Gummy Food

Recently I discovered the Clif Shot Bloks, which are phenomenal. Not only do they taste great, but I like to give them some credit for making me have less of a headache after the weds/fri morning computrainer rides. Well, that and ensuring that I drink 2 full bottles of water during the workout. I have a serious problem with dehydration headaches, so I have my superstitions for each session. For the summer runs, I would start with a banana, and drink smart water en route, a jelly bean or two if I was hungry, and finish off with gatorade and breakfast. After I adopted this routine, I had much better running experiences, and didn't end up with midafternoon splitting headaches. For some reason, this had been an exclusively running problem- I never had a serious headache after a bike workout. But enter computrainer classes: warm stuffy room, working our butts off for an hour- harder than I ever pushed myself on my own, no wind to blow us any cool air save for some fans on the floor. After a few sessions of headaches and miserable days at work, I started forcing myself to drink 2 bottles of water, eat a jelly bean or two and drink gatorade immediately afterwards, and a protein bar on the way to work. Now, I can rely on a shot blok to get me through the beginning of my drive, so that if I forgot my protein bar, I can survive the almost an hour long car ride without fear of headaches. With this new routine, I have not yet had a deydration bike headache. I just now bought an 18 pack of shot bloks on amazon with a savings of 50 cents per package! woo! In the meantime, I also chew gummy vitamins, and sometimes you just can't get enough (but it is unwise to have too many gummy vitamins in one sitting!). So I also bought myself some Target gummy bears to satisfy my sweet gummy non workout cravings.

In other news, besides that of gummy foods, I have had another week or so of ups and downs on the workout front. Last weekend, I ran for 75 min straight!! No pain, but it was a struggle of a run. I have learned, I think, that based on this run, being stressed out doesn't always make for the best workout! We ran just over 7.5 miles around the track, and I followed that up by a half hour pool run, where I got bad charley horses in both calves. For some reason, this only occurs when I pool run after real r unning- I have not had this problem (at least not as painfully) in any of my other solo pool runs. I was also in a huge hurry to get on the train and meet people for the cubs game, so I think that, among other things, contributed to my stressball workout. This weekend coming up I have a 70 min run followed by an hour pool run. I hope my poor calves can handle it, and that if I don't make myself have anywhere to be, I can be a little more relaxed!

Monday morning's swim was not bad, I thought. At some point during the swim, I started pushing my hands harder through the water, feeling resistance and efficiency, and I had a feeling of understanding. I think I finally got what they mean by pulling yourself through the water! After this excitement, I was looking forward to Tuesday night's tri practice, where we would be doing some more swimming. However, my excitement quickly waned when I had a terrible time with the paddles, despite my newfound understanding of their purpose, and got a one-on-one tutorial on how I *should* be using them. I never got a chance to really try though, because my rigid, non-fluid form was also criticized. I was resigned to practice floating on my stomach, with slow breathing. Unfortunately, relaxing is not my strong point, particularly after pointed failures. I was unable to stay afloat- my legs kept on sinking. I got more and  more frustrated until I realized the masses had left and it was time to run. Discouraged, I headed up to the track, with the coach's words of wisdom "you just have to work on relaxing and slow breathing." I know that this is the truth, I just wish that swimming and relaxing came a little easier to me. I have been working so hard at swimming over the last year, and I am disappointed that my technical skills are still so low. But, after being upset, I have realized that I can only improve by focusing and trying, so I am going to suck it up and concentrate on floating and breathing and relaxing at next Monday's swim...

Running after swimming felt amazing. I don't know if I was energized by my inability to swim and wanted to make up for it in the run, or if I was just more awake/with it than I was the previous saturday. Mo and I were maintaining around 9:30 miles (instead of 9:40 from Saturday) and it felt easy, relaxed, and fun. The 60 minutes went by fairly quickly, and we almost hit 6.5 miles. It felt so good- best run I've had in a while. Nice and easy, and successful. No pain. Looking forward to running again on Saturday!

At the computrainer ride today, we had to maintain a lot of zone 4. I was struggling towards the end. My quads feel like they are permanently sore and achy from all of this hard work! I guess also that I swam and ran the night before. Thankfully I have my pool run slotted for tomorrow evening, so hopefully I can cut my legs a little break...

Here's hoping for a charley-horse free pool run tomorrow!