Bike Fit & Galveston

Many things have happened over the past several days:


1.  I finally went in to get my bike fit.  Thank you Jennifer for my early birthday present.  I visited Tad Hughes Custom Bike Fit Studio.  He runs a top notch operation.  He took his time explaining things to me and answered all of my question.  After about 2 hours he extended my handle bars, raised the saddle. and worked on my pedal and shoe positioning.  It feels better...now I just need to get used to the new position.  I do feel more power though.  Thanks Tad!

2.  On Friday I took the boys down to Galveston for 2 nights to stay with my parents.  We had a great time and the boys needed a change in scenery before starting school.  We hit the Spot on the Seawall, the beach on Sunday, got to see a cruise ship in port, swam in the pool, and had a great time.  I took advantage of running and putting in a short bike workout.  I did about 10.5 miles Saturday morning with Austin, my sisters boyfriend.  This was his longest run ever by double the distance.  I know now next time to always ask those running what their distances are.  We had a nice tail wind out and head wind back in.  It took about 1 hour and 26 minutes.

On Sunday, I took of west on the bike and was looking forward to riding on the new fit.  I had about a 15-20 mph headwind out on all out flat course.  I think my speed stayed around 15.5 to 16 mph all the way out to Sea Isle and then cruised back.  I've never had to ride in winds like that.  Where I live it's mainly hills and the winds don't get like that.  I'm sure I will experience them as time goes on.  Overall, I like the fit and it is taking a little more time to get used to than I though.  Next time I'll check out the entire 70.3 course.

3.  I feel as though my nutrition has improved.  I have added added doses of magnesium and calcium.  According to what I have read it helps hydration to the muscular level vs blood level.  Blood level dehydration happens much quicker than muscle level.  My food intake is increasing a bit.

4.  I had a great track work out today.  It was a 15 minute warm up with striders followed by the main set of 3 repeat 1 milers.  I've never done them before and was somewhat nervous.  It actually felt great.  My goal was to try and go about maybe 30-45 seconds faster than what my target race pace would be (7 to 7:15 miles???).  Well, I pulled of negative splits.  They were 6:29, 6:09 and then 5:58.  Not bad.  Probably could have pushed.

5.  I had the crap scared out of me running to the track this morning as a pack of 4 wild (at least I saw no collars) came barking and running after me.  I wish I had my heart rate monitor on for that.  Would have loved to see my HR spike.  Jennifer now wants me to carry mace.

6.  Also, my first race is on September 30 and I had initially signed up for the sprint, but after analyzing my training and speaking to my coach, I changed it to the Olympic.  My only fear now is the swim.  I'm sure it will be fine, but anxiety is beginning to take over.  So we will see.

Thats about it for now.  I'll try and update more frequently.

Not much new...Tired a Bit

Not much new to report here this weekend.

We had a nice family weekend in the pool and taking new family pictures.  Can't wait to get the new shots.

After my long Wednesday ride I began to feel sluggish.  This is mainly due to my nutrition.  I put in about 8 to 8.5 hours of training this week.  I cut back mainly due to feel.

I believe that I completely screwed my nutrition up after the ride Wednesday by not refueling after correctly.  My food intake didn't increase much post work out and I paid for several days.  I will not do that again.  Replacing 1800 calories from the ride is harder than I thought.

Also, besides that, I've probably been neglecting my nutrition overall with the higher training load I am taking on.  Dropping 15 pounds since mid May is quite a bit.  I've been one sided on this and saying it is no big deal, but I now realize it is a much bigger deal (cost me new pants).

So, after a helpful discussion with Jennifer I've committed to eating more and I will begin taking some supplements.  At first, I planned on avoiding them, but now I realize (after consulting with several top age groupers) that I must.

First on the list is a multi-vitamin.  I am starting off with Hammer Nutrition Premium Insurance Caps.  They claim the multi-vitamin is engineered for endurance athletes.  So, I will give it a go.  I might ad magnesium on its own based on my conversations with certain top age groupers.

Second, I am adding protein supplementation via Isopure whey protein.  I need to make sure I keep and build my lean muscle mass and not lose it.  Rapid weight loss (even though much of it probably needed to come off) can be dangerous in that it reduces muscle mass.  We all know that would not be good.  Also, higher endurance workloads tear muscle fibers more and I need to rebuild them via the protein.  So I will shoot for .6 to .8 grams per pound of weight.

Those are my lessons to take into next week and beyond.  This will be another mild week with more recovery based zone workouts.