Newbie Again: Pre-NYC Duathlon

My first duathlon is tomorrow and first raw open powerlifting competition is in a week -- no pressure?

Tomorrow morning, I will be in Central Park like most of my races but this one will be different.  I'm doing my first duathlon.  Maybe you think that I said TRIATHLON; nope -- duathlon.  For anyone who isn't familiar with the term, a duathlon is a multi sport event that's typically comprised of running and cycling.  Despite my loving pseudonym Running Fat Chef, I am a neurotic little adventurer who enjoys a good athletic challenge that makes my uncoordinated rhythmless nation body twinkle. And if I didn't give myself enough pressure, I quite literally woke up one morning and expressed interest in power lifting "one day" to a power lifting bad ass by the name of Morit Summers.  Within a few days, I woke up freshly signed up for the Iron Maiden's Raw Open with only seven weeks to train versus most people's ten to fourteen weeks.  Maybe I forgot to mention that these events are literally six days apart AND I have about 10 - 20 road and trail running events left on my calendar.  I think it's safe to say that I'm a bit impulsive and extreme.  This admirable quality has me shitting bricks as I nurse myself in Vicks Vapor Rub and a bunch of CBD based products from iKOR Labs because I'm sick.  It's only been a week since I finished the Hood to Coast Relay.  No pressure -- no pressure at all kids.  Since I'll be limited in my fitness after Sunday, I'll blurb about my ridiculous anxieties about power lifting on another day.

Why Did I Sign Up for a Duathlon and Things to Consider

​Since my duathlon is tomorrow, I'll start my rambling off here.  

I've been itching to do a triathlon since coming to the realization that I love doing crazy ass fitness adventures and I could combine two of my favorite cardio based things in the world: Running and endurance cycling.  Unfortunately my fear of the water is beyond ridiculous.  Last year, I faced my fears of drowning in three feet of water -- joking but not joking.  Through the skilled guidance of Miss Sharon, a woman I call The Water Whisperer, a blubbering sap like me is open to embracing my fears of going to a pool.  Although I made a decent amount of progress, I am not proficient enough to comfortably move around 8 feet of water on my own and certainly not a lake nor ocean.  My dreams of being a triathlete are being placed on the back burner for now.  But if you lived in my brain for 72 hours, you know that I haven't stopped thinking about it.  I opted to scale it back a bit and looked into duathlons.  Surely I cannot drown on land unless it's in the form of a water bottle or hydration bladder.  

Completing a duathlon will help me be a stronger Pokemon - insert memories of 90s television war cries here - to take on the epic battle of triathlons.  I searched for credible ones in New York City and stumbled across the New York City Triathlon organization.  I saw a few events on their page, noting two events at Central Park and peered at my pretentious calendar intensely.  The New York City Duathlon spoke to me more than any of the other events.  It's 2.2 miles of running, 12 miles of cycling around Central Park and another 2.2 miles of running. 

Thinking about running before and after cycling makes parts of pelvis scream in pain but not like the sound of my credit card screaming for help.  Make no mistake -- if running costs drive you mad, duathlons and triathlons might make you want to have about four cups of coffee before talking to anyone.  Thankfully I have a pretty decent Specialized Dolce II road bike that costed me a pretty penny after someone stole myhybrid Giant bike in Union Square.  My Dolce II is a little bit on the heavier end for a road buddy but she also cost me around 700.00 USD and that's only because my neighborhood bike shop gave me a bit of a discount plus; they even threw in some stuff that was damaged and stolen from my hybrid Giant bike.  Eventually I'll have to upgrade her to a stronger performance bike but that will not be happening any time soon.  Feel free to donate to my broke cause because these things can run well over 1500.00 USD.  It doesn't help that with owning a bike. it means you should have knowledge on how to change out a flat tire, bicycle laws for your city to getting it inspected once in a blue -- something that can run you from 50 - 100 bucks depending upon where you go. 

And because cycling is just one layer of the duathlon, you have to cover the rest of the necessities.  Along with a proper bike purchase, you might want to invest in padded bike underwear or shorts.  Some people even sport a decent tri suit.  If it was a touch cooler tomorrow, I'd wear this pretty dope one from R. Sport since they make stuff for a plus size gal like me. Instead, I'll probably layer up with some Superfit Hero shorts, some padded underwear that I picked up from Amazon like a year ago and wear my HOKA ONE ONE Rincon sneakers since they're a touch lighter than my Clifton 6s with the same amount of magic.  I never made that leap over to bicycle clip ons but I'm taking baby steps.  

