The "Tri-Fecta" Attempt.

photo by Dave Erickson

This week, I decided to finish the local 2010 race season by attempting a "Tri-Fecta".

Yes, I completely made up this term, and it means "to win 3 triathlons in a row". I think that it is traditionally a phrase used in horse racing or something, but I'm no grammatical expert. I just wear spandex and do triathlons.

For the Tri-Fecta attempt, I chose the Palouse Sprint Triathlon, the Spokane Olympic Triathlon and the Grand Columbian Half-Ironman Triathlon - a true test of my speed in all distances, and a good alternative to doing boring long workouts to prepare for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

There were three significant changes to my prep, gear and nutrition protocol before these races, specifically:

-I really stepped up the massage therapy with Tim Gilreath from http://www.therapproach.com. I've been seeing him once a week as regularly as possible, and he's magically figured out how to keep me pieced together for this attempt.

-I am riding on a completely brand new Gray Storm Time Trial Bike with Gray Wheels and a Gray Helmet (http://www.synergysport.com). This is a new company to the triathlon scene from Lake Tahoe, and they make slick, fast and impressive gear. I built up their frame with SRAM Red Components and Return To Position shifters, a Zipp Vuma Aero crank, and Gray Aero Bars. Here's a picture:

Yeah, it's fast, and it's been all by lonesome in transition a lot lately.

-I also tripled the amount of fatty acids in my diet. No, I did not start eating butter sticks. I did it by using the Pharmax DHA/EPA blend and Udo's 3-6-9 Oil from Bioletics. This was based on recommendations from Podcast #111 at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, which you can listen to by clicking here.

***In addition, I'm using all the normal nutrition and gear protocols I've relied on for a very successful 2010 race season thus far, and you can read about everything else I use at the end of this post. Heck, I'm shamelessly begging you to click on my sponsors' links. They make pretty dang good stuff.***

OK, here we go.

The first race, on Saturday, 09/11 was the Palouse Sprint Triathlon. I hold the course record here and I was out to beat it. In a sprint triathlon, you basically just go to a world of red-hot pain for under an hour. It's over fast, but it hurts.

The race started with a 500m pool swim, then a 10 mile bike, and finished with a 5K run.

Here's me leading in the swim (this was the last of 8 waves):

I came out of the water in first place and took of on the Gray Storm TT.

This was my first race on this beast, and it is F-A-S-T bike. It is basically the stiffest frame you can get anywhere, which basically means that just about every tiny chunk of wattage gets directed straight into the cranks on the bike.

I just held on for dear life, at about 26 miles per hour, and then ran the 5K. I don't know how far ahead I was coming off the bike, but I won the triathlon by almost 3 minutes and re-set the course record.

Here's me finishing the Palouse Sprint Triathlon:

And hacking up my lungs afterwards:

Sprint Nutrition: 45 minutes prior: 2 delta-E's and 6 Enerprime, Millennium SportsCordygen VO2 and Carnage. During race: no water, no gels. No need.

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On my drive back up to Spokane, I must admit that I seriously re-considered my Tri-Fecta attempt, since I was still reeling from the sprint triathlon. But at 4:30am the next morning, I peeled myself out of bed and headed out to make the next attempt for a win at the Spokane Olympic Triathlon.

For those of you who get queasy at the mention of genital shrinkage, you may want to skip this next part.

The Spokane Triathlon is cold.

As in, steam-coming-off-the-water, folks-shivering-in-3-layers-of-clothing-in transition, where-are-my-fingers, why-do-my-testicles-look-like-those-of-my-2-year-old-boys cold.

I choked down a couple yams on the drive to the race, set up transition and then waited until the last possible minute to strip down and put on my wetsuit. As I made my first venture into the icy Spokane River, I felt "the boys" literally go screaming up into my crotch, screaming for dear life and their virility. This was like the cold bath Seinfield episode multiplied ten-fold.

Here I am, hunched over, shivering, and heading out on the bike:

I came out of the water in 2nd, and rode into first by mile two of the bike. This race was basically a repeat of the day before, but twice as long, and the Antarctic version.

