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Day 85 – Nutrition For The Southern Triathlete

Call an electrician… because I’m in shock! Sticker shock.

Training for triathlon is a complex endeavor. Trying to fit all the workouts into an age grouper’s schedule is difficult enough without having to consider daily nutrition, training nutrition and race nutrition. That’s my weakness: nutrition. My bike and run really suck, but the real weakness is nutrition. At least I’m good at swimming.

First of all, I live in the South: yes North Carolina is in the South. Southern cooking is notoriously famous for too much sugar and too much fat and not enough of that healthy stuff. Fiber. I think that what it’s called.

I’m having a coronary!

This is the region of the United States that produced celebrity chef, Paula Deen who introduced to the world a new kind of breakfast sandwich I call the coronary (because I don’t know what Paula calls it). The coronary consists of a beef patty, a fried egg and a two strips of bacon sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

I don’t see anything wrong with a little fat and sugar now and then but, COME ON! Really? I’m surrounded by people who consider fried Oreos a delicacy. Even the collard greens are swimming in grease.

Here’s the problem: all of it tastes soooooo good. When you walk down the street and you see crappy food that you know tastes bad you shrug your shoulders and move on. But when you know the crappy food tastes great, you can’t help but be drawn to it like Dean Martin to a martini.

After living here for 13 years, I find myself tolerating more fat and sugar in my diet than is healthy. That’s a problem for my athletic aspirations and so far I’m just talking about daily nutrition. Preworkout food, postworkout food and race nutrition are a nightmare. I can get the Krispy Kreme doughnut into the water bottle, but how do I get it out?

Lately I’ve been searching for a nutrition consultant. I need someone who can help with all three aspects of my nutrition: daily, training and race. It’s tough to find someone who truly knows how to help with dietary suggestions and how to test different race nutrition strategies.

We are all different in how we handle nutrition. Some of my friends eat candy during a race. Some use expensive custom liquids for both energy and hydration. During an IRONMAN race, I rode past an acquaintance who was eating a ham sandwich. Not long after he finished the sandwich, he flew by me and disappeared into the distance. Maybe I should have had a ham sandwich. After 13 years, I still haven’t found the right nutritional strategy. This year will be different, however. I’m going to get help.

As I get closer to my first A race of the season, I need to seriously consider my nutrition strategy, but I’m not sure what to do just yet. I’m still in shock after finding out that Peaks Coaching offers personalized nutrition consulting at their platinum level for a mere $499 USD per month. For that amount, do you think Hunter Allen will personally deliver my fried chicken to me?

Until tomorrow…

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