Leegoocrap's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 13)

Hello

Very disappointed with my beach run yesterday but I think I figured out the cause of my racing running woe's.  Every race I drink a Redbull before the race to help me wake up.  As I think back on each of my races I have had problems with my HR spiking and then not racing well.  Last week I did not have any problems completing my 3 & 4 mile runs but yesterday my HR spiked up to 156 and I had to walk until it dropped.  Now it was very hot but I drank a SF Redbull about 2 hours before the race.  So Sunday I will do my race without redbull thinking that I will be able to keep my HR down.

Plus I have a left heal issue working so I will be ready for the new shoes and I am wearing my Plantar Fascitis brace from my right foot on the left foot.  This could a show stopper for running.

I did have a good ride this morning to work out some of the kinks.

Kevin

OK let's talk nutrition. What do you guys eat/drink on long rides? My past couple of long rides have been--for me, at least--very long. 3-4 hours. Both times, I didn't bring any food- just two bottles of Nuun. Not suprisingly, both times I felt like I ran out of energy about 2.5 hours through and was craving food. I just read a couple of posts on the forums and someone suggested bringing about 150-200 calories worth of food for each hour you're on the bike. That seems like a LOT to me. What are your methods? Do you bring food (or gels, or whatever) on every ride? Am I an idiot?

Red Bull scares me. I'm interested to see how it turns out- hopefully well!

Yeah, on rides longer than 1h30, I bring food with me. This can be in the form of sports drink that I buy somewhere along the way at a convenience store (or bring with me), I also eat bars, either homemade or Clif, Larabar (not so awesome for biking, although they are tasty - they have a way higher fat %, making them feel kind of gross to eat while working hard), or any other bar. Also, I might bring some gu chomps or clif bloks (like gels, but in hard jelly form... but that's personal preference b/c I hate the consistency of gels). 
Try out an assortment of products (and feel free to make your own at home, there are some good recipes, especially by professional triathlete Brendan Brazier in his book Thrive Diet) and in varying amounts, too. I find that I wait too long to eat, and then have a mid-ride bonk so I am working on eating BEFORE I get hungry so that I have time to digest the food.
In my 3h30 ride over the weekend, I had 1 bottle of sports drink and 1 bar. I realized I should also have taken maybe ~3 gu chomps as well.
I hope this helps!! 

OH - also, yeah when I read the recommendations for how much food to take in while running or biking, I am seriously amazed that anyone could take in that much food in so short a time. I think it is because we are girls and weigh far less than the average guy athlete. You can try taking in that amount but trust me I think you'll feel like you won't even WANT to. I take in far less, maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of that amount, if that.
Again, unless you are doing HARD efforts, I don't think you really need anything for any ride shorter than 1h40-1h30.  

Jeez - I missed a lot. Glad wives and grandmas are all healed up. That's certainly good news. I've been putting off logging on and logging my workouts (my Garmin stopped uploading) so I've missed forum stuff too. I need to try to get the latest firmware, and if that doesn't work, reinstall some stuff. At this point, I'll probably have to do some stuff manually tonight. Work's been too hectic to log anything while I'm here.

Chris - take that bet, for sure. Forget the money - it's all about bragging rights. Believe me from experience, all indoor rowing is sitting and staring at a wall, and if you do it long enough eventually you zone out and suddenly 2 hours have passed. I rowed a couple marathons (they only take 3 hours, not 6), and the one I did next to somebody was definitely easier (and way faster) because I ended up getting competitive, but when you do one by yourself you end up completely zoning out. Just don't concentrate on the length, concentrate on your cadence or speed or something else. If you can get a couple repeating notes or a few lines of a song(especially one you only know a couple lyrics to) stuck in your head, that ends up helping too. 6 is crazy, and mad respect if you do it, but I think you'll be fine.

