Lost Art and Fat

I'm supposed to be writing other stuff. (It isn't flowing very well - very confusing, forms and formats that are not my devising take a few more than minutes to sort out in my old feeble slow ass brain).

And I thought writing here would help.

But I got stuck here too.

I did read two things that made me go "right the fuck on"

First one coming out of Pedaling Zen about Fat.
Hopefully everyone remembers there are multiple sugar pathways, which is why you want roughly a 1:1 blend of Fructose and Glucose hitting your small intestine (of course if you're trying to stay hydrated you've got to watch the water/sugar uptake issues). The Brick shithouse has some good bits esp the point about gels being originally designed to be consumed with water (as a replacement for messy sports drinks in your bottle - but few of the kids sucking them down remember that fact now).

Side track. Fat. Is Fuel.

You may have noticed that's a theme i've been nudging over to for a while. Protein is pretty dangerous in large quantities. Hormones are proteins. Y'all knew that right? What do hormones do? Well think puberty and all that. Hormones are both good and bad. Animal proteins are pretty sketchy unless the source is well identified. Anyway. Carbs? What do they do? Spike your insulin. Oh and hormones (like the ones in milk) spike your insulin too.

fat? what does fat do? fuel our body when the HR is below Zone 2. Oh hey. What the fuck? