Base 2 Brick Part 2
So after the bike . . . the run. I got home just after midday, and it was warm enough for me to change - my first time in shots this year! I just hope that the sight of my winter legs didn’t scare too many horses / offend public decency too badly.
This was my first run at anything above cool-down distance after a long ride this year, and my aim was to test out a new nutritional strategy to avoid the dreaded bike-run bonk . Basically, I, like many other endurance athletes (not that I’m an athlete - I’m just a bloke who’s done some long rides and runs, and has entered an Ironman race in 112 days’ time), can be prone to stomach cramps. That’s a euphemism of course - what we mean by it is that your digestive system shuts down and throws the "evacuate" switch. T’ain’t funny - you try running with your buttocks clamped together as hard as they’ll go.
Anyway. Apparently this is caused by over-loading your stomach with carbohydrates, starving it of blood (’cos you’re using it all to power your legs, heart & lungs), and generally mucking up the diffusion gradient such that you start to dehydrate from your blood into the stomach. Nice - race over, do not wear the T-shirt for the race, hand back the finisher’s medal, and to find your position when the results are published, look under "DNF".
So I’d had my last food on the bike 20 minutes from home - a gel. Then with ten minutes of faffing around, I’d set off on the run. 8 miles, with a run for ten / walk for one minute plan. At each walk, I took a drink, and held off eating again until the turnaround point. Again, this was just a gel - a High5 Banana Blast (nomnomnomnom!).
Seemed to work just fine - I had a little leg cramp at about 5 miles, but felt this coming on and walked for a minute, taking a big drink, and rubbing my leg hard to smooth it out. But apart from that it was just great!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 03/07/2010
- Time: 13:07:46
- Total Time: 1:04:00.00
- Calories: 974
- Distance: 8 miles
- Average Pace: 8:00/mile