In my training news, I did my first open water swim Saturday. It was AWESOME, and I am super glad I did it. Definitely freaked out when I got out to where I couldn't touch bottom and then was supposed to swim parallel to shore for a while, so I came back in closer to shore and then did the swim thing. On the way back, I finally got into a rythym and got less freaked out. We did a second set, and that time I went all the way out past the buoys (maybe 50ms out) and swam the whole thing without touching bottom (no idea how many meters, GPS didn't work in the water - erroneously said 1 mile). Two friends and I did it up in the Chesapeake Bay, and the waves were HUGE, so I'm extremely confident I'll be able to handle the calm waters of the Potomac for my sprint on Sunday. I know that river like the back of my hand, and it's never even half as choppy as I dealt with Saturday. OWSs will DEFINITELY be a huge part of my training in the future. Felt like I got a great workout and some valuable experience.

Oh, and I'm definitely watching what you all say about nutrition, and doing my own research. Sunday was my first 2+ hour ride, and I was supposed to take some nutrition along. Definitely had a baby bonk at about 1.5 hours in, but I was also hungover, so next time will be a much better test.

Definitely drop the RedBull if you think that's it...
I think it may be more of a "Race Day Heartrate" type thing. How was the morning nutrition to go with the Redbull?

Grrrr... forum ate my post. Anyway, to summarize the beautifully written post that you'll never see - be careful about suddenly changing your caffeine intake. I am trying to cut down my once 6 cups of strong coffee a day habit, and there are serious negative short-term consequences of removing caffeine cold turkey. If you're currently only consuming the occasional Redbull, then no worries, but if you're consuming more than 2 (8 ounce) cups of coffee or three redbulls a day, you may want to do it slowly.

Hello

I walked down to the neighborhood pool for an after work swim. Jumped in and started swimming in warm broth.  3 laps and I had to stop so I could cool down.  1 more lap and I was done.  Morning swims only from now on in the neighborhood pool.

run or ride tomorrow.

Kevin

got kicked out of my "Globogym" pool last night because the lights went out and "it was dangerous"

I found the irony that there is no lifeguard and nobody ever comes into the pool area... it's not like I was going to be saved if I got knocked out or something anyways... alas. My arguments fell on deaf ears..

If you feel like you are "bonking" on a long ride/run, it is already too late. Best bet is really to pack it in and try again later. You will NEVER catch up once you start "feeling" it, similar thing with hydration... by the time you are thirsty, it's too late.

It's a very personal thing... what one of us can eat/drink/tolerate, you may not be able to stand or may make you sick/groggy.

On the bike -
On anything at an hour (usually 1:15 or less) I drink water, unless it's a very taxing (Lactate type work) workout, in which case I usually get some type of sport drink.

At 1:30 - 2:00 mark, it's usually accelerade and water. I drink water the first 30min, then move to accelerade, then back to water after it runs out.

2:00 + I usually bring 2 bottle of water (unless I know there's a place to refill) and a bottle of flat coke, along with anywhere from 2 - 4 GU/Stingers and sometimes something a bit more solid (peanut butter filled pretzels used to do it for me, but being a non-gluten guy now, I stick to a bar/chomps)
I start eating (GU'ing) at the 30 minute mark, followed every 30 - 45 minutes after (I usually forget at the 30min mark) and eating solid stuff a bit after the 2:00 mark. I start drinking flat coke after my first water bottle is empty.

I don't remember who said it, but they said it best "If you feel good, EAT!"

There's no lifeguard there?! That's a lawsuit waiting to happen (ugh I hate sounding like a lawyer haha). That stinks that your workout got cut off though. I was being shuffled from lane to lane the other night as swim teams came and went and it was annoying the hell out of me.

Kevin- your "warm broth" description was hysterical- so gross!

Haha the picture of me with sunglasses on? It's a water bottle- I swear! But usually I do wine (both red and white), occasionally beer, and gin and club soda if I need a real drink. Unfortunately I've been drinking a little too often lately, but hey, a girl needs to be social, right?

Hello

Stress filled day at work.

Came home, stretched, put on my new running shoe's, started to run and shut the running down in 58 seconds.  Left heal pain is worse so I will take some time off from running.

Feeling like triathlon has passed me by. I should have started doing this in my 30's. 50 years old and I think I am breaking down. One injury after another.

