best quote found in the blogsphere today

Heather Irmiger (Subaru Gary Fisher) lead the chase for the first chunk of the race. It always amazes me how much power that wee body can churn out. After the race, she complained that I gave off a crappy draft because I was too skinny, uhhhhm how much draft do you think I get, a saquatch behind a bunch of midgets?

Too funny!

thinking alike?

ain't so good, if you aren't challenged or presented with people who think differently you won't ever think about what you think about things. Eh?

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
- Walter Lippmann

So yeah

Think, and find someone to challenge your thinking...

official TT comunique

4 down, 4 to go. 19 Riders took to the Tremont-Reynolds-Peck-Anawon
street course tonite. 4 of which were 1st timers. Temps in the 80's
with a cloudless sky. Winds were calm, all though several riders
reported a slight head wind on Tremont St.
Aaron returned to his winning ways posting fastest time, Joe
Phenix,Jack Tickle and Geoff W. rounded out the podium. Chris Burke
suffered a flat tire and was unable to finish. Innette Rex topped the
womens field.
Raffle prizes were won by Johnny J. Ben Lescault,Mike Mederos and 2
other lucky riders. Next week's entry fee is $7,with $1 dollar being
thrown in the hat for a winner take all prize!!
I will have Overall points & Category points to date, posted next week.

Remember: Our greatest feat is not never failing, it is getting back up
and trying harder after each failure !

Gene

Trial #3 GeWilli Sports Beverage

So 90°+ F degree days are good ones to test out energy/electrolyte drinks. Esp when your total ride time is around 2.5+ hours and you stick 20 minutes of at limit riding in there.

Did a trial test run of a quick mix on the mid-day 5 mile round trip ride down to the Playground. Seemed positive. But riding the mt bike around with my oldest isn't the same as race pace.

Along the lines of using less "refined" sugars I thought heck lets try some juice. What do we have? Hmmm. Orange Juice. Ah what the heck.

Run down on what is in 8 oz of Tropicana Premium stuff:
22g sugars
450mg potassium

HOT DOG that's a boat load of Potassium for 8 ounces.

Final trial batch was made up like this:
8 oz Not from concentrate Orange Juice
22 grams of raw (turbinado) sugar
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon calcium ascorbate (vitamin C)
1 teaspoon honey
16 oz water (fill the balance of the big water bottle)...

It seemed to work. But there was a slight bit more gastric commentary than #2. Nothing distracting.

Fueling was good. Caffeine was non-existent aside from one cup of long drawn espresso at 10am.

The taste wasn't like watered down orange juice which to me is yucky tasting. The additional sugars I think make up for it. I'm not sure it was better than the previous but the citrus juice flavor was better. It did taste a bit salty, but only a hint of it. And when you are sweating that much, salt is important.

I did also consume about 25-30 oz of water in addition to the two bottles of Trail #3 on the ride (from the hydration pack). So in someways this was more of an energy/electrolyte beverage to go along with the plain water. Trial #2 I consumed only an extra bottle of water (3 24oz bottles of fluids for the 2.5 hours). So getting 64 oz of water a day? No problem. Actually would have wanted a bit more fluid. Ran out of water in the suck bag about 1/2 mile from home or so. Wanted more, but it was dry and bottles were empty. So I topped off with 20 oz of water after getting inside.

1/8 teaspoon might be too much salt, in retrospect. But, AFAIK, I don't have physical issues that would require me taking in less sodium, and combined with the fact I eat little to no processed (salty and sodium ______ loaded) foods, even with a bit extra there I'm probably well within the caloric intake balance for the 'nutrient.'

A bit verbose on this Trail #3.

We'll see what the next trial brings. Maybe an apple beverage with a touch of apple cider vinegar to cut some of the edge... Could be something to drinking pickle juice? no?

There ya go
Heddwch
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in retrospect

Lots of thoughts. Not unusual for an extremely picky post to get sticky in my head for a while.

Maybe I'll get a chance to dump some of the thoughts and address some of bgw's comments.

Hit the TT last night.
It was pretty warm. But the wind was not in our favor like last week. Most people were about a 60-45 seconds slower. The winner was my teammate Aaron at 18:58. Last week he did an 18:04 or something, as a bit of perspective he had set his HRM to beep at threshold (prep for RI Half Ironman) so he would stay under it. And he stayed under threshold until the final turn (last week). This week, he was over threshold the whole almost 19 minutes, aero helment and real TT/Tri bike and all.

I managed a 19:29. A 3rd place tie with Jack Tickel (aero helment and tt bike and all). All with my stupid pain in the ass little 40 tooth. Those down hill sections are frustrating, but the discipline to spin that mother out seems to be helping my form. I tried to chill on the last to rises heading into the right hander on Reynolds but Reynolds still hurt just as much as it ever does. A slight false flat all bumpy and shit.

