left.right.repeat group -closed - Full of a bunch of winners...YEAH! (Page 184)

On my long training rides 50-100 I stuff my jersey pockets with food.  I like bagels, bannana's, cookies and power bars, with an occasional sliced orange.  More than just sources of carb's my body really starts to crave fats and protein.  When I consume whey protein during long rides my muscles seem become sluggish.  So I stay away from protein until after.  There is always a chilled chocolate protein shake in the cooler of my car waiting to be consumed immediately after workouts.

x3 like Hammer Gels.

What do you have in your Bento box?

@pace - Bento box is a smallish storage box about 1 inch wide, 3 inches tall, and 4 inches long that is attached to the frame of the bike on race day.  It's a convenient location to keep things you want easy access to during the ride.  Sometimes it's attached on the top bar of the frame just behind the stem for others it's found just infront of the seat.  The name comes from a small japanese lunch boxes.

Some riders keep emergency stuff in there, spare tubes, inflators, co2, patch kits, others use the space to hold gels, salt tablets, nuun sticks, sun glasses, paper towels, etc.

That is a great post Mav, Thanks!

This is probably the biggest unknown I have as I transision from short to long course racing ans training. When and how and how often and what kind f hydration/nutrition I should be taking. Sprints and even oly are over so fast its never really an issue. I have a lot to learn here.

I have a 50 mile bike ride this weekend on the IMTX course. A few of the riders are wanting to do two loops. I really hope to have a plan inplace so I can try to do both loops as well.

My issues while swimming ranged from getting water in my mouth every breath I took to thinking about 500 things on every stroke (don’t over rotate, keep your head down, slow down, how is this water in my mouth EVERYTIME!, etc etc etc)

I was blowing my air out underwater as advised but it was all gone by the time I was around for my next breath and water would get in. I then just saved some breath for right before my next one and voila! Problem solved!

Next I’m trying to get to the place where I can swim for a period of time without tracking laps but sheesh, I can’t make it 50 yards without needing a break. I keep looking up at the master swim class board and seeing the programs laid out wondering why the BEGINNER program looks daunting to me. So at the end I just say to myself, I’m going as slow as I can and see if I’m tired…I instantly feel significantly less effort being exerted but holycrap batman I’m going the same speed!

Anyways, taking baby steps here, but they are steps! I can’t wait for my next swim!

News on the Bike: LBS owner calls yesterday to tell me he’s ‘found’ the tracking number and it shipped on the 14^th and will be delivered on the 18^th (TODAY!!!).

 Thanks again everyone for your continued support, encouragement and invaluable advice.