How Much Salt Do You Lose In Your Sweat?

I'm here at Team Timex Multisport camp, and today was a sweat sodium analysis.
 

What do you think? Am I a heavy sweater?

Or am I a wimp when it comes to fluid loss?

Stay tuned to find out, or check http://www.facebook.com/bgfitness for up-to-date results...

...including fluid loss, sodium loss, change in internal temperature and more.

Timex Torture Test with Ben Greenfield

Check out this funny endurance video, in which Dave Erickson and me put a Timex Run Trainer through a torture test in a re-enactment of the John Cameron Swayze Timex commercial. "Takes A Lickin and Keeps On Tickin". And the original video with John Cameron Swayze:

Team Timex Announcement & My 2012 Race Season

Last year, I attended the 2011 Team Timex camp, and I was blown away by the team's camaraderie and support from Timex. It was the first time I'd ever been around a group of individuals that, from an objective viewpoint, seemed to operate and communicate as an cohesive team.

In the relatively individualized and "lone wolf" sport of triathlon, this was a unique thing to see, and inspired me to apply for the 2012 team.


So what exactly is Team Timex?

Here's a snippet from their website:

In 2001, Timex made a bold move in the historically individualized sport, by pioneering a triathlon team. The concept was to support professional and amateur athletes—financially, physically and socially—so they could, in turn, focus solely on training and racing. 

Now in its 9th year, the Timex Multisport Team is a diverse and successful team, composed of male and female athletes—both professional and amateur—ranging in age from 18 to 57-years old, and hailing from the U.S.A., Australia, India, Ukraine, Mexico, Czech Republic, Estonia, Canada and the United Kingdom. 

The athletes serve as brand ambassadors for Timex and associated sponsors at hundreds of events around the world, and work closely with Timex on refining new products for the endurance sports world.

I also asked team member Trista Francis what she thought was the best part about being on Team Timex, and here is what she said:

The best part of being on the Team is being a part of a very unique family in the sport.  The Timex family is like non other and it allows us to surround ourselves with the top talented athletes in the sport from around the world.  This is my 4th year with Timex as my Title sponsor, Timex gives overwhelming support to me and to each athlete on the Team.  The Timex Multisport Team is the most prestigious team in the sport because of this support and because of the talent it draws.  Another benefit; this is not just a team of talent in triathlon, we have some of the best coaches in the nation on board as well.  We are partnered with the NY Giants, Timex Performance Center and the Korey Stringer Insititute in research. Nuff said!

If you happen to be on Facebook, you can also watch this video to see what the 2011 Team Timex accomplished.

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So this week, Team Timex announced it's 2012 multi-sport team.

And I'm on it.

This means that for the 2012 race season (which I've outlined below) I'm proud to announce that I'll be racing for Team Timex.

Feb 16-21: Team Timex Camp & Triathlon America (hooray for partially sleepless nights and flying airplanes around the country) 

March 2012: Snake River Sprint Triathlon (only race I've done where it tends to hail and snow) 

April 15: TriStar111, Mallorca, Spain (I need to brush up on my Spanish. Also teaching a camp for 5 days before this race) 

May 4-May 6: Wildflower Long Distance race (need to go to a world of pain at this one to qualify for my pro card - I'll have to be sure not to pitch my tent on a rock)

May 27-June 2:  Hawaii 70.3 & Camp (week long camp culminating in 70.3...hoping Scott Molina and John Newsom don't beat me up too much at this one) 

July-ish: To Be Announced (meaning a bunch of local races that I drop into randomly) 

Sometime August 2012: Troika Half-Ironman (3rd place, 3rd place, 2nd place - can I freaking win this thing already???) 

September 11: Vegas 70.3 (yet another change to hate race director Frank Lowery, who apparently thinks we're all Navy Seals) 

September 11-15: Triathlon Camp in Tuscany, Italy (really, I'm just going for the rosso) 

October 11: Ironman Hawaii (*ahem*, tentatively. I'll be there either way, just hopefully racing) 

Sometime in November 2012: Laguna Phuket Triathlon (doing a 15 day camp for this race and the next one, culminating with a total escape to Railay Bay...e-mail me if you want in) 

Sometime in December 2012: Asia-Pacific 70.3 World Championship (plan on racing pro here, if all goes well)

A big thanks to all my fantastic sponsors, and you can feel free to leave any questions or comments about this below (since I've received that first "welcome" e-mail onto the team, I've already been inundated with support and congratulations from other team members - so it already feels like a family)!

