Saturday, August 6, 2011

4 Cyclist In The Road and Another One Said "Keeping Rolling"....

I may have mentioned in the past that I typically train alone.  There is something to be said about being lost in your thoughts... I mean, uh.. focused on heart rate zone, form, nutrition, yada yada yada.  I have very much expanded my horizons by doing training swims/rides/runs with Joe, open water swims with Ashley, and this year I've further expanded that into the realm of social media.  If you are reading this, then you are likely participating in that.  I started a special twitter account and have started to log my training on DailyMile.

From twitter I have met up with Mark (found here and here) and today I met up with Lori from DailyMile, along with a couple of her friends.  They are great people, but I must say, I still get a Lifetime Movie Network feeling that I'm not going to make it home... just for a brief second.  I left the house at 6:30am so I would hit the Embassy Suites at 7:00am.  On the ride to Embassy Suites, I chatted with another cyclist who was just getting started with triathlons.  At first I thought maybe it was another YMCA member who I've been chatting with that is also starting out with triathlons and just didn't recognize him.  It's definitely easy to make friends when you are riding bikes just like when you were 10 but this time you are wearing lycra.

I gave Lori a heads up about what I was wearing but thought that was silly.  Uh.. I'll be the only guy riding a bike into Embassy Suites parking lot, likely to the only person unloading her bike.  Boy was I wrong.  There were about 5 cars there with people unloading bikes but by the time we left, the parking lot was full of cyclists!  That theme continued for the entire ride.  We passed or were passed by probably 100+ cyclists, including a couple group rides.  It was as if the road was blocked off for a bike race.

Lori and her friends finished the Interurban route to Dearborn but I split off a few miles before and turned around.  We averaged 15mph heading out there but I got about 12 miles at 20mph+ on the way back.  Interurban has some good terrain for higher speed rides if you are willing to push it.  Having a tailwind helped.

Today was another day of training distance firsts.  I passed last week's cycling distance record of 40 miles by 6 to hit 46 miles.  The next three weekends present a slight challenge getting the distances in.  We have family reunions scheduled as well as two races within that timeframe.

This is leading me to my next big question of training.  It was actually something I was focusing on near the end of my marathon training last year, recovery nutrition.  These long training rides/runs are very physically taxing as I push my distance records.  I'm trying to find a good mix of protein and carbs for my body to use to aid and speed healing.  When I got home I immediately cooked a couple eggs, ate some greek yogurt and drank a G2 Gatorade.  I did not drink the G3 (Gatorade's Recovery drink) since I was getting plenty of protein from the eggs and yogurt.

I realize I'm still going to need a nap,t he nutrients alone aren't going to be enough.  I laid down for 2 - 3 hours of snoozing was still zapped.  I do truly believe that if you are going to nap, you probably shouldn't do it for more than 30 minutes to an hour.  I normally set an egg timer but didn't this time, so maybe that's why I still felt like a zombie this evening.  We'll see how well I sleep tonight.

I'm researching recovery drinks, so if you have one that you think does the job, let me know.  I've been using Gatorade G3 Recovery and I also have some Chocolate Coconut Water, which is rumored to help.   I'm looking for something that I can probably take to the YMCA with me and drink while heading into work after a workout.

Oh.. and by researching recovery drinks, I mean asking the resident triathlon expert, Ryan.  He's racing in the Ironman Boulder 70.3 tomorrow... good luck!

3 comments:

  1. Wow, that's a lot of cyclists!! Where is that route?
    In my opinion, if you're at home, nothing beats a good milk-based recovery drink (chocolate milk, protein shake, etc). G3 would obviously work better at the Y, but I've only had that stuff once (thought it was NASTY).

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  2. I'm about to explore some recovery formulas myself. I have heard good things about ultragen by first endurance. I will let you know what I think. Right now, I just way a pbj for the portability, and down some water. Doesn't always cut it.

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  3. Recovery suggestions posted! "expert" indeed. =)

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