A Long Training Day
8-hour training day summary
Yesterday, I did 2.3km swim, 123km bike and 25km run. It was a part of MyXTRIVirtual challenge to collect some points to qualify for XTRI World Tour races.
The long training day was discussed with the family beforehand. It is extremely important to get a green light from the family when a long traiing day is planned.
I will break down the sessions. It might be useful for those who are thinking of doing long days.
Original plan
Breakfast 1
Run Part 1 - 15 km
Breakfast 2
Bike Part 1 - 80 km
Lunch
Swim - 2.3 km
Bike Part 2 - 45 km
Run Part 2 - 10 km
Dinner
Everything in Zone 1 and low Zone 2
How it went
I had about 5.5 hours of sleep. Not ideal, but I couldn’t sleep more. I woke up at 04:30 and had a small bowl of overnight oatmeal with a half banana for breakfast 1.
Run Part 1
Since it was a long day ahead, I aimed pace around 06:30 min/km for Run Part 1. I felt good, and ended up doing 16 km, 140bpm heart rate. No water or nutrition during the run.
I came home, showered and ate breakfast 2 with the family. For breakfast, 5 or 6 pancakes with cottache cheese, banana and honey, and of course coffee.
Bike Part 1
I stayed home for a while and went for Bike Part 1. The goal was keeping the heart rate under 140bpm, power at 150-160W and cadence at 80rpm. Road conditions and weather would dictate my speed.
For nutrition, I had two 750ml bottles with 40g of carb each, plus one tablet of electrolytes. I also took 115g of pastry with me. I ended up eating the pastry and drinking about 1,5 bottles of the drink mix. So, about 120g of carbs for 3+ hours. I felt good, no feeling of energy dip during or after the ride.
Swim
The plan was to have lunch before swim, but the swimming pool was closing in two hours. So, I decided to postpone the lunch and headed for the swim. I ate two small thin pancakes and a couple of dates. I took 40g of carb mix drink to the swim. However, I had issues of bloating and couldn’t drink the mix during the swim.
It was just to get done the distance. So, I did 6x50m and 4x500m easy. An interesting thing happened. A guy who was swimming in the next lane asked how long I have been swimming. He complemented that I was swimming fast and he tried to keep up with me but couldn’t despite using fins. That was a good uplifting moment :)
Bike Part 2
I came home from the swim and had lunch with the family; fried meat (fatty) and potatoes. Since I had only 35 km to do, I took one bottle of plain water, and one energy gel which I didn’t use. Easy bike, nothing special.
Run Part 2
I came home from the bike, felt good. I didn’t feel hungry but I had bloated stomach. Energywise, I felt normal and thought of just getting it done with the last 9km to go.
I went out, didn’t take any gels/bars with me. I usually leave my phone when I am out running.
In the first 2km, I felt totally fine but after that I suddenly felt that I was low on energy. I tried running, but ended up walking after a few hundreds of running. I needed energy and I was about 4k from home. I needed energy, and I didn’t have any. No phone, no money.
I thought of slow running home, but finishing strong is a nice feeling.
I was running slowly and saw a guy with a half bottle of coca-cola in his hands. Thoughts of asking his bottle crossed my mind, or just grabbing and running away :)
My niece lives in the neighbourhood, and I was closer to her house. I just knocked on her door and asked if she had anything sweet.
I ended up eating a big slice of cake and felt great immediately.
Overall, execution 8/10.
I taled to Gordo Byrn about yesterday. I thought my bloating issue was due to carb drink. He thinks it was so low amount to cause problems. The cause was probably fat in the pastry and from the lunch.
Lessons learned: “1) get better at fueling 2) take a gel/drink with you on long days no matter how you feel”
It was a fun day out. I feel good. I will take two easy days.
Overall picture
It feels amazing to be able to endure 8 hours of training and not be wrecked after it. Consistency is paying off.
Stay healthy,
Bek