Alameda Runners – Get After It!

This is an article about what I did wrong.  I don’t know how to fix my workout nutritional problems but I will find out.  I will post the proposed solutions when I do find out.
Today was a triathlon training day for me.

The issues are the same for all hard exertions.  If you are going to do long workouts, you need proper nutrition to complete the workout.

Today I was supposed to ride for 40-50 miles then run 9-13 miles.  Someone just had to put a mountain near my route.  I decided to add 2 or 3 miles and about 4,000 feet of climbing to my ride.   This gave me 53 miles and 5,300 feet of climbing.  Changing my workout to suit the situation is no big deal to me as the primary purpose for today’s workout was to tame the nutrition beast for long workouts.  As usual, I did very poorly with the nutrition.

I may have to send a memo to my buddies at Clif to help get this thing straightened out.  I knew today would be tough so I carbo loaded last night with lots of pizza and beer.

For me 2 glasses of beer is lots.  I started out the morning with two servings of oatmeal with two tablespoons of grade B maple syrup.  During the ride I had the following:

20 oz of Clif shot Electrolyte drink Cranberry Razz 3 scoops
3 Clif shot gels, chocolate, vanilla and some type of berry (Razz).
Did not eat the chocolate
1 large Macadamia Clif Bar.  Ate three-fourths of the bar.
28 ounces of water.  Drank 1.5 bottles

Food                              Calories
Electrolyte                      240
Gels                                   200
Bar                                    180

That gives me 620 calories consumed and I am probably being optimistic here.  My Garmin said I burned 4800 calories.  I seem to be at a calorie deficiency.  To make matters worse, I only drank an optimistic 60 ounces of water over the course of a 5 hour ride.

Is it any wonder why I was a mess for the final 5 miles of the ride that were mostly downhill?  I ate a gel at about 4:15 into the ride and wanted to throw up for the remainder of the ride.

I did a lot of things wrong today and lived to tell about it.  Adding 4,000 feet of climbing to a 50 mile ride is not always the brightest thing to do but it was so nice out I just had to go to the top.  The Clif instructions say to eat 2 gels per hour.  That seems a bit excessive to me.  GU says to eat 4 packages per hour!  I don’t know why but was racing to get sweats on before I started shivering too much to function.  Maybe, I was shivering because of the cold or maybe, it was because of my poor nutrition.

Tour guide

Shout outs for this ride:
Kenny for being a great guide and waiting patiently for me at the confusing intersection.  I may be hurting but I had a lot of fun riding up Mt.  Tam.
Clif for their great products to carry on the ride.
Athletes Honey Milk for making strawberry protein milk taste like a milkshake.
Alpha-Flex for making a great massage lotion for post workout pain.