Monday, October 12, 2009

Monday 30 miles



This was considerably easier than last week's 30 miler, and that felt easy. Rather than letting my pace fall in to a more natural rhythm down the hills I changed my foot plant and shortened my stride and held way back. Not sure, but I think today had considerably more elevation gain and I also ran 2 laps on Walker Ranch (2400+ of gain just on Walker's 15 miles), the ice and mud made it more interesting. I made a couple changes to my caloric intake also, no Gatorade, just water + 9g of CHO every 30:00. One liter of half water/ V8 juice before starting. This was my typical 'breakfast' before Ironman and it suits me well.

24 comments:

GZ said...

Wow.

How are you taking that 9g of CHO?

Lucho said...

Through my mouth.

Lucho said...

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Rice. I'm just experimenting with different things. Gels are like a $1.20 each. I used to eat rice burritos on the bike on really long rides (7+ hours) and they worked awesome. I learned how many calories a normal bite was. Goofy, I know. I put the burritos in the front of my white camo tights. I look like a rhino.

GZ said...

seriously laughing out loud.


You are hung like a rice burrito. I love it. Well, at least you are thin.

Lucho said...

My wife says my ass looks fat in those tights.
Back in 1999 I was tested on the bike by Scott Jurek at his sports lab in Seattle. Ya, funny, right? And he said I needed to try rice burritos while training. At the time I was a cocky punk and thought he was crazy. But I remembered what he said and he was right. I felt a ton better training with whole foods than I ever did on sports drink and sports bars. Ask Jeff about the time I showed up for a long ride eating broccoli..
Not sure if it will work for Leadville, but I'm going to try it. I'm also considering trying vegetable juice in my Camelbak.

J.P. Patrick said...

The thought of sucking V8 juice out of my Camelback just made me throw up a little bit. Ack. I can't get it out of my head.

Brett said...

"How are you taking that 9g CHO?"

"Through my mouth."

Well good, because if there were some new innovative rectal suppository energy shots I'm pretty sure I would change sports.

Lucho said...

Agreed Brett... agreed.

JP- I love V8, but I haven't really found a single food that bothers me. I'm the least picky eater on the Earth. If it works that's all that matters.

GZ said...

Jurek is - as you probably know - a full on vegan.

Lucho said...

I had no idea... his race results list him as American.

Dave said...

With the rice burrito, do you put any kind of sauce or anything in it? Veggies? White rice? Sorry for being nitpicky, but I'm actually thinking about trying it.
On the longest of my runs (around 30 as well) I ate whatever I could find-even had a slice of cheesecake and some grapjuice on a run-and I agree, it worked much better than gel or drink.
I've also tried hummus on pita bread and found that to be an awesome combo for long runs/rides.

Thanks for the idea of the rice burrito!

Lucho said...

Dave- Cheesecake!? Damn. I LOVE cheesecake. Nice.
Just salt. If you make the burritos when the rice is hot then put them in the refrigerator immediately after you make them they hold together quite well. Then wrap them in Saran wrap or a zip lock. They fit perfectly in a bike jersey. You could also put in something like TVP for protein or even honey to bring the calories up a bit and to hold them together more. Beans would be good too.
Don't take a bite when you're breathing hard though... you inhale rice or cough it out your nose. Hummus and pita is an excellent choice too!

Rick said...

I've been able to use my car alot as an aid station on some of the long run/loops I do. I have gone back to the bananna. I think the only reason the bananna has lost it's popularity is because of it's size compared to a gel. A couple rice burritos and banannas and I'll be set. I've been testing out my own squeezed OJ as well, so far so good.

Lucho said...

Bananas are the gold standard I think. I went to take a bite of a banana on a long ride once and I dropped it. Went back and picked it up and it had gravel embedded in it. Crunchy. No way you waste food on a long day.
You should try a raw sweet potato too, they are a lot more durable than a banana. I think a medium sized one has ~50g of CHO. I'll bet the OJ is great after a few hours.

Rick said...

The sweet potato is a great idea. I usually put a raw one down while cooking the other 2-3 for our dinner. I'm definately going to give that a try.

Brett said...

As my daughter has Type 1 Diabetes, I unfortunately know a lot of carb counts like the back of my hand. And yes I can confirm a sweet potato has 437 million carbs.

Lucho said...

I'm sorry that you need to know that.

Trev said...

Not sure what your running shoe choice is like in the wet but FYI, I recently picked up a pair of these:

http://www.inov-8.com/Products-Detail.asp?PG=PG1&L=26&P=5050973028

They are very light and I've never experienced such grip in the wet ever!

Disclaimer: They SUCK on-road and they are only my first pair of off-road shoes.

Lucho said...

Trev- Those look sweet. Too bad they suck on the roads. I wore my beat down raggedy Lunar Trainers yesterday. Thanks

GZ said...

A raw sweet potato? Really? Wouldn't it be easier to eat and digest if it had been baked? (softer)

Tim - wondering two things here about HR (again). What would be the typical HR you'd average over the course of an IM? And what do you think it will be over the course of Pb?

Lucho said...

G- The raw potato is hard like an apple so you could munch on it in smaller bites. I doubt very much my gut could handle even half a sweet potato all at once, and my gut is well trained for eating. If it was baked it would mushy and harder to eat over the course of an hour. And not 100% on this- but if it was baked it would also change the CHO to more simple sugar? I may be off on that one though.
Ironman average HR's from 2000:
Swim-165 (1:01)
Bike-161 (4:50)
Run-161 (2:55)
Total: 8:50

I have no clue on the HR for Pb! I can speculate though. What I would expect to see is about 30 miles of low HR with a gradual rise. ~30 miles of it being quite high. Then 30 miles of it dropping due to fuel depletion and muscle fatigue. I can't imagine a high HR after you reach a certain point of exhaustion. At Ironman you have the opportunity to fuel very effectively on the bike- I was able to take in ~500 calories per hour on the bike and I could also take in close to 400 on the run for the first hour. Pb's single most critical factor to consider is fueling, HR will be determined by hydration and fuel more than anything (I am guessing). This is why I am excited about Pb, the fear of the unknown! It scares the crap out of me and I love that. As my long runs increase I'll be able to see more definitive HR trends.

GZ said...

Good stuff. I am curious to hear what your current thinking (understanding it will change as you make the journey and learn) is on the approach. It is clear you will do big runs with the last two 30s. But how big?

GZ said...

You probably have seen this ... but lots of stuff in here as to how to approach ... train ... http://www.ultrunr.com/train100.html

Lucho said...

Ya, I've read almost everything on that site, it's good!
My approach is simple, learn through experience. I don't have a cap on my long run goal. It will be determined more by the law of diminishing returns. There's a long run distance for me that will hurt more than help (physically). Starting at 30 miles I'll build with the thought that 'if I can't recover from it, I won't do it'. It'll become clear at some point where that mileage is just by listening to my body. I do know that I will be finding my weekly mileage limit too. Back in 1999 (in Bellingham Wa.) before Ironman Hawaii I ran 150 miles in 6 days just to see how it felt... it was quite easy for me. With my current geography I imagine it won't be easy now! A combination of big weeks with lower long run mileage, and lower mileage weeks with huge long runs will be my first approach. We'll see!