Gluten Free and Time Trialing

It's Wednesday...the second hardest day of the week for me (Tuesday is by far the hardest because it is a completely useless day-Monday is the first day of the week and you have an excuse to be unproductive, Wednesday is the middle of the week-the top of the hill, Thursday starts the downward momentum and Friday flies by). Anyway, it's Wednesday and it is unbelievably hot in the South. I don't know if it is global warming, but what ever is causing it needs to go away. If it is this hot in early June, I do not even want to begin to imagine what July-August will feel like.

Sticking to the theme of this blog, however, I can tell you that training is progressing nicely. I had a nice 41 mile ride on Saturday, followed up by a hot and humid 10 mile run on Sunday. Total training time for week 1 was 11 hours, 15 minutes (about the time it will take to complete the Ironman in November). This week started off with a time trial swim just to see how my swim fitness is progressing. Basically, we want to be able to establish what my Ironman swim pace will be per 100 meters. So, I had to swim 5x400 yards with very little rest in between and then immediately after the last 400 swim, I had to swim a 500 time trial. I guess the point was to tire me out and then see how fast I could swim. It was a tough workout. I also rode 20 miles on the bike, focusing on some one legged pedaling efficiency drills. On Tuesday, I was in Charleston, SC for work and had to run 6 miles. It was so humid, even at 6AM, I felt like I had just gotten out of the shower. I also had a 30 minute weight lifting session on Tuesday afternoon, something I usually look forward to as an effective, yet easy, workout. Today, I had to ride the dreaded 30 minute time trial on the bike. Ironman training is so dependent on good, solid date (heart rate, wattage on the bike, cadence on the run) that the more you can set baselines the better you can gauge training to prepare for the race. On the bike, it is important to know what an athlete can maintain as far as power goes in an all out 30 minute time trial effort. I dread these workouts because they send you to a level of pain that you rarely go to. I am proud to say, however, that my power numbers are up from last year by about 10%, so something I am doing is right on the bike. Needless to say, I am feeling the effects from this workout this afternoon.

The past 10 days has been some what of a perfect storm (or imperfect storm) for me and Anne. Three things have all converged at once to create a frenzied feeling. One, I started Ironman training. Two, the weather turned extremely hot and humid. Three, we went completely gluten free in our diet. The diet has been especially difficult because we have had to completely re-arrange our kitchen to meet with the new nutritional demands. We have been giving away flour, bread, pasta, etc. and replacing it with gluten free flours, pastas, and breads. It has been mentally exhausting to come up with recipes and ideas and to remember what you can and cannot eat. I have been programmed to eat gluten from the time I was a child, so this is a huge change for me. Some of the new recipes have been good, but others have been pretty bad. We tried to make home made cereal and it is pretty damn terrible. We made gluten free baguettes and they taste pretty weird. Other discoveries have been good-Quinoa pasta, rice bread, soy crisps to name a few. However, coupling this with training has left me feeling a bit calorie depleted in some of my longer workouts. I will have to find some balance if I am going to succeed at both.

So, training carries on and continues to increase in volume and intensity. I will write more later to give an update on the week's remaining workouts. We have some tough ones coming up. This week will end up with 140 mile of biking, 25 miles of running, and about 9,000 yards in the pool. This is nothing in comparison to where we will be in a month, but it is a long climb to get to be an Ironman.

Thanks for checking in!