Catastrophic bonk during RR#1
Well HIM RR #1 in the bag. Some success and some failure.
SWIM: Done Thursday evening.
Distance: 1.2 miles
Speed: 1.7 mph. Stroke long and smooth. No shoulder issues. Fastest swim to date. Not aggressive off the wall.
BIKE: Friday morning. Start 0730. Total time 3:47:53 weight in am 176. Weight after 175.
Distance: 53.7 mi Speed: 14.1 mph Elevation:1,791 Calories used 1400 Avg. HR 126
Nutrition: Gel hourly. Calories 100 x4= 400 Sodium= 240
Power bar bites x1 bag = 200 30mg
Hydration: Skratch 3x24oz=72 oz
calories= 120 per bottle total calories= 360 Sodium= 1620 mg
So for the bike: Total ride calories in 960, sodium 1890 mg. Felt tired but good on the ride. No stomach issues. Left calf started to cramp just a little about 5 miles from home. Was trying to decrease the moving the parts in the nutrition. I think I got it too lean. I normally eat solid food and bloks on my rides. Was never hungry. I concentrated on riding smooth. I'm a steady climber not aggressive. I had a hard HR limit of 150 bpm for climbing. Other wise 135 or less. Staying as aero as much as possible. 14.1 mph is an average pace for this loop for me. HR profile showed a steady HR other than short spikes for climbing. No increasing trend over time.
T2- Pee'd volume and light color. 2 salt tabs because of the left calf twanging. 1 gu . Out the door 10 minutes.
Here's where everything falls apart. I used my marathon camel pak. It was filled by my well meaning husband. I did not realize that he filled it with plain water. I had skratch mixed in the fridge. My original plan was to drink skratch and take a clif shot blok every other mile. Which is what I do on my long runs. So to compensate for plain water I took a blok every mile. No big deal right? Oh boy. Here's the how it played out.
RUN: Total time 58:00 Distance 4.8 mi Avg. pace 12:00 Avg HR 135 bpm
It took about a mile to work all the kinks out. My perceived effort was pretty high. Goal pace was 10:30 to 11:00. Walking 30sec per mile to eat and drink. Was feeling pretty good mile 2 and 3. Pace increased. As long as I was under 11:00 I was happy. At the 4 mile mark I developed a fierce headache. That's never happened before and my stomach turned up side down. I stopped sweating and got REALLY hot. I have had the stop sweating and hot before. I usually stop running, find some shade and drink. I'm usually ok after that. Luckily I was close to home. Finished running at the drive way and went straight into a cool shower. As soon as I stopped moving I was dripping with sweat. Literally dripping and really gritty! Took 2 tylenol. A day later my stomach is still up side down.
I have been trying to trouble shoot the stop sweating and hot problem for several months. Usually doesn't happen on shorter runs under 5 miles. Kinda cool that I think a short run is 5 miles. My thought was that I was getting too much sodium because in the sweat test I only dropped a 1/2 pound. I have repeated the protocol 3 times with same results. Which equals only 16 oz of liquid per hour for replacement. I did stop to pee twice on the run. Which is an improvement.
All these products I have used. Other than the salt tabs. They are new to me.
I've been reading up on symptoms of low salt. My hands have been swelling when I run distance. The articles I have read mentioned swollen feet/legs. I have been experiencing severe thirst and periods of stopping sweating and getting really HOT. I have been trying to target 1000mg of sodium per hour. Because of my swollen hands and sudden severe thirst during long runs, I thought I was getting too much sodium. So I cut back a little and increased my free fluids. When I did this plan for my Big Tri day it worked fine. But I did not pee on the bike. So I increased my fluids.
Basically I am totally lost and don't know where to start to fix this. I have found Davids nutritional tracker program. I have been inputting and messing around with it. I think I was short on calories by about a 100 per hour on the bike. The sodium is where I can't figure out what to do. To much vs. not enough that is the question.
Thanks to anyone who soldiers through this and has any insight. 
Comments
First - just a fantastic job getting out there and working through this with courage and purpose. These things take time to figure out and trial and error. You will dial it in over time so be patient with yourself, never stop trying and keep moving forward.
Second, its is easy to overcomplicate this stuff. A successful race rehearsal for an HIM begins the day before by drinking a gallon of fluids, eating well, sleeping well and mentally visualizing your steps, pacing and nutrition.
I like to do my RRs with the nutrition I know is going to available on the course, i.e., why am I drinking Budweiser in RR1 when I know only Guinness is going to be available? Am I really going to bring my own nutrition and make myself work through that complication on top of trying to race?
