My plan was to take today off from training and rest my hamstring. It sounded like the right thing to do yesterday and then this morning I was re-evaluating the plan. Before I did anything I went to "Wheels on Bloor" and bought a new bike seat. I was looking at the ISM Adamo Racing Saddle and the Selle SMP Strike Pro Saddle. The guys at the shop recommended the Adamo. They've heard nothing but good things from people who bought them. It wasn't cheap, it ended up costing me $300 with tax.
Two days into the New Year and I've already spent $300. Then the guy started talking to me about a power tap to keep track of my wattage and that is like $2000 and up. He, like many others, say it's a great tool to get faster on the bike. We talked a little more about how expensive triathlons are and he suggested it was about the same as golf. Maybe so, depending on the cost of the Country Club membership. So much for thinking I have everything I need and not having to spend much money this year on triathlons.
I had them put the seat on for me, it would have taken me forever and I probably would have screwed up my bike position in the process. As they were putting it on they did a quick check and noticed that the rear sprocket was loose and wondered who put the chain on. They said it wasn't far away from all the gears coming apart. I told them the chain was put on my the support vehicle in Clearwater.
These guys at Wheels are good, they notice everything. They also do free bike fitting and suggested if the seat doesn't feel right to bring the bike back and they'll re-adjust my position and if that still doesn't work they'll take the seat back and give me others to try.
Before I left I tried the seat out on the trainer and had them look at my bike position. The guy thought I was sitting a little high but other than that looked good. We left the height were it was to see how the seat feels in the exact same position as my old one.
The seat itself feels much different than a regular seat. It's like sitting on half a seat. "The boys" are hanging loose, no pressure on them. It felt promising and more like the seat I had on the Quintana Roo, which I used to ride on the nose. If I can get it to feel comfortable on the trainer, apparently it will be more than comfortable on the road. I watched a video on it and they said it can take up to 7 rides for it to feel comfortable.
I ate fairly well yesterday and it wasn't easy. It's amazing how fast 2700 calories add up with so little food. Today was extremely tough to stay on track. I was doing so well until 4 pm and then had 4 bowls of cereal. The good news is that I was still able to keep under my 2700 limit for the day.
I emailed MAO and Luis suggested I don't train today if I feel injured. So I didn't. Tomorrow I'll get back at it with my long bike ride and I'm looking forward to trying out my new seat. I glad I didn't train, at around 2 pm I started feeling very fatigued. It was the same feeling I had in the pool yesterday. Obviously my body is telling me something. I feel like I have a complete lack of energy in the chest area.
At around 4 pm I was feeling really weak and that's when I became a cereal eating machine. Then I had a 2 hour nap and felt a little better when I woke up. I think part of the problem is that my body is out of whack from the holiday's. It's been a lot of eating and drinking to the max and no regular routine. This Christmas and New Years must have been great because I'm so glad the holiday season is over. Providing I don't eat anymore today, I've had two successful days of eating.
Recovery Day - Rest sore Hamstring
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9 comments:
The holidays have been hell on my body as well - sporadic training, food, wine, more food, more wine.
It figures that I got a sinus cold just in time for New Years, which is playing havoc with my heart rate on runs.
I am so glad to get back to a normal routine, hopefully this stupid cold will leave soon!
Hope you heal up soon.
Cool saddle. Hope your hammy heals up fast. What cerial did you have...hehe
C, thanks. Sounds like you had some fun over the holidays, except for the sinuses. I keep seeing the weather in Winnipeg and it is cold. Thanks for the heal well soon and I hope you get better soon as well. I hope you have a great 2010.
T, haha, Special K Almond & Raisin Bran.
B
B,
Hopefully, next week I will have same saddle as yours!! and let's enjoy it for long time!
Btw, I am very happy Xmas season is over because I did really bad on my training...almost nothing and feel really not encouraged for my HIM Singapore 2010!
Take care,
"XTB" Xavi.
Hi B
Glad you came right with a saddle. I need to look at a new saddle as mine starts hurting me which never happened in the past. Don't know if it is worn?(have done about 20 000km with it)
Only hear good things about Adamo saddles.
Glad you are using the calorie counting, it works.
Here is how I did it and what made me lose plenty of pounds. Don't know if it is 100% correct and maybe a dietician can help but it worked for me and I haven't fallen over instead I've done a few IM's.
First you need to determine your BMR( Base metabolic rate), that is how many calories you need to maintain(survive) in a day. There is websites that help you determine it. Just google "Determine Base Metabolic Rate"
Mine is 2107 kcal.
Then you need to write down how many calories you burn during your training for the day. No day is the same as some days the training is more intense and longer than others.
For example I've done an one hour bike session in the morning and the calories burned were 818kcal.
In the afternoon I did a one hour run and I burned 841 kcal
so in total I've burned 3766 Kcal for the day.
Now you need to subtract 100 kcal for every hour of training as you used that hour and it is part of the daily BMR. It is not exactly 100 but actualy 87 for me but I just use 100 to make it easy.
so the nett total for the day is 3566.
Now I write done all the food I eat during the day and don't exceed 3566 but to lose weight I try to eat between 500-1000 Kcal less than the 3566, thus 2566.
What I do is just after lunch time I add the totals up to see how close I am at my maximum and to see if I need more protein/less fat or more Carbs for snack and dinner time.
Over time I've learned which days are my heavy training days and which are my easy/recovery days and I eat according to that.
Now for Ironman racing you need to eat at a ratio of 60% carbs, 20% protein and 20% fat.
But remember carbs and Protein needs to be divided by 4 and Fat by 9 per gram.
So in my case of the 3566 Calories in a day 60% Carbs is 534.9gram( 3566*60% div by 4). 20% must be Protein 178.3g(3566*20%/4) and 20%must be Fat 79.2g(3566*20%/9). I will then not exceed the above.
I know it looks very complicated but as you learn your body it become so easy and you learn how to determine what to eat on what days very quickly.
Remember Ironman racing has four disciplines and most people only train for three of them(swim/bike/run) and don't train for the fourth(Nutrition)
If you want to qualify for Hawaii you need to train your nutrition also.
As with the other three, some days it really hurts doing them, Nutrition and working out what to eat in a day also hurts some days.
Sorry for the lengthy comment but I needed to share it with you as you need to get your nutrition right when you are training to qualify for Hawaii.
Cheers
J
j, awesome post!!!! i got it, it makes complete sence. am going to try it out. thanks again. can you tell with the small letters and no caps i'm on the bike. haha. thanks again
You don't have to spend $2000 on a powertap to measure watts. I've got an iBike for 1/10 the price and it is just as good.
jj, thanks for that tip. I saw that a year ago and forgot the name. I know it's not for indoor, and I heard it takes some time to set up outdoors, but I'm going to look at it again. Thanks for the comment.
X, don't worry about it. It was holidays, plus you can either train to get in shape or race to get in shape. The racing without training hurts more, but it still works. Don't sweat it.
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