If you're going to cruise around to go shopping to doing an event like this, you kinda need a helmet.  And if you're going to do an event at all and didn't think it through in advance to volunteer for a shift for a free entry, you're shelling out a pretty penny that can range from 60 - 150.00 USD for these type of events.  If you desire things like shiny bling, you might want to read the details on the website.  This particular event provides a finisher medal but quite frankly, this only matters to me because it's my first. 
​

Training for a Duathlon While Juggling

Thankfully I had about three or more months since I used my trigger finger to sign up for the 35th New York City Duathlon but my focus has been drastically divided by a sea of running events, traveling, speaking engagements, family life and power lifting.  Exhaustion isn't the proper word to describe what my body physically felt and how many times my mind hit Ctrl+Alt+Del.  

Here's the thing about any endurance event:  You need that balance of proper fueling, training, rest and mental recovery.  Whatever that is for you might be different for me.  I can honestly say that I only mastered that formula three times maximum a week; the other four are drinking Tequila and Lime in Tijuana. 

In hindsight, I wish I could've told myself to slow down just a bit.  Being an athlete with moderate level anxiety, a sleuth of health issues and a chaotic schedule can be overwhelming.  For years, I've been that person who function better with bursts of high stress situations and sprinkles of weekends off to sleep off the adrenaline hangover.  Whether it's an ultrarunning event to a five miler, learn what makes you tick and the things that make you boom.  

These last few months forced me to learn new layers about myself.  As I stated several times, I love lists for my erratic brain so here it goes:

1. Slow motion is still a form of progression if you're moving forward.  If there's anything that I've adapted from the world of ultrarunning is respecting your limitations and looking beyond the clock.  A finish line will be there whether it's in the physical form or handed to you by laying you on your ass.  Either way, you crossed the start line; give yourself credit for making that first step.
2. A day off gifts you an opportunity to not obliterate the entire planet.  You are not super(person) in real life, even if you have days where we feel like we can fly.  In my mind, I am a fucking rainbow unicorn, dressed in a tutu who whisks people away towards a finish line but I'm not that person -- even though I have a picture like this during my five mile run.  When I ignore days off, I transform into a megabot bitch from Oz and the only cure for my disease is a long shower, sleep and internet restriction.  
3. Although I'm proficient at both activities individually, it doesn't mean that I'm naturally gifted to transition just as smoothly.  Just in case nobody knows my background, I learned how to ride a bike in my late twenties almost a half year before running was a thought.  I love choosing a random day of the week to do a century because the sky is blue.  I will run eight miles in the middle of a thunderstorm just because nobody's outside.  Countless people heard me blurb about doing 45 minutes of plyometric exercises at the gym and transitioning into a run.  Guess what?  I had my ass handed to me the first day I tried doing a two mile run, shifting off to a bike for five miles and doing a one mile run shortly after.  Every activity is a different type of fatigue.  Respect the sport and take the time to learn how to pace yourself.  
4. When I'm anxious or super excited, I burn out fairly quickly.  A personal assessment that I made in my written journal (yes I have one of those) is that my nerves are buried in my anxiety to just start.  I cannot emphasize enough that I needed to learn how to breathe lighter.
5. Eating and hydrating enough was the hardest battle throughout training.  I've been running since October 2013 - first race in 2014 - and experimented on different ways to properly fuel for those events.  Even with my cycling adventures, I know what kind of carbs work best for me to what signs to look out for when moving.  Training for a duathlon is a completely different territory.  Considering that I am pushing my body on overtime with power lifting - an activity that requires for me to take in more protein - demanded my attention in such an alarming way.  Within the last three months, I've had 3 or 4 scares that forced me to increase my caloric intake to three thousand calories on hard days.  I've incorporated healthy fats like peanut butter to avocado, adding in things like flax seed and using almond milk in my Skratch Labs recovery mix.  Initially, I felt like I was eating too much because I am a person who is almost four years of recovering from an eating disorder.  Just in case you didn't know, maintaining a 1200 calorie diet while marathon training is something that NOBODY should ever do, says the person who did it.  While I don't calorie count every five minutes, I caved in and used MyFitnessPal in a healthy way to hold myself accountable to eating at least 1800 calories on non workout days and a minimum of 2500 on long run or powerlifting days.  To ensure that the humidity didn't take me out, I committed to drinking 107 ounces of water daily and installed an annoying app on my phone called Drink Water.  If you're venturing for a decent one, a basic Google search will lead you to a host of great free ones that you can place on your phone.  The first few weeks were rough but well worth it.
6. Lean on a supportive community when you feel like you're drowning.  I am extra thankful for my family being open to random beach days throughout the summer and friends who randomly called with a "...Bitch, you leaving your house right now."  I didn't indulge in as many as I desired but it definitely happened.  After all, there's life after these events are over.

