Internal Mono(b)log

OH.. MY.. GOD!  An Ironman race in Baja California!!! In March!!

I’ve been drawn to Baja for years, for no reason that I’m aware of, just a strong desire to go there.  A pull.  Undefined but so real.  Sort of like Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind with is draw to the bute.  No I haven’t sculpted Baja out of mashed potatoes, but close 🙂

Ironman adds Ironman Los Cabos to Global Series » IRONMAN.com.

I may just have to do this!

Rappstar Racing: Bike For Sale. Ridden Hard. Put Away Wet..

Completely believe this.  We are very suggestible: positive or negative visualization creates a positive or negative outcome.  We create our own reality.

How the Nocebo Effect Can Torpedo Your Training | Sweat Science.

Barefoot Versus Running Shoes: Which Is (Surprisingly) More Efficient? | Sweat Science.

Now, it is just 1 study, so hardly conclusive, but interesting none the less.

Further I think that the long-term benefits of learning to run in a good barefoot form and doing some training that way, though not necessarily racing that way or always running that way, are not insignificant.

Chrissie’s book is due out (or maybe even out) immanently.  This article in the Guaradian is a pretty great teaser for the book.

Chrissie Wellington: I have got nothing to prove to anyone anymore | Sport | The Guardian.

In an attempt to step away from heavily processed food stuffs for race nutrition, I’m experimenting with home-made “energy bites” for some solid fuel on the bike.

Experiment Version 1:

• 200g dates
• 100g dried cranberries
• 50g raw cashews
• 20g chia seeds
• sprinkle sea salt

Dehydrating for several hours…  will divide into 16 “bites”.    Each bite breaks down nutritionally as 86.25 calories (16.625g carb, 1.8125g protein, 1.8125g fat, 2.125 fiber).  The dates and cranberries will give me some immediate energy, the chia and cashews some fat for longer term fueling and to slow the carb uptake a bit and a little sodium for replenishing sweat losses.

Pre-dehydrating they taste alright: not super sweet.  I’m most concerned with them being too sticky or too crumbly.  I guess I’ll see in a few hours 😉

Follow-UP

So, the bites dehydrated overnight.  They’re about the density of a caramel and not very sticky.  They kinda taste like Christmas Fruit cake (which is good by me 🙂 ).  Riding 90k today @ 200w average, so I guess I’ll see how they sit in my belly 🙂

Today I’m enjoying every sip of every coffee, every slurp of Yerba Mate peppermint tea, every nibble of 99% cocoa solids chocolate. I may even have a caffeinated tea at some point and if I do I’ll make sure to slowly savour and enjoy it as well.  Today is my last caffeinated day until the morning of IMPanama.

I don’t drink a LOT of coffee (typically a cup or maybe 2 a day).  In my training, especially before intense workouts, I may use an ergogenic aide like First Endurance’s Pre-Race to help push hard and reach conditioning levels at the top ends of my current abilities. But, for the next 2 weeks, I’m doing a reset.  If my body has built any tolerance to these substances, the next 14 days will be enough to undo some of that habituation and allow their full effects to be felt and capitalized upon.

Does caffeine make a difference?  Well, based on a number of scientific studies, research papers, and other scholarly works there’s no clear answer.  In my laboratory of 1 (i.e. me) I know that coffee has a laxative effect (that I’ll certainly miss over the next 2 weeks), but that it also has a performance enhancing one.  First Endurance Pre-Race has been clinically shown to improve performance and one of it’s ingredients is also caffeine.  We also know that many of these ergogenic substances, over time, work to deplete your adrenals.  Giving my adrenal system time to recharge has got to be a plus.

So, I look at it this way:

• since my experiments have shown it beneficial for me (even if only psychosomatically), and
• given that I’ll be on vacation from work starting Tuesday (i.e. not having to wake at 5am to workout before work, being able to nap when I’m tired, etc), and
• given that doing a detox every now and then is generally a “good thing”.

My 2 week caffeine fast can do nothing but good.

So, over the next few weeks, while you’re enjoying your morning brew, have a sip for me!  I’ll be drinking peppermint or some other herbal tea, Caflib, coconut water, almond milk or juice.  I’ll join you in a “Cup o’ Joe”on the 12th!

Anyone who’s watched a Kona IM championship where Chrissy Wellington was racing knows that she’s well known for smiling in the face of intense physical challenge and discomfort. Her twitter id is even @chrissysmiles!

The other day I was talking to someone about the power of body position on mood. There have been many studies on this over the last few decades and they all point tot the same thing: you can change (or at least strongly influence) your mood by changing your posture and/or facial expression.

So I started thinking: I wonder if this is something she does actively or by instinct, or completely by accident. In any event I decided I’d give it a go. Last weekend, I did a 3.5hr ride in some pretty good hills north-west of Toronto. As an experiment, while climbing some of the hills I’d relax my face and smile, on others I’d grimace and snarl and swear and gnash my teeth. At the end of each hill I’d evaluate perceived effort.

Sure VERY unscientific. I’ll admit that. But good enough for my laboratory of 1 (me).

My results? Absolute! Smiling and relaxing the face when climbing had a definite impact on perceived effort when pushing up the hills (and at most every other time on the route when I was feeling tired or worn down).

So next time you’re out there slogging it away, put a cheery smile on your face, smile and say hi to the cyclist you’re passing as you seemingly effortlessly roll up the hill beside them. It’ll still hurt, but somehow, it just won’t seem as bad.

I’ll jump straight to the answer…

Read more… »

Today’s ride was a 3 hour, MAP (max aerobic power) heart-rate zone 3 ride.   Not having really planned and not knowing where to go, I did the lakeshore toward Burlington route that I’d previously done.  It’s a good ride, with generally good roads and generally good traffic.  I forgot to start runkeeper on my phone until I was already part way back, but here’s a view of a snippet of my ride @ runkeeper.com (add about 5k out on lakeshore from the where I started recording and turn the route into an “out and back” (rather than just “back”) you get the full picture).

On this ride, I’d planned a nutrition experiment: In my speedfil I had just water, in each of 2 waterbottles I had 1 packet of HornetJuice and 1/2 scoop of Carbo-pro. For primary fuel, I had a flask of Hammer Gel Espresso and for electrolytes (this is the real experiment part) I used SaltStick salt tabs.  Because it wasn’t super-hot and I didn’t feel like I was sweating a lot, I decided to do 1 tab every 45 minutes.  Spread the 2 waterbottles evenly over the ride, and drink water generally when riding.  This is a change from my normal protocol of 1 HornetJuice, 1 Carbo-Pro and 1 scoop of EFS or other electrolyte sport-drink.  My thinking is that this approach allows me to hydrate without electrolytes or fuel.  Generally, this protocol seemed to work pretty well.  Definitely an experiment that I’ll continue to work with.

I also made a discovery on this ride – completely unrelated to the nutrition protocol experiment… well, maybe not completely unrelated… Ok.. on with it:

I ride, when training, with bib-style cycling shorts.

They are super comfortable and I love the feel of my Sugoi Bib shorts: they’re so comfortable and padded just right. But!  When you need to pee, and you don’t want to take off your jersey, and the shoulder straps, and pull down the shorts (and like today, sometimes there just isn’t time!) a much easier way to approach the problem, and sorry ladies, this probably only works for guys, is to pull up one of the legs until you can access your plumbing and pee through the stretched out leg hole.  So simple and efficient 🙂