Saturday—10:15 a.m. (Fewer than 20 hours to race start.)

Ruth’s shirt read, “Goy Shabbos.”

(Isn’t it supposed to say “Shabbos Goy”?)

Ruth pointed out the printing error before I could say anything.

Ruth had done research on Shabbos restrictions since this topic was not discussed in the Catholic school of Ruth’s youth. Ruth knew that bike check in was on Shabbos and I was going to need someone to walk my bike from the room to t1, the staging area for bikes.

(Hence the T-shirt.)

After Ruth racked my bike…

(How does one “rack” a bike?)

The grassy center of the Olympic Oval was populated with aluminum poles which rested on four-foot-high supports. Riders were hooking the bike seats on top of the poles, so it appeared that an army of sleeping bicycles were assembling for battle. Today, athletes were dressed in T-shirts and flip flops. Tomorrow, they would be wearing skintight lycra and bike shoes that “clip in” to a circular receptacle that had long replaced the pedals we all grew up with on our childhood bicycles.

On many of these modern bikes, electric shifters had replaced gear levers, water bottle sized canisters had replaced the baskets we all used in our youth to store our spare tires. My bike “Friday,” fit right in. Ruth lifted Friday’s seat over the bar.

(Which bar? Where? If it is an army, how were you going to find your bike on race day?)

Each row was numbered.

After Ruth racked my bike, we posed for a picture and headed back up the road to the hotel for lunch. Up the road included a ¾ of a mile climb up the hill to the hotel for lunch.

I enjoyed that walk; It got my heart rate up.

Ruth remarked to me that, “This will be fun after racing for 140.6 miles.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“You wouldn’t lie to your athletes, wouldn’t you?”

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.”

Saturday—1 p.m. (17 hours to race start.)

Lunch time, because it had been at least 60 minutes since I devoured an entire box of chocolate chip cookies.

(How do you get through all of Yom Kippur without eating if on the day before you race you could go more than 60 minutes without eating??)

On Yom Kippur I am too focused on praying to think about food. On the day before the race, I am too focused on the race not to think about food. At the 2019 NYC Marathon, I ran out of steam at mile 14 and had to walk. In a post-race conversation, my coaching mentor Justin Trolle said,

“It sounds like you ran out of carbohydrates.”

(How could one have run out of carbohydrates?)

Remember studying the Krebs cycle in high school?

(No, I don’t and if I had it was 40 years ago.)

Sir Hans Krebs was a British biologist, physician and biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for identifying the sequences of chemical reactions that take place in the cells of humans during aerobic activity.

(What is aerobic activity?)

Aerobic activities include long distance events like competing in an Ironman triathlon.

(You lost me.)

The Krebs Cycle is how stored energy is released to fuel your cells during physical activity.

(So, if you don’t eat, you run out of energy?)

Exactly. An Ironman triathlon takes me 15-17 hours to complete.

(That’s a lot of calories to consume.)

So, understanding the Krebs Cycle helps me go faster by avoiding fatigue.

(So, just how many calories do you need to ingest for a 15-17 hour day?)

Typically, most triathletes go through 200-400 carbs per hour.

(Wait, how do you carry that much food with you?)

I eat a big breakfast before and then I sip a protein shake on the bike. If I were relying on bananas, I’d need to carry a bushel with me on the bike.

(That’s not practical.)

Exactly, that is why I need to be ingesting calories the entire time I am moving. From the moment I get on my bike until the last few miles of the marathon, I need to be focused on fueling my body.

(And you are telling us this, why?)

Because I am really bad at remembering to do this and it was about to become an issue for me at Ironman Lake Placid 2022.

David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].