Optimal Race Weight -- What?!!!

Optimal Race Weight  -  What?!!!
March 2, 2015

I am now at the point where I need to start thinking about where to stop losing weight.

What?!!!  I can't believe I even said that!!  After working to lose weight for the last three years, this is such a strange thing to say!  Exciting but also a scary.

When considering optimum body fat % and race weight, the big question mark is how to account for the 10 or so pounds of excess skin that I am carrying (and will not lose) which includes a layer of fat.  All the expert's formulas for calculating optimum body fat % and race weight don't work for me. 

I met with the Performance Sports Nutritionist for Indiana University who works with IU's elite athletes.  She also does nutrition planning for a local triathlete who finished Kona three times and set the 45-49 AG IM course record at IM Texas.  I was so pleased / relieved that she took my athletic goals seriously.

The nutritionist asked my height and weighed me.  Then she had me get in a Bod Pod to get an accurate body fat %.  The Bod Pod uses displaced air to determine body volume and then calculates % body fat.  I was pleased that the % it gave was very similar to the BIA testing that I had been doing at Next Generation Personal Training.  

  

​Ha!  I felt like I was in a space ship!

The nutritionist reviewed my current nutrition plan.  She recommended an optimum body fat %, race weight and changes to my nutrition plan (add more carbs and fat / eat carbs prior to working out / drink tons and tons of water).  

I also consulted with a couple of others who understand nutrition and endurance sports - most notably, Matt Fitzgerald who wrote Iron War and 23 other books about sports nutrition and training including a book called Racing Weight.  Using Fitzgerald's ideal race weight formula, I calculated my ideal race weight at 135 - 150.  In my email I asked Matt how my ten or so pounds of excess skin factored into that calculation.  I was surprised when he wrote back to me!  He said, "I'd focus on the higher numbers in the range you came up with and on continuing to train smart and eat right. Who knows where you'll end up?"  He also asked me to let him know when I found the weight that seemed ideal for me so he could use that information to help others. 

My coach and I decided that I would lose 6 more pounds (153 pounds) and then switch from a weight-loss nutrition plan to a sports performance nutrition plan that I will work out with the IU nutritionist.  This nutrition plan will change as my training phase changes.  At that point, we'll adjust my weight up or down a bit until we find the weight where I perform best. 

I am telling myself, loud and clear, that I am not stopping nutrition planning.  I am just switching from a weight-loss nutrition plan to a sports performance nutrition plan.  I will still be monitoring every bite that I eat.  This is a life-long commitment.

It's funny that both my coach and the nutritionist have expressed concerns that I will not stop losing weight.  It seems so funny to even think about being too thin.  I'm hoping that won't be an issue for me since I know that I must maintain muscle and optimal body fat % to be able to train and race well.  But I will have to be cautious about this.  My coach is usually right when he worries about something.

Anna Banana from Indiana - Another Angel in Disquise

Anna Banana from Indiana - Another Angel in Disguise!
March 1, 2015

Before entering a report for the Indiana University Indoor Triathlon, I need to write about Anna Banana from Indiana.  If you read my posts from my first-ever triathlon (Indiana University Indoor Sprint Triathlon) in 2013, you learned about the sweetest college sophomore who time me and cheered as I came down the straight on every single one of the 24 laps around the indoor track.  She was amazingly encouraging.  I was SO tired and she filled me with energy.

Last year, she was timing again, now a junior, and made a point to say something to me - also encouraging.  We chatted a bit and she said she was thinking about maybe entering the race in 2015.

This year, as I was getting into my swimsuit in the locker room, a young woman entered the pod of lockers across from mine.  She had raced in a very early heat (eight racers started every 30 minutes) and had just finished.  I asked her if the track, which is on the top floor of the sports complex, was hot.  She said no and then asked, "Have you done this before?"  When I responded yes, she said, "I know you!"  I'm the person who timed you two years ago!

It was HER.

How strange that our paths crossed again in such a random and chance way.  Another in the series of chance encounters with people who have floated into my life during the past three years at just the right moment to inspire and encourage me.  And once again, she had wonderfully encouraging things to say about my weight-loss and accomplishments.  Her parents raised an angel.  

This remarkable young woman is a senior this year and will be looking for employment in the Chicago area.  Whoever hires her will be getting a gem.  I will greatly miss seeing her at next year's Indoor Tri.  I told her that I will always think of her when I compete in that race.  As we were parting, I think she realized that we didn't even know each other's name.  She asked mine and then told me that her name was Anna.  She added with a laugh, "People call me Anna Banana from Indiana."

Thank you Anna Banana from Indiana.  You made a difference in my life.