This was the last big training week before my race. Now it is time to taper with my race just 3 weeks ago.
The highlight of the week has got to be the 70-mile ride I did. When I saw that on he schedule, I was a bit worried. Up until then, my longest ride was 50 miles and I think that was before I actually started my Ironman 70.3 training.
For this ride, I tried using Gatorlytes which was recommended to me by my coach. I took 3 bottles of Gatorade Endurance and in two of those bottles I added a packet to each. I drank those first. When I first tasted it before heading out, it tasted really salty. During the ride, I could taste the saltiness too, but it wasn’t too bad. In the end, I think it worked great. I didn’t experience any sort of cramping or near cramping. In the past, at around 2 1/2 hrs, I would start to feel as though my quads would cramp. So I think the Gatorlytes was a success and I’ll be sure to use them on my race. I still need to try it on a run. The other recommendation from my coach was HotShot. I ordered a trial pack. They will arrive in time for me to try on my long workouts this coming weekend.
The ride itself went great. I am happy with the pace and how I felt. I covered the first 56 miles in 3:10:05. That is a time with which I would be happy if I can reproduce in the actual event.
I didn’t manage to do my long run as family events and obligations got in the way over the weekend. What I did do was try a short run on Sunday in the mid-afternoon with the sun and temperature at the highest. That was eye-opening. I was huffing and puffing as though I had just started running, my heart was racing and over the course of the short 2 miles I did, I managed to drink as much liquid as I would when I run 10 miles on a cool day. This was not a good omen as I suspect I may have to deal with similar conditions n race day.
This coming week calls for about 10 hrs of training