Catch Up Time!

The year of 2015 has been a busy one for me! From competing in half marathons to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Austria. It’s been a fun and challenging season there is no doubt about it!

My racing season start with Ironman 70.3 Florida which ended up being a tougher race than expected. The extreme heat and the hills on the run made it hard to perform at my best. After mentally more than physically recovering from Florida I prepared myself for Ironman 70.3 Raleigh. With Raleigh being close to home I was hoping to do extremely well knowing the elevation changes and acclimated to North Carolina. But in the end, Raleigh showed me differently! Between the heat and the sun blaring down on the runners with little to no shade in the run, this was the worst performance of the year. I did however catch up to my dad who started almost half an hour earlier then me and we finished the race together for the first time in a half Ironman which was an amazing and rare opportunity. Fourteen days later I found myself in Williamsburg, Virginia competing in the Challenge Family USA 70.3 race. At this race I was introduced to Base Performance salt which I decided to try during my race breaking the rules of “nothing new on race day”. Now if you have never done this race before, it’s an amazing venue but the bike is down a long section of highway with the maximum sun exposure the entire stretch and then the run is in and out of the woods on gravel paths. It’s an interesting combination of going from the blaring heat of the sun to the humidity of the woods. If it had not been for me talking the Base salt, I highly doubt I would have finished that race. Then of course my A race was at my door step. The Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Austria was such an experience that I cannot even begin to explain. The mountains were beautiful, the lake was clear as could be and so refreshing. I learned a lot about myself from a nutritional/hydration perspective and not to under estimate a mountainous race like this one! Failure are a valuable lesson of life… especially if you can and will learn from them! The last big race of the year for me was Ironman 70.3 Austin. This event allowed me to see all of my family in Austin and San Antonio. This race held true to course for the year with additional insurmountably odds and me rolling my ankle badly on the run which effectively ended the rest of the race for me.

As things move towards “the out season” it will give me time to recover and get mentally prepared for the 2016 season. I will be focusing not only on strength but form and mechanics! This past season was a huge learning process for me and I want to thank Tops Athletics for getting my body for physically ready for my races. I have come to love my Clifton 2 from Hoka OneOne and is my preferred race day shoe. Also my new TYR Hurricane 3 wet suit proved to be a great weapon towards the back end of my season as the waters got colder. I could not have done this without my supporters this year and I’m sincerely grateful for their support and amazing products! 

Strength Training With TOPS Athletics

It’s only six weeks until the Wrightsville Beach Quintiles Half Marathon and two months until my first 70.3 IRONMAN in Florida! I am super excited as this year’s race season approaches. I’m very fortunate to have TOPS Athletics guiding in my physical development. When I first began my training with Montae, my personal trainer, I quickly realized that there’s a lot more to strength training than just lifting weights. It’s one thing to develop your main muscle groups but it’s another thing entirely to work on the stabilizers. The first few weeks with Montae I can't even explain how sore I was every day. I soon learned to embrace that soreness… using it to strengthen me mentally, embracing the pain and owning it!
Thanks for following me on my journey to the 2015 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Austria.
Brandon Nix

VO2 Testing Without Limits Dec 2014

There’s nothing better than waking up at 5:30 in the morning for a VO2 max test that you have been looking forward to for the past few weeks! Seriously! Call me crazy but I love challenging myself every chance I get. I recently had an opportunity to work with Tom Clifford of Without Limits and Jeff Smith from Synergy One labs for a VO2 max test on my TT bike.

Upon arriving at the Without Limits Cycle Lab (from here out to be called the “Pain Cave”) I jumped on the compu trainer and we got down to business. With Tom to my left increasing my resistance by 30 watts every minute, and Jeff to my right monitoring my VO2 numbers, we followed my progress throughout the test on a flat screen in front of me as I sat on the trainer. It was exhausting, I was ready to fall off my bike, and the Pain Cave lived up to its name! But after 45 minutes, the test produced a tremendous amount of data ranging from average and maximum wattage, average and maximum watts per kilogram, average and maximum cadence, target workout zones, calories per hours specific to AeT and AT, and of course VO2 numbers! These benchmarks are all vital indicators of progression.

The entire experience was more fun than I had expected which just makes me look forward to more testing and coaching in the near future! I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI1nHLiI56Y

TOPS Athletics and Synergy One Labs

Exciting news!! Let me start by just saying the most difficult thing for any athlete dipping their foot in the pool of professional athletics is acquiring sponsorship and support. That process alone can take years to develop with mixed results and sometime countless contacts to get your foot in the door. So when the phone rings and it’s a premier athletic business offering you an opportunity that is valuable beyond words, it is difficult to contain the excitement! I’m thrilled and pleased to announce that TOPS Athletics and Synergy One Labs will be providing me a premier sponsorship for 2015. I am humbled to be working with this amazing group of people! Their sponsorship means a great deal to me and my future development in the sport. The guidance and expertise they offer will provide incredible training and development opportunities for me ranging from strength conditioning, nutrition, injury prevention, recovery and physical benchmarking.

