August Numbers

As I look back at my training log for the month of August, I don’t really see anything that particularly stands out to me on a physical level.  Oh, sure, there was that “break out” session on the track on 09/21 and there may have been several long runs that I felt pretty good in, but nothing of note, on the bike or in the water.  This month seemed more like a training plateau than anything else.  The one major thing that did occur was that I was able to confirm that I can’t do solid food on the bike for fuel.  Per Carlos’ notes, I was not to take anything other than water on rides of 3 hours or less and up to this month, I’ve only been doing rides AT 3 hours or less.  My first real opportunity to test out Eric’s “clean/solid fuel” method came on 08/11 during a prescribed 3hr 30min ride.  Carlos had one of his workouts that entailed various tempo efforts along the way, but I decided to do a team time trial practice instead.  Here are my notes:

“Decided to practice TTT with James Bruce, Ben Gherardi, and Joel Gerber. As a result, the prescribed workout wasn't adhered too. This led me to mentally check out early. Was ready to be done with over 9 miles left in the ride. HR was in Z3 during my 30min COOL DOWN. No power and high HR during those last 9 miles. Dinner the night before = Brown rice and chicken. Bfast = 1/2C oatmeal & 1/4C blueberries & 3T almond butter. On bike nutrition = 24 almonds, 1 banana, and water. Very unhappy with this ride”

My school of thought on the nutrition was that, up until this point, I was able to complete 3 hour rides with only water, so I really didn’t need much more.  I also didn’t want to load up on a bunch of different stuff and then not be able to determine which worked the best.  Finally, have you ever tried to bring along a banana, almonds, and/or a sandwich during a ride?!?!  Where does it all go?  Not a good idea as this ride was dreadful.

My next opportunity came 2 weeks later, on 08/25, with the following instructions:

“Ride high zone 2 for 1.5 hours. This is constant pressure on pedals. 1 set of 40 minutes at 70.3 effort with a 30 second spike to Olympic every 10 mins. Steady for the remainder of the ride. Last 30 minutes back to constant pressure on pedals. Such as what it would feel like on IM Day. Good day to experiment with your nutrition. Know what works and what does not! Sodium?  Gels?  Liquid Only?  You need to know this by now.”

The perfect venue for this type of ride was the actual IM course itself, so I talked James and George Galindo into tagging along and doing the same thing (even though Carlos had James doing something a bit different).  I also took those last few sentences as a shot across my bow about not knowing what the hell I’m planning on for nutrition this late in the game.  I also had difficulty with said shot since I was instructed to only use water on rides less than 3 hours and then only being given rides of that length!  At any rate, Carlos was right, it was time to determine if the solid food thing was in my future or if I had to go back to what I was familiar with.

Here are my notes from the ride:

“71.12 miles in 3:27:44 = 20.5 ave mph = not too shabby. I spent the day going in and out of feeling strong. One segment was great and I had power to the pedals only to be followed by fatigue and uncomfortable. Today solidified that I can't do solid foods on the bike. I will probably be returning to what I know (gels). On bike nutrition = 3 scoops of EFS in 28oz water. Almonds, PB and honey on a white bread bagel thin, banana, & 48oz plain water.”

I confirmed that I couldn’t do solids when I tried to finish the second half of my PB & honey sandwich during the last hour of the ride.  I took one bite and immediately had difficulty chewing it.  My mouth was too dry, it took too much energy to chew, and I couldn’t get in adequate oxygen with my mouth full.  As a result of all of these factors, I ended up spitting out what was in my mouth and putting the rest away in my bento box.  Done, no more solids for me on the bike, PERIOD!  I’ve been this way since I started cycling back in 2008, but it never hurts to try something new.  Lesson learned.

One other item to note is that I’ve been using the Beta-Alanine and Kre-Alkalyn supplements for about 6 weeks now and I can honestly say that I can’t really determine if I’m receiving any benefits or not.  I definitely don’t think my endurance has improved any during the swim.  My bike has seen an increase in average mph, but there are a number of questions surrounding that phenomenon as well.  For example, is the increase because of Carlos’ tempo sets?  Am I just leaner and in better shape this time around?  Is it the diet?  Who knows?  I mean it could be the supplements.  As for my runs, well, they seem to be quicker and stronger than in the past, but that could be due to the fact that I’m about 10lbs lighter, have gone to a running clinic, had Carlos and Sue analyze my gate, adopted a more proper running technique, or I’m just in better shape.  Again, there aren’t any significant gains that I can point to to say if the supplements are effective or not.  I’ll continue to take them and, in fact, I’ll most likely be adding Optygen HP to the mix in about a week (more on that later).

Here are the much anticipated numbers for August:

AUGUST 2010 TOTALS:

SWIM = 15750 yards

BIKE = 249.45 miles (182.95 tri & 66.5 road)

RUN = 39.72 miles

GYM/STRENGTH = 0

AUGUST 2012 TOTALS:

SWIM = 19175 yards (+3425 yards)

BIKE = 384.58 (+135.13 miles)(All tri)

RUN = 81.51 (+41.79 miles)

GYM/STRENGTH = 2 times

OVERALL 2010 SEASON (Dec 2009 – August 2010)

SWIM = 177,700 yards

BIKE = 4175.89 miles (2915.31 tri & 1260.58 road)

RUN = 478.65 miles

GYM/STRENGTH = 14 times

OVERALL 2012 SEASON (Dec 2011 – August 2012)

SWIM = 180,078 yards (+2378 yards) + 1 hour in the endless pool

BIKE = 2893.33 miles (-1282.56 miles)(2395.51 tri & 497.82 road)

RUN = 361.22 miles (-117.43 miles)

GYM/STRENGTH = 23 times