Swim, Bike, Hunger

My Tuesday workouts consist of riding my bike to the pool, doing my planned swim workout, and following that with my planned bike workout. I arranged my training plan this way on purpose to save gas money. It costs me $6 in gas to get to my pool =:O

Here are the details of today’s workout:

1:00 CHS4:
7x1min hill repeats (2)
…actually rode for 2:30 total, because I like to ride my bicycle!

Swim:
300 WU
8×25 drill (10)
9×100 mod (5)
300 CD
1700 total

Swimming always makes me so darn hungry. I don’t understand it. My heart rate never gets beyond zone 2 when I swim. So, why so hungry? I can’t possibly be burning very many calories.

Last week, I was so famished during the last 45 minutes of the bike portion of this swim/bike workout that I started chanting “hunger, food” in my head. It’s all I could think about until I got home…”hunger, food, hunger, food, hunger, food”. I had brought plenty of Gu and water laced with NUUN, but nothing substantial to quell my hunger pangs.

This week I brought along 1/2 powerbar. Here’s something I learned: I cannot eat solid food while riding my bike. I get a stuffed up nose whenever I exercise. So, I can’t breathe thru my nose. Try chewing on a powerbar sometime with a stuffed up nose. Uh, not easy. The first few bites I found myself holding my breath while chewing. You can only do that for so long, especially while spinning at 90rpms up a gentle incline! I eventually did get it down to a system where I took a very small bite, let it soften in my cheek (while still breathing), chew it a bit, drink some water, swallow. Still, this isn’t really doable while trying to ride at a good clip.

From a hunger point of view, the 1/2 power bar did help. I was still kinda hungry 30 minutes after eating it, so I ate a Gu. I had plenty of energy for the hill repeats. Kinda petered out on the way home afterwards, and once again started thinking about FOOD! No chanting this time! I probably could have used the whole power bar, instead of just half.

One of my lake swimming buddies is a ultra endurance runner turned triathlete. She’s now training for IM Wisconson – Go Jennifer! She said she takes Ensure during her ultra long running races. I asked her how she carries it while running, because it comes in a can. She said she’d stash it somewhere along the course ahead of time, or for her ironman, will just take it during transitions. Seems like a good idea. I’m going to try some Ensure next Tuesday.

When I just do a bike ride, or even a bike/run brick, I don’t have this level of hunger. Gu is plenty. But swimming really tanks me. This is turning out to be a great workout in preparation for the Duke monster, which has a tough swim course (very choppy). One of the mistakes I’ve made in that race in the past is bad nutrition and hydration.

PS: A woman at the pool came up to me and asked me if I was Carol from the blog and swimming videos. I met her once before at the pool while filming. We had a nice conversation about triathlon and life in general. Hi Janet!