Today I'm scheduled to do a brick. I intend to bike as planned, then do 30 minutes of the elliptical to ensure I'm not losing any run fitness. I don't want to try & run for the 1st time on my quad after a bike ride, I'm afraid that would stress the quad & make me more likely to reinjure it or make it worse. On Saturday I'm going to try & run a little & see how the pulled quad is.
Yesterday I did a 2 hour bike ride with 1 hour 30 minutes in zone 3. I got a couple free packets of Hammer's HEED at a race not long ago & decided to use it during yesterday's ride. It had been about 3 years since I'd used a Hammer product. Just like last time when I used HEED I bonked HARD! Shortly after drinking the HEED I simply fell apart! This happens to me every time I use any Hammer hydration or nutrition products. I'm not saying Hammer products aren't good, because I think they are an amazing company, but for some reason my body just doesn't perform well at all when I use any of Hammer's nutrition or hydration. Particularly when I use their Perpetuem! From now on if I get any free Hammer nutrition I'm going to just give it away. There's no reason to ruin a workout just to save a little $!
If any of you out there are relatively new to endurance athletics I highly suggest you try using different brands of hydration & nutrition. Take detailed notes on how you feel during your workouts, how your speed & endurance holds up while using them, & how you recover while using that product. Make sure to use each product for a few weeks. Just a workout or two doesn't give you enough detail to compare products.
Not only have I taken a lot of time trying out different companies, but I've also done a lot of experimenting with gels versus bars versus Protein Bites. I find I feel just about the same during workouts when I use gels compared to bars, but I find I seem to heal a lot quicker when I use bars exclusively than I do when I use just gels. I seem to recover the best using Protein Bites. Cliff also has a protein bite type product out there that tastes like Whoppers & works great! Seriously delicious!
I've experimented with a lot of different hydration & nutritional products & out of all the brands I've tried the one that works best for my body is Powerbar. I seem to feel best & recover quickest on particularly hard or long workouts when I use their Powerbar Protein bites! Awesome product!
Speaking of experimenting with products geared for racing. I'm going to buy some Race Day Boost & try it out during the Patriot triathlon. Apparently I'm supposed to start taking Race Day Boost 3-4 days before my race & it helps an athlete go harder, fatigue less, etc. I've heard a lot about these little pills for a long time, so now I'm going to cave into the hype & try them. If I think they work for me I'll let you know, & if I think they don't work at all I'll post that too.
I won a free $25 gift card to the running hub here in Santa Fe at the AtomicMan duathlon in April. I've narrowed what I'm going to buy to 2 products:
Another pair of Brooks Adrenaline, which is my favorite shoe to train in. Or
A pair of Zoot Ultra Speed triathlon specific racing shoes!
Right now I'm leaning towards the Zoot Ultra Speed's since I'm training & racing for sprint distance triathlons. In sprint distance triathlons knocking off just a few seconds is HUGE because the races are so short. I can't count the number of times that I've finished 10 seconds in front of or behind someone in my age group at a sprint triathlon, where as in Olympic to Iron distances I've only finished within 30 seconds of someone in my age group once.
The Zoot Ultra Speed (in theory) will increase my speed in transition because they are built to get on & off so quickly, & to be raced in with no socks. They are also supposed to increase run speed because they are so incredibly light. If I end up buying the Zoot's I'll let you Peeps know what I think of them after I race in them for the 1st time.
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