Asia Pacific 70.3 World Championships Race Report (And Announcement That Ben Greenfield Is Going Pro Next Year).

Aside from the pristine beaches, the best food on the planet, amazing Thai massage, and wild post-race parties, my primary motivation for skipping out of America in early December was to qualify for Kona.

Asia-Pacific 70.3 World Championships is indeed a Kona qualifier, and I made the decision to come down and qualify early for the big dance in Hawaii. Call me egotistical, but with my performances of late, there was no doubt in my mind that I was fit enough to grab a slot.

Trouble is, my body decided otherwise. 

Two weeks prior to the race, I had a nasty fall on the ice during a cold-weather run and tweaked my IT band (outside of the knee). Within just a few days, I was back to training, but not about to go do any hard 40-50 mile bike rides to see if the knee would be good to go for Phuket. I just had to have the faith that the knee would handle the load on race day.

Then, just two days prior to the race, in one of the multiple restaurants I dined at, I got a bad batch of food that left me sleepless and poo-ing my guts until race morning.

Needless to say, my confidence was slightly shot at the starting line, but I decided to give it a go anyways. Not even wanting to race, I waited in my hotel room until the last possible minute, then struggled to the finish line, just picturing my two little boys faces in my head and wanting to be a good example to them of not being a "quitter".

But within 200 meters of the swim, I knew it was going to be a tough day at the office. My body just felt...drained (probably because it literally was).

Nonetheless, I tried to block out the discomfort, came out of the water near the front of the age-grouper field and made it to my bike, which is normally a huge weapon for me.

No weapon materialized on this day! 

Within 10 miles of the ride, I was being passed right and left, and swallowed up in big packs of riders I would have normally been out-cycling. The power just wasn't there. It felt weird to be passed on the bike and just not able to put out the effort to stay with folks.

Then, at about 50K, as I rode up a steep hill, my knee just flat-out gave-out. I experienced the type of pain that I knew would leave me crippled for months if I tried to push through it. To top that off, I had thrown up my previous three gels as my normally iron-clad stomach continued to refuse to cooperate.

It wasn't going to happen. If I kept pushing, I'd knew I'd A) be nursing a bum knee for months and miss snowboard season, tennis season, and anything else that involved knee bending and B) I'd be walking a very long half-marathon in the rain.

So I hailed a pick-up, rode back into town, and watch the remainder of the race in a torrential downpour of rain at the finish line - *extremely* jealous that I wasn't out there playing ball.

Yes, this was not the fanciest, schmanciest way to end the 2011 race season, but I think my body simply wanted me to stop, and sent me a very loud message on race day.

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But I'm all about redemption, so here's the deal (and a big announcement): 

1) I'll be coming back to race Thailand next year, and as a matter of fact, an Australian coach (Graeme Turner) and I are putting together two different trip options for anybody that wants to join (9 day trip or 15 day trip). E-mail ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com if you want in on that. First come, first serve. We'll take care of everything for you: race registration, lodging, restaurant selection, shopping trips, speedboat tours, massage, the works.

2) Exactly one year from now, at this race in 2012, I'll be debuting as a pro, and for the next 4-5 years, I'll be racing as a professional triathlete. As my readers know, I go big or go home, so I will be treating this decision very seriously, which means dedicated fitness work, and possibly stepping back a bit on my entrepreneurial ventures. But you only live once, right?

Ben Greenfield wins Jamaica Triathlon

Here is a link to the story!

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20111114/sports/sports96.html

More stories and pictures to come.

ITU Long Course World Championships Race Report

Here's a bit of history for you tri-geeks or folks who want to know what this ITU thing is all about...

The International Triathlon Union is the world governing body for the Olympic sport of Triathlon. It was founded in 1989 at the first ITU Congress in Avignon, France and has maintained its headquarters in Vancouver, Canada since then. It now has over 120 affiliated National Federations around the world and is the youngest International Federation in the Olympics. 

While most known for the short course events you can watch at TriathlonLive.TV, the ITU also has a long course triathlon series that culminates in the ITU Long Course World Championships, where nearly two thousand athletes from dozens of countries compete for elite and age group world champion titles by racing a 4K swim (about 2 and a half miles) , 120K bike (just under 80 miles) and 30K run (a little over 18 miles).

This year, for the first time since 1996, the ITU Long Course World Championships came to the USA, in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas.

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I qualified to compete in this race when I podiumed at the Wildflower triathlon in May, and after racing Ironman Hawaii just 4 weeks ago, I admit I was a bit nervous about whether or not my legs were recovered, since Kona was not exactly a walk in the park.

