I felt strong and was confident that my run fitness had increased.
At the upper end of the training set, I began feeling wobbly and low on energy…I was bonking again!
I crashed pretty quickly after that.
Johnny noted that my lactate was way too low relative to the time and effort of the test. Big red flag to him, I was deficient in glycogen stores.
He was clearly concerned and spent time being very direct with me about the importance of getting my nutrition right.
If I didn’t fix it, I would not be able to complete the Ironman. Period.
He told me that although I was starving my body, I had achieved significant gains in my fitness. My body is very resilient. From these results, he was certain that I’d be much further along with the proper diet.
He began asking me about my nutrition plan on race day. I hadn’t seriously thought about it. Regarding carbohydrates, he told me for the bike it should be 240-360 calories/hr and on the run 240-280 per hour. All liquid, not solids to prevent GI issues.
The timing of the discussion was great. I had a scheduled phone consultation with a sports nutritionist later in the afternoon.
