Learning Lessons

It always seems that a few days go by and I think of different things to write about…but I don’t end up writing. So now, when I have time, I kind think about what I am learning.

Too Many Carbs in My Stomach!

Last sunday I was out for my second to last brick before White Lake, and made some mistakes with nutrition. I guess it is ok to try new things, but this new thing was bad news. It was a carbohydrate gel in the form of a gummy. About an hour into my ride I popped one into my mouth. Hmmm, not bad. I ate three more, then drank some of my Gatorade. Sadly, I had mixed my Gatorade too strong, and combined with the concentrated carbs from the gummies lead to a very bloated and upset stomach.

So, I had to ride about 20 more miles with cramps…cuz I just wasn’t going to cut the ride short. I wanted see if my stomach would just work it out. I found a store with about 10 miles left and bought a bottle of water, with the thought I could dilute out the carbs and soothe my stomach. Nope. Hurt all the way home.

So, I had a 9 mile run planned. I had to (well, wanted to) go to a potluck with the drama/choir team from church in a little over an hour. Wasn’t going to happen. I laid down on the floor for about five minutes and relaxed. When I got up, my stomach felt a lot better. So I decided I could do a 5.5 mile route instead of the 9 miles. Considering the suffering on the bike, I was really surprised that my stomach was actually ok. I finished the run with a 9:17 min/mile average pace, which is really really quick for me.

What was really weird was for the next 2-3 days, my stomach cramped whenever I ate. I swam monday, no problems. Eat, cramp. Ran 7.2 miles on Tuesday, no problems. Eat, cramp. So, did I have a stomach bug, or did cycling so long with a cramping stomach cause some kind of damage?

Cycling Efficiency

I bought an indoor cycling book with workouts to help me through the winter season. Some advice in one workout was to focus exclusively on pedaling “horizontally.” I didn’t really understand the importance, but now that I am cycling more, I have been trying to do just that. I have found I am able to keep my pace more constant, and to be able to attack hills more effectively. I have also noticed less pain in my feet.

Lap Function on My Garmin 305

Laps is the only way to go. The whole workout, say 32 miles of cycling, looks like noise over the whole ride. But broken into 5 mile segments, or breaking my run into 1 mile lap splits, lets me see what is going on mile to mile.

This watch was the BEST purchase I have made in a long time!

Fartleks/Speed Intervals Work

Dude, I am amazed that I have gained so much in speed! I don’t have data at the tip of my fingers to compare, but with my Garmin 305 that will be so easy in the future. Put it this way, my runs have usually not been under 10 min/miles. During the winter, my average pace was around 10:30-10:45 min/miles. It makes sense, these were just base building runs, but I have been consistent with my speed work and I am feeling it. Today I did 42 miles of cycling followed by a 7.5 mile run. My average pace, with some killer hills on the course, was 9:10 min/miles average. And I felt strong to the last.  I believe I really really am ready to kick this half-ironman’s butt. Not win, don’t be ridiculous. But if I could break six hours I would be really really happy!

Tweak It If It Ain’t Comfy

My forearms have always felt a little uncomfortable on my aerobars. So, I would switch from my drops to aero and back, just for variety. Why don’t I ask myself, “why don’t I change the position of the bars to increase the comfort?” I don’t know why. I’m just a guy to grabs the remote to the new dvd player and just figures out a system to get it to work.

So today was the day to stop a few times to adjust the bars until, at last, comfort!