a really boring blog about training and heat and nutrition and stuff.

After Show Low, a normal person might have taken a recovery week. You know, to get back to normal.

A normal person would not have signed up for BSLT 70.3, so I suppose this puts me firmly into the abby-normal camp.

So after two whole days off, I did the following this week (oh trust me - I would never come up with this insanity on my own, I pay a coach to come up with inspired torture methods):

* Spin and 2500m swim Tuesday. This felt pretty good, I was just starting to work the kinks out from Show Low.
* Brick training Wednesday. We did a looooot of wind sprints, after which my legs were rubber.
* La Luz Training run Thursday. Yes, La Luz season is upon me. La Luz is a goat trail with an average 12% grade up the side of the mountain. The first training run up La Luz is always horribly nastily difficult. For this, my first jaunt up the trail since last year, we ran up the trail for 38 minutes - I went for 39 because I wanted to get to Chimney Spring - and then back down. I did this on my rubber legs from Wednesday. It's really hard to go uphill with calves of hamburger, even harder to descend on rubber legs. On the plus side, the view gets better the higher I go. And I seem to remember that the training got easier after awhile. On the downside, I did a lot of walking. I know it will get easier...
* A 1 mi time trial run and swim on Friday. Oh wow. If I thought my legs hurt on Thursday, they really hurt after that 1 mile time trial. Stupid Garmin failed completely on me for this. I think I managed a 7:50 mile, but I'll never know for sure. It certainly felt like a hard effort.
* A 50 mile bike ride Saturday. Except we did 60. With hills. I was tired. I always end up going out with strong characters...I mean riders. Which means I try to push myself a bit. I tried not to keep everyone back, I didn't have it in me to blow a gasket yesterday, all gaskets were already blown. I downed most of a bottle of perpetuem, a small bottle of cytomax, a half bottle of water, and I started in on some Gatorade we bought along the way, plus a gel and a clif bar. This is more than I normally take on during a ride, and I think I was starting to make progress because of it.

I got a massage yesterday which helped immensely. I also decided to sleep in before today's experiment:

A 10 mile run and a 1500m swim.

OK, 10 miles. No big deal. Right? Except it is actually starting to get hot here. And today's run was 3 loops around the Academy - a relentlessly hilly trail with one long sustained climb of about 300 ft in a mile (5%). I'm not sure what the temperature was, but it was not cool. I think it was in the mid- to high 80's. The run course is mostly exposed, there's very little shade.

I did something new: I set up my own support station. I took a little cooler box and filled it with drinks and gels, and hid it in the bushes. I figured this way I could train like I race.

I briefly worried about the possibility of someone's dog taking a leak on it.

Frankly, it was so hot out today, I'd have drunk it anyway.

The first loop was the hardest. My legs were tired, my energy pretty well zapped - even with a massage, a good dinner and a full night's sleep in the bank. I recall thinking this might be what it will feel like at BSLT for the first 3 miles. I lost gallons in sweat, it was so hot. And I had a stitch in my side. Luckily, I stuck some E-caps in my support station and took those right away at the first loop.

Huzzah - the side stitch left immediately! I have determined that E-caps rule! All those times when I thought I had an adverse reaction to something I ate, or solid food wasn't agreeing with me in the run, I'm starting to think now it's been an electrolyte issue. Every time I get those and I remember to take electrolyte tabs, the problem goes away immediately.

I took off my t-shirt and carried it with me.

The second loop was...funner. Not as bad. Not as dreary. Still hot, decidedly miserable. But without the t-shirt, I was cooler.

I downed a gel with "extra sodium" for the third loop and left my t-shirt at my aid station. Why was I carrying that darned thing, anyway? Third loop started out pretty good, and I decided I was was due a walk - so I did for a couple of minutes. Toward the end, my feet started to hurt, and skin started to swell. I got slower. I finished my 10 in about 112 minutes, a little over an 11 minute pace.

I cleaned out my aid station. In total, I drank 20 oz of water, 14oz of Cytomax and 4 gels (1 per loop and one post-run). I went inside and stood at the waterfountain for 5 more minutes drinking, then made another big bottle of Cytomax and polished it off during my swim (tropical fruit Cytomax tasted so unbelievably good, I know I was thirsty).

It took probably 500 or 600m before I felt like I knew how to swim again, but I left the pool feeling human.

I stayed upright long enough to get an Americano. Then I splurged and took the family to Fuddruckers and ate a Buffalo Burger.

I've kept eating and drinking, and had no nosedive blood sugar crashes. This is progress! Yesterday after my big bike ride, I was in a coma for the rest of the day - this is normal for me after bike rides: I come home, I eat, I sleep. I may have been dehydrated and never knew. It's harder for me to figure out on the bike, since the wind is just whipping the sweat right off me. I am not as careful with my nutrition on the bike as I should be.

So. Nutritional lessons learned: when it's hot do not stop consuming liquid. Eat copiously. Do not stop until the feeling of human-ness returns.

I'm still worried about how I'll make it through BSLT but I can tell that a significant component for me will be nutrition. I know what works, I just gotta do a lot of it - more than I thought. I think it's because I'm sweating it all off - more than I would in cooler temps. So I need to be ready to compensate in a big way and be pro-active.

There's no doubt in my mind it will be hard, but now I'm trying to think of ways to enjoy it in spite of the (likely) oppressive heat and humidity. Especially since I shall be without Ipod.

Oh perish the thought.