Energy question

[btchance]

Okay - I've got a weird question for you girls. I've been experiencing this for a while and am confused as to what is going on. Here is an example:

I was doing a brick the other day - 35mile ride, 3 mile run. It was my first workout after a rest week. I was drinking gatoraid throughout the ride, and stopped to eat an energy bar and take a bathroom break around mile 20. I had plenty of energy throughout the ride and run to the end. I averaged 16mph on the bike (excluding the warm-up) and kept a 10:30mi pace on the run. There was no wind and I was in the aero-bars through most of the ride. At about mile 28 it felt like my body completely shut down. I had to get out of my aerobars b/c I felt like my body was collapsing and my average speed went down to 11mph - and that felt like I was working harder than I had during the whole ride. The kicker was that my HR which had been staying between 160 - 165 (LT is 181) went down to the 140s at the same time (before I sat up). Then about 1 or 2min later I suddenly felt fine and went back down into the aerobars and back up to 16mph and didn't have a problem throughout the rest of the ride or run.

This has happened to me on multiple occasions, both riding and running, but this is the first time it has happened when I was watching my HR and had no energy problems throughout the ride. I always thought it was because my HR had stayed too high and needed time to recover, but it doesn't look like it. Do any of you gals have any ideas - I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks! (and I hope it makes sense)

[LBTC]

I wish I could help, BT, but really I don't know the answer either. I have had similar things happen from time to time and am curious to see if any of our medically knowledgeable girls have a theory for us!

Thanks for posting!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Wahine]

BTChance - was your LT of 181 tested on the bike?

If it was, you would be in a zone 3 and that is an intensive endurance zone so I wouldn't expect a true bonk type of scenario unless you haven't done enough base miles in a zone 1 to 2. If that's the case you might still be getting a minibonk.

If you tested out your LT on the run, then it may not apply to your bike and you could be working at quite a relative HR even though you feel not too badly.

The symptoms sound like a sudden drop in blood glucose that comes back as you back off. So apart from training zone issues, you might be having trouble digesting what it is that you are eating at that level of activity. To remedy that I would probably try taking in a gel at about 45 min into the ride. They are easier to digest than an energy bar and deliver about 100 cal.

Aside, not related to this particular problem:

Keep in mind that you don't want to be doing a lot of zone 3 training as you get closer to your racing season. If it's an easy ride keep it in zone 1 to 2. If it's meant to be a hard ride, go from zone 1 to 2 rest periods and push hard into zone 4 or 5 for your hard efforts.

[btchance]

Thanks for the advice Wahine - (and sorry it took so long to write back). It certainly makes sense, and I went to the LBS today and talked to a couple of the racers there and got very similar advice. They also recommended the gel every 45min (recommended Hammergel - the ones that go in the flask for up to 5, I think), then powerbar endurance energy drink. I'm trying this this weekend for a long workout and will see how it goes.

The LT of 181 was tested on a run, but at a time trial I did that lasted 35min I took the average HR for that and it was 180. So maybe 180 is more of my LT on the bike - in either case, it's in the 180 area. And yeah, I wasn't planning on being zone 3 that day - it was supossed to be zone 2, but I was off a rest week, the weather was perfect, and it just felt good. Up until the past month almost all of my training has been zone 1, 2 so my base miles are fine. Thanks for the advice, though, sometimes hearing it from somebody else will help keep myself from giving into temptation .