Fuel to the Fire

As I completed my workouts today and prepared for tomorrow’s 4-hour ride, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was putting in my mouth and especially when I was doing it. 

In the past, I’d just go out and do my training before ever getting around to eating.  It was an afterthought (or a Very Bad Thought, like “if I skip food before, all that working out will make me lose a little weight.”).  However, this year, the Ironyear, I’ve learned the importance of the timing and content of fueling my engine. 

My day looked something like this:

Wake up, walk dogs, and eat english muffin with jam.  Pack up my gear and drive over The Hill (25-30 miles) to the Pacific Ocean

After seeing health department signs on the beach, I wasn’t sure if it was open for swimming so I skipped ahead to my 8 mile run (by the way, GREAT run – 2 miles easy, 2 miles moderate, 2 miles hard, 2 miles very easy) along West Cliff Drive, which runs the coast in Santa Cruz.*  I consumed 1 bottle of Nuun & CarboPro during the run; while it wasn’t a long run, I felt the calories and fluid would do me good with the hard effort and the heat wave we are experiencing.

When I got back from running, I saw many surfers and swimmers in the water and decided I’d brave it for my day’s open water swim. 

OK, I admit it, I really decided to do the swim because I had to pee after that bottle of CarboPro/Nuun.

I shed my running shoes, grabbed my wetsuit, and walked down the hill to Cowell’s Beach.  I noticed many of the swimmers were sans wetsuit.  Not me though – THE WATER WAS 52 DEGREES.  It actually felt quite lovely on my legs after the hard run and since I was solo, I opted to swim back and forth between the buoys (you can see the first one – small white dot to the upper right near the Wharf – in the picture) instead of around the Wharf by myself. I had a fairly good swim with the cold and current and waves so I was quite pleased.*

On the drive home, I had a quick recovery snack of a banana with a bottle of water (to rinse the E. Coli out of my mouth, right?).

I met up with Jeff, who’d gone on some crazy bike mission to climb Henry Coe (elevation profile), at home and we both showered up and headed out to lunch.  Half a prime rib dip sandwich and a tall glass of lemonade hit the spot!

I picked my bike up from the shop with my new Adamo saddle (no Powertap yet, they had to order the spokes from France and it’s hopefully going to be built next week…) and then it was time for some quiet relaxation at home.  Cherries for a snack and naptime.  Um, somewhere else apparently since there is no room for me!  Spoiled mutts…

On that note, Stanley decided while Jeff was washing the car that he is a convertible dog and should be ferried around in style from now on.

The heat and late sunset threw me off and I realized around 7pm I’d better eat dinner soon!  Mini pizzas, a salad of field greens, mozzarella, and tomatoes, and crepes (1 sugar, 1 raspberry) went down just right!

And now it’s time for bed!  We’re riding long starting at 6:30am to beat the heat so it will be an early morning.  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!!!

*Photo stolen from another site, I was too busy training to take pictures!