I was really hoping to be able to hit that 26 average mark, but I also kinda had a feeling this week was going to be slower... And with only 4 people starting behind me the wait was longer than normal. This getting faster thing means waiting around longer and longer.

Tried out a new version of a "home brew" sports drink for the race. More on that later.

Oh and I've got this theory about Hammer's success with many athletes. Gotta do with duration of activity. Plain facts being that you can only absorb so much glucose at a time. And maltodextrin my hit the Small Intestine quickly but then it still needs to be chopped up to be used. Time. Yes it will give you a delayed and sustained boost. But, if you over load the system with it, you're screwed.

I will whole heartedly and completely agree [with the nutritionist using the word "treasures"] that simplified/purified sugars are VERY bad and NOT the way to go. And, along those lines: Maltodextrin fits the bill perfectly, just as well as HFCS, crystaline glucose and fructose. Sourcing complete, unrefined (mostly) sugars from plant based sources is optimal in my opinion.

There is plenty of documentation suggesting that those who don't get a significant amount of fructose in their diet have a hard time digesting/absorbing it. For the basic simple reason that the metabolic pathways haven't been activated. Think in terms of activating the fat burning pathway. Unless you actively work on it you won't burn stored fats for fuel in endurance activities.

bgw's notion of people's difference is not to be overlooked. Genetic differences do account for rates of expressions of certain enzymes and signaling transportation proteins. Some people are lactose intolerant and some aren't and that is simple genetics for the most part. The fact that everything seems to come down to the deck of cards called your genes is a tough pill. It means that no matter what you've got predetermined limits. And sorting out how to maximize them is up to you.

What works for some might not work for others. And that is why it pays to listen and to test. But on the simple foundation that your muscular fuel is ATP (mostly) and there are many ways to make that stuff. Limiting your body to just glucose (ie maltodextrin) doesn't make sense when there are pathways to generate it that are parallel. IE can happen at same time. IE can be making even more energy.

Specifically the Fructose pathway. And maybe on a smaller level the lactate pathway. And a few more, but it would seem the most straight forward way to get energy/fuel is to go with as many engines as possible. Right?

If you can have two locomotives pulling the same train, why turn one off?

Fructose, yes, is very bad for people with obese tendencies. If you aren't active enough it does pretty much turn right into fat. So the warning being that you need to avoid it unless you are actively active (ie physical aerobic competition) is quite sound. HFCS is pretty messed up stuff. Sucrose isn't much better for the non-active types. Combine them with proteins found in uncultured dairy (whey, milk) and you get a double insulin spike and it all ain't good. Ice cream is about the worst thing for an inactive person and about the best thing for post ride (high concentration of sugars coupled with insulin spiking proteins).

I guess maybe sometimes all this stuff i've accumulated in the mass of gray matter in my head doesn't always come out in the thoughts but lingers behind, inside, and backs up some of the odd notions i express. IE the judgments.

Look at Alcohol for a second. What does it do? It heads to the liver to be turned into fat. And then either stored or burned. But here again is an example of genetic difference. People have variations in the levels of alcohol dehydrogenase, and as such process it faster or slower. No real point other than illustrating more genetic regulated stuff.

Just the fact that there is a plethora of diversity in the "sports" nutrition product market should be enough to suggest that people are vastly different. But a huge part of that difference is phsycological. People believe something maybe and the brain plays lots of tricks. Food is addictive. You get addicted to certain things and they may not be good for you or the habits might not be good. Breaking habits and resetting the body's mechanisms might not be a bad thing to do occasionally. But then if you only try something once you might not know if it works. Fructose for example. Ya gotta get that pathway up to speed or it will cause some distress. If you aren't at peak aerobic threshold for hours on end maltodextrin might seem/feel like a great energy source. Maybe it is.

Energy mix # something coming up shortly.

heddwch
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Edit - I heading down back home after the TT we hit a downhill and I tried to see how fast I could get the 40x12 to go... 39.3 mph (63.3 kph)... I was spinning and spinning and giving it everything in the aerobars and trying and trying to push it up to 40 mph... but it wouldn't go... so what ever 39.3 mph running the 700x23s in the back corresponds to in RPM i dunno. But it was pretty fast.

Um Doc... Wrong

At least in the technical sense. Maybe it was a typo.

Fructose (corn syrup) is No Answer For a Sweetener *
Dr. Nancy Appleton, Ph.D. *
The consumption of fructose (corn syrup) has risen considerably in the general population within recent years. In 1980 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose. This 149 pounds is approximately 19% of the average person's diet.

Why is it wrong?

Well. You see. Corn syrup is pretty much 100% glucose.
High Fructose Corn syrup is a very different product (hence the description "high fructose").