I recently worked with Jeff Smith at his facility testing my VO2max for running. It was a lot of fun and a fantastic experience to have such a great guy to walk my through it. The second test that he did with me was a Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) which is the measurement of how much food, or energy, is required to maintain basic body functions. This has already proven valuable as there were indications that I wasn’t up taking enough daily calories to maintain my current fitness level.  I also had some time with TOP's athletic trainer Bailey Borsuk who walked me through a series of range of motion tests. Bailey identified a possibly weaker glute or hip flexor. She will develop a corrective physical conditioning plan to address this issue. Sort of feels like they are building me block by block… how cool is that? The amount this team cares is amazing and their positive attitudes are contagious! I love working with them and look forward to the future with them!

Elevation Mask Training

After qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships in Austria, my dad and I decided to look at the elevation of the race. We had heard about the high altitudes and found that I will need to train for an elevation of 8,000+ feet above sea level. Seeing how us Seal Level Flat Lander train at ZERO and doing some research decided to use an Elevation Training Mask. I can adjust the mask to simulate different altitudes from 6k-21k. Today I had my first training session in the mask (which by the way has a Bane design on it from the latest Batman movie!). I started off with some basic core workouts. I had very little trouble with the mask other than trying to get it comfortable on my face. After about 15-20 minutes of core, we switched over to the weight machines and that is when I really felt the restriction of airflow. As I did more and got farther into the workout, my cardiovascular system was working over time to get oxygen to my muscles. I felt the build up of lactic acid faster then I ever had. It made my workout more and more difficult the further I got into it. By the time I was done with the weights, I was dripping in sweat and felt like i was dying but I loved the feeling! Up next was 15 minutes on the rowing machine for a "cool Down" and that was when I really felt the effects of the mask! Lifting weights and wearing the mask was one thing, but doing cardio and wearing the mask was another. 10 minutes of rowing with the mask made me feel like I was going to pass out! I have an interval date with the mask on Friday, so that should be fun and I will let everyone know how that goes!

Ironman 70.3 Miami

Hey everyone sorry about the huge gap between my post! Life just got a bit ahead of me and I had to catch back up! Last weekend I went down to Miami with my dad and mom and competed in the Miami 70.3 Ironman. Miami was amazing and I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and experiences...

