Thursday, March 02, 2006

let the base training begin

Without a real “plan” Cyril and I decided to do a “longish” road ride yesterday.
I figured we’d be out for a few hours, maybe 30-50 miles. But the weather was great, sunny and 40 - 50 degrees. The Cascade Mountains in all there glory provided the background. So we just kept riding. Starting in the U-district we rode 101 miles from the city to the farm lands, with amazing views of the Cascades, Mt Si and some stinky cows. THIS is what I envisioned a day would be like when I left the “real world” for my fake one.

Some Numbers: In the 6:34 we rode (yes very slow base training) I consumed Hammer Perpetuem, Hammer Gels and some of Cyril’s nuun.

Total Calories: 869 Protein: 20.5 Carbs: 146 Fat: 15.5

I averaged 133 calories per hour.
Not even close to enough, but I felt great all day. Typically I’ll put down about 240-280 calories per hour, it’s not possible to replace the calories you use. I did feel the deficit on the last climb up to my house from Lake Union. Since we didn’t start out to do a 100 miles I didn’t have enough food with me. Today I feel great – I think this is going to be a BIG year.

Monday, February 27, 2006

The will to prepare

"It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." Bear Bryant

I'm in my second week of training for this years adventure racing season. Last year I did 750 hours of training. This year since it's now my "job", I've upped it considerably. Doing so breaks the generally accepted rule of not increasing your total hours training by more than 10% from year to year… but let’s face it at this point I’m a science project, an experiment to see what my body can handle. Plus I now have more time to heal and recover, so I should be able to handle the load. If not, I dial it back. We’ll see how it goes.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Introducing Team DART-nuun!

BIG NEWS: My adventure race team has a new co-title sponsor!! – nuun (pronounced “noon”).



nuun is an electrolyte replacement product that we have been using as a team for the last few years, it’s great stuff. I rely on it during races and actually drink it during the course of a normal day, just to be safe. It tastes great, it’s easy to carry (waterproof tubular container) and has the perfect electrolyte profile. Anyone who goes out for long runs, bikes, paddles, hikes, etc knows the importance of replacing electrolytes. If you haven’t already, checked out nuun – give it a try – Get 20% off when you buy online and use the promo code: TEAMDART

Booyaaa!