I have raced 20+ HIMs. The intensity level of an HIM is around Z3 relative to an IM, Z2. I can't take in the amount of calories at Z3 intensity that I can at Z2 and I don't need to because I am not going to be out there as long as an IM distance race. If I eat well the day before and have a good breakfast, I can do all liquid calories on the HIM bike taking in Gatorade Endurance formula and, with that distance, I can get enough sodium out of Gatorade Endurance as well. GE has a high sodium content. This is a good choice, especially if this is what is going to be available on the course. In my case I am drinking about 2 - 24 ounce bottles of full strength per hour. Now, at this point, I have trained with it, I don't have to worry about salt tabs, I don't have to worry about bring and managing my own nutrition and my body is used to it from the training.
I have now taken a lot of complexity and uncertainty out of my race day which lets me focus on the many other things like pacing, wind, hills, competitors, transitions, etc..........I just have to drink.
Keep plugging and dialing in what works for you JM.
Great work!
SS
Thanks guys for your advice.
Unfortunately the nutrition on course is HEED and Hammer. Nasty stuff. Doesn't come close to providing what is needed and my gut will not accept it. Tried last year. At the aide stations on the bike there is fruit and m&m, pb&j and water. Even simple gatorade would be better.
Breakfast was- 1 cup greek yogurt with honey and fresh fruit, 1 cup coffee black. My usual breakfast. I did drink well the day before and had a carb. loading breakfast and dinner.
@ Shaughn- I'm not freaking out. I just don't know which way to change things. It's the sodium that has me scratching my head. This has been my learning hurdle for this summer. Trying to figure it out. I have been talking with Coach P. about the sodium and hydration question. Since I started going LONG
this summer hydration/calories/sodium has been a big learning curve. With plenty of screw ups and bonks.
Thank you everyone.
The next thing I will say is that I don't think your day went as badly as the title of your thread would suggest. We all want every single training wko and especially race rehearsals to go perfect but it doesn't always happen. It sounds like your ride was very solid and you hit the targets you were aiming for. Next, despite not hitting your pace goals, it sounds like the first 3 miles of the run went pretty well.
Something to consider...We don't taper or really rest much before our race rehearsals. Generally we are carrying a bunch of fatigue going into them. It's hard enough to ride 56 miles and then run. Without a couple days rest or taper, it's that much harder. That's one of the reasons during a race rehearsal we don't run very far after the ride. That's the point where it starts to get really hard and you begin to exponentially affect your downstream workouts. As you ride and run long every week approaching race day your fitness will get better and better. On race day it should be a little easier than during your race rehearsal.
If you haven't done so already I would suggest watching the Core Diet Webinar which discusses race day nutrition including sodium and carbohydrate needs. That can be found at this link: http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=Race+Fueling+Webinar+(Jesse+Kropelnicki)
I've actually watched this webinar and the previous one (very similar) a total of 3 times. There is a lot of info packed into it so you may want to have a notebook handy. 2 pieces of information that were noteworthy to me regard sodium and training your gut. The recommended sodium intake is A LOT. Secondly...training your gut. Whatever nutrition protocol you decide to go with, you can't expect it to work from day 1. It's really important to train with the nutrition you will be racing with. Kind of like running a marathon. The first time you do that long run it hurts and you get 2nd thoughts. But after a couple more long runs you get stronger and your legs start to carry you further. Training your gut to accept your nutrition plan is very similar. You want your nutrition habits to become so engrained during training that it's really only a secondary thought on race day.
Sodium is a funny thing...as a result of this webinar I've upped my salt intake dramatically. Can I tell a difference? I feel like I digest my nutrition much better since I've upped the salt. Has it hurt my training/racing performance? No. Has it improved my training/racing performance? It hasn't hurt it. That being said, there are a bunch of people out there who don't take nearly as much sodium as the webinar suggests and have seen success.
Doug, thank you!
The reason I put that title is how I felt coming up the road to the house scared me. I felt that bad.
I have taken what Shaughn and Rachel said and the reading I have done. Rewatched the Core diet yesterday and decided to increase my sodium and use the s-caps before every workout to start training my gut. I have also started using more GU and gels. Coach P. and I had been slowly cutting my salt down because of my sudden thirst and hand swelling. I think we may have gone the wrong direction.
What I am gathering from your reply is that basically "lighten up." Cut myself some slack and learn from what happened.
With you and others watching me how can I not learn? I still have 4 weeks to get this right. The race I am doing is fairly remote with limited nutritional support. Last year the temp was 103 degrees. I am expecting a very hot run. So what I need I have to carry with me.
I wasn't feeling great heading out the door to run. It was a hurt locker the whole way. Now that I know what that feeling means. How do I fix it on the fly? Can I catch up fast enough to limit the damage. That's my next thing to figure out.
Thank you, Shaughn and Rachel. I really appreciate your time and wisdom.
~Jacklyn