Dehydration

One of my biggest fears in IM racing (racing is a relative term) is getting dehydrated. Lots of really bad things happen when you get dehydrated, kidney failure, coma, shock, GI issues. You get the idea. About 60 percent of your body is made up of water losing 5 percent of that water has a major impact on performance.

I sweat a lot! In spin class the sweat actually flows to the lowest spot on the floor and forms a puddle. Not a few little drops here and there but puddles. My clothes are completely soaked during a spin class or an early morning run, I can actually wring out my clothes.

One of the first signs of dehydration that I can monitor for is cardiac drift. Cardiac drift is when your heart rate rises due to dehydration. Since you have lower blood volume when you are dehydrated your heart beats faster trying to keep the blood pressure up. My first experience with this was at Buffalo Springs Half Ironman. A friend of mine, who happens to be a physician and a very good IM athlete, told me that you can only absorb about 28 ounces of fluid per hour and that I shouldn’t drink more than that because it will just sit in my gut. Well, It turns out I can and should drink more than the standard water bottle per hour. By the time I realized the folly of my ways it was way to late to re-hydrate. I ended up cramping on the bike and walking a good part of the run. At the medical (thanks to IronMaiden for walking me to the tent) the doc was shocked that I could still stand. My heart rate was around 140 (normally in the 50’s) and my BP was something like 80 over 40. So, after taking three bags of fluid in the medical tent, my HR was much lower and my BP was high enough so I could actually stand up without getting dizzy. I’m not sure where those three bags of fluid went because they sure didn’t come out over the course of a few days. Oh, and when you get that dehydrated you feel horrible.

At IMLou I consumed about 14 bottles of fluid on the bike – in SIX HOURS. I must have been a little closer to the mark because I only needed one bag of fluid at the medical tent!

Bottoms up :)

Cardiac drift

Here's some interesting data from the Race The Train ride. It looks like I have a bit of cardiac drift happening. This is after about five bottles of fluid over the course of three hours. I wonder if the previous day's race contributed.

Weekend of Racing

What can I say? Every once in a while you just have a great weekend doing what you really like to do; having fun and hanging out with great people. This weekend was one of those weekends.

We started out on Friday night to race the F1 in southern New Mexico. This is a great draft legal race, probably one of the most fun events in the entire state. You start off with a 400 yard swim, get out, run across the beach and do another 400 yard swim. Enter T1, get on your bike and head out for an 8 mile – draft legal – bike. If you are lucky enough you can get a group of folks that want to work hard and take turns pulling. Since there were a ton of outlaws at the race there wasn’t a problem hooking up with people. Then pulling into t2 you get to head out to the 4k flat run. Then just for good measure you get to do the bike and run one more time! That’s T3 and T4 for those that are a little transition challenged! The surprising thing about this race is the second bike always seems to be a bit faster than the first bike and the run is only a few seconds slower. This a great race and I would encourage everyone to give the format a try.

It seems I picked up some hardware at the race, first in the age group, third in the overall series (which still shocks me) and I received a city cup trophy. Three pieces of hardware from one race. That’s pretty cool. It must have been my lucky socks. Get it, Roswell, aliens… (you might have to blow up the picture a bit)

After the race and eating lunch with a bunch of Outlaws we headed up to Chama, where SWTriGal and her hubby H have cabin – In Northern New Mexico right next to the Colorado border. The next day we headed out to Race the Train into Colorado. Wow, it was a tough ride. We started out at an altitude of about 7500 feet and climbed the next 16ish miles to over 10,000 feet. This took a little over an hour (ride time) with a rest break and a Facebook update at the “Leaving New Mexico” sign. Oh it took about 23 minutes to come back down, yeah it was worth the climb J

Major thanks to Debi and Hartley for hosting us at their “cabin” for the weekend, Thanks!!!

A few Pic’s from the trip:

IronOutlaw showing his form at foosball – yeah he just scored a point – against DPR’s twins, BTW he lost the game!

At the “Leaving New Mexico Sign”

At the halfway point looking down the first climb

Here’s a little proof we beat the train!!

And a picture of my son, he was a super trouper, as we dragged him all over the state

I seem to be a little slow on the draw this morning. While making my morning oatmeal I couldn’t find the oatmeal container. It’s not in its usual place on top the fridge. Where is that darn thing? Did the kids move it? Maybe it fell and broke? Did the kids drop it and throw it away? Humm, where is it? Oh there it is, right where I put it three minutes ago, next to the pot, just sitting there waiting for me to measure out my gruel for the day. Wow, I need a little more recovery time.

This weekends fun began on Saturday with a nice 50 mile ride. It was supposed to be 65 but we turned around early to ride with the rest of the group with the intention of added on the extra miles at the end of the run. Weeelll, when we stopped to drop off the other folks, I wasn’t exactly excited about getting back on the bike so we stopped for coffee! Much better than riding don’t you think?

Later that day I followed up the ride with a 2500 yard swim, wow did that feel good, it’s been a week or so since I’ve been swimming so I needed to make up some yardage.

Later that day we walked around the Salsa Fiesta for a couple of hours and had one of the best quesadilla of all time. Of course, maybe I was hungry from working out twice and walking around for a couple of hours, nah.

Saturday night, was dessert at Flying star, yum, Strawberry Rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream. And good company to boot, what more can you ask for?

Sunday’s Workout was the run from hell! That is if you have to run up a mountain to get to hell. It seems the Dread Pirate is a little challenged when it comes to guestimating mileage and grade. Her 5 mile hill run turned out to be 8 miles of soleus bashing, quad busting 14% incline fun. The plan was to do the “Hill” run and then run another hour or so, right….I didn’t want to take another step right then so the next best move was to do what triathletes do so well, eat! Yep, we all voted for breakfast every except the Iron Maiden who keep to her plan and finished her run, kudos to her!
This is a picture of the "hill" we ran up, no, it's not the little hill in front. It's the big hill above and behind the clouds. Okay we didn't really run up the entire mountain, but we were above the clouds!

Being the type A personality I am meant that I was really feeling guilty about not putting in the extra miles. Soooo, I conned my son into going for a 6 mile ride in the bosque to keep me company on, yes, my second run of the day. Wow, did the legs feel heavy, what fun!

It turns out that I have good reason to be a little slow on the draw today. Yep, It was a tough weekend.

Running at night

We went on our first group run last night in preparation for the Colorado Relay. Some folks think it’s a good idea to actually train and prep for the races you are signed up for and with this race it’s probably a good idea to do some proper training. So off we went to run in the dark. I’m not sure running in the dark was much fun but it was sure nice to run with a group of folks. The trail sure looks a lot different at night, and it even sounds different, guess it’s all the night critters coming out. Even the coyotes sound mare eerie in the darkness.

This Sunday we get to run the foot hills and that should be a lot of fun! Oh wait, I think there was a reason I avoid ‘em. If I remember correctly they HURT, guess my memory will be refreshed on Sunday.

Darn, my legs are still tired from last weekend!

Dodging Millipedes

This weekend was the Chile Harvest Sprint Triathlon in Socorro. This is one of my favorite races of the Southwest Challenge series. The race is close to Albuquerque, only about 80 miles south and is a seeded time trial pool start. The great thing about this format is the field is spread pretty far apart by the time people hit the bike. And as far as I can tell there aren’t any packs or drafting. Normally a sprint race with 400 athletes would get pretty darn crowded on the bike.

The other thing I like about the seeded time trial start is you don’t know where your competition is. You can sort of keep an eye on them at the swim start but as soon as you get to the bike it’s very hard to judge where they are at, as a result you really have to hammer the whole course.

Biking through the desert this time of year, in the morning, brings out the millipedes. These critters are about 4-6 inches long and were all over the road on the bike course. I was weaving around trying not to run over them but there were a few already smashed. I’m sure when the brunt of the bikers came through the rest of the bugs didn’t stand much of a chance.

This is my first race using the new Outlaw time trial helmet. In fact it was the first time I really even buckled the helmet on. Note to self – adjust the straps before racing! The helmet is pretty cool and actually seemed to make a difference, at least I felt geekier so it must have made a difference.

The run was pretty miserable because I had all the little rocks in my shoes from T1. My bike was racked next to the curb and when I got out of the pool I went over to the bike and my feet were full of those darn little rocks. I wasted lots of time in T1 trying to get my feet clean but failed miserably. Oh well. My feet will heal, eventually.

Overall, The race was great, and I took some time off of my previous races. So I get a new course PR! Yeah! The swim was a bit slower as well as T1 and T2, but the bike and run were both faster. I placed 2nd in the Age group, with the first place guy just crushing me, 20th overall male.

Oh, did I mention this race was the State Club Championship? Which the Outlaws won! We have been the defending champions for the last two years! Guess its one more year with the target on our backs. Congratulations Outlaws! Keep up the hard work!

I'll see your 14 miles and raise you to black toe nails

The training for the Palo Duo ultra has officially started. I know this because I now have two black toe nails. It’s an amazing thing, every time I run my first 14 mile run I get two black toenails. Then it’s re-grow them for the next six months. Rinse and repeat.

The cool thing is that I get to gross out my kids when I finally peel off the dead nails. My son was watching me peel off the dead toe nails and he had the whole morbid curiosity thing going on. Like father like son.

Oh, and those aren't my feet pictured, just a picture I found on the web. But amazingly enough, I have the same two toes with black nails.

Yep the training has started!