Food Comas and Long Rides: 7 Weeks Until Cozumel

I feel like a mix of these two would definitely describe what the past few weeks have been like, particularly this last week.

After nutritionally crashing on my only swim for the week (I hadn't eaten enough calories beforehand), I was a little worried about my swim at Pinehurst, the Olympic-distance triathlon which would be my last tri of the season. I wasn't worried in the sense of "Can I do it?" But rather, I was concerned about how strong I was going to come out of the water. I also didn't anticipate only getting five hours of sleep the night before the race, so I'm almost positive that I didn't fully wake up until about halfway through the swim.

The course itself was tough. I remembered it being tough, but I just learned that morning that the bike had been rerouted and included an extra five miles at the end. I should consider myself lucky though because I later heard that many people didn't know at all, even after starting the bike.

Technically, the race was pretty terrible for me. I hadn't slept much, it was only my third time wearing a wetsuit and my watch didn't start when I hit the "Start" button when the horn for the swim sounded. I'm not obsessive about sticking to a certain time, but it's always good to know how long each leg is taking me to do and a general estimate of my pace. BUT the fun didn't stop there. My bike computer sensor was knocked off-kilter and my chain was stuck before I even mounted my bike. After I got the chain undone, I hopped on only to realize the computer issue. I attempted to align it with the other sensor, but to no avail. I had rode in races without knowing the exact distance, but I always had an estimate and I ALWAYS knew my speed. I had no idea how fast I was going or how far I'd gone by the time I asked another competitor about how far we'd gone. Thinking back, perhaps she thought I was being a jerk for asking her how much we had left on the course as I was passing her, but I was very poilite and only asked her because she looked nice enough to answer. Her response? "Why don't you get a bike computer?" Rude, definitely and clearly, I had a bike computer... it just wasn't working.

Luckily, there were mile-markers spray-painted on the road every five miles. It was about this often when I also saw racers changing flat tires. I don't know whether it was all of the burrs from the parking lot field or the poorly paved segments of road, but people were popping tires left and right. And the run? I would honestly say that about half of everyone competing stopped to walk at some point, if not more. Imagine doing a 10K on a golf course. A LARGE golf course. Same thing with the bike. Hills that could be the unknown stepsisters to those in San Francisco. No joke.

http://www.setupevents.com/files/PHFRes1.htm

In the end, I faired much better than I had thought or rather (without a timer or a computer) guessed. It was good to squeeze one more race in. Now just a half-marathon and possibly my first century race before Cozumel.

However, I have been putting in 4-7 hour rides on the bike, either alone or as a part of brick training sessions on the weekend.

And those food comas?

I'm finding that nutrition is probably just as difficult, if not harder than the actual training itself. I have to constantly listen to my body to figure out what nutrients I need more of, less of or maybe if all I have is an upset stomach. I've started taking electrolyte tablets, which I've been told can cause upset stomachs. ...Actually, I was kidding about my own upset stomach, but you get the point.

So I think my body just waved a white flag last night as I ate a ton of peanut M&Ms (which I had decided to buy and save in case I ever needed a super-quick fix) and some bread with olive oil and garlic. Weird combination and terrible nutrition by anyone's standards and I soon realized what a bad decision that all had been...when I was stuffed from the bread and had a nasty sugar headache. And then I woke up this morning feeling like an actualy peanut M&M.