Its been a month since I hit the water, the results are obvious. Struggled to finish 800m yesterday, though ploughed freestyle the distance. Silver lining, I can now feel and correct some technique midway. But only to the point these poor limbs allow :)
Who's 53, 92kg and leaves me panting in the morning roadside dust?
John Preston!
Did 7k plus at 6am this morn, longer than usual. And since Randy was around, pace was a tad faster. I simply could NOT keep up with them on the hills after U turn .... and then the flats, even though I had my race Asics on :( Randy's pace and posture going uphill is such a sight to behold!
After washing all my shoes during Monday's rest day, I just wanted to try the Asics again after 46km in the Adistar. Feels good and light. No under knee pain, great! Think I may be resting on this trainer-racer combo for a while.
For Port Dickson's Tri July 22, I may just run in the Adistar trainer. Need to understand the difference (after swim and run in race situation), toward making a good decision for August 18 Desaru Half Ironman. The Adistar has more bounce, but heavier. The Asics racer is light and nimble. 21kms on foot in Desaru's scorching heat, after 2km swim and 90km bike ... that's where it will all count, one way or the other.
Yes John, I still did sweat after that (made up for missing the 530am dawn patrol). 18kms around Bukit Damansara, averaging 24.5km/h topping up at 63.5km/h. Edwin will be proud to note I stuck to the middle 42T all the way through, no granny utilised. But hell, had to stand up the Science Center both ways!
One of my mates who stalk this lifelog had this to say about the nutrition piece below. FYI.
"Agree with needing protein to ward off early hunger pangs. Not sure whether glucose/fructose combo makes any difference. Since the energy is produced at mitochondrial level with the glucose needed to be converted into fructose before the change into pyruvate and the whole krebbs cycle.I'd say if there is a limiting factor, it's not the absobtion from your gut to blood.
Furthermore fructose and glucose combo means ordinary sugar!!! It's a molecule of glucose and fructose bound together..Anyway, sometimes the 'placebo' effect is good enough like you and your nasi lemak abstinence.
My suggestion is nice high protein breakfast with low glycaemic index carbs to provide constant 'energy'. High GI carbs like white bread cause insulin spike and early hunger when glucose level drop after the insulin spike. Go with high GI AFTER exercise to replenish the glucose/glycogen store
I'm not a trained nutritionist but chocolate milk/protein shake AFTER exercise is the best way to nourish the muscles and for repair of micro tears.
More can be found in decent health/exercise mags i.e Men's Health ( www.menshealth.com)"
His name is Ghazaime Ghazali, helluva squash player in college! Super Anesthesiologist by day, god knows what he turns to at night. We'll have him in KL by Q4 to find out ...
Chatting with Edwin one evening about the importance of intake during a race, his advice is to prepare something you really like. In a Tour or 17hrs Ironman event, its very difficult to maintain motivation and energy levels just on Powerbars and Powergels. His fav is bread & peanut butter, and jelly. I gotta do a bit of thinking here, as don't really have a fav snack/munch item on the top of my head.
Of course his biggest advice is to cut on the Nasi Lemak (local 'fat rice' delicacy) for breakfast. I've cut it down to only once a week in the past two, the results are showing (I think!).
Later that week, chatted with John Preston (12x Ironman, incl. 2x Kona) on a morning run. Eggs and bread or cereal seems to be a good start to a day. Been keeping to that, took a bit of getting used to as I'd get hunger pangs by 11am!
With last week's daily pre-dawn stints, I began getting more moody during daylight. Asked John, 'Take more protein' he goes. And lots of water. I hear ya!
Recovery, very important too. Read Cycling Plus (UK magazine), a study by scientists at Indiana University indicates that chocolate milk is a strong alternative to commercial sports drink in helping athletes recover from strenuous, energy-depleting exercise. Chocolate milk contains an optimal carbohydrate to protein ratio, which is critical to refuel tired muscles. I can hear Bandit's snigger, 'I could've told you that!!!'.
Last tip from Cycling Plus' Know How section, balancing intake of glucose-fructose sugars during exercise/races will speed up absorption by the body, as opposed to glucose alone. That's because glucose uses a transporter protein called SGLT1, while fructose depends on GLUT-5 to get it into our bloodstream. Glucose gets absorbed at a rate of 1g per minute, any extras get queued up waiting for delivery. But if we swallow a glucose-fructose combo at a rate of 2g per minute, the extra fructose molecules don't need to queue up. This means more sugars will be able to get into our bloodstream, thus providing more energy. On long rides, or tri races, this ought make some difference to our performance.
Turns out I found this diet jam (pictured) which contains fructose and no added common sugar. I'm gonna try the chocolate drink + fructose jam + bread combo to see if its my refueling thing :)
I swear by Salonpas spray now, neckache disappeared daytime after two sprays. Thx Terrence from Swift Club for this, yes I still have it. Its always in my trackday, swim and tri bag :)
Mondays are rest days. Degreased bike, washed gloves and shoes etc today. Beat from daily stints 7 days in a row, but feels good really. Especially when Linda commented on Friday 'You've lost weight!' ... bumped into her after many months hiatus studying.
Need to get into the water this week and correct those pathetic strokes. Quick note to self, done 46kms in the Adistar Cushion to date. Keeping track as John advised best to have two pairs and rotate weekly. This prolongs shoe life, and minimizes chances for injury, an important objective to keep in mind toward Feb 23, 2008.
Started in Bangsar, up the Shopping Center hill, down, past Esso station on left uphill, right at lights to Manulife building, straight all the way up down up hill to Science Center. Down that hill, left to Intan, right to KLGCC, up hill through the Taman Tun link, right at IBM building lights, straight incline to Penchala Link, through tunnel, past Hartamas on left Kiara on right. All the way to Sprint, left to Bangsar, up Shopping Center hill, down, and up Jalan Bangkung.
After early morning live MMA fights streamed on net, some chores like mopping floor and washing shoes, Alisa's physio, and now this ... I think I can call it a day huh :)