While hammering the bike course, I slowly watched my fingers turn a concerning purple shade. Halfway through, I could not feel my fingers or toes, and the feeling in my crotch was suggesting that I may have successfully engaged in castration by freezing. It never did warm up, and by the time I got back to transition, I had to enlist the assistance of a volunteer in taking off my helmet, snapping on my race belt, and putting on my shoes.

For the first two miles of the run, I couldn't feel my legs or feet, and I once again gave serious through to dropping the pursuit of a Tri-Fecta in exchange for a cup of hot chocolate and warm bath.

But I powered through, it slowly became warmer, and I won again - once again by several minutes. Here I am running to the finish. The vital organs have apparently warmed up by now.

Two down, one to go.

Olympic nutrition: 45 minutes prior: 2 delta-E's and 6 Enerprime, Millennium Sports Cordygen VO2 and Carnage. During race: 300 calories of GU brew on the bike, nothing on the run. I've also started adding Peter Gillham's NutraRev pre-race, taking with the delta-E.

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The Grand Columbian Half-Ironman, on 09/18 (Tri-Fecta day seven of seven) is known to be a difficult course. With 3800 feet of climbing and notoriously fierce winds, followed by a run on a punishing, undulating mix of trails, gravel and highway, this is not a race to take lightly. For example, last year I raced a 4:34 at Grand Columbian and took second - and that would be considered a relatively "slow" Half IM course time.

So you gotta have a good tune on your pre-race .mp3 player to get pumped up for this one. I went for "Dynamite" by Taio.

Saturday morning, I drove the 90 miles to the race at 6am with my wife and kids. We arrived, I set up transition, and time went by quickly.

The boys helping me get ready:

Found a craw-dad in the water before the swim:

The nice part about Grand Columbian is that there is a buoy line underneath the water that you can use to swim a straight path without sighting much. The first 200 meters of the race are a free-for-all as every competitor tries to get on top of that buoy line. It's like the new Nintendo Playstation is sitting on top of that first buoy, and you're surrounded by desperate pre-Christmas mothers in wetsuits.

I ended up leading in a pack of 4 swimmers, with two very fast swimmers way off the front ahead of us. For the first 1200 meters, I hung with the other 4 swimmers, then made an attempt to break away with 700 meters left - primarily because I didn't want any other cyclists getting a free ride on my tail in the first and most difficult section of the bike course.

My break away was successful, and I was able to come out of the water with just those two fast swimmer ahead of me. I got out of transition ahead of one of them, and got ready to hurt.

Out of the swim:

This race begins with a 1000+ foot climb, but my Gray ascended like a dream. This bike climbs very well, and as a relatively weak climber, I'm pretty grateful for that. The ride, as expected, was windy and hard, but I felt fantastic - I shoved down a GU Roctane every 20 minutes and a couple Athlytes every 30 minutes. Usually, I eat a lot during the Half-IM bike so I don't have to eat much on the run.

Still, it took me nearly 40 miles to catch the final swimmer who had made it out of the water ahead of me, and in the meantime, another cyclist rode by me so fast that I thought he was on a team or relay division. So I rode into transition 90 seconds behind this guy, who it turns out was NOT on a team but was an individual competitor. Third place rode in just about a minute behind me.

Here I am coming off the bike:

Mentally, I've had a hard time this season both "catching" other runners ahead of me and running a strong half-marathon, so I knew I was at a bit of a disadvantage chasing and being chased. I put my head down and starting charging, knowing that 90+ seconds is a good chunk of time to make up, but is do-able.

Unfortunately, halfway through the run, at the 10K mark, I split 1st place and he was 2:15 ahead of me. To make matters worse, 3rd place was just 15 seconds behind me. So I was stuck in a very unsettling sandwich.

At that point, I really though I'd let my Tri-Fecta slip away. A third place finish seemed inevitable.

This is the point during a race where I go drill sergeant on myself...

"How BAD do you want this?"

"C'mon how much are you willing to hurt?"

"Go big or go home, Ben."

"Yo momma is an ugly cow."

HAHA. Sorry about that last one, Mom. I know you read these race reports.

