This week has been round 4 of “figure out why Brendon isn’t hitting his times.” It’s come down to a few factors:
1. Increasing carbohydrate intake
2. Limiting long intervals to 800m
3. Addressing the enormous cavity, now slight infection, with a root canal.
Monday’s mile repeats went 5:00, 5:05, 5:30, 5:22. The workout finished with 6×150 @ 13s pace for the last 100m and a call to Gag’s with a “what the f” is wrong with me conversation. Gag’s thought that being sick about 3 weeks ago took some fitness away but also added the fact that I’m training alone and when you’re training alone, mile repeats are pretty tough. I felt better knowing another one of his athletes, Erin Donahue (Google her, she’s a stud) couldn’t do anything over 800m by herself. That said, the times above were way off, something else is going on….and a trip to the dentist confirmed a pending root canal, which I go in for tomorrow morning. Even a low lying infection in the system has the ability to throw off an athlete, something I’ve actually heard of happening with a tooth before, a very similar incident.
Today was 200m repeats @ 26-27, of which all but one were at 26. The biggest limiter in the workout was getting the calves loose as well as the IT band, which locked up on me yesterday. A quick trip to Paul at Peninsula Rolfing really helped unglue all the sticky fascia and muscles.
Endurox feels like it has been working well. I added a Coke to my lunch for a little extra shot of sugar and caffeine. Say what? Don’t know the benefits of caffeine after a workout? Studies show a dose of it will speed recovery by delivering glycogen to the muscles faster.
Glycogen, the muscle’s primary fuel source during exercise, is replenished more rapidly when athletes ingest both carbohydrate and caffeine following exhaustive exercise, new research from the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology shows. Athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared to when they consumed carbohydrate alone, according to the study, published by The American Physiological Society.
Might explain why tea with lots of sugar is part of a Kenyan’s choice for post workout fodder….
I’m off to bed to dream about my root canal.
Never Let It Rest,
Brendon
