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InsideOut client, Sharon Perl Olshvang, Recalculating... after nullifying competition season goals!

Caroline Kavanagh | Sep 20, 2018

Sharon Perl Olshvang did her first sprint triathlon in 2011, weighing-in at the time at 198 pounds. As it would come to fruition, this would be the start of her fitness journey. In 2016, Sharon moved to the United States from Israel, after accepting a work position as the chemist for a start-up air-filtration company. All-the-while, continuing her training and racing amongst the demands of her busy work and family life. Her passion and commitment to health was producing positive results and hence the motivation to keep it rolling. In early February of this year, Sharon came to the InsideOut lab. At that time she was down 44 pounds since her first sprint triathlon back in Israel in 2011. Her newest challenge would be a mid-summer triathlon which would include the loafty goal of her first Ironman distance race. Not only would this be her first Ironman distance triathlon, but also one of the toughest and the longest running IRONMAN courses in North America, Lake Placid. The iconic 1980 Winter Olympic venue, tucked away in the heart of the Adirondack mountains. The good news was that Sharon was no stranger to competition. The Israeli born Perl Olshvang was the swimming champion in her home country, at the age of sixteen. Extremely comfortable in the water to say the least. The triathlon swim leg was not her biggest concern... it was the weight gain that had enveloped her 5' 3" frame over the past thirty years that was still literally and mentally weighing her down. Now at the age of 47, Sharon felt this added weight was her limiter and hampering her bike and run ability. Even though Sharon's weight loss had been substantial up to this point, she felt "stuck" at her current weight of 154 lbs and feeling unable to shed those additional pounds. The triathlon training and racing she had been doing was effective in ridding her of the initial unwanted weight but Sharon's goal was to lose another 15 lbs before she toed the Ironman race line in July. Hence we began the process of Metabolic Efficiency Training (MET). With roughly 23 weeks to accomplish her weight loss goal, I felt this was doable. Sharon would also continue to work with her triathlon coach, Becky Paige who would see to it that the physical adaptations required for such an endeavor would be met.... and then some.... and then some more.... and then.... rinse and repeat! ; ) Sharon's first incremental metabolic assessment on the treadmill (shown below) enabled us to get a first glimpse into her carbohydrate and fat burning percentages.

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Assessment #1 Client: Sharon Perl Olshvang Date: Feb 13, 2018 Age: 47 years

RESULT: Initial Assessment shows MEP occurred at a heart rate of 163 beats per minute (bpm) and a pace of 11:06 min/mile. Below this heart rate and intensity, she was more efficient at using fat as an energy source, but began to burn a higher proportion of carbohydrate beyond this intensity.

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This first assessment revealed that she was in fact a good fat-burner. But remember, she had been "stuck" at her current weight which means we needed to dive into the details of her daily nutrition and apply the principles of MET. This nutritional focus is 75% of Metabolic Efficiency Training, while the other 25% is on the physical training element.

The focus during her upcoming Competition phase of training would be to differentiate training sessions that would require higher energy needs and those that would require less. For those higher intensity and longer training sessions she would ingest additional carbohydrates while dropping them back at other times of the day when that extra sugar was not required. This approach would keep her blood sugar stable and allow her body to tap into the additional stored fat and burn it for fuel. Another focus would be on practicing her race day fueling during select training sessions. A Metabolic Efficiency assessment report also includes 10-30% intake recommendations. Because the body can only digest and utilize at most, 35% of what is ingested during racing and training these numbers are key. Exceeding intake can lead to gastrointestinal distress and divert energy needs away from the working muscles. Therefore a critical piece to a successful race outcome is focused on race day fueling strategies. Sharon kept me in the loop as her race season unfolded....... I would get email updates which thrilled me to no end. Not only was she losing weight she was crushing previous race times!

Personal Records for 2018: RUN 5K = 27:11 (previously never under 30 min) 10K = 58:34 (previously never under 60 min) Half Marathon = 2:04:35 (prev best 2:12:18) Marathon = 5:01:56 (prev best 5:13:42) - This PR was achieved as the last leg of her Ironman race! TRIATHLON 70.3 = 5:30:15 - Shaved off 1 hour 30 minutes from same race done the previous year! Ironman Lake Placid = 13:42:52 The topper for the season was the Ironman Lake Placid race in which Sharon well exceeded her race goals and finished one of the toughest Ironman's in under 14 hours and even managed to PR her marathon time in this race. She also hit her weight loss goal and toed the Ironman line weighing-in at 140 lbs! The extra 1 pound was probably due to topped off glycogen stores pre-race ; ) I saw Sharon just a few weeks ago as she was back to the InsideOut Lab for re-testing. I was looking forward to seeing her and of course curious to see her new data. Sharon's second incremental metabolic assessment on the treadmill is shown below:

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Assessment #2 Client: Sharon Perl Olshvang Date: September 11, 2018 Age: 47 years

RESULT: Assessment shows MEP occurred at a heart rate of 162 beats per minute (bpm) and a pace of 10:42 min/mile. Below this heart rate and intensity, she was more efficient at using fat as an energy source, but began to burn a higher proportion of carbohydrate beyond this intensity.

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Sharon's second assessment shows some nice improvements. I will highlight a few standout points: • Sharon is now running FASTER at the same relative heart rate. This means less effort while running a faster pace. Well done! • Metabolic Efficiency Point (MEP) shifted to the right almost a complete stage which means less of those precious glycogen stores are being used at increased intensity and higher percentages of fat stores can fuel her training and racing efforts. Sharon can now rely on less exogenous carbohydrates during racing. Her body is now more efficient at doing critical other tasks, like cooling the body and supplying blood flow to the working muscle groups while racing and training. • Physical adaptations were such that she was able to complete two addtional 5 minute stages during the testing without physical fatigue setting in. This "recalculating" resets Sharon's intakes and nutrition strategies as she continues into Fall with running races on her docket. Down, many sizes in clothes....... and pounds on the scale! I am sure her 2018 personal records will be broken in 2019 as she will race again next July at the Lake Placid Ironman. Huge congrats!

Sharon Perl Olshvang crossing the finish line of Ironman Lake Placid 2018.


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