Giant Acron Triathlon Preview: Racing for Candy Corn

After drawing out the decision on whether or not to race the Giant Acorn Triathlon (international distance) this weekend, I finally decided to sign up after conferring with my coach on my race nutrition strategy.

Now, before you go and assume that we discussed carbohydrate/protein intake, metabolic efficiency training, hydration, or something else serious and scientific, let's be clear about what happened.

First, on Tuesday, I started craving candy corn in a bad way. This was torture, because I am not supposed to eat sugar, or really any carbs, on my new diet.

Then, I remembered that I can have SOME carbohydrates/sugars during long training sessions or races, because insulin reactions are different during exercise.

Hmmmm...maybe, just maybe, I could get my one chance to eat candy corn this Halloween season by racing another triathlon?

I asked my coach if I could eat candy corn on the bike instead of shot blocks, since they are nutritionally pretty similar, and she gave me the green light.

Sign me up!

Of course, it's not JUST about eating candy corn on the bike. I'm still going after that sub-three hour goal, because that one needs to be done before this season is over so that I can set faster time goals for 2013. I would also like to get my run split under an hour, after a few slower 10k efforts on the super-hill Culpeper and Columbia courses. Part of the Giant Acorn run course is on grass, which I rarely run on. I'll have to channel some inspiration for that.

However, the candy corn consumption doesn't mean that I'm throwing the medically-ordered diet out the window for this race. But, as several people have mentioned, racing under-fueled sucks. So, in anticipation of the race, I'll be eating a little bit above the suggested calorie limit today to make sure my muscle and liver glycogen stores aren't running low. I won't watch my carbohydrate intake quite so closely on Saturday until AFTER the race, at which point I will probably be limited to egg whites and Greek yogurt for the rest of the day,  but I can manage that to make the sub-three hour race happen. Sunday will be back to business as usual.

That means that somebody is going to have to take all the spare candy corn off my hands at the race on Saturday. Volunteers?