Ultimately, since I'd never raced this distance before, I wasn't completely sure about how to pace it, but made a decision to race it more like a Half Ironman than an Ironman. So my basic strategy going into the race was to simply push at my normal Half Ironman pace until my body said "Stop!", and then try to stagger to the finish line with whatever I had left. 

The last time I competed in Vegas, just 7 weeks ago, it was reaching temperatures of nearly 105 degrees. Assuming it would still be somewhat warm, I showed up with no cold weather gear, only to find out that race morning was so chilly that the combination of cold water temperature and ambient air temperature forced race directors to cancel the swim.

This was disappointing, as I've been getting faster in the water and was very keen to hammer through a hard 4000 meter swim. 

Instead they put all us triathletes in a big (albeit warm) stinky tent, pulled us out group by group, and had us line up on the bikes and leave on 5 second intervals...

Pushing my bike up the hill for the start. It is much colder than it looks, and I'm handing off my long sleeve shirt at the last minute.

Waiting to start the time trial bike. CEP compression socks were simply for added warmth, although I really liked how they felt in the run later on.

And we're off!

During the bike portion, my hands and body were cold. I had a hard time opening gels and doing much other than gripping the bars and pedaling. I've raced in cold conditions before, but never for that long. Despite that, the entire bike felt incredibly fast to me, and it started to warm up towards the end. I actually had the opportunity to try out a different time trial bike that was given to me as a gift (a Trek Speed Concept), and I can't say I have ever felt quite that strong on the bike before. 

Even through this is an incredibly hilly and difficult course, over the 80 miles I rode my way through everyone that started in front of me, spent the last 30 miles nearly all by myself, and came into transition as the first age grouper. My bike split was 3:26.

My main feeling coming off the bike was that my legs and feet were cold. This made me nervous about how I'd perform...

Here I am transitioning from bike to run. Notice how my screen printer messed up and put GREENFIELD over my crotch instead of the back of my jersey, where he put all the sponsor logos. Oops!

Two miles into the run, I looked at my watch and saw that I was at 11 minutes and 30 seconds. I knew there was no way that I could run 18 miles at a 5:45 pace, so I forced myself to slow down a little bit, but was amazed at how good I felt.

I knew I was having a good race at that point, based on how far ahead I was on the bike, but usually in these long races, you reach a point where "the wheels come off". I just kept waiting for that to happen...

I look a bit happier here, earlier in the race...running strong.

I ran the first 13.2 miles in 1:28, but finally, around mile 15, I slowly began to implode. I could feel my hips locking up and my heart rate getting higher and higher. Since I only run once a week, this is one weakness in my training protocol: once the run gets long, my body can start to fall apart!

Upon closer inspection, you can see the "mild" discomfort in my face.

But at that point, I was close enough to the finish line to simply gut through, and although I slowed considerably towards the end, I managed to run the 30K in 2 hours and 3 minutes, which was good for about a 6:40 pace and a total finish time of 5:32.

I knew I had been fast, but because this was a time trial start race, had no clue until the awards ceremony how well I'd actually done...

Rounding the corner. Lots of sharp uphills and downhills on this course.

Finishing one of my best performance to date.

When the results were finally tallied, it turns out that I actually took first place for 30-34, won a gold medal for Team USA, and took 4th amateur overall. Needless to say, I was very pleased with that result, especially for a race that left out what I consider to be a strength of mine - the swim!

Receiving the gold medal for the USA.

A huge thanks goes out to my sponsors for their generous support of this event. In particular, Bioletics, Millennium Sports, BodyHealth, ImpaxWorld, and Natural Vitality actually sponsored this race by giving me the money necessary to buy my uniform, register for the race, and fly to the race, so a huge thanks goes out to them!

Also, my fellow triathlete and friend, Ron, took the photos during this event, and took care of me during race week - and a huge part of my success in this race was him making my entire stay in Henderson as comfortable and seamless as possible - even down to peeling my pre-race sweet potatoes! So a big thanks to Ron too!

