Monday, August 21, 2006

A needed lesson

I learned a lot yesterday on my brick which turned out to be a 60 mile ride and 6 mile run.

I am still out of CarboPro so I had to change my nutritional strategy for the day. I had a bigger peanut butter and honey sandwich and bought three 24 ounce bottles of gathered Endurance at Quick Trip when I got ice. As it turns out the lesson is that each bottle was 150 calories, exactly half my normal hours bike intake and it was just so much volume of fluid to put in my stomach (24 ounces of Gatorade and probably another 20 ounces water) that my gut was just filled up. It makes me more confident of my own calorie bottle mixture.

I should up an hour early to get in a lap by myself before everyone else showed up. I pushed the speed a bit and felt great. Once we all got started we then spent 30 miles attacking each other in the ride, lots of surges and tests. I did this as well and was happy with my results. At a stop on my third loop, their second, I informed that I was 2.5 mile per hour over my ironman pace and I was going to brick my run when we finished the loop.

Well I ended up doing one more 15 mile loop albeit at my IM pace. The Machine convinced me to add one more loop on the bike to take 30 minutes off my run brick, (from 2 hours to 90 minutes).

The run was hot one and I stayed right at my IM pace of 11 minute miles, which seems so slow but we are talking Ironman here, running a marathon after 112 miles on the bike not to mention the run, an 11 minute mile split is good in my eyes. My stomach full of water and Gatorade gave me a slight ache. My hamstring got very tight and the last two miles I was able to practice my walk strategy which is to not trudge but move at around 15 minute miles.

The big lesson learned was actually the culmination of a lot of information I processed during the week. From two or three sources I was told to wear tri-shorts with a pocket on the side for ice. When your on the IM course, its easy to drink too much water and get a bad stomach. By jamming ice in the pocket at the aid stations, you can suck on cubes which is water management and cures your need for liquids which is mostly that your mouth is hot a sticky and your not really thirsty. That was exactly what happened on this brick, too much Gatorade, too much water.

A great lesson for me.

9 comments:

Chris said...

I haven't heard the ice in the shorts thing. One thing to be careful of is if it starts to melt and runs down into your shoes. Last year at Wisco, I kept pouring water over my head to stay cool. Eventually though, the water made it down my body into my shoes and I ended up running with what felt like sponges on my feet. Not very fun. Something to think about though. Maybe you can try it in training first?

Nancy Toby said...

I recommend ice in the jogbra instead. Instant ice bath. :-)

Bolder said...

i've started adding Carbo-Pro to GE for your reasons stated.

plus, i found in my last HIM that keeping your bottles high cal, you can take on water at aid stations and it tastes like pure heaven compared to high cal, is best for taking down gels and sodium, and helps dilute out your stomach.

unfortunately, i haven't dialed-in yet how much fluid i need per hour regardless of calorie content -- you know the whole weigh yourself thing -- it seems to change each time i'm out there.

Kona Shelley said...

At the Steelhead 1/2 this year which was pretty hot, I would take one of those paper gatorade cups they give you, fill it with little ice cubes, fold it in half and stuck it in my back pocket. Every now and then, I would grab an ice-cube and stick it in my mouth..it was sooo good!!

Meagan said...

Mmm...ice...how refreshing! :) What a good lesson to learn! Great workout, too!

Steven said...

I've never tried the suck an icecube thing during a race. But I have seen others do it. And I've seen others try to do it but instead suck the whole cube down their throat while breathing hard and running. After the coughing fit subsides they don't do it anymore.

Be careful with that one.

Fe-lady said...

Great job on the mega bike ride followed by a hot run! If I don't start early and finish before 7:00- well I end up walking! The ice thing makes sense.

Habeela said...

Yup. Your lesson was pretty much my entire last month of training. Yup. Carbo-Pro is my new best friend. :)

SRR said...

Hey! I had similar issues with H2O and Gatorade.