You're just past the midpoint of your training. You might've plateau'd a bit. Or even gotten occasionally stale or bored or tired or frazzled or haggard. If so, just take a few easy days, or off days. That's okay. In fact, it's expected, and even required.

If you feel, from time to time, that you need to dial it back for a few days, that's okay. Generally, one throttled-back week out of every four or six is a good idea. That bit of paperwork behind us...

Let's broach a subject about the mechanics of training and racing.

MISSION
Hydration. Fuel. What's the deal here?

There are just a few things you need to know. First, you need to replenish what you use, or at least what you can absorb. So you'll need more than just a bottle of water on a long bike ride. You'll need to drink as much fluid as your body wants. Take two bottles on your bike. Refill partway through your rides if you're going for more than a couple of hours. In warm weather, take a bottle with you during any run of more than 45 minutes. Get yourself a water bottle belt, or just carry a bicycle water bottle in your hand.

But you need more than water. You need to replace electolytes and carbohydrates. So you need a fluid replacement. Go on our reader forum and search "fluid replacement," or ask folks on our forum what they prefer to use.

Then thereare gels, and even these things like Gummie Bears. Then there are the energy bars. But I don't like energy bars while I'm running, just when I'm riding. Perhaps after or before a run, but I don't like them as much during.

All these products work. But here's rule-two. You can eat as many calories as you want, but it's not going to do you any good. Your stomach can only function at a certain rate. That rate—at exercise—is 300 calories per hour, more or less. That's all your stomach can absorb. So if you stuff 600 calories an hour into your mouth, a lot of it is going to just sit there in your stomach. So don't ingest too little, don't eat too much.

The next rule is don't eat without drinking. The successful operation of your stomach requires a certain osmotic pressure to be maintained, and if you just stuff your face with gels and Powerbars and Snickers bars during your bike ride without drinking water, the stew you're brewing in your stomach is going to be so concentrated you'll slow your absorption. So drink a water along with the energy bars or gels that you consume.

One physiological tip: "Fat burns in a carbohydrate fire," as they say. If you totally run out of carbs, your fat won't burn efficiently, and you "bonk." That is not pleasant. The harder you work, the more your body burns carbs instead of fat. When you're going almost all-out, you're burning almost entirely carbs, and no fat. So if you go too hard for too long, you'll run out of carbohydrates, and you won't be able to replenish them fast enough during exercise. Remember, you can ingest 300 calories per hour, but you'll burn perhaps 2 or 3 times that much. At some point, you'll bonk. So ride and run moderately, and you'll preserve carbs longer (and you won't bonk).

EXECUTION
Let's get back on the long runs and rides. Let's use some of that fitness you're developing.

SWIMMING: 2 OR 3 SESSIONS X 1000 - 3500 YARDS PER SESSION
CYCLING: 1 OR 2 SESSIONS OF 60 MINUTES EACH, 1 SESSION OF 2 - 3 HOURS
RUNNING: 2 OR 3 SESSIONS X 25-35 MINUTES PER SESSION, 1 X 60 MINUTE RUN