Gordo Byrn's Group - FULL (Page 50)

Hi G-Team, hope you are all well and racing successfully. Thought I would tell you about my race Sunday. I did the Cambridge olympic distance race which was my first Oly and a great route as very flat.
After my last sprint which I did in 1:29:50 I had given myself a 3 hour target time as I figured twice the distance = twice the time.
I was in wave 3 at 0840 and joined the other 75 people in a very clean and quite shallow lake that was full of fish and you could see the bottom perfectly. water temp was 21 degrees C so wetsuits were optional. I wore mine as I like the buoyancy.
I started right at the back to the outside to avoid the scrum and it worked perfectly, I just swam at my own pace and kept everyone to the right of me round the first 2 buoys. After that I found I had overtaken a lot of people so settled in drafting 2 guys and they pulled me along for about 700m but they were then slowing me down so I passed them and swam the last 800m alone and exited in 27:04 a PB.
T1 went ok and out onto the bike for 25miles. I decided to go as hard as I could and worry about the run later. This seemed to work as I managed 1 hour 15 bike split which was much better than expected.
T2 again was ok and I put socks on as I had been suffering from a sore foot with blisters. The route was mainly farm tracks which were thankfully dry but had lots of ruts and bumps to get round. Not good for keeping a good rythmn and my legs were feeling very tight as if cramp was just a minute away.
I was aiming to do the 10km in 1 hour as I really dont like running much and my best 10k ever was 50:19 so didnt expect much better.
It was getting very warm and I was really glad I took a bottle of water with me to sip as I am useless drinking from a cup on the run. All was going ok until about 8km when both quads locked with cramp and I had to walk for a minute which hurt loads but the cramp cleared when I started running again. I was still ahead of time so not too worried although I had to walk again at 9.5km for another minute and the last run to the finish seemed endless but I was done.
Total time 2hrs 41m 31 secs. I couldn't believe it.
Thats my last proper race this year apart from club practice sprints as I am concentrating on the runs to do a 1/2 marathon in October.
Thanks all for your help and encouragement over the past months it has been inspirational.
Dave

I probably should have re-emphasized in that post -- two main ages that I use... chronological and athletic.  Athletic -- I also consider between sports -- running requires long term connective tissue changes and swimming requires long term specific strength development.

g 

G,

Have a question regarding long workouts and headaches.  I've noticed on Saturdays after my long workouts I'll develop a slight headache.  It will usually occur about 2-3 hours after the workout and kind of hangs around for the remainder of the day.  It has never developed during the workout.  I'll take Advil but it will still kind of hang around.  It's not unbearable just annoying.  By Sunday it's gone.   

My long workouts are currently in the 3-3.5 hour timeframe.  My guess is that perhaps it is related to hydration.  I normally lose a lot of fluids (sweat) during these workouts.  I try to stay well hydrated but I'm not certain exactly how much fluid I lose.

So, how does one determine how much fluid they should ingest during their workouts?  Or, is there some other variable that I need to address?

I'm not super concerned about it.  However, as I go longer I wouldn't want this condition to arise during a race/workout.

Thanks.