It's been a few days since posting last. I learned something very valuable on sunday while riding. DO NOT EAT AN ENTIRE PROTEIN BAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIDE. Not only did I cramp up really really badly, but with the constant climbing, I was never able to rest and get rid of it. Made for a pretty miserable 2nd half of the ride. I think eating a few bites at a time, or just extra GU's would've sufficed. I did start using HEED and I think it helped. Hell, I don't know if it helped or not. It wasn't hot so I wasn't sweating like crazy. But I've heard good stuff about it and it seems to be the only sports drink that doesn't use sugar as a sweetener. I'm going to give it another go, hopefully this time without the miserable cramping I got from the protein bar.
In some positive news, I did pick up my speed a tad from my previous ride. It was about 3 miles longer, but I increased my speed about 1 mph. Not sure if it had to do with conditioning, or that I replaced my ridiculously overused cleats that were moving all over the place in the pedal. All that extra movement definitely was not helping. I had a fantastic run saturday. I did the entire Big Laurel trail down to the french broad and back, about 7.4 miles, had a nice low HR, in the 150's and felt like I could go do it again. It was very encouraging, and was a nice way to lead into my recovery week, which unfortunately is nearly over. I have an easy run and ride this weekend, then I pick it back up again. My HR is really coming down and it's great to see such improvement. Yesterday, I did a 3.4 mile treadmill run at a 10 min/mile pace, and my HR was at 146. Even a month ago, that pace would've had my HR in the 170's. Now I'm waiting for my body to show signs of improvement! My swimming, well, it's staying consistent. I was pretty solid at swimming before hand, and I suppose it's getting somewhat better, but I'm happy with it.
I changed my race schedule up a bit as I was looking at alternatives to the Valdese Tri on April 16th. I came across the Paris Mountain International triathlon. I was actually looking for a sprint and began reading about it, what I thought was the sprint, but was in fact the international. After reading about it and seeing about how unbelievably brutal it is, and the fact that it's the only international distance I've ever heard of that gives out a "finisher" t shirt(those are usually reserved for Half Ironman or half marathon distance and over) and with Rachel's encouragement I decided to step up my game and take it on. It's a generally flat race, until around mile 8 or 9, where you climb for 2.2 miles and rise about 1000 feet. I don't think I've ever done a climb like this before, so it's going to be something. And the run is 5 miles, with the first half generally flat, then a 400ish foot climb for about a mile and a half, before you come back down. It's going to be brutal, but I love to challenge myself, so I'm getting geared up.
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