ART SUPPLIES

Monday, May 19, 2008

AD NAUSEAM AND BREAKING MY RUN BARRIER

The plan for today was to swim 2,500 yards, then run 11 miles, all the while testing a new nutrition/hydration plan. Since I'm reading a book about athletes and diet, I'm trying some new things, such as adding more protein to my breakfast and workout nutrition. The book recommends a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein. Not that I'm getting that exact, but I was only pushing protein after workouts in my recovery food.

The book recommends eating breakfast two to three hours before exercise/race. That usually isn't possible for me since I train as soon as I wake up. But today I pushed it a little too close. I ate breakfast then hit the pool about 20 minutes later.

My plan was to do 4x500s, then a 500 cool down. But during my cool down I became pretty nauseous, so I got out after 2,150 yards. It's funny how I managed to do my workout fine and then get nauseous on the cool down.

I was really dreading having to run 11 miles on a queazy stomach, but this is no time to be a crybaby about it. Just get it down. Times running out.

On top of that, 11 miles would be a record for me, distance-wise. So I put on my running shoes and took off. Not feeling well at all. But then I thought, how often do we get the chance to practice dealing with nausea? All though that didn't make me feel any better, it gave me a goal — see if I could stick with my nutrition/hydration plan while feeling nauseous.

BREAKING THE BARRIER
For the past three weeks I haven't seem to get past running any farther than 9 miles at a time. But today I was determined to reach 11 miles, nausea or not. I did fall behind on my hydration plan. I just couldn't take in more than a swallow of liquid for the first few miles. After that however, my stomach settled down and I was able to keep hydrated.

My time wasn't any good, but I finally broke through that barrier and hit 11 miles. My goal is 15 miles by the end of this week. If I can do 15 miles, then I'll feel a little more confident that I can do 13.1 at Honu. Today I accomplished an unplanned training session and discovered how my body reacts to liquids, gels and a banana while being nauseous on a long, hot run. Of course, it's a lesson I would have preferred not to have to learn ...

My plan for tomorrow: Morning: Ride the Honu bike course again plus a few extra miles. Evening: swim. This is my over distance week. Exceeding Honu distance in all three sports. Hopefully, I can pull them all together on the big day. It's going to be an exciting day. I can't wait.

The drawing above is left over from my cartoonist days, except this one was drawn on the computer ...

1 comment:

Bruce Stewart (施樸樂) (ブルース・スチュワート) said...

Good to read it's coming along. Besides your book, talk to people you see out there, and preferably the "lesser mortals" variety. There are a lot of slower people out there, but they last in races (and catch a lot of people near the end), like Pammer, etc. who will advise you about eating and training these last days. Try not to do something really tiring the last week. People like Bree might do that, but they are darn good and half our age. Get a lot of rest.

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