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Linda Medina's micro thread

Hi Coach P!!

I did my last RR this week leading up to IMTX. The past 2 race rehearsals went well as far as pacing and nutrition. Although, it was 70 degrees here in San Diego when I did those rehearsals.

This week we had crazy high temps in the mid 90's and Santa Ana winds (gusts 40-50 mph), so I opted to do the 6 hrs of the bike on my trainer. I didn't want to risk riding with such heavy winds. I perched myself under some shade in my backyard and went at it. It was 91 degrees with 9% humidity. I normally pee 4x on the bike in 6 hrs, but this time it was only 2x. Hours 3.5-5 were challenging. Towards the end, hour 5, I was having a hard time taking in Perform because the liquid itself was sooo warm, along with a really warm GU pack. I felt ok during the bike, and even burped back a few times along the way. I took that as a good indication that I was fueling properly. In the past RR rides I took in 80oz of Perform for 6 hrs, along with a cliff bar, shot blocks, GU's & salt tabs. This time I even increased my Perform intake from 80 oz to 120 oz.

I then started my run and right away was having a hard time maintaining my race pace +30", which for me would be 10:23 pace +30". I was having GI distress in the form of cramps & gas. Once I addressed some of that I felt a little better. What was more alarming for me was seeing how much harder I had to work to even go that slow of a pace. My avg hr was 152, which I think it's very high. I read in the wiki, or somewhere, where it is suggested that I take my avg HR on the bike, which was 126bpm, and then add 10-15 bpm to that number and run that range for the run. I was obviously 11 bpm above the high range that is recommended. More than anything, I felt I couldn't have sustained that pace. Perhaps the heat was just getting to me. I normally don't wear my HR monitor during my long runs because of chaffing, but have never had a problem maintaining the goal pace for each workout.

What is your advice for me as far as nutrition? I increased Perform by 50%, and something is still obviously wrong. This last RR has left me with doubts about my nutrition and being able to execute in the heat on race day.

Comments

  • Linda- not sure how Patrick missed this one, but I may be able to help.
    First off 90 degrees is no joke! And to do it on the trainer for 6 hours...if you weren't a lady I would say you had balls of steel. My initial look at your nutrition makes me think you may have had too much "food" and not enough clear water for the heat conditions. I suspect that due to the elevated temps your stomach was pulling additional water from your blod and gut to help digest the nutrition you were taking in. This would have put you in a severely dehydrated condition. I would probably have kept the perform and additional Gu's, shot blocks etc. the same as your other RR's but added an additional clear water bottle per hour. And nutrtion aside, just the higher temps alone will cause a drastic drop in pace on the run after a 6 hour bike.
  • Steve - Linda and I are coordinating offline to solve her heat acclimation problem with Jesse from the CoreDiet. Hopefully we can get her update here before the race!!! :)
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