As I said yesterday, the plan for today was to get in a good brick workout. Which I did, but there's more to it than that. Last night I had to go into work to setup a few experiments and shut off a machine that had been running one of our samples all weekend. One of my pals called and asked if I'd be up for some racquet ball. I figured sure, why not. It's racquet ball. How hard is it? While we were on the way to the gym he casually mentioned to me that he read online that it burns roughly 500 calories per hour if played competitively. I was still underestimating the workout I'd get. Keep in mind that this was after my 6 mile run yesterday. We played for 2 hours and I was drenched in sweat when we were done. It wasn't that I couldn't keep up for the whole 2 hours, it was just that it was stop and go and short fast efforts. Something I'm defineatly not used to. Awesome workout.
Once I got home I decided that I really wanted to get up early (8ish, hey it's a holiday), and get out while it was still a reasonable temperature for this brick workout that I'd been dreaming of. Well... I slept in until 9:30. Sometimes when you're tired, you're tired and there's nothing you can do about it. No worries. I hung around, still a little tired from yesterday's athletic theme, ate a piece of ciabatta bread, drank some Gatorade, and took my time getting out the door. I figured why rush? I figured I'd do it right and head out to WestCreek for the workout. I packed up plenty of fluids. Plenty of Cliff Bars and headed in that direction around noon. I got a little ambitious when I got there and told myself I was going to do 54 on the bike and 10 miles on the run. Well, I'll tell you right now the 10 mile run didn't happen.
My goal on the bike was to practice some nutrition and see how it went trying to eat a cliff bar half way through and drinking fluids on a regular interval. I wanted to average above 20. It's going to be tough pacing myself on the bike. Not necessarily because of muscular or cardiovascular fatigue but mainly because 56 miles at 95% leaves you with nothing left in the tank no matter how much you eat on the bike. You, well I, just can't put that much back in and maintain a reasonable pace. I figured I'd start out the ride in the small chain ring. Get my legs warmed up before I did anything crazy. Well, to my delightful surprise I was able to maintain 21-22 mph with ease. After the first 6 miles, once I was warmed up, I figured why not keep it here and see what happens. I kept a decent pace for the entire ride. My average was 20.7, but West Creek is a bit hillier than the Patriot's course will be so hopefully it will be a bit higher than that next Saturday. I will say on the flats I maintained 23-24 easily. I noticed a few things during the ride today that stood out to me:
1.) My heart rate was much lower pushing the same speeds in the small chain ring as it would be if I was in the big chain ring.
2.) I was able to maintain competitive speeds for long periods of time on the flats. When the hills came I didn't have to change 9 million gears, just shift down a few times (i.e. - more appropriate for any hills that may arise).
3.) On the downhills, I only hit 28-30 where I'd usually hit 35-38. This is something important to consider. While it was slower, it's a reasonable trade off to be a bit slower on the down hills and maintain a faster pace with less effort on the flats.
4.) When I did change to the big chain ring about half way through the ride it was smoother and felt easier on my legs. So if the time comes that I need a bigger gear, it's there.
As girly as it may be. I may use the small chain ring for a lot of the race. I'm telling you, I was turning over the pedals with almost zero effort. My heart rate was low, and I could keep it at fast pace for a long period of time. The huge fluctuations in speed caused by any false climbs or hills were almost eliminated because I was within reach of some climbing gears. In the big chain ring sometimes you have to do a lot of adjusting when things change and it really screws up your rhythm. I'm thinking what I'll do is keep it in the small chain ring for the first 20 miles. See how I'm feeling. Judge the terrain, see how variable it is (of course I'll do this by car the night before but it's always different on the bike), and go from there. If it's flat, and my legs are feeling good, I'll hit up the big chain ring and power through the last 36 miles.
The nutrition plan for today was a gel every 15 miles, liquid every 6 (and with gels) and a Cliff Bar in place of a gel at mile 30. This was not enough. It was really hot out. At least it felt like it on the bike, and when I was done I was a little drained. I think I'll probably do a gel every 10 miles. So 5 total. I'll substitute the 2nd and 4th gel with Cliff bars. This will put me at 700 calories for the duration of the ride. The sports drink will account for the remaining calories. The rule is 300 calories per hour (from what I've read), and I'd like to do that, and hopefully surpass that a little bit. There are 2 water trades on the bike so I think the fluids situation will be good. I need to find the straw extender for my aero bottle to make it effective. At this point I'm just leaning down to reach the straw and it's throwing me off my rhythm. And the key to putting in the calories on Saturday will be to NOT DROP MY STUPID CLIFF BAR!!!!!!!!! I opened it up, and took a bite, and I'm not lying when I say that a Cliff Bar has never tasted so good. I thought, well, while I'm enjoying this wonderful snack, I'll take a drink. I leaned down and I almost thought for a minute that I was on my couch at home enjoying a Cliff Bar and some Gatorade. Well, you don't hit bumps on a couch that cause you to drop your snack. I hadn't even eaten half of it. Whatever, I'm not going to practice eating a Cliff Bar and riding a bike at the same time. I'm just going to expect myself to be competent enough to do it on Saturday.
I finished the bike averaging 20.7. I was pretty happy. It was hot out and I was sure that I was slightly sun burned at this point and we all know what kind of damage the sun can do on a good training session. I got off the bike, sprayed myself with water which felt amazing, put on my running shoes and iPod and was off. I brought a water bottle with me to hopefully keep myself hydrated for the run. It was absolute torture. I don't even want to know what my average pace was. I just pushed my way through 5 miles and prayed that I didn't crack totally. It was hot on the bike, and felt even hotter trying to keep a respectable pace on the run. My plan for running 10 miles was quickly out the window. When I was done I was covered in salt crystals and sweat and my head hurt (clear sign of not enough fluid). It was a disaster, but a good one, because I learned a lot about my nutrition plan. You can't drink enough and it pays to eat even when you don't think you need to. Because by the time you start to feel empty, it's already over. There are other factors that can play out in such a painful run, but my plan is to minimize as many of these as possible. I'm going to go ahead and come up with the most reasonable explanations for the run today being so rough:
1.) It was hot (can't do anything about that).
2.) I didn't get enough calories on the bike (eat more).
3.) 31 miles on the bike and golf on Saturday, 6 mile run and racquet ball yesterday (get lots of rest in the days leading up).
4.) Not so much to eat the day before (eat a nice dinner and lots of carbs in the days coming up).
I'm not making excuses. But I plan on being fully rested for Saturday. I will have no explanation for cracking on the run, because it won't happen. I'm going to be liberal on the calorie intake and drink as many fluids as possible. I will also follow my usual routine and eat a nice big dinner the night before. Morning of, as usual, bagel, banana, Gatorade. It's going to be the trick. I'm getting excited just talking about it. As soon as the gun goes off and the battle in the water begins it's only a matter of time before I cross the finish line. The preparation has been painful and long, but I think that it's only because it's the first time. The next time it'll be a matter of cleaning things up and refining.
My hips and legs hurt. Time to eat something small so I don't wake up with a headache. HRM said 3300 calories for today. Jeez. It feels like it though so I'm not going to argue with it. Goodnight yall!
Great workout today even though it was grueling. I will remember it for a long time. We all learn from these things.
Listening to: Dexter Gordon
Feeling: Destroyed
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