From Brendon’s Questions Below:
“I assume my heart rate went up because I had no fuel?”
This is not necessarily the case, if you run out of energy you normally feel light headed and you will slow right down ” i.e hit the wall”.
I would suggest that the hills would have taken a lot of effort, and you spent a lot of time near your anaerobic threshold, or above.
Your heart rate increased because you are not fit enough to maintain efforts at or near your threshold for the period of time you did.
You will need to increase the intensity and amount of time at this level. This is a key sign of your fitness level.
It’s ok to go out and pedal around for a few hours at a low heart rate, when you first start training for such an event.
As you develop a base fitness, it become necessary to start doing harder session using heart rates closer to your Threshold.
Fitness gains are improved significantly doing this.
Pay Attention To Heart Rate In Final Weeks
This is something you are going to have to pay attention to over the final few weeks, to ensure that you are able to cope with elevated heart rate levels for longer periods.
Another factor could have been the heat.
As the days gets hotter, your body increase its core temperature – which can elevate your heart rate.
Bananas As Fuel
“Was the banana the right choice?”
Bananas are ok, but far from ideal.
Bananas contain approximately 60 Calories, which is not enough.
Being a solid food digestion is also slow and can cause some gastro upset, if you are going hard.
It would have been better to maintain the use of gels and HEED to ensure greater caloric intake and electrolyte profile.
“Why is the sky blue?”
It got the “blue disease” off the sea!
Cheers
David