I went upstairs and rode the trainer.

I am going to try to move my 20 June Sprint race to the 15 August date.  If not possible I will do a AquaBike on Sunday.

Kevin

Give it some time Kevin. Rome and a day and all that. I know (from experiencing the same thing, especially running) it can get really frustrating, but the good news is, it's not age! (Or I'm just poorly put together one)

Heel spur? Or possibly the achilles? Any idea's? Constant dull pain or sharp when you run on it, or both?

You said new shoes, what are you are you in now, and what did you move into them from?

Just a random shot in the dark guess, I'd say the uneven surface on the beach run put some unusual stress on some places you aren't used to running on.

Hopefully everything heals up quick, remember, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. And foam rolling... and plenty of NSAIDs

Hello

Sunday  Sprint AquaBike for me.   Race director just told me it was too late to move my registration to the August race.   I do enjoy race day.

My heel feels like a bruise on the inside back of the heel with the pain moving up under the heel.  It feels a lot like the plantar fascitis I had two years ago in the right heal.  So I will do my stretching exercises, foot brace that keeps your toes pulled up to provide a constant stretch, Advil and rest.  Trying to stay away from a doctors visit but I will go in a week or so if needed.  Last time he gave me a couple of cortisone shots, taped my foot and it got better over a few weeks.

I think  I just turned up the running a little much last week because my knee was feeling so good and tweaked my heal.

OK lets get off this injury stuff and back to training.

Trainer ride last night and tonight I am going to ride my normal 21 mile route just to get out on the road.  Good thing about riding at 7 pm is that you sometimes can smell people grilling outside. It sure does make dinner even better when I get home.

Kevin
Anyone else racing this weekend?

Kevin

I used to work as a shoe salesman at a store that specialized in shoes for people with foot problems. Plantar fascitis always sounded like the worst to me, due to it constantly coming back. Good luck man - I don't envy you.




And yes - I've got the DC Tri this Sunday. I'm pumped for my first ever tri, but not pumped about my start time: 5:35 AM. I can't imagine how difficult that would be if I didn't already live in the city and have a junker bike to commute down to the course. And here I thought regattas started early! I guess they were trying to beat the heat, since it was supposed to be 97. Luckily now it's looking like it'll be a brisk 92. Gotta love that DC weather.

Dude, exciting!
5:35!!! That's woooaaahhh early.  If my pre-race routine went as normal I'd have to be up at like 1:30 A.M.!!! Can't imagine sleeping the day before.

It would be preferable to 97 in the humidity however.

Good Luck sir, let us know if you need any last minute checklist/whatever and get ready to write an epic race report.

Good luck on the race!! Next year I would like to come up and do the race.

As for the heat, I have been riding, running and swimming during the hottest part of the day and my HR is definitely effected. Lots of water prior to and I try to drink at least 1 bottle of water per hour of riding. But my times have not improved that much over the past couple of rides. What could be the issue?

First, Kevin and Erik, good luck guys with your races tomorrow! Set some PR's!!

Mike, first off, how close are you keeping your logs? I hate to spout off advice before I'm fully informed haha
Improvements will taper off after a while, it's just the nature of the beast. Especially when heat comes into play, you may experience a decline in performance if you get dehydrated (noticing it or not)

I post exactly what I do and what my HRM says. I can do the distance but I feel that I might not be getting the most out of my workouts. I'm not sure if I am doing the right output or should I lower my output and add more time. Any suggestions are appreciated.

It's strange, I'm finally starting to feel like I may be able to finish this crazy Ironman in September! 4 Hour ride today and I feel great.

It seems like you are doing alright with the amount of time you are spending in the saddle Mike, I think at this point the thing that is going to push you further along making gains is just plain old T.I.T.S.

Every now and then don't forget to just ride how you feel, not how the HRM / Computer / Plan / Powermeter says to. And try to mix it up.

If you are just wanting to push your numbers up higher, some 5x5' at threshold (with recovery of course) or some high rep repeats of Sprints with low rest will make you stronger on the bike.