Post by jetlink on Jul 24, 2007 20:08:47 GMT -5
Well, sometimes you can plan and structure certain sections of your life to search for the perfect formula only to find out in the end that your journey has only just begun. This is probably the best summary I can form for my IMLP journey and race experience of 2007.
I began training for IMLP on December 6th, 2006. This week included 4100yards of swimming (drills mostly) - 16.3miles of biking on the Computrainer and 17.9miles of running with the week's total time coming in at 5hrs and 43minutes.
I ended training and started tapering for IMLP on July 8th, 2007 after building to and maintaining approx. 16hrs of training p/week for the previous 4months....avg. totals per week varied but were usually around 12,000yards of swimming - 150miles bike and 40+ on the run........these are just stupid numbers and really don't mean a thing but what they did do was establish a build-up and consistency for the big event that was IMLP.
For me, IMLP was more than 2.4miles of swim - 112bike and 26.2 on the run. IMLP was a challange - a big mountain that I thought two years ago was unimaginable - something mysterious and scary......Now I realize that it is a mental exercise and that to win you need to be smart and that the biggest obstacle to performance at this distance is not how well you can swim or how well you can turn a pedal or even how smooth and efficient your run form is. You see, for me, the biggest determining factor in the IM is NUTRITION and no matter how well you train, if you don't have a nutrition plan than you will fail OR in other more milder words - you won't realize your full potential.
I can write here all day about the race and my thoughts and the bike crash that I almost was part of but it would really do no benefit but for me to replay the day in my head....I have my memories and that is enough for me....rather, I'd like to write about my nutrition experience and what I did well and what I didn't do so well - this may help some of you future IM athletes for this year and for those in the years to come.....so, let me lend my 2cents worth.
I started this year with having really no solid nutrition plan
-really smart huh?
But, as my workouts began to get longer then my lack of nutrition really started to show. I'd experiment with different gels and gatorade and Perpetium but never found a combination that worked - basically all my long bricks ended up with me curled over ready to puke - that would pass after about 10minutes and some food and I'd be ok but I knew that I needed a solid plan that wouldn't upset my stomach on July22nd because I was going to go much much longer.
So, I started with plan #1 which was to ingest gatorade as needed with two gels per hour with water and salt tablets....didn't work.
Then plan two was perpetium and gels - didn't work
The plan three was gatorade endurance and gels and salt tablets - didn't work...........
I can go on and on about these various plans but what I was missing on all these plans wasn't the ingredients - it was the exact amounts - all these plans were inconsistent and they basically resulted in me falling a bit flat.
So, what basically happened is that my girlfriend and coach saw this problem happening and began to get concerned. This then forced me to really re-think my nutritional plan and to get it back down to a science - a solid format for ingesting certain foods at certain times which would result in an exact number of calories being ingested so as to result in proper fueling.
I urge everyone out there to do this. Sit down and write out your nutritional strategy for your next long ride. See if it works and then make adjustments but YOU NEED TO HAVE IT DOWN ON WRITING.
I still have the plan that ended up working for me on my last long brick before IMLP. This was a 6hour ride and a 35minute run. On the 6hour ride I ingested:
6 Hammer gels = 540 calories
10 scoops Perpetium (5 scoop p/bottle) = 1300 calories
2 bottles Endurance Gatorade = 300calories
2 bottles water = hydration
12 endurolytes = 2per hour on the hour
Total of 2140calories or 355 p/hour
This total intake was on a cold day and I knew my goal for the warmer weather would be to consume 28ounces of fluid per hour for a total of 168ounces for 6hr on the bike. The above intake was 168 ounces because the perpetium was in two bottles both at 28ounces a bottle.
So, now fast forward to race day......how would my nutritional plan work - should of been perfect right?
Well, remember the saying that you shouldn't try anything new on raceday that you haven't done in training - have you heard this before? I had heard this but IMLP really taught me this lesson.....you see, I always had FOUR cages on my bike to support my long rides BUT on IMLP day I had only TWO cages to save weight plus the ride was supported every ten miles....so, my setup on raceday changed - did this affect me.....yes.
You see, I was so focused and used to drinking what was on my bike that I forgot (in the atmosphere of the race) to use what was outside of my bike. I had two cages with one bottle of my Perpetium and one bottle of water....No gatorade on the bike - I still don't know how I did this but I basically forgot to drink any gatorade on the bike and I therefore put my body in a bit of dehydration......I should have realized this when I couldn't pee on the bike but I just accounted that for it being hot and I still have yet to ever pee on the bike - I just couldn't get comfortable enough to do so.
This dehydration definately affected my run and really made the last 10K a survival-mode affair. So, I learned that even the best plans can go array when you change even the smallest variable on race-day.
Now, with that said I am sooooo very gratefull for earning that IM medal and I am extremely happy about the race. I did finish very close to my personal expectations and I know there is room for improvement. I stayed within myself most of the day and I think that this is key for the IM distances.
So, I don't know if this information was helpfull or not but I really think everyone out there can benefit from a well thought out and executed nutrition plan. Only if you are properly fueled can you allow your body to reap the rewards of the long hours of training that you put into your race preperations. You invest allot of time and money into your training so do yourselves a favor and invest 15-20 minutes pre-workout in figuring out your exact nutrional plan.....I think that this will pay you back with stronger finishes than you ever thought possible.