Well, my "positive" self-talk worked. I grit my teeth, set my chin, and went to my pain-cave. DEEP into my pain cave. At 15K, I had opened up the gap on 3rd place to sixty seconds and was 10 seconds behind the leader.

I flew by him, and started counting. I've been passed my fair share of times, and I know that when you get passed, your instinct is to go with the guy that passed you. So I dug in and counted to 200, hoping to demoralize him.

It worked, and when I looked back, he was a non-issue.

About 5 minutes later, my body started shutting down. By this time, I was just past the 11 mile mark, and the engine was over-heating. I knew I had to cool down my core, so I walked for 30 seconds, took a few deep breaths, and then made the final attack.

The final 4K were a bit of a blur, not because I was running that fast, but because my vision was blurry and the blood was pounding in my ears. It was really hurting, but I wanted the finish line worse than it hurt. At this point, I knew nobody was going to catch me, but now I just wanted to see how fast I could finish.

The final sprint to the finish line (the other finishers were in the simultaneous Olympic distance race).

(notice the hot photographer in the background, my wife...)

(fist pump)

(and victory.)

Turns out I was 8 minutes faster than last year (that's HUGE for a Half-Ironman), as I crossed the finish line in 4:26 and got my Tri-Fecta.

Three wins in seven days - a huge confidence booster going into Kona, and a veritable crapload of USA Triathlon points, which help towards the national ranking.

Half-Ironman nutrition: 45 minutes prior: 45 minutes prior: 2 delta-E's and 6 Enerprime, Millennium Sports Cordygen VO2 and Carnage. During race: 9 GU Roctanes and 8 Millennium Sports Athlytes on the bike, half a banana and 6 Athlytes on the run. I've also started adding Peter Gillham's NutraRev pre-race, taking with the delta-E.

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So what's next? I'm flying down to ***Las Vegas*** on Wednesday to bring you Interbike reporting straight from http://www.everymantri.com (Interbike is the world's biggest cycling/triathlon expo).

Saturday and Sunday, I'll be in ***Sacramento*** teaching a fat loss and human performance seminar for http://physical.eventbrite.com/.

On Monday, I'll be at a top secret meeting in ***San Francisco*** to plan the release of an AWESOME new business that I can't tell you anything about yet.

Then I'll come back for a few days, and it will be off to ***Kona, Hawaii*** with Mom, Dad, my wife Jessa, my sister Rosie and my twin boys for Ironman World Championships - where I'll be doing Ford and Timex sponsored media coverage for http://www.everymantri.com and of course, racing in the Super Bowl of triathlon.

So stay posted for lots of fresh content and videos over the next few weeks.

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OK, here's the sponsor digs I promised you:

Key Nutrition Used In These Races (leave comments below if you have "usage" questions):

Pre-Race: Ancient Minerals Topical Magnesium Oil, Scape Sunblock, Enerprime, delta-E, Millennium Sports Carnage, Millennium Sports Cordygen VO2, Sweet Potatoes, nuun hydration, Peter Gillham's NutraRev

During Race: GU Electrolyte Brew, GU Roctane and Millennium Sports Athlytes

Post-Race: Wicked Fast Recoverease, Ancient Minerals Topical Magnesium Oil, Mt. Capra Solar Synergy, Mt. Capra Double Bonded Protein, Bioletics Amino Acids, nuun hydration

Key Gear Used In This Race (leave comment below if you have questions)

Wetsuit: Blue Seventy Helix

Goggles: Blue Seventy Nero

Sunglasses: Zeal Optics "Slingshots"

Bike: Gray Storm TT

Wheels: Gray 9.0 Clinchers

Helmet: Gray Aerodome Helmet

Cycling Shoes: Specialized TriVent

Running Shoes: Avia Avi-Bolts

Recovery Compression Socks: "TheRecoverySock".

Thanks for reading!

Watermelon GU, no caffeine.

Thank you, GU. You've done it once again.

Folks, this is like summer in your mouth.

Try 'em: http://www.guenergy.com

Foot Care - Avia Avi-Bolt + "The Recovery Sock"

For those of you concerned from the picture above that I am now adopting the fashion stance of a combination of Raggedy-Andy and the NBA, this is not the case. I've simply been taking care of my feet and legs more lately.

