Those bad days
I never know when one of those bad training days is going to sneak up on me. Sometimes it'll start out ok and then just go bad in the middle. That's what happened today.
It started out as a relatively short long ride, which was to be followed by a 5 km run. For the first 15 km or so, I rode with a teammate, but at the entrance to Beer Sheva, I lost her (or, more accurately, she lost me). I spent the rest of the ride mainly alone and feeling lousy. I don't know why I felt lousy -- I'm not sick, I wasn't particularly tired and it wasn't a difficult route. It was just hard. The whole way. And it seemed like every time I looked down at my bike computer, I was going slower. I honestly thought I'd never get home. But I did. And things didn't get better.
The 5k run was 10 loops of the "track" around our sports club. When we started at about 8:30, the sun was already shining brightly and it was quite warm. I may live in the hot desert, but I don't particularly like sun or heat and I really hate to run in either. I did three loops and then took a break to get my bottle off my bike. Things just went downhill from there. I couldn't do more than two loops at a time without my heart rate soaring. My breaks were getting longer and longer. The coach told me to wait until my heart rate went down and so I sat down and waited, but my heart rate, which was 106 while sitting, went up to 135 as soon as I got out of my chair. I eventually finished the 5 km, but I don't think it's ever taken me so long to run such a short distance!
Then I biked home. Uphill. When I walked in the door, I wanted to die. I didn't die, but I did drink a lot and then take a long nap. I had a headache for much of the rest of the day.
A headache? Wait! I know what causes a headache. Dehydration. 2 hours on the bike and I finished less than half a .5 liter bottle of fluid. Duh. Even at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, I need to drink. I did finish up the bottle at the pool during my run, but at that point, I think I was way beyond quick recovery.
I have gotten dehydrated so many times during training and races that you'd think I'd have learned by now. Apparently not. I'm terrible at staying hydrated, even when I'm not training. Drinking enough would probably be the best thing I could do to improve my performance. It sounds so easy. So why am I so bad at it???
It started out as a relatively short long ride, which was to be followed by a 5 km run. For the first 15 km or so, I rode with a teammate, but at the entrance to Beer Sheva, I lost her (or, more accurately, she lost me). I spent the rest of the ride mainly alone and feeling lousy. I don't know why I felt lousy -- I'm not sick, I wasn't particularly tired and it wasn't a difficult route. It was just hard. The whole way. And it seemed like every time I looked down at my bike computer, I was going slower. I honestly thought I'd never get home. But I did. And things didn't get better.
The 5k run was 10 loops of the "track" around our sports club. When we started at about 8:30, the sun was already shining brightly and it was quite warm. I may live in the hot desert, but I don't particularly like sun or heat and I really hate to run in either. I did three loops and then took a break to get my bottle off my bike. Things just went downhill from there. I couldn't do more than two loops at a time without my heart rate soaring. My breaks were getting longer and longer. The coach told me to wait until my heart rate went down and so I sat down and waited, but my heart rate, which was 106 while sitting, went up to 135 as soon as I got out of my chair. I eventually finished the 5 km, but I don't think it's ever taken me so long to run such a short distance!
Then I biked home. Uphill. When I walked in the door, I wanted to die. I didn't die, but I did drink a lot and then take a long nap. I had a headache for much of the rest of the day.
A headache? Wait! I know what causes a headache. Dehydration. 2 hours on the bike and I finished less than half a .5 liter bottle of fluid. Duh. Even at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, I need to drink. I did finish up the bottle at the pool during my run, but at that point, I think I was way beyond quick recovery.
I have gotten dehydrated so many times during training and races that you'd think I'd have learned by now. Apparently not. I'm terrible at staying hydrated, even when I'm not training. Drinking enough would probably be the best thing I could do to improve my performance. It sounds so easy. So why am I so bad at it???
posted by bari | 23:47
4 Comments:
Drink, drink, drink and then drink some more!
I learned the hard way about lack of water by drinking 3 gallons over 3 hours and still getting heat stroke.
Let my slip into a coma and 18 liters of IV be a statement to you to PUT MORE WATER CAGES ON YOUR BIKE.
Set your watch timer and drink a fixed minimum amount (and replenish electrolytes) on schedule. It's part of the job!
be careful tho. do not OVER drink. you can over hydrate yourself and do very bad things (which are as bad as being dehydrated). don't drink plain water or straight gatorade. drink a mix. have some oranges, some sports goo, a pretzel (for the salt).
also, "don't think" .. turn your mind off and just try have some fun. :)
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