Surviving Tuesday & Focus on Race Day Nutrition

I survived Tuesday.  The rest of the day was kind of up and down.  I was able to pick up my bike from Kona Multisport that afternoon.  While I was at the store, I was also able to pick up a 10 visit guest pass to the YMCA down the street so I could use their pool.  I was going to bike after work, but my bike was so clean and shiny I didn't want to get it dirty in the still somewhat flooded Flatwoods Park.  I decided to get in my swim instead since I've pretty much made all my bike training sessions and skipped a lot of the swimming.  The swim turned out good.  Here's what the plan called for:

w/u - 300 swim, 200 kick, 300 pull
main set - 30 X 50 w/ 10 sec rest as follows:
#1 - 10: gradually descend from 75% to 85%
#11 - 18: 25 kick - 25 sprint --- I did these with the swim fins.  Doing the sprints were scary and fun.  I was swimming way faster than I ever have before and I almost wasn't coming up for air in time.  I thought this might be something that I should keep in mind for Augusta 70.3 and the Beach2Battleship because both are going to be wetsuit races and the swim is with the current. 
#19 - 30: race pace.  I didn't rest between these.  I just went.  I did these remaining 12 - 50's in 9:34.  This is between :46 and :47 every 50m.  I normally come in around :48 to :50 every 50m when I do 8 + at a time.  Improvements in swimming for me come in 1 and 2 seconds decreases in time per 50m.  I can honestly say it's taken me over 6 months to get to this point, starting at :51 to :53.  The best part was I didn't feel like I was going to die at the end.  I was definitely pushing myself.  But, I made sure to hold back a little so that I could finish all 12 without slowing down.  This made my Tuesday better  :). 
c/d - 400 pull.  I used the hand paddles with these and took it easy.

I was supposed to bike for 1:30 after.  I made it to Davis Island and was able to get in 5 miles before it got too dark.  I didn't have any of my lights with me because I took them off for the tune-up and brought them inside ... instead of leaving them in my car which probably would have been more practical. 


The two big races that I have coming up are Augusta 70.3 Ironman and Beach2Battleship Iron Distance tri.  I'm not too worried about Augusta because I've done a half iron distance tri before and was able to make it through on gels and water alone.  I do not think that nutrition will be that easy for the B2B tri.  I have been thinking real hard for the last week about what solid foods I can tolerate.  I will only be eating solid food on the bike as I intend to rely solely on  gels and whatever is available on the B2B course for the run.  I tried a PB & J sandwich last weekend.  It settled in my stomach fine, but it was hard to swallow since my mouth was dry.  I've had this problem before in a race.  I ate a couple of Powerbar Oatmeal and Raisin Energy bites at the beginning of the bike and since my mouth was so dry from the salt water, I drank almost all my water about 10 miles into the bike, with 14 left to go.  No bueno.   

Here are some things that I'm going to try:

• Infinit Nutrition.  This is an energy/endurance powder that you can customize.  One of the guy's that I ride with mentioned that this is what he uses.  I decided to get some because I could add caffeine to it.  This will help replace not taking gels with caffeine and I can rely on the Infinit for caffeine and a few calories, whatever food I decide to go with for the bulk of the calories that I will need, and water.  I bought some and tried some the other day to see how it tasted.  I wanted the flavor to be medium-strong fruit punch.  It tasted more like watered down lemon water.  Ugh.  Thankfully I have some BSN Amino-x watermelon flavor recovery mix that can be used before, during and after a workout and can be added to any beverage that tastes awesome.  It's got a little bit of a fiz to it, but I like that.  I'm going to mix the two and see how it works out.  Results to come after Saturday's training session.  Here is the nutrition facts for the Infinit mix I customized (serving size is 2 scoops):
• Calories - 196
• Fat - 0
• Sodium - 338mg
• Potassium - 98 mg
• Carbs - 46g
• Protein - 3g
• Caffeine  -- Doesn't say.  I'm a little annoyed that it doesn't tell me how much caffeine is in it. 
• Bonk Breaker bars.  I had never heard of these until about a week ago.  It turns out that this is now what will be on the course for Ironman races.  After reading more information about them I decided to get a few.  From a lot of the reviews it sounds like they are moist and will be easy to get down.  There was an issue with my order, so I don't think I'll have a review ready for them until after next weekend's training session.  Unless by some miracle I am able to find them in a store Saturday.   I don't understand why they are not stocked everywhere that carries any kind of endurance race nutrition stuff.
• Honey Stinger Waffles.  Read some race recaps from other people that mentioned eating these.  I also have a few friends that like to eat these during races.  I have tried them myself (only before a race, not during a race or even during training) and they are tasty and gooey, soft but not sticky like Chomps.  Same deal as with the Bonk Breaker bars.  I will have a review up hopefully this weekend but more likely next weekend.