I had a shocker of a run today, the worst I can remember, with the possible exception of the run leg of the 2010 Wilmslow Triathlon where I had a nightmare resulting in me missing my target time at the very start of my (then secret) mission to represent GB. I never figured out why that happened, but I'm glad to say I haven't repeated that dreadful experience - until today.
The plan was good: a 37 mile fast bike with the Bay Club boys, followed by a 7 mile run to complete a great training brick session. Since "Escape", where I qualified for the USA Nationals, I've adopted a few new approaches in an attempt to get a bit of a kicker so that I don't disgrace myself amongst USA's finest. I've had approval from British Triathlon that I can wear my GB Trisuit, so there will be no place to hide on 8th August in Wisconsin. I might as well draw a target on my back! I've been having a lot of vegan food recently and for the last two weeks have been completely vegan. This means everything is plant-based, and it is supposed to enable you get the maximum nutritional value from the food and none of the side effects of animal-based or processed foods. This means, in theory, that your body utilises the nutrition better and for me I hoped for a slight reduction in weight, a better performance on the bike and run in particular, and better recovery that would enable harder training. I'd planned for a hard 6 week training block before tapering for the event. You don't need to ask - I want top ten at least, so I needed this kicker. The other initiatives I've done include a slightly different combination of training sessions with a different balance of intensity - powered, of course, by the vegan food. So last week I incorporated a full triathlon effort in the evening after work and was delighted with my performance. I was, though, a bit concerned that I didn't feel fully recovered by today.
Nevertheless, the bike ride was good - perhaps too good. Paradise Loop is my favourite ride over here. As a quality ride it ticks all the boxes, with good uphill efforts, fast swooping downhills, and m a fast undulating road where I can get down on the tribars and get some serious speed. That's where I smoked Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants leading home run hitter). It goes through beautiful countryside, past some amazing houses, and has some spectacular views back to the City of San Francisco. To give you an idea, one of my fellow riders today is local, been here for ever, and as we regrouped and refuelled at Tiburon just said out of the blue: "Jeez, it's such a beautiful city." He's right, of course, but coming from someone who's seen it a thousand times it says a lot. There's also a fabulous cafe in Tiburon, which is normally my main target of the day, but today we were on serious business, and there was no cafe stop. Strava later revealed masses of PR segments, meaning I'd recorded my fastest times in lots of places during the ride. So clearly, I was working hard.
I arrived home and switched into my running shoes, then headed out on my run to Golden Gate Bridge. About 100 yards into the run and I was struggling. The traffic lights at the bottom of my street were on red and I was grateful for the rest. I had a dizzy spell, and everything went blurry and fuzzy, and it didn't clear until the lights had changed. They might have changed more than once, I don't know because I couldn't see. I knew already, that this was going to be tough. I zipped up my man-suit, got my head down, and pushed on. I managed to hold a 6:50 pace for a bit, and then a 7:00 pace, but by halfway I was on 7:50. I have never wanted to stop so badly. Everything was hurting, I had no energy, and I could barely lift up my legs. I had clearly hit some sort of wall. My legs were cramping up, and I could feel one muscle in particular beginning to strain. All logic was telling me that today wasn't my day, that this run should stop. All logic said that I would damage something if I continued, and all logic said that the only sensible thing to do was stop, walk home, and regroup. But my stubborn side won, as usual. I ploughed on, getting slower and slower but still trying to convince myself that I was getting some kind of positive training effect. At some point I stopped being on a run, and went into some kind of survival mode. I was on automatic pilot, the pain didn't matter, the pace didn't matter, getting home was all that filled my head.
I got home, and had to lean against walls, doors, anything that would hold me up as I got to the kitchen. Despite the fact that I had been through all kinds of misery and pain, my entrance didn't elicit much of a response from Jo and Katy. I grabbed food and drink, whatever was in range, and slumped into a chair where I crammed it all in as quickly as I could. In the next few minutes I swallowed a litre of coconut water, numerous handfuls of cashew nuts, a couple of cereal bars and 3 bowls of vegan chille. Then I crawled upstairs and went to bed where I slept for two hours. This is in the middle of the morning, about 11 O'Clock.
When I got up I tried to figure out what the problem had been. I spent the rest of the day eating loads and loads, and eventually went to bed again, and this morning I've woken up feeling OK. My efforts at analysis have been difficult because I changed so much at once. That alone is a mistake. I'm an experienced athlete, and I should know better. I do know better, but I tried too hard to get that extra kicker because of the Nationals. So I had more intensive training; a harder brick session than normal; a faster bike section than normal - in fact my fastest ever; and a changed diet. Putting that on record sounds ridiculous, and it makes me feel ridiculous. I think I'm OK now but I could have done some serious damage. It turns out that I've lost 6 pounds in weight. I don't know which of the variables or what combination of them has caused the problem, but I can't be taking those kinds of risks just to perform well at the Nationals. I need to make some use of my maturity and experience and not be so stupid again. I think this time I've got away with it, but its been a close call.
The most obvious cause has to be the vegan diet; I don't want to trash all the vegan theories, that would be unfair - I think I simply got it wrong. Either I missed something vital out, or I just didn't eat enough, but I believe what happened is that I had no fat stores, so when I ran out of the glycogen stores that are carried in the muscles and bloodstream there was nothing to fall back on. That would explain why I had a good ride but then hit a wall. Whatever the cause, with only 6 weeks to go before the big event, I'm going back to my normal routine. I might not get the big kicker but at least I'll finish.
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