FIRST, my new Avi-Bolt II racing flats (pictured above) arrived yesterday. Avia continues its lightweight Bolt series with the Avi-Bolt II. Shown here in Black/Yellow Glow-Chrome Silver, this shoe features a synthetic/textile mesh upper, quick lace system, 3M Scotchlite reflective material, Ortholite insole, Dura-Ryd midsole, and a Cantilever outsole with forefoot and heel Dura-Stryk high abrasion rubber. The upper’s neon yellow mesh surrounds the foot for breathability.

And I must say, with a last name like Greenfield, I'm not complaining about the color.

And I'm now wearing a compression garment called "The Recovery Sock" (pictured above). This sock is not simply a graduated compression sock, but a totally new concept of health for your feet. It is the result of studies and research conducted in the medical field as well as in the world of sports.

These compression socks incorporate a Patented Graduated Compression design that enhances and stimulates circulation in the lower leg - making it a superior sock. Recovery Sock's Running and Recovery Socks can help anyone looking for a boost in athletic performance!

Compression is not a new technology; it has been used for years in medical patients with venous and arterial insufficiency. However, the application of this technology to athletics is relatively new. There is clear evidence to support compression use in promoting recovery. Using compression socks after a race or hard workout provide a substantial benefit. These garments will help to avoid venous stasis (blood pooling in the legs) and swelling.

Compression is particularly helpful in depended areas of the body, such as the feet and lower legs where gravity has a greater effect on blood return. Improved blood flow after a workout results in enhanced nutrient delivery and removal of waste products to and from muscles. This creates a situation optimal for muscle repair, reduced stiffness and heaviness in the legs and possibly less soreness. Several studies have demonstrated that post exercise blood lactate levels were lower with compression sock use both during and after exercise.

Other studies have demonstrated that compression socks do create a major fluid shift in the body. Compression garments are believed to improve venous blood return to the heart and allow for better cardiac output (flow of oxygenated blood from the heart) thereby aiding oxygen delivery to working muscles and increased endurance.

Since I'm on my feet quite a bit, I'm now wearing these socks on a daily basis - unless of course I have to take a trip to the mall or grocery store - in which case I either put on pants or big boy socks.

Next race: Grand Columbian Triathlon (or possibly Spokane Triathlon)

Portland Triathlon Race Report

With a downtown swim in the tasty Williamette river, three 14K bike loops through downtown Portland and two 5K run loops, the Portland Triathlon is a true urban triathlon. After a 4th place finish and satisfyingly tough competition last year, I decided to return this year to try for a better result.

Frankly, I enjoy this race quite a bit. Since there are multiple wave starts, an Olympic and Sprint distance triathlon, and a few other simultaneous events (such as a 5K run), the course turns into a complete cluster of competitors. I'm not just a fan of alliteration, but also the challenge of migrating through a crowd of triathletes, so I get a kick out of this. The race seems to go by incredibly quick with all the required dodging and weaving. If you're a fast cyclist prepping for this race, I recommend you practice shouting "ON YOUR LEFT" while riding at functional threshold power for 1 hour.

I started the swim in the second wave, as an in-the-water swim start off the dock - straight down the slightly polluted river and back. Within 10 minutes, I was swimming through the first wave - elbowing and shoving my way through while trying to to get kicked in the face or lose my goggles. I was also making an attempt to drink as little of the suspiciously flavored river as possible.

From what I could tell, 3 athletes came out of the water ahead of me. I opted to simply run in my wetsuit up the long, winding dock to transition rather than sit down and take off my wetsuit on the dock like last year.

Turns out that after comparing last year's transition times, it is about 20 seconds faster to just sit down and take your wetsuit off on the dock.

The Portland triathlon bike is interesting. It is a "surge and recover" style ride - with steep, quick climbs that load your legs with lactate, followed by sharp descending corners during which pedaling hard is impossible. Paired with a few hundred competitors riding the course and the fact that I completely removed my rear brakes 15 minutes prior to the race (my apologies to any USAT officials reading this report, but it was a necessary tech issue) - and this bike ride was quite a thriller.