Just my 2cents - hope everyone enjoys your future races and can't wait to get back to Cleveland for some training rides/runs/swims with the best triathlon club in country.
Train smart and race smarter!!
Dave
I began training for IMLP on December 6th, 2006. This week included 4100yards of swimming (drills mostly) - 16.3miles of biking on the Computrainer and 17.9miles of running with the week's total time coming in at 5hrs and 43minutes.
I ended training and started tapering for IMLP on July 8th, 2007 after building to and maintaining approx. 16hrs of training p/week for the previous 4months....avg. totals per week varied but were usually around 12,000yards of swimming - 150miles bike and 40+ on the run........these are just stupid numbers and really don't mean a thing but what they did do was establish a build-up and consistency for the big event that was IMLP.
For me, IMLP was more than 2.4miles of swim - 112bike and 26.2 on the run. IMLP was a challange - a big mountain that I thought two years ago was unimaginable - something mysterious and scary......Now I realize that it is a mental exercise and that to win you need to be smart and that the biggest obstacle to performance at this distance is not how well you can swim or how well you can turn a pedal or even how smooth and efficient your run form is. You see, for me, the biggest determining factor in the IM is NUTRITION and no matter how well you train, if you don't have a nutrition plan than you will fail OR in other more milder words - you won't realize your full potential.
I can write here all day about the race and my thoughts and the bike crash that I almost was part of but it would really do no benefit but for me to replay the day in my head....I have my memories and that is enough for me....rather, I'd like to write about my nutrition experience and what I did well and what I didn't do so well - this may help some of you future IM athletes for this year and for those in the years to come.....so, let me lend my 2cents worth.
I started this year with having really no solid nutrition plan
-really smart huh?
But, as my workouts began to get longer then my lack of nutrition really started to show. I'd experiment with different gels and gatorade and Perpetium but never found a combination that worked - basically all my long bricks ended up with me curled over ready to puke - that would pass after about 10minutes and some food and I'd be ok but I knew that I needed a solid plan that wouldn't upset my stomach on July22nd because I was going to go much much longer.So, I started with plan #1 which was to ingest gatorade as needed with two gels per hour with water and salt tablets....didn't work.
Then plan two was perpetium and gels - didn't work
The plan three was gatorade endurance and gels and salt tablets - didn't work...........
I can go on and on about these various plans but what I was missing on all these plans wasn't the ingredients - it was the exact amounts - all these plans were inconsistent and they basically resulted in me falling a bit flat.
So, what basically happened is that my girlfriend and coach saw this problem happening and began to get concerned. This then forced me to really re-think my nutritional plan and to get it back down to a science - a solid format for ingesting certain foods at certain times which would result in an exact number of calories being ingested so as to result in proper fueling.
I urge everyone out there to do this. Sit down and write out your nutritional strategy for your next long ride. See if it works and then make adjustments but YOU NEED TO HAVE IT DOWN ON WRITING.
I still have the plan that ended up working for me on my last long brick before IMLP. This was a 6hour ride and a 35minute run. On the 6hour ride I ingested:
6 Hammer gels = 540 calories
10 scoops Perpetium (5 scoop p/bottle) = 1300 calories
2 bottles Endurance Gatorade = 300calories
2 bottles water = hydration
12 endurolytes = 2per hour on the hour
Total of 2140calories or 355 p/hour
This total intake was on a cold day and I knew my goal for the warmer weather would be to consume 28ounces of fluid per hour for a total of 168ounces for 6hr on the bike. The above intake was 168 ounces because the perpetium was in two bottles both at 28ounces a bottle.
So, now fast forward to race day......how would my nutritional plan work - should of been perfect right?
Well, remember the saying that you shouldn't try anything new on raceday that you haven't done in training - have you heard this before? I had heard this but IMLP really taught me this lesson.....you see, I always had FOUR cages on my bike to support my long rides BUT on IMLP day I had only TWO cages to save weight plus the ride was supported every ten miles....so, my setup on raceday changed - did this affect me.....yes.
You see, I was so focused and used to drinking what was on my bike that I forgot (in the atmosphere of the race) to use what was outside of my bike. I had two cages with one bottle of my Perpetium and one bottle of water....No gatorade on the bike - I still don't know how I did this but I basically forgot to drink any gatorade on the bike and I therefore put my body in a bit of dehydration......I should have realized this when I couldn't pee on the bike but I just accounted that for it being hot and I still have yet to ever pee on the bike - I just couldn't get comfortable enough to do so.
This dehydration definately affected my run and really made the last 10K a survival-mode affair. So, I learned that even the best plans can go array when you change even the smallest variable on race-day.
Now, with that said I am sooooo very gratefull for earning that IM medal and I am extremely happy about the race. I did finish very close to my personal expectations and I know there is room for improvement. I stayed within myself most of the day and I think that this is key for the IM distances.
So, I don't know if this information was helpfull or not but I really think everyone out there can benefit from a well thought out and executed nutrition plan. Only if you are properly fueled can you allow your body to reap the rewards of the long hours of training that you put into your race preperations. You invest allot of time and money into your training so do yourselves a favor and invest 15-20 minutes pre-workout in figuring out your exact nutrional plan.....I think that this will pay you back with stronger finishes than you ever thought possible.
Just my 2cents - hope everyone enjoys your future races and can't wait to get back to Cleveland for some training rides/runs/swims with the best triathlon club in country.
Train smart and race smarter!!
Dave
