8 Weeks later it finally makes sense

Timberman was 8 weeks ago this past weekend. Wow how time flies!

So I can't remember if I mentioned this during my race report, but during the bike portion of that race I got REALLY hungry towards the end of the ride and had to resort to eating an emergency Gu and going off of my eating schedule.

This emergency strategy worked and the rest of the race was PR-city.

But this has remained in the back of my mind as to "why" this happened. Why worry about it? Well when you practice something over and over and over again and you keep getting the same results and then suddenly the last time you put it into action and something isn't right, then that is troubling because I don't want to repeat that ever again, because that next time will most likely be during a 140.6 mile Ironman where slight mistakes are reflected exponentially.

I wrote it off as I was cold during the bike because it was raining and my body used up extra fuel to stay warm. That didn't make sense because I put out not that much wattage that day and from training through the winter, I know I don't need much extra fuel when it is cold, and it didn't get THAT cold that day.

So what was it that caused me to become hungry on the bike?

Last night it hit me. The time span between eating breakfast (3:30-4:00 AM) consisting of my usual 3 bowls of Cinnamon Toast crunch and my swim wave going off (7:45 AM) was almost 4 hours. I ate a Gu @ 6AM and 7AM that morning. 200 Calories was NOT enough fuel to keep me held over for a 4 hour wait where nerves do in fact eat up fuel.

Then I ate up a bunch of fuel on the swim and only got down my first Gu 30 mins into the bike. So over a 5 hour span, I only ate 200 calories. No wonder I was playing catch up in regards to nutrition that resulted in emergency eating on the bike!

My lesson learned 8 weeks later? PLAN BETTER  & Eat enough fuel between breakfast and my swim wave to keep the tank topped off. On a long bike training day, I usually pound the cereal and am biking within an hour and am starting the Gu within 30 mins. NO WONDER I am never hungry on the bike during training.

Fortunately for Placid next year, I am a 1 mile walk to the swim start and my wave will be @ 7AM with everyone else.

What? ANOTHER blog giveaway? Yes SIR!

What a week! I am doing ANOTHER blog giveaway! Sorry for you non swimmers, but this giveaway might not apply to you....although, me thinks you could stir some food with them? Dig with them?

I am giving away a pair of the Finis Forearm Fulcrum.

I did a quick review of them here. They work, but not as whizz-bang as the Finish Hydro Hip (I am keeping that one as it REALLY works!). Regardless, since this is a FREE giveaway, throw your hand into this one and hopefully you will get lucky! These help with keeping your elbows high. Swimming with fists will give you the same feeling.

So to enter this giveaway, you will have up to 3 chances to enter. Write a comment on this post and tell me which ones apply:

#1 Be an already follower
#2 Become a new follower (click on the FOLLOW button to the right. This is worth 2 entries)
#3 Tell me who your favorite swimmer is OTHER than Michael Phelps.

And the winner is!!!

MissZippy!!! Congrats! You won my latest giveaway for Bart Yasso's book, "My Life On The Run."

She wound up being the 17th slot and that was number picked on random.org.  An email is coming your way soon asking for an address. Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone else who participated. 

But don't feel left out! ANOTHER blog giveaway will be coming up soon. So stay tuned! *hint* this will involve the pool (and no, I am not giving away A pool).

Bricks-hurt-more-than-they-used-to. But Apple Sauce is still sweet!

No, not the actual brick-and-mortar-the lets-go-build-a-building-type-brick, the bike to run brick.

This past Sunday I did a 40 miler on the road bike scoping out some new roads, which I found some new TT territory followed by an honest climb followed by a rewarding-flat-well-paved-slightly-downhill-road.

After the 40 miler, I put on my running shoes and went out for a 3 miler. I did a 1.5 mile out and back; the first mile felt like it should and felt fast, but at the turn around I didn't feel so great. For a doesn't-matter-brick, I guess finishing up the 3 mile run in 23:35 for a 7:49 pace meant that I still had "it" from this past season. I am very happy and my confidence is happy that I still run faster off of the bike rather than starting off cold.

