Mental training

As I said in a blog post earlier, I have a lot on my mind and a lot of thoughts right now. Consuming most of my thinking is the epic race I have coming up: Boulder 70.3.

One of the things that plagues a triathlete is nutrition. Nutrition is important. From fueling your body at breakfast to what to eat on the bike, it's on your mind. Right now, I can tell you that every single thing I consume, from a glass of water to a bowl of cereal, I'm wondering how this is going to benefit me and what is it going to give me? OCD? Perhaps, but it's the way it is right now.

Two days ago, I had a convo with my friend Kris regarding flat Coke. I was perusing the race website and saw this is going to be offered on the run. Curiosity got the best of me, so I started browsing the web about the subject. Surprisingly, there is little offered online about this. Kris summed it up as a shot of energy; mostly sugar and carbs, it will give you the boost you need if you feel like bonking. I followed up with my friend Steve, who in his former life was a triathlete. He told me it's designed to prevent you from bonking. However, you want to do everything possible to prevent bonking, so make 100% sure you are doing everything in your power to properly nutriate (is that a word?) yourself so that you don't have to rely on a can of Coke or whatever to get you through the race.

It's fun to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't. We recently tried salt tablets and found that on a longer ride, we didn't cramp up. On an 8 mile run recently, I took a gel at 25 minutes and felt great, but bonked by mile 6. I need to probably take in more nutrition, which I will experiment with on a 120 minute run tomorrow.

Any tried and true methods that work for all of you out there? What are they?