getting into the swing of things

I am in the middle of a much needed recovery week so what better time to go over what I learned from the last 3 weeks of building. Though I say learned but it is more of the things I need to remember as the hours training keep increasing.

It took me 2 weeks to really figure out that I have to eat enough all day and all week. I noticed it the most the 2nd week of the build - I felt tired all week and then I only ate 3 gels and 2 bottle of gatorade for a 3:30 bike ride and I did not eat before the fallowing run off the bike. Needless to say I completely hit the wall during the run. I know from all the training last year that I need a bottle of Gatorade an hour and at least 1 gu or something every :45 - :30 min depending on effort and temp. Part of my issue has been keeping enough gu around for the weekends so I finally just ordered a couple 24 packs of my favorite plain gu and a 6 pack of roctain online. They also sent me a couple Blackberry gels and Banana to try...
With my supplies refilled the fallowing weekend I had the same brick workout but actually ate more during the ride especially. I felt so much better during the ride and most importantly I was able to stay strong on the run off the bike.

The second part of the nutrition puzzle is making sure I eat enough the rest of the day when I am not training to both pre-fuel and recover from training better. I stocked up on strawberry recoverite, chocolate milk, O.N.E. coconut water, healthy snacks and even made my Mom's Lentil soup on Sunday night so I could eat it for lunch all week. Mostly I have just been trying to make sure and eat way more food. I noticed last week that I felt more recovered from the long weekend by mid-week.

Other than dealing with nutrition I have been really working on making friends with my bike trainer at least for my midweek rides. Luckily we have a HUGE projector tv to almost surround myself with ironman broadcasts from tivo and Kainoa has been giving me good interval workouts to keep me distracted. It seems to be helping - bike training seems to be going the best out of everything. I feel stronger every week so I just keep telling myself "I love the trainer".... at least until it is light outside in the evenings then I will let forget all about it ;)

Last but not least training is way easier and more fun with friends - I have been very very lucky to have some wonderful people to train with the last couple weeks. From the group at masters swim who help wake me up at 6a to everyone who has been willing to ride outside for all or most of my long rides and the fun team runs (with treats afterwards) every other weekend. Huge thank you to especially Kyle, Sam, Laurie K. , Joe, Cathleen and so many more - having such great friends really makes training fun and I am looking forward to the next 5-6 months :)