A very nice rainbow trout!
My first northern pike caught on fly rod!
One of my favorite breweries.
On to triathlon and training. Training has been growing well. I thought I had a major setback mid summer at the Marble Falls Triathlon. I felt good and strong going into it. This was the first race to travel alone to and without my typical friend/family support. I thought I sold have a strong swim (1:40 or so per 100) given that my swim had been improving, a solid hilly bike, and fast run. Well, like it always is, things don't go as planned. I had the worst swim ever. I cam out around 19 minutes for a 1000 meter swim. Very bad, I kept stopping and looking up. It totally messed up my mojo. Per coach Michelle and my buddy Sean, I had a massive lactic acid dump from going out too hard and not warming up effectively. The bike was ok, very hilly given that it was in the hill country, it i felt good. The is my strength, and I had the 2nd fastest run split of the day.
In the end it was a learning experience. First, I need to do better on warming up. Now I warm before every swim with stretch cords. Amazing how much better my swim practices have become. Second, traveling to races is not worth it alone. There are so man races close to home that ill stick to those. It's more fun to have family and friends around. And third, my nutrition plan is working!
This summer, I really wanted to work on dialing in my nutrition since long course races are my preferred distance. I performed a sweat/nutrition test via TheCoreDiet.com. The results were pretty eye opening. 1st: I'm a heavy sweater and should consume 40-60 oz of fluid per hour in training and racing. That's a lot since I've been doing 24 oz may e on the bike in training. 2nd: only drink sports drinks with calories and sodium...no water on bike! 3rd: eat more!
So...the results: I've started drink Perform only on the bike (1.5 to 2 24 oz bottles per hour). Amazing ow much better I feel during workout and after. My energy, hydration, and stamina have all increased. My power feels stronger and has improved. I'm stronger mentally. Also, this keeps it simple. I know now that the race course will provide what I need throughout. No more will. Have to worry about making m own nutrition or losing nutrition on the course. Keep it simple from now on. I'm also eating g a bit more on a daily basis and have noticed my strength go up. For a while there I was worrying about exactly what came in and trying to not gain weight. Now I. Just enjoying food more and trying not to skimp. Less mood swings now.
Each of my disciples have gotten stronger from all of this.
Swim: I am now swimming stronger by warming up properly, doing my strength training, and eating better. I can not consistently hole 1:25 to 1:30 / 100 yards easy in the pool without killing myself.
Bike: I did a follow up MAF test from the first one in February. That's test I did 9.55 miles with an average pace of 19.2 mph. Las week I did the same test and average 20.6 mph. I was super pumped about that.
Run: I did a MAF test last week as well and it improved slightly. The run is my strength anyways. However, on long runs in the heat and humidity I'm now ale to hold my pace much longer. Also, I'm taking in more nutrition and this has helped. My last long run of 12 miles average 7:20. My heart rate averaged 135 to 137. Attribute this to taking in more. I drank 60 oz of water, 4 gels and 6 salt tabs. I basically took something at every mile just as I would in racing.
