Rest day

REST: 24hrs!

More than that really, if you count my inactivity since yesterday at 7am :)

Went to bed 2nd night in a row feeling better (had a few nights of sick to tummy), also feeling more relaxed because my to-do list is under better control. I'm sure they are related issues.

Not much to do at work today, so lots of sitting at my desk. I had a good breakfast, but was HUNGRY by 10am, my usual Second Breakfast time. I had some tea, hoping to hold it off but at noon I went for a salad. $6 later I had a pile of spinach with lots of bacon, peas, raisins, sunflower seeds, black olives, green peppers....oh YUM. I feel better now.

And regarding nutrition, that is a big thought-topic for me right now. What do to about the Whole30? I've been doing it successully since the first week of October! No dairy, white potatoes, sugar, Nuuns, gum, since then. I don't miss those foods anymore. At all. I was on a no-added-salt rule too, but just this past week I added it back but only to one meal a day on which I train.

Whole30 is great and all, but it's not for ironman. Lately I've been run down and lacking some of the zip I'm used to. I'm eating great, getting carbs in the form of fruit, plenty of meat, lotsa fat, but still lacking in the zip I need. Base training is one thing, with all the LSD miles those fruit carbs and fat stores are perfect.

But Build starts shortly. Heck I'm thinking about a 3+hr ride tomorrow, and I'm not sure "fruit" is the way to go. Last week's ride felt under-fueled, and I don't want to have to re-learn fueling (as in, re-learn that I need sugar to go-go-go). I've been saying it all along, that sooner or later I have to break the Whole30 fast, and well this might be it.

The Whole30 recommends that after the 30 days you start adding back things one at a time to see how it goes. So that means I'm not going back to the Old Ways. But what will I go back to? It's an experiment, and I'm the N=1, which is why I'm detailing it for myself here. Someday I'm gonna look back on this and laugh at how I obsessed over it.

I Googled "whole30 ironman" earlier today and found another paleo athlete (who unbelievably is also doing IM CdA!!) who came up against the same quandry I have on the same schedule I'm on. She is going back to sugars (right NOW, actually) because of the concern about fructose and high intensity training. That's a good point--fructose is a major sugar source for me right now! Her blog posts encouraged me to remember the original Paleo guidelines of eating simple sugars for training, but real food outside of that.

Recently I've been using coconut water, raisins, bananas, dates, apples, sweet potatoes, and lara bars. Looking that over I see mostly fructose and fiber. That combination is a big gamble, especially on the run.

So. Sugar. Gels. Infinit. Powerbars. Powerbar Perform. Dig 'em out. Dust 'em off. Pack 'em up. But still no white potates. And no dairy. Not yet, anyway.

What are the rules? (why do I need rules?). Sugar only during training. This does not mean open season on the ketchup bottle and the honey jar. This does not mean I can start eating sugar-coated fruit. It means that if I'm training over 60 mins I can eat training-sugars as needed.  If I'm doing an easy session without the intensity, take the opportunity to get Real Food instead.

What about recovery? Hmm....fruit has most always worked OK for that. So for now I'll stick to Real Foods for recovery, like fruit and sweet potatoes, and the goal is nutrition-dense foods to rebuild on.

This sounds like a good plan.

That first gel is still gonna suck to eat.