Name: Jason Nance
Age: 37
Occupation: SQL Team Leader / Database Administrator at BB&T
Years doing triathlon? 2nd full season
First Triathlon? Thomasville Triathlon 2016
Your favorite triathlon? Oak Hollow locally is always a challenging race with a great turnout of athletes.
Meal the night before race? Deer Spaghetti or Hibachi Salmon/Shrimp with a ton of Soba Noodles.
Pre-Race Meal? Noosa yogurt with 2/3 cup of Bear Naked Granola.
Race Nutrition? I am still working on the details with this one as I gain experience. I am becoming a big believer of NBS Nutrition products. Right now I am knocking out a NBS preload and some Pomegranate juice 30 minutes before the race. During the bike, I typically have one Gatorade and one NBS preload with some Pomegranate. On the run, I usually go with 1 Gatorade.
Favorite motivational training song? Hands down the one song I sing in my head, SIA the Greatest Stamina song. I am a big SiriusXM PopRocks channel listener. Favorite groups/musicians: Passenger, Alanis Morissette, Eric Clapton, Counting Crows, Oasis, The Wallflowers, and the Foo Fighters.
Favorite mantra? Jokingly: Probably ‘running sucks’ about 5,000 times over the course of a 5K. But SIA the Greatest song (don’t give up, don’t give up, no no no)!!
Key Workout? Coach Karen Buxton lays out some great routines for me. I think the workouts that help me the most include the 40-75 minute bike rides with Zwift/CycleOps Hammer followed by a 20-30 minute high cadence run. I guess you can never practice and experience the brick feeling enough.
Best Triathlon training or racing tip? Have fun at it, regardless of if you are 1 year into the sport or 10 years into it. Find a good group of people or some folks to train with who will push you past your current limits.
Triathlon literature or other sources of information? USA Triathlon magazine, Coach Buxton’s website, InsideTRI, and these triathletes on twitter put out some great tips and share about their race experiences: Alicia Kaye, William Huffman, Jonalyn Forman, Chrissie Wellington, Timothy O’Donnell.
Who inspires you? Alan and Beth Warren are such a foundation for me personally. They are great to bounce ideas off of! Shhh… Don’t tell Alan, but I admire him in the world of Triathlon. Other athletes that motivate me include my workout buddy Dennis Hughes, Karen Buxton (thanks for all you do coach!), Priscilla Richardson, Jeremy Yoemans (I mean, how fast can you really run dude!), Derrick Heard, Ali Cooper, Jon Graham, Jeff Keezer (who keeps it real with everyone), Keith Gardiner (the bike cadence master)…. The list of people I look up to goes on and on!
Future goal? To compete in the 2019 ITU World Championship for Duathlon is something I never intended to have a chance at. I plan on working very hard to lower my run times and be as competitive as I can at this race for Team USA.