There's other things that were helpful that I don't need to apply to listacles like removing the pressures of social media.  I drastically reduced how much I posted up my activity for the summer.  It was starting to feel like a job and I didn't have any room for outsiders critiquing my form or pretending to be my therapist -- I actually have two coaches and a great talk therapist!  I stopped recording a bulk of my runs on Strava for my mental health for a stint.  It helps me not compare myself to my fitness buddies and to not hear from others to 'speed up.'  I don't know their goals and they're not privy to all of my personal high fives or lows.  Being candid with my running and power lifting coach was the best thing that I could've done.  When there were days that I needed to mentally unfuck myself from burnout, I had a good talk from one or both of them.  Without Coach Morit Summers and Coach Megan Roche, I would've abandoned everything without looking into ways to make any of my calendar happen.

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Here's a conversation that I'm actually tired of hearing: Pain is weakness leaving the body and other conversations that suggest that feeling like shit is a great thing. Last night, I felt off while traveling to the gym and had to cut this workout at 42 minutes when I saw doubles, ears ringing and feeling nauseated. You know what can't be seen in this workout video: Hydrating myself for the entire night or the way that I reminded myself that I didn't eat enough before leaving the house. As an athlete with a large following, I feel like I should be honest about the shortcomings. Some of your favorite endurance athletes struggle in some way. Maybe some hate certain workouts, have massive anxiety or others have a long history of trying to get over being conditioned to not eat carbs as much in a sport that begs for that source of energy. My personal truth is that I have a hard time eating enough for my workload. I am diligent in following a program that someone creates for me or I establish myself and even when tempted, I can honor rest days because I love sleeping but I fall short on eating enough. People expect the opposite because I'm larger framed but here's a narrative that I'd like to shatter too: Not all plus size people gained weight from eating a lot and some of us have eating disorders/ hardships with eating enough thanks to diet culture. As a bonus fry, not all of us eat terribly, says this protein and veggie happy athlete. How you eat, hydrate and recover is critical. I don't have a pretty photo or a compelling video on that. If it comes to mind, I'll do it but please don't get caught up on being #fitnessgoals and not educate yourself on the things unseen. Behind each of us is a story that not all of us athletes are willing to share. I just happen to a loud mouthed one who wish other athletes could speak about their truths about hardships as much as the noteworthy stuff. It could quite literally end the stigmas or even save a life. #runningfatchef #fatrunner #diversitymatters #representationmatters #swiftwick #chaseadventure #hokaoneone #timetofly #skratchlabsambassador #womenwhofly #ultrarunner #marathoner #sponsoredbysuperfithero

A post shared by Latoya Shauntay Snell (@iamlshauntay) on Aug 5, 2019 at 5:56am PDT

T'was the Day Before the Duathlon

Aside from talking to you guys on this open diary, I am washing a fuckton of clothing because I have to be a productive human being AND I'm searching for tomorrow's look.  It's helping me channel my nerves of possibly being DFL -- dead fucking last.  Feel free to sub that term for freaking if you're not a laced potty mouth like me.   Unlike most running events that I participate in, this event will be drastically smaller -- like a cap of 300 participants.  I feel comfortable in saying that I'm scared but ready to see what I'm capable of doing.

Tonight, I'll be making about 20 empanadas for dinner, pairing it up with some rice and watching a good comedy special before going to sleep.  I'll need to be at the event around 6:30 in the morning to pick up my bib, place my bicycle in the proper rack and line up for my 7:30 AM start.  Similarly to how I trust my race day ritual in running, I'll be using the bathroom about four times and will need to wake up around 4AM.  My family will probably hate me for about two hours because I'm going to get on their nerves - never intentionally - but more than anything, I'm going to have fun.  The only thing that plagues me is this nagging cough that I picked up while flying back and forth from Portland, OR.  I trust my body enough to listen to it if it asks me to slow down and I believe my training is great enough to push me through tomorrow.  If all goes well, tomorrow I'll be a duathlete.  I actually don't think that's a word and that's quite okay by me.