Crashing on an empty tank
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
This weekend’s workouts were a complete roller coaster. I’m sure there is something to learn from the whole experience. I haven’t completely figured out what it is, but here is the story.
Saturday:
Got up early for a nice double loop on this new route I mapped out. It was a really nice ride with some decent hills that I pushed pretty hard through. About 2.5 hours in the saddle and I felt pretty good about it until I actually showered up and (attempted to) refuel. I’m not sure if it was my body was just reacting to jumping back into another hard training week after a really easy week, but I was dead. My energy gauge was about 4 feet past E, and nothing seemed to help. I had a bottle of Nuun and Gatorade during my ride, and later packed down a banana, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, zone bar, glass of milk, and another bottle of Gatorade but nothing seemed to help.
Sunday:
I was still more drained than I have been in a REAL long time. It was almost the the point where I felt really sick, but not. My tank was just on empty and absolutely nothing I put down brought me back and my legs were SO sore from yesterday’s ride. I had a long run scheduled and forced myself to slap on my running shoes and slog on for a good 6.5 miles despite feeling completely drained.
I figured this was as good of a time as any to test out my supply of Hornet Juice that I got from the B-fit B-day challenge. Overall, it seemed to work pretty well. It didn’t stop my muscles from hurting, or make me run any faster, but it at least gave me a little boost I needed to get through the whole run. I can’t wait till I get my act together and try it out again when I’m not falling apart.
But still, after my run I was done. Drained. Dead. Empty tank. And trust me, when Jamie is hungry, he is grumpy. I have to admit that I’m not that fun to be around when my blood sugar is low, or whatever the hell was wrong with me.
Since my grocery list of shit that I packed down my throat on Saturday didn’t help, I decided to step it up a little and go for an all out carb fest for dinner. After packing a plate full of bread, pasta and a big ‘ol baked potato for dinner and it actually did the trick! It kicked me out of my slump and brought me back to neutral after a day and a half down in the dumps.
Lesson: eat more carbs.
I’m not sure if that was 100% the cause of my slump, but snapping out of a pretty deep 36 hour slump with some pasta and a baked potato is convincing enough for me.
Tags: hornet juice, nutrition | Posted in Cycling, Running, Training Log, Triathlon | No Comments »