I came off the bike in 3rd place, behind a couple triathletes against whom I'm never raced (Jeff Helmer & Zach Winter), but really not knowing my placing overall, since it's pretty hard to tell with all the other events and waves taking place.

My run felt fantastic, and I covered the 10K in 38 minutes and change for a total time of 2:08. This is a relatively slow time for an Olympic distance triathlon, but the bike course is anything but fast. Nobody passed me on the run, so I ended up 3rd overall for the Portland Triathlon, and 1st place division.

This was enough to get me 40 bucks, a bottle of champagne, and a cool engraved rock. Talk about a nice payday.

Kudos to race director Jeff Henderson for putting on a great event, that actually is a true "green" triathlon with all the works: bamboo t-shirts, recyclable plates, carbon credit buy-offs, and much more.

Interestingly, even though I gave it my all *during* the race, I was completely recovered with a matter of minutes. This is the best I've ever felt after a hard Olympic effort - which suggests my Kona Ironman endurance build-up is paying off - moments after the race, I felt as if I could have easily completed the entire course again, despite a 100% effort. Instead, I polished off the bottle of champagne and romanced my wife in Hood River.

Thanks to all my nutrition sponsors for making this type of lightning-speed recovery a reality, and to all my gear sponsors for making fast racing possible.

Next stop: Grand Columbian Half Ironman on September 18. Stay tuned!

Key Nutrition Used In This Race (leave comments below if you have "usage" questions):

Pre-Race: Ancient Minerals Topical Magnesium Oil, Scape Sunblock, Enerprime,delta-E, Millennium Sports Carnage, Millennium Sports Cordygen VO2, Sweet Potatoes, nuun

During Race: GU Electrolyte Brew

Post-Race: Wicked Fast Recoverease, Ancient Minerals Topical Magnesium Oil, Mt. Capra Solar Synergy, Mt. Capra Double Bonded Protein, Bioletics Amino Acids

Key Gear Used In This Race (leave comment below if you have questions)

Wetsuit: Blue Seventy Helix

Goggles: Blue Seventy Carbon

Sunglasses: Zeal Optics "Slingshots"

Bike: Specialized Transition Elite

Wheels: Gray 9.0 Clinchers

Helmet: Specialized TT Helmet

Cycling Shoes: Specialized TriVent

Running Shoes: Avia Avi-Bolts

Tri-Fusion 5K Race Series

Wednesday night speedwork...for those of you in the Spokane area, try and hit at least one of the Tri-Fusion Triathlon's Club Wednesday night 5K race series - best $5 you'll ever spend. Here I am rounding a corner...

And of course, the boys "participated"...

How is Kona training going?

Day 1 of Kona training: tennis match, cycling intervals & pg 8 of http://www.thestrongtriathlete.com

Day 2 of Kona training: nada

Day 3 of Kona training: 14 mile run, 1.5K open water swim, and a 5K race

Day 4...begin the Bioletics testing!

Coeur D' Alene Triathlon Race Report

The CDA Scenic Challenge is one of the biggest Olympic distance triathlons in the Northwest, and gets a pretty good crowd of competitive athletes - so whenever I show up I know that it's going to be a "world o' pain" for a couple hours.

The 2010 event promised to be no different. But in the days leading up to the race, I was a bit nervous that my legs were not recovering from the Troika Half Ironman six days earlier. So I began using cold water treatments, compression tights and doubled up on Recoverease (http://www.pacificfit.net/supplements.php#recoverease) to speed up healing. When I crawled out of bed at 4:30am Saturday morning to leave for the race, I still had no clue if my legs were going to be able to race, and gave some serious thought to sleeping in and having banana waffles instead of racing.

But my pride won out over the banana waffles.

Halfway down the highway to Coeur D' Alene, while munching on a honey-soaked baked potato from our garden, I realized that I left my bike shoes at home. After scrambling back home to get my shoes, I broke several Washington and Idaho state traffic laws to arrive at the city park with enough time to set-up transition. Heck, I figured at that time in the morning the 25mph school zones aren't too busy anyways.

