Sunday, March 05, 2006

Things I notice in the past two days

1) A good run helps work out

I went for a run on Fri night before I work out. When I did leg press, I was lifting 280 lbs with ease. Before I had trouble lifting 260 lbs. As IMmike suggested, running is a good warm up before lifting.

2) The one minute difference

Have you ever notice that when we do hours of training, the last few minutes are always the most painful. Time kinda slow down..and sometimes go backwards. For mental preparation, I am increase each of my long workouts by 1 minute. Today's 3 hr 45 min bike ride turned into 3 hr 46 min. That one minute won't get me overtrain but it definitely help train my mind.

3) Still working with hydration and gel intake on the bike

I need to eat more gel on the bike. I planned to take in 5 gels and filled the gel flask. Today I only had 4. Might have to work on getting more frequency of gel increase (as someone say..like IV drops to your body).

Hydration wise, I had 3 bottles of water and 2 bottles of gatorade. I finished all the water and only have 1/2 bottle of gatorade. I had to stop and go take a leak 3 times. Probably drinking more than I need (better than less).

4) Recovery seems to hit the mark

I am very excited about my workout not because of the long time on the bike. More importantly is my legs are still fresh after the bike ride. My recovery drink (25 mg of protien, 1/2 cup of cantaloupe and 325 ml of mango juice) works like a charm. I take a 1 1/2 hr nap afterwards. I feel super :).

For the two hour after my long bike ride, I had to go take a leak 4 times. All my urine is clear. Good sign. I am never been so happy rushing to the washroom and know my kidney is working OT :)

5) Don't abuse my freebie meal

I reserved one meal once a week which I call freebie meal. This is a meal where I can eat anything I want. This is the second week I have implemented this and I think I am abusing it. I had half rack of ribs, 8 chicken wings, lots of wedged fries, a beer and two scoops of chocolate ice cream. I was going to get more fried food if my friend didn't stop me. Over eating for sure.

Next time, no more abusing this freebie meal. Just taking a look from what I eat tonight, it is 2400 over calories. This ain't so bad considering the bike ride I have burnt over 2000 calories. Still, I need healthier food.

17 comments:

Rachel said...

You're definitely figuring out what works for you. When I run before a weight lifting session, my lower body muscles are definitely fatigued for weights. I have to choose which is most important and do that workout first. I agree about choosing what you eat wisely. For some reason, when I work out more, I automatically eat healthier. I think it just makes me feel better. Pretty good motivation.

William said...

Hey Cliff.

Yeah, just cut the water back until you barely have to take a pee at all and thats the magic number.

Well, isn't that what freebie means? I bet in the next few weeks you dont go as crazy and it starts to be a normal part of your week.

Good on the bike! Way to go.

I can lift 10-20 lbs more on all weights upper and lower body after a 45 min spin class.

Kewl Nitrox said...

I'm with William, you are probably drinking a touch too much. ;)

Born To Endure said...

Your freebie meal sounds pretty good to me..:-))

anners said...

over 2400 calories? sounds like way more than that to me!

Sixteen Chickens said...

Glad you didn't say that drinking beer was abusing your freebie meal! Whew! That was close!

Anonymous said...

LOL, definitely freebie meal abuse.

Some very important lessons here. Especially about the food when riding. I have a tendency of not bringing enough and then bonking at the end so I'm still working on that as well. Keep experimenting, yuou'll find what works for you soon enough.

Trisaratops said...

Very cool that you are learning what works for you! It's such an individual thing...I'm still trying to figure it out, too.

Nancy Toby said...

Woo mango juice sounds yummy! Where do you get that?

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Love your freebie meal but that's like a whole day of eating for me...lol.

I listened to a lecture on Nutrition for runners yesterday. The one last tip she left us with was "Step away from the table!".

Cliff - "Step away from the beer and wings!" lol.

Papa Louie said...

Yeah, those freebie meals can be a true test of the will. It's nice to find what foods and drinks work in our training and racing.

Robin said...

Hey Cliff! I am looking into recovery drinks as of yesterday! What is the protein in yours from? It sounds good.
Also: yes you are correct! Since it is TNT, I did NOT have to qualify. There would be NO WAY I would qualify; this is also my first marathon! There are also qualified runners, however, that have joined the TNT team for Boston, who have been running Boston several years now. It is nice to see these people fund raise for such a worthy cause who don't need to, since they could have gotten a number anyway.

qcmier said...

Good to see you are so are so focused on your nutrional intake. Maybe I should balance out my hydration with you, since I usually don't get enough.

Yeah I like getting a full swimming, biking, or running workout before lifting weights. It makes a difference. If you do it consistently your body will adjust. I never thought I could handle four days of weights per week after my cardio workouts, but I built up to it.

Papa Tweet said...

Holy crap. you ate all that food! That's amazing. I used to eat like that everyday. Amazing I'm still alive.

As for the lifting and running. I always lift, then run. Lifting creates lactate and running helps clear it. Just a thought. This is a suggestion from my coach. Seems to help.

I never thought I say this, but, congratulations on all the peeing. You're much better off drinking a little extra than too little. Unless you over do it liek your freebie meal. Apparantly, there is such a thing as hyperhydration, but I doubt you were near that. Keep it up.
Benny

Migofast said...

I'd never give up the freebie. Its the reward and my chocolate fix ;)

Mike said...

Sorry Cliff but you are currently on Freebie Meal Lockdown! ;-) That meal has to count as a workout! I actually have no room to talk after eating a truckload of sushi at a really good revolving sushi bar this weekend though....the stack of empty plates was pretty impressive! ;-) My Japanese roots...hard to say no!

WildWill said...

Thngs look they are going well there Cliff, and agree with the training the mind thing