Man I’m Hungry

Saturday had the makings of an “epic” day (seems we use epic a lot on LMS).  The ingredients of the day called for:

2000m lake swim.  800 warm up and 4 x 200 hard with a 200 easy between.  The 200s were beach starts with all out spurts.

Afterwards a 2-2.5 hour ride consisting of 4 x 8min hill/mountain climbs with a 4min rest between.   Following this up with 2 x 15min @ race pace.

Oh and it didn’t stop there.  The plan was to wait 3 hrs after and then do 15 x 1min @ just faster than race pace on the treadmill.

I say the plan was because I never made it to the treamill.  Everything went fine up until I downed my protein shake after the swim/bike.  Normally this wouldn’t have caused any issues but the bottle which I mixed it in had been sitting in the car…  for a bout 4 days…  and probably hadn’t been washed for about… 4 weeks.  Yup, it was a recipe for disaster.

The shake tasted disgusting.  This should have been my first clue.  But I needed my protein so I drank it up. 

About 45mins later I was looking around a bike shop when I started to sweat.  I also started to feel really light headed.  I quickly went to the registar and bought my things.  Before I left I grapped a bag of Gu Chomps just in case it was severe hunger.

As soon as I left the store (and it’s AC) the nausea wave came over me in the hot sun.  I knew it was only a matter of time before I hurled.  Quickly I made it to a spot that had less people (I’m downtown Ottawa, there are people everywhere!).  Luckily I found a chair in the shade, sat down, and began taking my newly purchased items out of the bag just in case I had to call Ralph. 

While all this was going on I had left Amanda in the store.  She had no idea what was happening and I hoped she would clue in.

That thought was quickly overrun by my gut ejecting its contents.  Gross I know but it only gets worse.  Up came my protein shake, gels, and a Nature Valley bar.

I sat back for a moment and wondered what could have done this.  Up until this point it hadn’t dawned on me that my expired shake was the cause of my evil.

After my guts cleared I decided to eat my Chomps so in case my belly needed energy it would have some. This gave me a little boose and I went to get Amanda and also surrender the car keys.  I figured there may be another round and I didn’t want it to be all over my steering wheel.

I was right.  At a stop light I had a paper bag between my legs, blowing chunks into it.  Up came the chomps, water and some more shake (in case you wondering).  At this point I had zero energy… 

When we got home I went up stairs for another episode.  Passed out on the bed and awoke still feeling crappy.

It was 5 hours between the end of my workout till when I could start eating.  During this time I idiolized Amanda because she ate so much; or so I thought.  You never really appreciate how much food you eat until you watch another endurance athlete chow down. 

So yes, I have recovered.  It took sometime but my body seemed to rid itself of the little virus that “tickled” my insides (thanks Phill Liggot). 

Is there a lesson in this?  I think so…  you don’t need as much food as you think you do.  And I guess the main one is to wash your dishes. 

Hope this doesn’t happen for a l o n g time! 

Happy (RAAAAALLLLLLPPPPPPHHH) Trainin!

Cliff