I used all the same gear and nutrition for this race as my Half Ironman events like Troika (see last week's post), with the exception that as is my practice for Olympic distance racing, I simply take in 300 calories of GU Electrolyte Brew mixed in 16 ounces of water for the first half of the bike - and really don't touch anything else in the way of calories or hydration the rest of the race (other than water to dump on my head).

Also, I was trying out the Millennium Sports Carnage for this race, which is an alanine based supplement. Loading with alanine can help to buffer lactic acid and improve blood flow to muscle, so I took 1000 mg a day for the week leading up to the race. Within 15 minutes after taking it (with a carb source), you get a strange prickly sensation all over body...

So that's how I started the swim. Feeling like a porcupine was inside my wetsuit.

I knew that pro triathlete Kalen Darling was racing, and he can swim the parallelogram shaped 1500K in 17 minutes and change, so I knew that I'd be completely punished if I even *tried* to hop on his feet. I figured I'd be in good shape race-wise if I could come out of the water in the first pack behind Kalen.

It turns out the swim was a bit long, as Kalen came out in 17:59, and I came out with the first pack of swimmers a little over 22 minutes. My usual swim time is closer to 20 minutes for Olympic, and the general consensus among those who raced is that the swim was a bit long. Regardless, I knew I had some work to do on the bike.

The "Scenic Challenge" bike course is a twisted combination of steep hills back behind Coeur D' Alene, along with some flat to rolling sections of the Ironman Coeur D' Alene course. As a "semi-truck" style cyclist (i.e. I point my bike in one direction and mash hard), the hilly courses aren't especially my strength, so I rode conservatively for the first little bit of the bike to keep my legs fresh for the hills.

Bryan Hadley, who beat me in last week's Troika Half Ironman, passed me on the hills, and another strong local triathlete, Derek Garcia, was coming up fast behind me. I tried to keep Bryan in sight, while also knowing Kalen Darling was still a couple minutes ahead and another pro triathlete and very fast runner, Matt Shryock, was somewhere behind me as well. After throwing in a two-wave start, a mix of duathletes and team racers on the course, it starts to becoming confusing to know your overall placing, so sometimes you just have to put your head down, race, and see what the results look like when the smoke clears.

Bryan rolled into transition 15 seconds ahead of me. I barreled through, racked my bike, and sprinted out of transition ahead of him (T2=39 seconds).

Bryan caught back up to me at the 1 mile mark and we ran side by side to the 3 mile mark, where Matt Shryock sprinted by at his 35 minute 10K pace. Bryan and I were both feeling our stiff and sluggish Half Ironman legs not wanting to stride-out - my legs felt like foreign objects moving underneath my body by that point. Kalen was still a couple minutes ahead and after Matt passed, I knew I'd have to hurt bad to not just have a chance at the podium but also to not get caught by the rest of the strong runners behind Bryan and I.

So as we reached the turnaround mark, I began to stride out. I figured I'd either blow up and have to walk, or else make it to the finish line and get to crumble there. Turns out sometimes the other guy is hurting just as bad as you, and Bryan didn't go with me.

The rest of the run went by quickly. I glanced back every quarter mile to see Derek Garcia hot on my heels, and constantly reminded myself:

"You Pass Out Before You Die"....

I swallowed a bit of puke in my throat at the 5 mile mark and put my head down. My apologies to all the people headed out for their run who said hi or tried to high-five. I wasn't in a chatty mood - just survival mode.

I crossed the finish line 3rd overall and 1st in my division. There was no way I could have caught Matt or Kalen 35 and 36 minute runs, so I was happy with my performance, especially as the first "age-grouper" triathlete.

I'll take today to recover from the race and the post-race partying, and then officially begin my Ironman Hawaii World Championships training tomorrow. The goal is to get 4 high quality training weekends in between now and the October race in Hawaii, which means four 4K open water swims, four 100 mile race-pace rides and a run build-up of 15, 17, 19 and 21 miles. Pepper in a few races for speed-work and I'll be ready to rock on the Big Island!

Over and out.