my own fuel and can't grab a bottle while riding (definitely a skill I need to work on), but on the run they were plentiful and with the exception of one bad choice on my end they were always stocked with cups, sponges and food. Thank you!
*The cops stopping traffic at the major intersections. I sound like I'm whining but I swear I had a close call with a car last year at the race. I'm riding my bike past an intersection and a cop has instructed a car to pull out onto the main road, but the car looks like it's about to plow into me and the guy who's about to pass me instead of making a tight turn and going into the far lanes. Talk about scary. But at least I wasn't put in a similar situation this time around.
*Having relatively the same run course as last year. I like signing up for the same race year after year so that I can gauge improvement--or lack of--and get more familiar with the course. And while the 2008 course was different from the 2007 one with an added hill that we had to run up twice, everything was the same this time around.

Not-So-Happy Thoughts
*Me. I'm thinking I wasn't recovered from the Racine race, or what I thought was taking it easy for that race was really harder than planned. I just had more than my fair share of disappointment for the day.
*The close quarters of the transition area. We were so cramped walking the rows of transition and the bikes seemed really close together. Sure, there are bags and more people in the tight quarters before the race, but it was just as bad during the race, especially coming in from the bike. I was hopping over wetsuits that got tossed into the aisle and carefully making sure I didn't swing my bike too close to the bikes already racked. Kinda crazy.
*The pain on the run. Again, this all goes back to me and issues my body was having. My left foot was numb when I started out on the run--that was a new sensation, and not a good one--and then it went to heated pain where my heel felt on fire. That was the plantar fasciitis talking. And that's not counting the issues my right leg was giving me--it just hurt to run and you couldn't ignore it.
*The wind, the wind, the wind. Talk about a strategy going awry...I usually go a comfortable pace to gain my bike legs and then throw it into high gear for the back half. But as we turned onto highway 63 for the long stretch home, we were met with a wall of wind. Ugh, and all you could do was watch the speedometer slip, hold on tight--I swear I was going to get thrown on some of those gusts--and watch the bike time take longer than planned. And while some people said they felt a tailwind earlier, I always thought the wind was blowing around me.
*The path to the bike in area. There was a new twist to get to the bike dismount area. The bike route was mixed up a little this year and in my opinion, not exactly for the better. Instead of turning off the highway, then one more turn before the bike dismount line on a wide road, we had to pull off the highway, turn onto a foot path and pedal--or more like wind because you really couldn't go fast--past lines of spectators, and then dismount. It was a little hairy and I'm an early unclipper and had to clip in and out so I didn't topple over on the turns, and it was nervewracking riding past so many onlookers while in what I called a caution zone.
*Cars on the road, especially a white, beat up Bonneville. While many people complained about drafting at my other half Ironman, Racine, it didn't really affect me except to discourage my speed (or lack thereof) when a pack would go by. This time the drafting was at a minimum, if at all, but there were cars on the road that were getting in the way. I can totally understand the impossibility of having a 56-mile route completely closed to traffic but when a car gets in your way and won't pass you and you can't pass it--yes that's the Bonneville part--it gets incredibly frustrating. And he gave me the finger as I struggled to figure out a way around him. I think he was attempting to pass a slower cyclist in front but there was no oncoming traffic yet he didn't move over and blocked those of us--OK, maybe just me--approaching from behind. Talk about full speed ahead when I could finally pass. And then it happened later where a red minivan was driving down the road ahead of me. It never got in my way but it looked like it tripped up a few people, maybe even caused a woman to ride off the road, lose her balance and have to get back on her bike.
*The rain. It's always nice to hang out at the beach, enjoy the pizza buffet and then slowly head back to transition, pack up and go home. Rain was on its way and fast at the finish. By the time I left the athlete-only area, talked to some friends and got in line for the pizza buffet, it started to sprinkle and then just flat-out rain. So the leisurely post-race atmosphere turned into a chow down, a hustled limp to transition to shove gear into a bag and then more shuffling to the car.

OK so it sounds like a laundry list, but I guess I get very analytical when I have frustrating races. And this one definitely got me flustered. The sad part was the day started like that and never seemed to improve either. Oh well, just chalk it up for the next race. And know that I have to slow down and rest my legs before I'm really sidelined. And I guess this "short report" was a little more than I planned on--more of a highlights or memories list. More to come... Posted by Kate

Congratulations Liz!

I don't want to steal Liz's thunder, but I'm happy to report that she finished today's Boston Marathon. And with flying colors, I might add. After all of the trials with wintry weather, windy conditions, chilling cold, and the like, everything came together on race day and she crossed the finish line fast enough to requalify for next year.

She probably has far more to say than me, but I was just too excited over the news that I had to share. Congrats Liz and here's to resting up for the next big event of the season! Sorry for the 2008 medal, but 2009 wasn't to be found and this was just a cool shot. Photo grabbed from goseeruneatdrink at flickr. Posted by Kate

Plea for a Snuggie

I'll admit I'm a little late to the Snuggie party (yes, I followed to many online posts, Facebook groups and Today Show images last week), but after the Windy City's return to the cold--Mother Nature was playing a cruel trick on us yesterday--my body's begging to stay warm and I'm wishing for a Snuggie. For as much as people poke fun and express their disdain by joining groups like "Snuggie is a fugly slut", my argument lies in its at-home use, where no one will ever need to know such an item could keep me warm, but also its practicality for race-day comfort, especially for triathletes and marathoners. Snuggie for sport can have a calling.

Think about all the gear you already pack into your transition bag for a triathlon. By the time your cycling shoes, running shoes, wetsuit and towel have been stowed, you have little room for much else. But what do you do when you have to be at the race at the crack of dawn, then sit around for the start for an hour--or hours and hours and hours if you're the unlucky soul at the Chicago Triathlon who's in a late wave--you're not going to shiver in your swimsuit. On most mornings you're wearing your sweats, a light jacket, maybe even wrapping a towel around your legs to stay warm. Score for Snuggie!

I'm seeing that blanket with sleeves as the warm-up suit and towel rolled into one. I'm thinking back to the Chicago Tri where it's routine to park your bike at 5:30 a.m., then set up camp--tarp, towel and all--on the grass lining Monroe Harbor for a good three hours. And I'm always cold, having to sacrifice a layer for a race need in my bag. Or standing around on the beach waiting to swim--it's an easy item to toss to the side (so it's $20 but it's not your favorite lululemon pants or Pearl Izumi cycling jacket) either to be donated, pick up by someone else or stored by your cheer team.

How many items have you seen along the sidelines at a marathon's start gates? Sweatshirts, old tees, hats, garbage bags. The gear we use to stay warm runs the gamut. Again being short on storage space, high on warmth factor, the Snuggie sounds like a winner. Its cost could amount to the price you paid for those discard duds at goodwill or the value of what was in your closet that you thought you could part with, plus its sack creates extra room for storage of all the hydration packs and iPod holders we strap to us on race day. I'd trade my swim parka--my go-to warm gear--for a Snuggie hands down. Each year when I'm heading to the start of a race and piling on the layers to prepare myself for standing outside for a TBD amount of time, I always wish that I had my parka that carried me through all-day swim meets while damp and cold in marshalling areas and on pool decks. But it's big and bulky--not conducive to squeezing into a carry-on.

While it's a definite fashion no-no, Snuggie could hit it's stride among the athletic marketplace. Or maybe I'm prophetizing and feeling bad for a product that's the center of hard-knocks, snickers and jeers. Even if I look like a gospel singer who made a wrong turn Sunday morning, I'll wear it if it keeps me warm. Would you? Photo grabbed from ytimk2006 at Flickr. Posted by Kate