Here is the run down of what I used for this race:

ITU Long Course World Championships Triathlon Gear:
Race Kit: Team USA Tyr Carbon Race Suit
Bike: Trek Speed Concept
Helmet: Gray Aero Helmet
Wheels: Zipp Firecrest with R4 aero tires/latex tubes
Components: Shimano DI2
Seat: ISM Tri Saddle
Cleats: Look KEO Blade
Bike Shoes: SIDI Road shoes
Running Shoes: K-Swiss K-Ruuz
Sunglasses: Zeal Slingshots

ITU Long Course World Championships Triathlon Nutrition:
Days leading up to race: nuun electrolyte tablets

night before race: Hammer REM (helps you sleep before a race)

2 hours before race: 2 sweet potatoes, 6 Enerprime capsules, 5 Extreme Endurance, 2 Hammer Race Caps, 2 Cordygen VO2 by Millennium Sports

20 minutes before race: 10 Master Amino Pattern capsules, 1 packet Energy28
5 minutes before race: 1 caffeinated GU Roctane

Every hour on bike: 20 ounces water
Every 20 minutes on bike: 1 GU Roctane
End of each hour on bike: 4 GU Chomps
Every 3 miles on run: 1 Hammer Gel (from aid stations on course)
Post-Race: 10 Master Amino Pattern capsules, 10 sprays topical Magnesium  each leg

Ironman Hawaii 2011 Race Report: Coke To The Rescue, Again.

running down Ali'i Drive to the finish line

More pictures to come as I get them!

Since Ironman Hawaii World Championships is the "Super Bowl" of triathlon (sans cheesy halftime shows but fraught with wardrobe malfunctions) I went above and beyond this single race report, and instead logged the entire week of Kona over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, in a series called "The Kona Diaries". You can see Day 1 of the Kona Diaries here, which will allow you to progress through the rest of the entries, including race pacing and nutrition strategy, how I use the nutrition and gear from my generous sponsors, what happens in the week leading up to Ironman, the underwear run, and more!

The final post in "The Kona Diaries" leaves off with Ironman Race Morning, as I walk you through body marking, chip check, me getting nervous and shaky, and everything else that happens just before the race begins, so let's jump from there right to the swim start.

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Let me say that this was the roughest triathlon swim I have ever been in in my life.

Granted, everyone is fast and aggressive at Ironman Hawaii, but this went way above and beyond. There was a complete lack of etiquette and self-awareness as a complete free-for-all took place when the start cannon boomed. I got dunked, kicked, elbowed and punched for absolutely no reason other than that I happened to be swimming where somebody else apparently wanted to swim.

It felt like the Running Of The Bulls, except in the ocean and the Bulls have goggles, swim caps and shaved legs.

Whereas typically this type of roughness subsides after about 200 meters, this kept up for over 1000 meters. I remember wondering during the swim how swimmers of this caliber could have such a complete lack of sportsmanship in the water. I'll be the first guy to tell you that "rubbin's racin'", but I've raced for almost 9 years now, and this swim was above and beyond anything I'd ever seen before in terms of agression and downright "rude" swimming.

So while I literally feared for my life during the first 20 minutes of the swim, the crowds eventually spread out, and by the time we got to the turnaround boat, I felt like I had space to swim and draft. At this point, I tried to make up for lost time spent fighting away rude swimmers. I did this by "leapfrogging" through the field, which I did by drafting on the feet of a swimmer, pulling up to their hips, then leapfrogging them to the feet of the swimmer they were drafting off. It took me 31 minutes to reach the turnaround boat, but the return swim, which is nearly 200 meters longer, only took me 30 minutes.

And I do believe that I may have been the only non-shaven swimmer in the water. I'm sure my long, flowy, unsightly leg hair must have slowed me down a couple minutes, but I saved sixty minutes of my life by not shaving. ;)

During the swim, I wore a BlueSeventy SwimSkin, Zoggles goggles, and some TriSlide to reduce chafing.

Swim: 1:01
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I relaxed and took my time in swim-to-bike transition. You don't want to forget anything for a 112 mile bike in the lava fields. That's like remembering you have to pee after you zip up your snowsuit, but about 10 times worse.

In my T1 bag I had armcoolers and socks. I put these on, and then ran to my bike, where my shoes and helmet were. I grabbed a Powerbar, shoved it in my mouth with reckless abandon and took off.

The first half of this bike goes by fast. Despite the heat and wind, you are still caught up in the adrenaline of being in the race and finishing the swim, and you haven't yet reached a point of semi-dehydration or carbohydrate depletion. You're just a happy hamster on the bike, churning away.

Compared to previous years in Kona, I was pleasantly surprised to only see one "pack" of cyclists, and I was able to ride the entire bike at my own pace. The wind seemed more fierce from town out to the climb to Hawi, then similar to previous years during the climb to Hawi. For that climb, you simply must stay in the aero position and grind your way up. I got my favorite song playing in my head and did just that.

