Recovering Exotically

I took a serious schooling in the vineyard hills yesterday. After the second set of 30-second overgeared intervals, I did indeed stop looking at the view of the sun sparkling on the Mediterranean at the top of each crest. Either my legs are still recovering from Sunday's 180km (although it doesn't feel like they are when I run up the stairs) or I just haven't been doing enough power work on the bike. I'm quite certain it's the latter; I've been working on two speeds for most of the winter: slow and moderately slow. This means that I can chirpily ride flat at a steady pace for 180km in 5hr45min, but don't ask me to pick it up and certainly don't ask me to tackle any hills.

After leaving me in the dust on the hill intervals yesterday, Sabine and Arnold said lots of nice things, like if I did the same intervals that they do every week, I will be keeping up in under a month. I think this might be the sort of thing that new friends say, but I'm determined to be where they are as soon as possible so I'm going to up the ante on the pace of my mid-week rides, recover well and see if I can't get there by the end of this month. Running, at least, remains my weapon and I was pleased to see that I could still run fast off the bike, even after a session that left me seeing stars under the high midday sun in the vineyards.

I'm getting to be very particular about what I eat immediately after a workout in the heat to ensure that I recover well. Coconut milk has become a favourite ingredient in my recovery shakes; I first discovered it when reading that it has the perfect electrolyte profile for post-exercise recovery in The Thrive Diet. I did some research and it's true: 10 oz has 650 mg of potassium (15x more than a banana), 25mg of magnesium, and 35 mg of sodium. It's a bit like nature's gatorade; and like my peanut butter obsession, I wouldn't dream of consuming it in in anything but an unaltered, unsweetened and organic form. I'm currently mixing it with a scoop of my rationed Vega protein protein, half a banana, ice, soy milk and a drop of vanilla essence. Frozen mango works well too; any exotic fruits pair with coconut flavour in my book, and exotic fits the mood of 30C+ heat.

I also found out that coconut milk is so similar to blood plasma that it was given to soldiers in WWII intravenously when plasma supplies were low. Some doctors give it to children with digestive problems, similar to Pedialyte, since the stomach accepts it so well. Low blood plasma and stomach shutdown are two things that might be on the agenda for me tomorrow: I've been cajoled into doing a two hour trail run in the desert-like brush area above the salt water flats, again, under high sun. I wish the French would get up earlier.