I'm reading this Hammer Nutrition stuff. They've got a sh!t load of articles about how bad fructose is (interesting- none of their products have it in it).

Back to that one article.

Things like this bother me in "scientific/medical" writing:

1. Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins, and minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use.

Here is an absolute folks. In scientific (and by extension nutrition should be) writing words like "treasures" are never to be used. Just another mark against the author's credibility.

Here we have a PhD in Heath Services suggesting that corn syrup is pure fructose.

And then this nugget:

Apparent iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc balances tended to be more negative during the fructose feeding period as compared to balances during the sucrose feeding period.

But wait. Sucrose has Fructose in it. WTF? (yes, WTF isn't supposed to be used in scientific communication - this isn't that - it is opinion and you can write what ever the F you want in an opinion piece esp if you are the author, editor and publisher).

So Just the fact that Hammer is using this article to support the lack of Fructose in their stuff, is damaging their credibility in my book. I've always been suspect of their stuff despite all the folks i've heard say it works great for them, heck there are plenty of people that will tell you Accelerade is their miracle sports drink.

Funny thing is. The Maltodextrin they are using (assuming that likely it is corn based) is a single step above the chemical process of corn syrup.

There are good solid points there. Fructose is metabolized into fat very easily. With the assumption that it isn't oxidized into fuel before hand. Point being most of the research this good PhD is citing is done with isolated systems. IE taking one element and seeing what happens. Sort of like trying to figure out how carbs fats and proteins work by doing studies eliminated on of the three or two of the three. Ya is perterbing the system so much as to skew the results. Like going on a zero cholesterol diet and wondering why your bad cholesterol numbers are through the roof (body over producing to compensate for the lack of ingestion).

Here's the other bigger issue. Taking a study looking at fructose/sucrose/HFCS uptake in sedentary american populations is going to be rather different than competitive athletes taking the stuff during competition.

Stimulating reading. The best kind. Esp when it challenges you or you think it is wrong. An enemy on the mental dodgeball game. Take em out.

Defining the basis for your nutrition advice is pretty important from an athletes perspective. It is very different than a non-athlete's.

Oh. Link:
http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=2263

This is as interesting as I thought it would be.

CytoSport's paid research looking at a third energy source (Lactate). PowerBar's stuff with the twin Fructose and Glucose.

Like I suggested. Every "nutrition" company has research and articles to support their "philosophy" of fuel. Which really isn't more than "Hey no one is using ______ in their energy drinks, lets use it, Okay find some research lab who's willing to publish some studies, or a nutritionist who's willing to write a web article with citations!" Yeah

Wait. That's marketing and capitalism combined!

fuel...

what a fascinating mess
heddwch
G

(and i neither have a degree in nutrition or a phd in nuttin or an md or squat - i'm just a lunatic with a webpage)

helmets when cycling

Now most everyone in an urban area knows a few folks who only wear helmets when racing or some such thing. Group rides maybe. Never on the bike path, never when cruising the city.

That Yeuhuda Moon character suggested that a Styrofoam hat was useless if you get hit by a car. And that it may be.

But from my couple of years being somewhat 'in' the cycling community I've noticed that more often than not the helmet works best for non-car involved crashes. Sure you head of someone that lands on their lid from a car pulling out in front of them. That's less frequent than someone washing out on a bit of sand or rock in a turn, or getting a flat, hitting a patch of ice, having a pedestrian walk out in front of them.

That's when you want a helmet. Not due to cars. Sure, many folks never have that kind of incident. Plenty of well experience and kick ass bike handling folks can keep their head up in any situation. Even then. You never know.

Zat is why you wear a helmet.

Maynard's story up there today. That is why you wear a helmet. If she'd been wearing her helmet she might have been back up on the bike instead of riding to the ER in an ambulance.

Just wear your helmet. It ain't that U G L Y (not nearly as ugly as head trama).

Heddwchh
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Fossil Fuel Free Gardener?

I like it. Part of my commute goes through a neighborhood where at least 50% of the home owners have some landscaping company taking care of their grounds. And I'd say right around 100% of those are F-series dump trucks with two axle trailers. We're not talking a neighborhood that doesn't really have big lawns, just big houses and pretty lawns. But hey, it would be less efficient. The landscaping company wouldn't make as much money because it would take longer to do each house. And then the owner of the company might not be able to afford the house on the Cape or the '08 decked out matching Suburbans that he and his wife drive less than 10k miles a year...

Now efficiency. I heard that there are Japanese fishermen on strike, protesting high oil prices?

Um. Hello? Anyone? How were the fish caught BEFORE you puttered around in diesel bathtubs?

Anyone?