At Hawi, I grabbed my special foods bag, shoved 9 GU Roctanes up my shorts (several of which I later found in my crotch after the race), jammed another Powerbar in my mouth, then bombed back down the climb to Hawi town. I don't know if it is because I have raced this part of the course 6 times now between Hawaii 70.3 and Ironman Hawaii, but I passed a lot of people who were riding somewhat conservatively in the fierce crosswinds. Call it braveness or stupidity, but despite nearly getting blown off the road a couple times, I stayed in the aero position the entire time and picked off at least a dozen cyclists on the descent from Hawi.

About mile 90, things got tough. This is the "dark place" for me. I wanted to be done, but there was still 22 miles to go. I just kept telling myself "Get to the airport" - since at that point there are stoplights and buildings you can use to string yourself back the pier. But for me, mile 90 to about 103 are the hardest part of the bike split in this race.

Although I hydrated liberally on the bike, drinking whenever thirsty and consuming just over 35 ounces of water per hour, I was peeing orange when I stopped in T2 to empty my bladder. Just goes to show you how much fluid you can lose in this race. In other race conditions, I would have been ballooned up like Michelin Man from that type of fluid consumption.

For the bike, I rode a Gray Storm TT, a Gray aero helmet, Specialized Transition shoes, Zeal Slingshot glasses, Zoot arm cooling sleeves, and a Champ-Sys one piece triathlon kit.

I also made a last minute decision to use electrolytes. Call me chicken for relying on salts, but my primary reason is because the brand I choose (Athlytes), also have several lactic acid buffers and anti-fatigue components in them. I decided I wanted this advantage, so I took 4 Athlytes per hour on the bike.

Bike: 4:58

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Despite my best intentions to use as many "heat-hacking" tools as possible for the run (all those tools are outlined in this post), I ran into a bit of a logistical issue.

In Kona, you need to check in your run bags the day before the actual race, and these bags then sit in the hot sun until you get off the bike. You have no access to be able to put extra things in these bags before the race. This means my body cooling vest and palm cooling device, despite being in a portable cooler, were allowed to cook in the sun for hours before the run. By the time I got to them, they were slightly cold, wet and soggy - and not much better than simply dumping ice down my shirt.

So I ditched my cool "heat-hacking" gear and headed out on the run (granted, I did have my body cooling hat, arm cooling sleeves, and my use of heat protecting colostrum pre-race).

By mile 2, I knew my strategy to run 3 miles aggressively, walk 60 seconds, and repeat throughout the marathon, was not going to be a reality. Instead, I was hitting a wall of heat and exhaustion by 2 miles into the run, and getting hungry and sleepy. Last year, this same thing happened, and I didn't realize I was simply dehydrated and low on fuel until 5 miles in. This time, I identified overheating and hypoglycemia immediately, and at mile 2 I spent two minutes simply standing, drinking cup after cup of coke, and dumping ice water over my head repeatedly.

It amazes me that at 350 calories per hour on the bike and 35+ ounces of water per hour I was still underfueling and underhydrated, but that is the nature of this Kona beast.

At that point, I made the decision to string myself along from aid station to aid station until I perked up. At each aid station, I had about 4 ounces of coke (about 40-50 calories), 4-8 ounces of water, chewed on ice and dumped water over my head. It wasn't until mile 18 that I actually did "perk up", and up until that point, it was everything I could do to stay in the race and not drop out from exhaustion.

And then, just like that, I passed mile 18 and stopped quickly to pee. Usually, I just "go" in my pants, but I wanted to see my urine color. It was light yellow. It had taken me that long to come close to rehydrating, but I was there, and I felt a new surge of energy. I took off and ran 7:15-7:20 minute miles all the way back to the finish line, bounding through the last mile in just barely over 6 minutes flat. Thank you, normal yellow pee.

It always feels good to be able to sprint to the finish line. Despite a sluggish start and feeling for 2.5 hours as if I was going to "blow up" any minute, my marathon split was a 3:29.

During the marathon, I used K-Swiss Kwicky Blades, a Zoot cooling hat, and Zoot arm cooling sleeves. I also took 4 Athlytes per hour.

Run: 3:29

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Overall time: 9:36.

This is a personal record for me for Ironman, and 17 minutes faster than I went last year at Kona (in similar conditions).

I am stoked, pleased, appreciative of being blessed to race here in Kona, and now ready to go play with my kids, feast on a giant cinnamon roll - then probably polish off a nice bottle of red wine (most likely in that order so that my children don't have to play with a drunk, hyperglycemic father).

Thanks for reading, and leave any questions, comments or feedback below!

Questions, comments or feedback? Leave them below!