Tonight I had a 6x500m swim, with the odd sets at RPE3 and
the even ones at RPE5. RPE is Relative Perceived Effort and is usually rated on
a scale of 1-10 with 1 being a very easy walk and 10 being busting your butt to
run from that big old grizzly bear you can hear chasing you. Actually, that
might be an 11. So basically I needed to do one set at a moderate/easy pace and
the other set a bit harder. The thing is… I don’t notice much
difference when I swim harder with the breast stroke aside from getting tired
faster.
I did the first 500 fine, then the second 500, I alternated 25m free, 25m breast. I didn't do that for a second set of 500m. While my free times are faster, I end up so winded from them, my breast stroke back slows down and my overall time for the 500m was slower than any of the others. One exciting thing I've found is that if I breathe to my left side, I don't pick my head out of the water like I do on my right side.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is whether I should
be focusing more on picking up freestyle or whether I should work on refining
my breast stroke. The world record for 200m Free is around 1:44, for 200m
Breast it’s 2:06. So the breast stroke is definitely slower but if I’m
this comfortable with it, should I instead be trying to improve those times
rather than learning a new stroke? There are two catches. The first is that the
kick on the breast stroke isn’t too kind on the joints, namely the hips
and knees. The second is that my freestyle times, sloppy as my stroke is, are
already better than my best equidistant breaststroke times by about 30 seconds
per 100m. My best 100m breast time is just under 2:00, my free times are all
pretty close to 1:30… that’s a 25% drop-off in time at least. How
would I like to drop 25+% off my open water swim times? I’m mentally
drooling just thinking about it. I really need to work more on my Free…
A little more about nutrition and hydration… I’ve
been drinking Gatorade lemon-lime since I’m pretty sure that’s what
the race will provide. I used to wonder why lemon-lime seems to be the only
flavor that races ever provide, then I realized how much more orange shows up
when you slop it on yourself, not to mention fruit punch or grape.
As far as nutrition goes, for those of you who haven’t
done an event like this, nutrition basically consists of two elements, fuel
(mostly carbs) and electrolytes (usually sodium). I don’t like salt
tablets, which a lot of triathletes seem to like. There’s salt in my Gatorade
and salt in my food and I’ve heard plenty of stories of people who
thought they were cramping due to lack of electrolytes when it was more likely
that they were getting too much sodium. Plus, what I’ve worked with so
far has worked just fine. Most nutrition comes in the form of gel packs which are
syrupy substances the consistency of blended bananas. They come in myriad
flavors, from banana, chocolate and apple pie to double shot mocha espresso (I’m
not kidding). A lot have added caffeine, but that’s not something I usually
go for. In fact, I don’t like the gels much at all. They tend to be a
pain to open, can be very messy and when you get them on your hands, very
sticky. The texture doesn’t do much for me either and most of the flavors
just aren’t my thing. The lone exception has been Clif Shots Apple Pie
flavor.
Another popular choice is bar nutrition. These are basically
a cross between candy bars and granola bars. They’re more substantial and
give you something to actually chew, a sensation I rather like. However, I don’t
like futzing with the bars on the run or while riding and they feel like they
sit in my stomach a little too much, taking too long to digest.
Fortunately, there is a middle path. Clif Shot Blocks are
little blocks roughly the consistency of gummy bears, though a little softer.
They don’t come in a lot of flavors (I’ve seen orange, black
cherry, strawberry and pina colada) but none of the flavors disagree with me
and I like getting some of the chewing sensation while still being able to
swallow it largely un-masticated (there’s your word of the day) if I
choose. The orange (which has some caffeine) and strawberry are definitely my preferred
flavors, though what I’ve been doing is putting a bunch of different
flavors into an individual Ziploc bag, then I get an assortment when I reach in
for my little snack.
I seem to have settled into having 3 blocks every 30 minutes
with 3 blocks having ~100 calories. 100 calories seems to be a standard for
nutrition servings, all the gels seem to come in serving sizes of 100 calories with
the calories composed of varying ratios of complex carbs and simple sugars. I wish
the Clif Shot Blocks had a higher ratio of complex carbs (50/50 compared to the
Clif Shot ratio of 75%complex to 25% simple), but what can you do? I may look
for another product, probably a gel, which has some protein as well to
supplement the blocks, Accel puts protein in their products, gels and sports
drinks mostly. The Clif Bars usually have ~10g of protein (which is about 20%
of RDA) so I may try working them in somewhere but the stomach heaviness is a
big concern.
I'm working on the First Time Ironman writeup, but it's going to take a little more time since I want to get it done right.
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1 comment:
Oh, gosh...give me a little time and I will have a few great comments for this blog...oh boy, oh boy.
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