Post RdRV2.0 thoughts

Monday the legs were feeling fine. But every effort was empty and there was absolutely no fuel in the tank. Glycogen stores were at zero. Not surprising given that I didn't eat much more than a turkey burger, some coleslaw and green beans for dinner (i did break down and have two Sam Noble Pils before the meal). I could really feel that emptiness. No big deal. All I had to do was commute. Get back and forth to work.

The afternoon ride home was pressing and needed to be fast, and actually lunch seemed to top the tanks off enough that I could put some energy into it.

Tuesday I could still feel a bit like there was a boost leak and above the 70% effort level things were not making full power, but it was better than Monday and the ride home was equally good.

Wednesday (yesterday), I rode in and felt awesome. It was pouring rain but I could dig deep and sustain the full out TT mode effort for the 5 miles or so on the bike path (I saw one other person on the path yesterday morning). It was pretty awesome powering through like that. The ride home was equally supercharged. legs felt super.

This morning? Legs felt great, but I took it easy. With blue sky showing itself and real sunlight coming in and little wind, it just felt right to take it easy today. It will be a short commute on the bike up to job #2 tonight but that's okay. I might take it easy tomorrow as well, or not. We'll see what happens. i've been bad about switching the computer back over to the commuter. I have batteries for the second bike speed sensor that I have to install, probably putting that on the Klein. Might ride the Klein tomorrow to make sure it feels good going into Sunday.

Oh and how about that Arc-en-ciel kid? Keith Kelly. That fucker DESTROYED the cat 5 field. I guess the field poked along at about 16mph for 20 miles or so and he and Donnie Green decided "enough with this shit" and took off. Brent has some more details (or the same details over on his web log. Keith is sort of like JONNY FUCKING BOLD. An athletic freak, seriously. Keith has a lung, wicked twiggy and is just insanely gifted and fast. Dave Kellogg pulled the trigger on "signing" him early, and for good reason. Keith's been coming out to the Smack down rides over the last year or two and just destroying everyone (not that anyone of us on that ride are fast other than when Kellogg shows up but even DK gets smoked by KK).

That and Keith's just a fucking awesome guy.

BTW Brent's got a good line of thinking up as the most recent post there on his page. A lot like MKR's group ride grumblings. Funny too. Like he's been actually practicing writing serious stuff for real or something.

Everyone should head down and race Ninigret on sunday. Weather is looking (right now) to be rain. And that's just a f'n awesome place to race in the rain. You'll be picking sand out of your teeth for a couple days afterwards if you actually race it, that is unless you go off the front solo and win but don't lap the field.

The weight has been coming off - post RdRV.20 i was 195. But also dehydrated a bit, back up to 199-200 the next day... Today as well right at the clydesdale line. Which is about 8 pounds lighter than last year but more significantly a good bit less fat around the middle. Granted 8 pounds of fat is not trivial, but i'm also not small so the scale is different and 5 pounds for me is only 2.5% not really a significant loss. I'm glad i never hit bonky land on sunday, either food/fuel or hydration. Maybe I might know what the fuck i'm doing when i actually think about it. I'd hope so.

Oh and some good fucking reading about sugar over in the NYT. Same dude who wrote the fat article a while back. I only noticed it because of Marion's Tweet last night.

Now it got me thinking a bit. As cyclists and athletes who can and often depend on replenishing glycogen supplies very rapidly (say for racing CX on back to back days) sugar is almost critical. for long rides or training or long races having a dual fuel source is really beneficial. Powerbar and gatorade and those guys with lots of profits have poured a good bit of research into explaining why it is important/helpful that your carbohydrate source contain both glucose and fructose (because there are two separate uptake pathways to offer faster fueling/recovery).

Sugar's great, and yes HFCS is bad shit, vilifying it doesn't do any good if you're just going to replace it with sugar or worse replace it with agave nectar, IF, if you aren't going to be burning those calories with carb fuel exercise. Going out for a walk or a slow run is going to just burn fat for fuel (in general) and while it takes a bit of carbs and simple sugars to actually metabolize fat you need the ultra intense activity (in general) to burn high quantities of sugars. Most people get enough carbs just eating food.

But that dichotomy in sugar needs is just sticking out at me more than normal lately. It is important to sort out dietary recs for intense activity focused athletes and regular sedentary or moderately active folks. And that is often overlooked.

I've seen examples of athletes prescribing their diet to normal people (a certain vegan tri dude) and that just doesn't work.

Hell look at all of us. I'm fucking skinny but still want to drop a few pounds... compared to most people I'm just like the rest of the bike racers: skinny freaks, but i'm a big fat one (compared to say KPerham or Skinnywhitedude or or or or does the list end? well it does but we won't bring jiggles into this).

Oh and for you bacon lovers... good luck remembering that you like bacon if you overdo those nasty preservative salts.

that's all i'm going to try and shove into this rambling steaming pile of uselessness.

heddwch
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