I say it is high time some deep pocket guy sets out a fleet of state of the art modern Gloucester Schooners. Crews wouldn't need to be as numerous as the old Schooners, and with modern weather/radar technology boat losses wouldn't really be any different than with the stinky oil burning fleet of fishing vessels in use now.

Heading back to wind power for fishing fleets would be unbelievably awesome. Esp as fuel prices tip skyward.

Found an amazing route home last night. Old rail bed and two track and bumpy wicked loose soil and sand and big gravel and piles of fist size rocks and more sand, some so deep and loose that ya couldn't even HOPE to ride through it. Not even the awesome Amy Wallace. Okay well. Maybe it is possible to ride through if you are on tires OTHER than Marathons at 80-90 psi. It was a blast. Hard core wicked fun. Paint in the ass to shoulder the bike with two big water bottles in the cages, but man. What a blast. Total Kick ass Cross training.

There is a big square kinda loop. Totally flat mostly sand, some big rocks waiting to destroy anyone running low pressure on carbon rims, but do a loop on there, stick a pair of barriers and race around that. Boring but man, it would be tough. Really tough. Even some space where you could add some more 90 degree turns and make it less of a 4 sided box. But H.S. was that a freaking Blast on the way home.

The giant ate it up. That fork is pretty freaking amazing. Gotta say. And the frame went right where i wanted it to go. Flow was beautiful. The CEO of Voldoil is right. This is a damn nice cross bike, I do like it.

Heddwch
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Myles Romanow - awesomeness personified

Yeah - sure I've never met the guy but he's the standard bearer for gender equity in cycling. His commitment to the sport is unquestionable. Reports I've heard about his races are all good.

So what now? Why now?

The North American Cyclocross Trophy Series.

Wicked damn cool.

He explained that he wanted to get all the top American racers to these series races and make it worth their while by ensuring not only top individual race prizes, but also a series prizes that would help the series winners afford a trip to Worlds.

and

The series consists of six UCI C1 races and two UCI C2 races, and offers at least the UCI minimum payout for each individual race, while boasting equal series prize payouts for men and women: $2,000, $1,000, and $500 prize for the top three places.

Would be fun to hit that whole series, go race at "home" in Washington, at the 'new' Home field in Gloucester, visit family in Boulder while racing there and wrap it all up with an 'almost' home race. Would be wicked fun.

changing gears
Prepared foods, energy bars, pre-made stuff? Lazy alternatives to real food. "It is easy." So making a quick sandwich (ala pro-tour/euro style) and stuffin it in a pocket is too much work. yes it is work.

but beyond that - exercise is different... we are placing physical demands that don't fit an evolutionary mold... still real food is important.

I got a chance to puruse that link Zoo posted and found the PowerBar article pretty interesting. Supporting my contention that the best way to fuel (on a sugar intake basis) is a combo of glucose and fructose at a 50:50 ratio. Highest g/min absorbtion (1.75 g/min).

There are roughly 3.75 calories per gram of "sugar" and at average race intensity the energy requirements are in the 800-1000 calories/hour (i'm on the higher end because I'm a big tall clydesdale freak - not because i'm ridiculously powerful). Now put that in perspective with the 1.75 grams per minute of peak absorbtion (given you've peaked your fructose pathway and the uptake proteins are well expressed).

So. That is actually pretty scary. Peak absorbtion of sugars is down just under 400 calories an hour.

So where is the balance of calories coming from? Stored glycogen?

I've been having some great talks with folks off line - more mental dodge ball. I won't single the three of em out but they are all coming from very distinct and different perspectives.

That powerbar link at least supports my "hypothesis" of getting equal parts glucose and fructose in a carbohydrate/electrolyte drink.

But even at the fastest absorbtion rates will net you (at best) around 400 calories an hour and that obviously isn't enough fuel. How to make it up? Well if you are just racing for an hour, it doesn't matter much. The time trial is less than 20 minutes, but it is a 30-40 minute ride out there followed by an hour ride home. I've tried to do it in the heat with just water. Or with just two bottles of sports drink. In the heat two bottles isn't enough. And water alone isn't enough.

Endurance races are a whole different ball of wax. A sports drink with some sucrose in there isn't going to be enough for a whole race. Grilled Ham and CHEESE sandwiches - maybe even a Croque-Madame. Mmmm. Some nice fresh french panne de mie bread, some applegate farms ham, and a kickin variety of artisan aged cheeses....

damn it...

i'm hungry now...

Definately have to get a loaf or two of that panne de mie, that stuff is wicked wicked tasty. mmmm bread... mmm

All this contemplating food requirements for performance makes me appreciate cross. Ya ain't eating or drinking during the race!!! (Okay the whole pre and post race nutrition becomes somewhat important but not on the same scale or challenge as an endurance race or long road race).

time to go ride the bike (home)
heddwch
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