And! I am proud to say that I have ran 4X for the last 2 weeks injury free. I wrapped up this past week with 16 miles of running, an increase from 13.5 a week earlier. Hopefully I will be back, comfortably running into the 20's/week in a month or so. That last foot injury and then back spasm really took a chunk out of my overall confidence!

Some of you asked me about that granola bar recipe and how it turned out. They taste great! 1/3 cup of peanut butter goes a long way in terms of texture and taste. HERE IS A LINK TO THE RECIPE.

I am finding that they are not that filling. Maybe I got my calorie report wrong? Eaten with a banana fills me up enough for a workout. I was able to mash out almost 2000 yards yesterday at the pool after eating the above.

Other than granola bars, I have been making apple sauce. Macintosh Apples are my favorite, and they make the best apple sauce since they fall apart so easily. If you leave the skins on, you get pink apple sauce.

This is really easy to make. Chunk up some apples, put em into a pot with 1/2 to 1 cup of water, and cook em down till they become a chunky sauce.

The one necessary piece of equipment that makes the apple-sauce-making-process the easiest is with a Foley Food Mill.

Mill the chunky sauce into a bowl until you get through all of the apple.

Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time until the taste is desirable.

But I don't stop there. I grew up eating Ginger Bread Cake topped with Apple Sauce. Sorry folks, I can't reveal the Ginger Bread Cake recipe. :(...its a family secret...but! Use your friend google, I am sure you can find one.

Ok, ok, ok, I lied. My mom just informed me that the recipe comes straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. So as to not commit any sort of copyright infringement, I won't post it here, but there is your hint, as obvious as it is :)

 

Doesn't that just look good! Been eating a slice covered with apple sauce every morning this week after a run. Total recovery food!

Marathon Season is upon us! Time for a giveaway! Your entry is needed!

Besides apple sauce and baked apple goods and pumpkin picking and apple cider donuts, I think of the Fall season as all about the Marathon. New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and other cities hold their annual marathon.

AND WOW! Did a LOT of you fellow bloggers either run a half marathon or full marathon this past weekend! Too many to list here, so CONGRATS! on whether it be your first at that distance or your third.

So in celebration of those uber distances, I am giving away a copy of Bart Yasso's book, "My Life on The Run." Surely you have heard of Yasso 800's? The Track method of predetermining a possible Marathon time? THIS is your guy who thought up the method.

Other than Yasso 800's, this guy has run everywhere in the world. If only I could have half of his running resume one day. A great read and gives you inspiration to run in other parts of the world.

I won this book from a giveaway done by Aneta @ Confessions of a Rambunctious Runner. Aneta JUST completed her first marathon this past weekend @ the Toronto Marathon. Congrats Aneta! Head on over to her blog and give her some props on this monumental achievement!

So to enter this giveaway, you will have up to 3 chances to enter. Write a comment on this post and tell me which ones apply:

#1 Be an already follower
#2 Become a new follower (click on the FOLLOW button to the right. This is worth 2 entries)
#3 Tell me who your favorite marathon distance runner is (you may include yourself....)

The 4000 Calorie Bomb

For some reason fall equals baked goods and apple sauce. Something about the way the trees smell?

So I made some homemade granola bars last night. I followed THIS recipe and based upon the ingredients this recipe looked pretty tasty. The batter turned out to be just that. So I stick in the oven and headed over to TheDailyPlate.com to build the recipe and see how much caloric info is in this granola.

4000!

 

 Pre cut loaf

So cut it up into 10 bars, making them ~400 calories each 

In other words, these are potent little suckers. For their size, they are on par with the store brand, just these are 2X more potent.

I made these because I am looking for alternate forms of fueling before a midday workout, which is usually a lunch time swim or bike ride. I guess it is one of these and some water and I am ready to rock! These remind me of these 7 layer bars we would eat in high school. I don't know what was in them, but after one bite you didn't have to eat for a month! haha!

