Big Training Day - Observations & Questions
So I had my big training day today. Felt good about some things and not so much about others. Definitely a good learning experience. This was a five hour workout (1 hr swim, 3 hr bike, 1 hr run). Over the course of five hours I took in 1690 calories (-230 less than plan. I nixed one of the powerbars and divided up another into two servings) & 4632 sodium (which was 482 more than plan but I'm too tired to figure out why it's higher).
I felt good about the swim & the bike. I had good effort and energy pretty much throughout the swim & bike. I landed at 2700 meters on the swim & my average speed on the bike was 19.6 - covered 59 miles). The run was a different story. First, it was hot - by the time I got to the run it was right at or just above 100 degrees. Second, I ran out of my electrolyte brew 30 minutes into the run...and that was after rationing it for the first half. I took a lot of my run bottle down during the transition from bike to run. I felt like I could have easily used another 24-48 ounces of the brew. I ran back & forth between my truck & a water fountain so I started taking water pretty early (after realizing early on that I was going to be short on my drink). I never found my rhythm on the run - and my pace dropped quickly. Mile 1 was 8:31 and then it dropped to 10 minutes per mile or greater after that. Finished with a 10:06 pace - which I feel like for me is way slow. The good news about the run (& I'm fishing for good news) is that my hamstrings felt fine. They didn't pop or tighten up so....I'll take that as my bright spot.Questions/Concerns:
(1) My weight before I left the house this morning was 187.2. My post workout weight (after taking in 120 ounces of brew and probably 24 ounces of water) was 180.6 - a loss of 6.6 lbs. Should I be concerned about that much loss? Is that indicative of the fact that i should be taking on more fluids?
(2) The bike plan called for most of my ride to be in zone 2. I don't have a power meter so I go off HR and that should be 118-134 bpm. But my according to my watch my avg HR was 150 - which is top of zone 4/bottom of zone 5. I just felt better riding at the quicker pace. And when I'd get my HR down into zone 2 it felt like I was crawling. Thoughts on that?
(3) Along the same lines – my av hr on the run was 163 – which is WAY higher than it should have been and way higher than it is for me normally. I’m sure the temps played a big part in that and I wasn’t exactly breaking any land speed records in terms of my time. Apart from just walking there was no way to get my HR to slow down.
Overall…this was a great learning experience for me. I’ll be better prepared for my next big workout. Sometimes education can be a bit painful!!
Comments
Heat + dehydration probably accounts for the HR issues. Temps of the magnitude REQUIRE you to go slower, unless you want to go into heat exhaustion (when your core temp exceeds safe levels).
I had a similar issue last week in my 6 hour bike/6 mile run. The temp rose from 78 to 90 during the first half hour of the run, and the 20 oz of fluid I took with me on the run was insufficient, so my HR rose and pace dropped as I went from running to surviving. Someone pointed out to me that, since I had another bottle of water in the cooler in my car, I could have turned around after 1-2 miles, and kept drinking enough to at least keep my HR under control. But I probably wouldn't have gone any faster, I just would have felt a bit better.
Specifically, you pushed too hard on the bike (2+ heart rate zones too high), then ran out of electrolyte on the run while was pushing too hard on the run — no wonder you struggled on the run! Also probably under-fuelled as well.
1. Yes that is too much fluid to lose, ha I would be in the same boat as you though with them temps however I'd have executed the rehearsal much different as follows below.
2. No matter what your head says on race day regarding . You trained at and tested in your zones there is some race day magic I think but not as much as a planed Z2 ride turning into a Z4/5. So you cooked yourself. Imagine if you stayed in your tested zones for the bike and did a perfect neg split for the run with them temps. You would be passing a lot of people who are fried. Well so now you know good job and lessons learned.
3. What Al said above.
I'm going to chalk this weekend up to a rookie mistake - specifically on (1) not having enough brew on hand & (2) blowing through the zones on the bike.
The good news is that I'd rather have it happen during a training ride...especially one that's far enough out from my race that I'll have another chance to practice being more disciplined in my execution.