Yes it’s the final couple of days before the big event and possibly the end of this blog (although between you and me…. It won’t be the end of me do triathlons or even blogging about them)
In a similar way to my first target event, I’m doing my Maths for the event. Basic fluid intake, carb intake, weather analysis and this time I get my first crack at Carb loading.
Yes because I’m going to be competing for over three hours having a bottle of juice and a gel just isn’t going to cut it.
Carbs
Going off the advice off the nutrition guide on SIS and High5’s websites it seems a good rule of thumb is to take on 100g of carbs per 10kg of body mass for the three days running up to the event. Since starting this blog nearly 10 months ago I haven’t actually lost that much chub. I’ve dropped from a bulbous 204lb (92.5kg) down to a merely chubby 191lbs (86kg) so that means I have to try and get through 860g of Carbs….
That’s the equivalent of getting through almost a kilo bag of rice a day when a cups worth would be enough to sit beside a curry or chilli for 4! Needless to say I’m struggling a little with this!
Fluids and Gels.
For the Last event I worked on the 1litre per hour rule of how much WATER your body can absorb. This time out I have again consulted the nutritionist experts of SIS and High5 again who stated I should be aiming for 500ml/hr of High Carb drink and one gel/hr.
Working on the fact that I’ll be in the water for 40mins-1hr then getting on the bike for 1hr40 to 1hr50, Its clear I’m going to need both bike bottles and 2 gels on the bike, possible a third gel for the run seeing how the 10k will take me the best part of an hour.
So that is 2x 500ml of SIS energy, and 3 gels. There are 3 obvious places I can take on fluid, at bottom of Col de Crank (the climb up to Crank) at the top of Shaley Brow, when I’m blowing like a steam train and finally on the climb up tower hill road as you come out of Up Holland. Each lap give opportunities to get fluids and gels on board.
Weather
Both of my favourite sites Metcheck and the Metoffice are say the day is going to start off cold, then pick up to about 15-18° by noon. The looks like being from the south instead of the prevailing westerly although I’m hoping that may help getting up Shaley and prove less of a hindrance coming down from Up Holland to Rainford than the full on headwind I was expecting. To be honest, seeing how the course is a loop I’m bound to get a headwind at some point
The Budget Triathlon 