What Works for Me...

A few days after the race, I was getting ready to jump in the water for Masters, when a friend asked me about the race. Our conversation went something like this:

She: "How was your race?"

Me: "It was great! Super fun!"

She: "I heard you did really well."

Me: "Yeah. Everything just came together and it went perfectly."

Coach Liz chiming in: "Except for the swim..."

Me, laughing: "Yes. Except for the swim. And a billion other little things..."

She: "But you just felt good the entire time and it did not hurt?"

Me: "Aehm. No. I was in a world of pain for at least half of the race."

So I guess a perfect race is relative. I feel like Vegas was as close to a perfect race as I could've hoped for. That does not mean that there is not a lot of room for improvement or that every little detail went smooth. To me, it means that the most important things fell into place, that my mind was (mostly) in the game, that I did not have any gear issues, nutrition went according to plan, and that I gave it 110%.

In this post I want to point out what gear and nutrition worked for me and hope that maybe you can find it helpful, too. Note: I am not sponsored by any of these companies. They just happen to make good stuff that I like.

Gear

I was playing around in the pool, so just ignore my bad form.

I am in love with the Xterra Velocity-M Speedsuit. I am going to write a full review about this swim skin in a few days. It's that awesome! I am definitely not blaming my less-than-ideal swim performance on this great piece of clothing. If anything, I would've been even slower without it...

I already talked about how excited I was to use these Zipp race wheels here. They certainly lived up to their expectations and it was super fun to race on them. No problems whatsoever. Some day (maybe in a decade or so) I will get my own pair. They will be clinchers, though. For piece of mind.

I was trying hard to figure out a way to carry all my gels and electrolyte tablets on the bike. Sure, I can tape the gels on the top tube. But what about the pills? I came up with all kinds of crazy ideas none of which were practical or feasible. I just could not get myself to buy a Bontrager bento box. After all, this was not going to be a picnic ride... Less than 24 h before the gun went off, I finally caved in. I rushed over to the closest bike shop and grabbed their last picnic basket. I have to say, I was very relieved after my purchase. I knew it would work well and help me to stay on top of my nutrition. And it did.

I have not raced in anything by Zoot Ultras for the last 3 (or maybe even 4) years. They work great for me! Love how the feel. Love how they look. I have worn them barefoot for 5k and 10k runs. My goal is to get my feet tough enough by next year to wear them barefoot for a half marathon. Wouldn't it be nice not to have to put any socks on for a 70.3?

I was going to talk about nutrition as well today but that is going to have to wait for another day. Time to get some sleep and feel healthy again!