Ok, it's time to discuss what training does to your appetite. I've trained for a few marathons and have done a couple centuries and have always been hungrier during the training, particularly at the end, but I have to say, I've never been the ravenous beast that I am now until triathlon training. I am hungry from the moment I get out of bed until the moment I fall asleep, and sometimes for small pockets of time when I wake up during the night. It's pretty much all I think about. I have to deliberately plan every thing I eat to get through my training and my day. I was out for a ride today and passed a girl and guy riding casually and chatting, and all I heard of their discussion was "roasted eggplant with a little goat cheese" and I was salivating. I was pretty depleted on this ride and got to the point where it was too late for a GU, but seriously, just hearing about food put me over the edge.
My day started with a swim, I did .75 miles and tried to focus on doing more uninterrupted sets. I had a fairly unusual experience today though - at one point, I was the only swimmer in the pool. I hate the crowds, but I also don't want to be the only one. Thankfully, the guy in the lane next to me must have been just hitting the loo because he came back and took some of the pressure off me. I had an ok swim, but still not great. I need to learn how to breathe more naturally and got some great advice on the beginnertriathlete.com forum that I can't wait to try out. This community has been a huge help to me. I'm so glad I found it.
My ride was great aside from my food fantasies. I kept a good pace and think I'll be able to clear the ride in my race in about 1:30:00 if all goes well. But the fact that I was hungry and fatigued was overwhelming. I ate lunch, then a snack, then a dessert, then had a coffee, then had cereal, and this was all before going out for drinks. Then drinks led to tons of guacamole, equal amounts of chips and a massive plate of pork tacos. I was with two fairly heavy-eating guys and I still ate more. I'm starting to scare people and I'm only scratching the surface.
Tomorrow I'm going to work on breathing instead of just distance. I want to be as ready as possible for my open water swim in Michigan, which I have no doubt will push me to a new level of hunger. I look forward to my response.
Sport - Swimming
Distance - 1400 yards (1280 meters or .79 miles)
Time - 45:00
Sport - Biking
Distance - 23.25 miles
Time - 1:35:54
You sound a bit like me. I find that when I down water (galloooons!) after my workouts, even if I'm not thirsty I continue drinking the rest of the day, I don't have the craziest appetite that I do when I only drink a bit right after the workout...though I can always eat :).
ReplyDeleteLet me first say, I love reading your blog! I'm also training for my first tri (after wanting to do this for quite some time) and have spent nearly the past 2 months attempting to teach myself how to swim properly. Anyway, I'm constantly hungry and more times than not I can out-eat a lot of guys. After a few nights of waking up completely ravenous at 3am, I started leaving a granola bar on my nightstand on nights that I have a hard/long workout so I don't have to get up and head for the kitchen. It sounds ridiculous....I know. The upside of this is that I love food, and at least for now can eat pretty much what I please :)
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