This past week was vacation week so you would think that with all that time off I would be rested and ready to hit the road on the bike and running. Well it sorta worked out that way.
What I will say is that we are all creatures of habit and we like our routines when it comes to training and I found out this past week that getting outside your routine can sometimes affect your training (and racing)
So this week while I was at the beach the winds were whipping and the rip tides and undertows were in full effect. I walked into the water twice with the intention to swim parallel to the shore but with questionable currents and nobody else to swim with, I made the smart decision not to go swimming. So what to do for a whole week to replace swimming?????
I got it! I was going to be surfing anyway so I took on the surfboard as a paddleboard and started stroking and it actually gave me a good workout. Not anything like a swim but similar and I had the fun of surfing back to short from time to time. Ok so I dealt with the swim challenge
Running…I only had one run planned and that was a long 11 miler in the middle of the week. Obviously, this was easier than usual since everything was flat and I was able to run a few of the mile son the beach, not too bad. Not too bad until the last 3 miles when I had this older guy pass me. Now I know I should keep my pace and not get drawn into the pace other runners are running…but this guy was a lot older and he had been out there running for a long time as well. Uhm, so I matched his pace not wanting to look like a chump. Well after a 3 mile ass kicking he stopped and used a shower to cool down that was on the street for beach goers to rinse off. It was the end of my run anyway so I stopped and talked to him briefly. Yep…lucky me this guy ran qualified and ran the Boston Marathon in 3:06:00. I will never get caught up in that one again!!!
Biking: My first ride of the week I had some problems. I went out about 23 miles to a turn a round so I could get my 45 miles in. It was hot and I had just finished up my water bottle and I reached back for the 2nd bottle and it was gone! Great! Now I have to ride the next hour with no water and no c-stores to stop in and get water. On top of this my bike computer went dead, so here I was no water and no idea how much further I had to go to get out of this heat and get something to drink. I finally made it back to the house and I have made some adjustments to my bottle carrier so that will not happen again.
My second ride of the week went very well and I covered a lot of new roads going through Shallotte, NC and then to Indian River, SC and then back to Ocean Isle, NC where I was staying.
I also had a chance on this ride to try out my new Arm Coolers (see picture) made by DeSoto on this ride. I am trying new gear to keep cool for Kona and I bought these to see if they worked. They actually do work, and pretty well. If you have an overcast sky, I wouldn’t bother wearing them but if you have direct sunlight they do offer relief and if you put water on them, you can really feel them cool your skin. They are made of an almost see through material so your skin can feel the wind while you are biking but very little sun gets through which ordinarily would be cooking your skin. I’m sold on them in hot weather when there is direct sunlight. I am also planning on wearing them on the run and putting ice in them as well to keep cool in Hawaii.
One last item I wanted to talk about was nutrition. I learned the importance of a solid nutrition plan on my last ride of the week. When I was on vacation, I ate (constantly), yes I had a few beers and essentially enjoyed my vacation. On Sunday, I had an 85-mile ride I had to do. I got back from vacation on Saturday and took off on Sunday morning to get the ride in. My poor nutrition habits had caught up with me!!!!!
I was about 60 miles into the ride and for the first time I thought to myself…I am running out of energy and I not sure about doing 85 miles today!! I was sucking on the water bottle full of Infinit nutrition mix…didn’t help. I grabbed a gu pack…didn’t help. I realize I could cheat on nutrition and like cramming for an exam in college, expecting to make it all up at the last minute. All I started thinking about was taking that next turn and heading home..ahhh. But then I thought if I started cheating on my training rides, what would I do in the race, and quitting was out of the questions in a race, so I hung in there.
My last 20 miles was S-L-O-W but I got through it! and vacation was over and I was right back on that nutrition plan!!!
What I will say is that we are all creatures of habit and we like our routines when it comes to training and I found out this past week that getting outside your routine can sometimes affect your training (and racing)
So this week while I was at the beach the winds were whipping and the rip tides and undertows were in full effect. I walked into the water twice with the intention to swim parallel to the shore but with questionable currents and nobody else to swim with, I made the smart decision not to go swimming. So what to do for a whole week to replace swimming?????
I got it! I was going to be surfing anyway so I took on the surfboard as a paddleboard and started stroking and it actually gave me a good workout. Not anything like a swim but similar and I had the fun of surfing back to short from time to time. Ok so I dealt with the swim challenge
Running…I only had one run planned and that was a long 11 miler in the middle of the week. Obviously, this was easier than usual since everything was flat and I was able to run a few of the mile son the beach, not too bad. Not too bad until the last 3 miles when I had this older guy pass me. Now I know I should keep my pace and not get drawn into the pace other runners are running…but this guy was a lot older and he had been out there running for a long time as well. Uhm, so I matched his pace not wanting to look like a chump. Well after a 3 mile ass kicking he stopped and used a shower to cool down that was on the street for beach goers to rinse off. It was the end of my run anyway so I stopped and talked to him briefly. Yep…lucky me this guy ran qualified and ran the Boston Marathon in 3:06:00. I will never get caught up in that one again!!!
Biking: My first ride of the week I had some problems. I went out about 23 miles to a turn a round so I could get my 45 miles in. It was hot and I had just finished up my water bottle and I reached back for the 2nd bottle and it was gone! Great! Now I have to ride the next hour with no water and no c-stores to stop in and get water. On top of this my bike computer went dead, so here I was no water and no idea how much further I had to go to get out of this heat and get something to drink. I finally made it back to the house and I have made some adjustments to my bottle carrier so that will not happen again.
My second ride of the week went very well and I covered a lot of new roads going through Shallotte, NC and then to Indian River, SC and then back to Ocean Isle, NC where I was staying.
I also had a chance on this ride to try out my new Arm Coolers (see picture) made by DeSoto on this ride. I am trying new gear to keep cool for Kona and I bought these to see if they worked. They actually do work, and pretty well. If you have an overcast sky, I wouldn’t bother wearing them but if you have direct sunlight they do offer relief and if you put water on them, you can really feel them cool your skin. They are made of an almost see through material so your skin can feel the wind while you are biking but very little sun gets through which ordinarily would be cooking your skin. I’m sold on them in hot weather when there is direct sunlight. I am also planning on wearing them on the run and putting ice in them as well to keep cool in Hawaii.
One last item I wanted to talk about was nutrition. I learned the importance of a solid nutrition plan on my last ride of the week. When I was on vacation, I ate (constantly), yes I had a few beers and essentially enjoyed my vacation. On Sunday, I had an 85-mile ride I had to do. I got back from vacation on Saturday and took off on Sunday morning to get the ride in. My poor nutrition habits had caught up with me!!!!!
I was about 60 miles into the ride and for the first time I thought to myself…I am running out of energy and I not sure about doing 85 miles today!! I was sucking on the water bottle full of Infinit nutrition mix…didn’t help. I grabbed a gu pack…didn’t help. I realize I could cheat on nutrition and like cramming for an exam in college, expecting to make it all up at the last minute. All I started thinking about was taking that next turn and heading home..ahhh. But then I thought if I started cheating on my training rides, what would I do in the race, and quitting was out of the questions in a race, so I hung in there.
My last 20 miles was S-L-O-W but I got through it! and vacation was over and I was right back on that nutrition plan!!!
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