Have you ever made granola bars? Have you found a recipe that is tasty, doesn't break the calorie bank, and is easy to make?

The UBER swim post. Oh this is a fun one!

It is the off season; what do you do in the off season? A smarter person than I answered that question perfectly:

"Work on the things that need improving the most that is hard (as in finding the time to do or recover from) to improve during the race season."

Well, I need a LOT of improvement in all areas of triathlon, but really what that means is working on technique or strength or things that you just don't have time for when you are racing every other weekend. Mostly my improvement is needed in the pool. You can't just swing your arms faster in the pool like pedaling faster or turning your legs over faster to go faster; its mostly technique based in the water. There is some golden swim-technique-formula out there and I am bound to find it!

Which means playing with new pool toys!!! Why not? I don't have to break my 100 yard PR for another 5 months. I have time to muck around and see if any of these gimmicks actually work.

So I ordered two new swim toys.

#1 The Finis Hydro Hip

 

After reading the reviews on the Hydro Hip and watching the video, I was very skeptical. All of them said that it will ride up your hips and detach. Whelp, they were right. After my first 25, it did just that. But I wasn't giving up! I readjusted it, stuck it really low on my hips and tightened it up right and went again. The belt stayed put! So now it was time to figure this thing out.

I had to really try hard to rotate with this thing. Eventually I got the hang of it and it forced me to work my core to rotate my body. After 200 yards I took them off, then chaos ensued. I pushed off the wall sans Hydro Hip, rotated and WHOOPS! I over-rotated to a full 270 degrees and found myself staring up at the ceiling. Holy WOW this thing actually works!

I did 200 yards swimming freestyle and my rotation was incredible! I was finally able to feel what it meant to rotate my core to rotate my body. All along I was using my shoulders and upper body to rotate and it was so hard.

Lesson learned?

Rotate from your hips/core and the rest of your body will follow.

It is easier this way to swim.

I felt like I was "getting after the water" for once.

#2 The Finis Forearm Fulcrum

This was a strange toy to get used to. They immediately came off my wrists when I pushed off the first time. I soon learned you have to wrap your thumb around it to hold it on. The point of the Forearm Fulcrum is to keep your hand and forearm from bending. You have more surface area when this is the case; more surface area = more pull = more speed. You have to work to keep your elbows high. Dropped elbows = bad juju!!!

Took me a few alternating 100 yard intervals to get the hang of it, but like the Hydro Hip, you don't feel the full effects until you take them off. Once off, my pull felt MUCH stronger and I was engaging my lat muscles, which are those giant broad muscles on your back which are much stronger at pulling than your arms.

I would say the Forearm Fulcrum is an alright toy.You can accomplish a similar effect and water feel by swimming with fists.

Lesson learned?

Don't bend your wrists and keep your elbows high.

Engage those lats to pull!

Besides playing with new toys, I have 3 off season goals for the pool.

Dolphin kicking (check!)
Backstroke (check!)
Flipturns (uhg)

Learning dolphin kicking took all of 5 mins and the backstroke took 45 mins. My new swimming technique confidence was sky high! I figured flip turns would take 15.....boy was I wrong! Flip turns.......yeah......have NOT  been agreeing with me. So I turned to my good friend, Youtube.com for help :)......I swear you could earn a degree off of youtube....

I found this great 5 step flipturn instructional series.

Step #0: Admit that a flipturn is harder than it looks

Step #1:


Step #2:


Step #3:


Step #4:


Step #5:


I got through step #2 alright, but as soon I removed the pull buoys, I was pushing off and hitting the bottom of the pool. Am I not tucking enough? Dropping my arms?

Does anyone have any other easy to learn it yourself flipturn methods? I know I don't have to learn flipturns, but its a goal that I have wanted to accomplish for a long time.