We arrived in Miami two days prior to the race. After 12 hours in the car it was good to get settled into the hotel room! Ann and I went for a nice run on the downtown streets to shake out our legs and saw the diversity of people that live in Miami. The next day we took the tram to the race site for packet pick up. The Athlete Village was filled with vendors and cool exhibits. A number of athletes approached me with questions about my Hoka Huaka shoes and some of the other Hoka gear I run in. I had an opportunity to have my swim analyzed in an endless pool and received some tips to help me improve my swim stroke. We finally headed back to the hotel to prep our bikes get in a quick bike and run. After dropping our bikes off at the race site we went for the best pre-race dinner ever…sushi of course. We headed to bed early which is always a good idea the night before a race. I find I spend half the night staring at the ceiling with my mind racing and cannot sleep no matter how hard I try. Race morning came after what felt like forever and we got up and had breakfast consisting of one Bonk Breaker, Banana and a cup of coffee then headed to the race site to prep our transition areas. I love listening to music the morning of a race so I had my music on as I got everything prepared and then enjoyed chatting with my fellow rack mates which always helps me with the pre-race jitters. With about an hour of waiting, the Pros finally went off in the swim and I still had an hour and a half to wait for my wave. As my wave crept closer and closer, I wished my dad and Ann good luck. Both of them had earlier waves than I did and I spent the next 40 minutes hanging out with my mom Amy stretching and warming up my arms for the swim. FINALLY they started to gather my division wave at the back of the wave line. With some introductions amongst ourselves and some small talk with the athletes in my division, we started to break the pre-race tension and have a few laughs. They called us to the dock to jump into the water to go to the swim start. As we swam to the line all the small chat came to an end and my mind turned to racing and my race plan. The water was at a perfect temperature (78 degrees) and there was a slight current fighting against us. I had already decided I was not going to let anyone slow me down. When the gun went off we all burst from the line like a giant wave. I could tell I was leading a pack and sensed a few guys leading another pack to my left as we raced to the first turn buoy. Right before the turn, our groups came together and we became one large mass of fit and fighting guys pushing the pace to see who would break first. I opted for a full length vs ¾ length long stroke and kept the cadence a little lower with a steady tempo kick. The color of our caps started to mix with all the other color caps as we caught up with the wave ahead of us. About half way through the swim it was difficult to catch the green cap color of my wave among all the other colors of caps. With the last turn buoy past me, I knew I would be swimming against the current again so I reached farther on the catch and dug deeper with a full length pull knowing I would not need my arms much later on in the race. Coming out of the water I raced to my transition rack and got out as fast as possible I wanted to be on the bike which is where I always feel the strongest. Heading out on the bike, I had to constantly stay to the left as I passed everyone that started ahead of me. Going through the city heading to the highway was tough due to the rough roads. There was a slight head wind going through the city and as I got onto the highway it turned into a crosswind. This made it harder to pass with ease because everyone was fighting against the wind making it unsafe. I did not let that stop me. I had built up momentum and planned to capitalize on this to put time on everyone in my division. About 23-26 miles out the crosswind got the best of one of the athletes riding past me. We were riding in the left lane as the cars traveled to our right with cones separating us. As the athlete was passing me, a side wind came through and took him off guard and pushed him into me. It forced me to the right towards traffic and with a haul truck coming up behind me I only had one way to go…straight into a traffic cone. I was traveling about 25 to 27 mph - moving too fast to really react to what was happening so I hit the cone and flipped over the bike. I took the full impact of the fall on my right shoulder and slid a few yards on my side. I quickly got up to check my bike making sure I could still ride it. An officer who saw the wreck ran over to me asking if I needed medical attention and I simply said “no”, got on my bike and took off faster than I was going before. I knew I had lost some time with that mishap and I knew I had to make it up plus some. As I got closer to the turnaround point on the bike I started to really feel the pain in my shoulder and hip which was a lot stronger then the pain in my leg muscles. I took a quick look over my shoulder and saw the damage I had done in the crash and realized how badly I had been hurt… some of the injury was down to the connective tissue but I didn’t want that to slow me down so I put my head down and just pushed harder. With my right forearm being badly scraped I had to grip my aero bars differently. This made the ride uncomfortable but I knew I just had to push through it…I came to prove my metal!  Having a tailwind heading back into the city made the ride a bit easier for me but I was starting to worry about the run because I began to feel my right hip swelling up and a bruise forming on my left knee where it got caught up in the bike when I fell. Maybe about 3 miles out from the transition I saw my dad ahead of me which made me excited because I knew I was making up a lot of time on everyone else. After passing him I started to go through my transition in my head and thinking about everything I needed to do. As soon as I saw the transition area I got out of my shoes and prepared myself for the dismount. Right as I hit the dismount line, I ran off my bike with a good side dismount and began running into transition to my running gear. Heading out fast trying to get my legs moving after the bike, I went through the first aid station getting a sip of water and dumping water on me. I hit my first mile on pace but my injuries and the heat started to affect my gait and how I felt. I just knew I needed to stay hydrated and cool so I got something to drink at every aid station and covered myself with water. Occasionally I would even put ice in my hat and down my kit to keep my body temperature down which was a good idea because I started seeing people dropping out right and left. Later I learned that even some the Pro field spent time walking due to the heat. By the time I got to the last 3 miles, I knew I was closing in on Ann but my run was down to a slow jog. I bonked about 2 miles back and my shoulder was throbbing and my hip was so swollen that it just hurt to move. I knew I had to finish strong so I picked my head up, corrected my form, and took off. As I saw the finish arch drawing close I heard Amy yell that Ann was right in front of me so I broke out in almost a complete sprint. Everything was numb at this point; nothing hurt and I watched as Ann crossed the finish line seconds before I did. Then it all hit me…I had finished!  After that everything went as usual. A nice stop by the medical tent to get cleaned up and I got to watch my dad finish as well. There was the usual food frenzy and finally the award ceremony. I placed 2nd in my division and secured a spot in the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Austria for 2015! It was a fun challenging race and a great experience! I cannot wait until my next race! But for now, I get a week off, then back to training!

June 11th Race Season Update

Hello everyone sorry for the long time in between post. There has not been much of a race season for me so far this year. I have been struggling with multiple injuries through out this season. From inflammation in my Achilles tendon to Tendonitis in my Hamstring. I am signed up for Miami Florida 70.3. I have done a few small races which include Quintiles Half Marathon, Topsail Tint Sprint, and I recently participated in the Setup Events 2nd Annual 2k Swim Time Trail. Did not have quite the results I wanted but did place 18th over all. The water is getting warm enough to start open water swims without a wetsuit so I am excited. I am planning on doing a few small triathlons here soon once I get recovered fully from my tendonitis. I have my group of friends all praying for a speedy recovery. Which I am really hoping for right about now because I am having race withdrawals. I shall keep you posted on what races I will be doing.