Thursday, December 11, 2008

2 days and counting

What started out as some crazy idea several months ago is about 2 days away. I signed up for the twin peaks ultra 50k and xterra crystal cove 15k which takes place the day after twin peaks. My game plan is to be able to survive the weekend to blog about it next week. In the months leading up to this weekend. I have used hammer products as part of my training regime. Hammer has an extensive knowledge base and expert phone consultants to answer all of your questions. One of my main concerns going into this weekend is sleep and recovery. I posed a question a week ago to the hammer nutrition forum, the topic was my pre-race meal. Due to my early start on sat- my plan was to wake up at 2am and have my usual bowl of oatmeal and coffee. I had this routine down since my training for Ironman Brazil serveral years ago and it always worked. Why? beacuse I would swim for 90min first thing in the morning and it would be difficult to have food. I found that having a small serving of oatmeal worked for me for my long extended master swim workouts. I simply carried that routine over to my ultra running. I was told many years ago about the 3hr rule prior to your training or races, but never really understood why. Here is link to the article that explains in detail why. http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=1279 So this past week- I went with the option of getting more sleep and skipping the oatmeal. My biggest fear was running starving with the empty stomach feeling. I must say I did not feel that all on Tuesday and today.
So here is my menu.

Pre-race-

3am- Wake up

Coffee
4 Hammer Endurolytes prior
3 Hammer race caps supreme
16oz of Hammer heed

Race Start at 5am
3 Hammer Endurolytes per hour for 7hrs
1 race cap per hour
1.5 liters of Heed in camel pack (refill with water at aid stations)
26oz of Hammer perpetuem batter- (14 scoops)
6 hammer gels

Post Race
2-3 scoops Hammer Recoverite mix (drink on my way home)

Repeat on Sunday

But modified for only a under 2hr race

I will post my evaluation of how everything went in my next post.