As my training mileage increases, particularly in the pool, I'm amazed at how my perception of "long" and "short" workouts has changed. 40 laps in the pool used to feel long. This week, I completed three swims of 50, 80, and 70 laps each. The 50 laps felt short and the 80 (a little over 2 and a quarter miles) felt long. I worked my way up to this volume gradually, so the change was subtle. But now I'm proud to say I can swim about twice as far as I could in December.
There is no denying that the sweetest lap is the last lap, though. There are only so many flip turns you can do before you get bored of staring at the black line at the bottom of the pool, and the occasional Band-Aid. I got a waterproof iPod and it helps, but I can't help getting bored during the swim workouts.
Another thing I've been tinkering with is my hydration options during my swim workouts. I've noticed that, as soon as I get to 45 laps, I start bonking unless I put some Gatorade or something in my water. I switched over to Ironman Perform (by Powerbar) since that's what they have on the Ironman course. So I'm trying to get the concentration right. I find that the prescribed concentration of any carbohydrate drink is too strong for me, so I usually dilute it. I tried 1 scoop in 20 oz last time and it was too week. 1.5 scoops on Friday was too strong. 1.33 scoops might be just right.
The perfectionist in me has some cognitive dissonance regarding my sports drink during the pool workouts. There's a little voice that says "you won't be able to stop and drink during the Ironman swim." But I also know that I will be pretty much eating and drinking everything in sight pre-race. So the pre-race situation will be different than my pre-workout situation. So I've decided that anything that gets me through my workouts bonk-free is a good move.
No comments:
Post a Comment