Training May 19-25 - aka: My Take on Hammer Products

Week 13 of 36 (Week 7 of Iron Fit Training Plan). Twenty-four weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (May 19-25):

Total hours scheduled: 10:00

Total hours logged: 9:45

Total running miles this week/total: 20.6/175.1

Total biking miles this week/total: 65.5 /489.5

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000 / 60,000

Level of IM enthusiasm: 7/10. After last week's potential life-changing news (which would require a move for us out of the country), this week seemed to go back to normal. There's no new info on the job front, so I'm not going to worry about it anymore until we have a more definite time-frame. It may end up not affecting IMFL at all. I can't control if/when the job transfer will come through. All I can control is what I do today -- that's what I keep telling myself. And today, I choose to train.

Nutrition elements: It's Hammer (report) Time, people! In the search for the nutritional product that works best for me I started trying Hammer about three weeks ago and have been very pleased. I think I'm going to stick with them. I particularly like the "Little Red Book" that comes with their products that helps take the guess work out of a lot of the nutritional stuff. Plus lots of helpful, IM-specific hints.

Please pardon the extremely subjective/personal post, but I want to keep track of which Hammer flavors I like for when I go to re-order, so I'm listing them here. (And just for reference, I'm not a big chocolate person, nor do I tend to enjoy rich, "heavy" flavors.)

First, I am not a fan of the Hammer food bars. They're basically just like Lara bars. I'll eat them if I have to, but I don't care for them. I won't be ordering any more.

I'm scoring flavors on a scale of 1-10; 10= yummy for my tummy (for an energy product);  No comment by a flavor means I haven't tried it yet
GELS:
Apple-Cinnamon: 7/10
Banana: A little too realistic for me; 4/10
Chocolate:
Expresso:
Montana Huckleberry: Funny name, but good; 8/10
Orange: Pretty good; 7/10
Peanut Butter: (I'm so scared to try this)
Raspberry: Very Good; 9/10
Tropical (w/caffeine): LOVE! My favorite so far; 9.5/10
Unflavored:
Vanilla: Good; Buy again (but not too much) 6/10

My First Hammer Shipment

HEED (like gels, but a drink instead)
Lemon-Lime:
Mandarin Orange: Good; 7/10
Melon:
Strawberry: Good; 7/10
I like the Heed. It gives me the energy I want plus electrolytes. Taste is fine. It really seems like they're all kind of the same with just the slightest bit of different flavoring. But not unpleasant.

I am finding, interestingly, that the Heed does not quench my thirst. Fine on the bike when I can have one bottle with Heed and one with water, but not so easy on runs when I don't want to carry two different bottles.

PERPETUEM (for 2+ hour workouts; contains some protein)
Caffe Latte (w/caffeine): Good, 8/10
Orange-Vanilla: Good, 8/10
Strawberry-Vanilla: Good, 8/10

One water bottle filled with a single packet (so I think that would be 2 scoops of the larger bucket) got me through my 2.5 hour ride this week and a 2 hour run last week with no problem. Again, I can't actually tell much difference between them in the taste, but they're all pleasant. Also, water needs to be consumed separately. Note: I'm pretty sure Perpetuem is going to be my go-to energy substance for IMFL and my August HIM. I'll be trying the chewables soon.

ENDUROLYTES
Haven't really gotten to these yet because the weather has been so mild (and because Heed includes electrolytes).  Will post more as I get to them. They seem pretty basic.

RECOVERITE (recovery drink)
I think I'm just barely getting to the point in my training where I need a recovery drink sometimes. For my 2.5 hour (41 mile) bike ride? -- Yes. For my less than 1 hour, 2500m swim or 6-mile run? -- No.
Chocolate
Orange Vanilla - Good. 7/10
Strawberry - Good. 7/10
Vanilla - Good. 7/10
(Just so we're clear here, I'm not saying these are like hmm-hmm good. They're palatable. I like that they only have to be mixed with 4-8 of water. Will order all three of the flavors I've tried again).

I also plan to try the Hammer vitamin/supplement products: Race Cap Supreme and Premium Insurance Caps.

If you've never ordered from Hammer, but are thinking of trying, please feel free to use THIS LINK . It will take you to the Gel page, but you can order anything with it. You'll get 15% off your order and I'll get a percentage off my next order too. (First time customers only). I wish I had had someone's to use when I made my first order.

And thus ends my Hammer Nutrition report. I will update as I try more flavors.

Running injury

Other training stuff: Had a crash -- while running for heaven's sake -- on Friday. Hit a piece of jagged sidewalk and took a hard fall. Tore the crap out of my hands and knee and even jarred my shoulder. Just wasn't paying enough attention - kind of like my last fall on my bike. Everybody be careful out there!

Week 3 Training (March 10-16) - aka: You Might Want to Unclip That Foot Before Getting Off Your Bike

Week 3 of 36. Thirty-four weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (Mar 10-16):

Total hours scheduled: 8:00

Total hours logged: 7:50

Total running miles this week/total: 16.43 / 37.07

Total biking miles this week/total: 42.7 / 122.15

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000/ 15000

Weight: X (still. Seriously, no change? I'm eating too much. Will need to really start thinking about my diet soon.)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 6/10. A decidedly harder week for me, mostly because of work deadlines (but I got Book 2 in my series finished -- yay!). 8 hours of workout in a week is making me dread when I'm going to have 15-20 hours training in a week around Aug-Oct. Note to self: get my schedule clear as much as possible for those months. Duh.

Nutrition elements: Still nothing, really. I had one 1:45 bike ride that required some nutrition, but just grabbed my normal pack of shot bloks. I have these Liquid Shot EFS by 1st Endurance that I've heard really good things about, but those bottles have 400 calories. That's equivalent to two packs of shot bloks.

I generally don't do any nutrition for under an hour. After that I try to take in 200 calories an hour. So unless I break up the EFS bottle across a week's worth of workouts (a sip here and a sip there), I probably won't get to try these until close to June.

General notes: Had a couple of important newbie IM Milestones this week! First, I swam 2500 yards without stopping. That's 1.42 miles, or roughly 60% of the overall IM swim. It was in a pool, but still helped boost my confidence that I was able to get that distance completed, this early in the training season. Took 54 minutes, so if I kept that same pace at IMFL I would finish the swim in less than 90 minutes, well short of the 2:20 cut off.

Second milestone was on my bike. I do most of my rides on the trainer because there's nowhere nearby I can ride without fear for my life in all the traffic. But I had a 1:45 ride scheduled this week, so I took Shane West out to a local no-cars-allowed 16-mile bike loop.

But unfortunately, because I'm so used to being on the trainer (where my back wheel is held steady no matter what), as I was stopping I forgot that I was clipped into the pedals, then unclipped the wrong foot. Which all resulted in a pretty hilarious fall to the ground. I was going very slowly and nothing was really hurt but my pride (and a little skinned knee). Fortunately, no one else was around, or they could've heard me yell "Ohhhhh nooooooooooo!" as I fell. (Cue Ke$ha song: It's going down... I'm yelling timber!!)

I reported about my fall in one of my IMFL groups. They quickly asked the important question: was your bike okay?  I'm happy to report Shane West is just fine.

Now (for any newbies who might be reading), as I stop, you can hear me repeating my bike-stopping mantra: Butt off seat, unclip bent-knee leg. Butt off seat, unclip bent-knee leg.  If you don't do both of those, you're going to end up on the ground, looking kinda like this:

Seriously, this is exactly how I looked, but without anyone to laugh at me. And Shane West isn't pink.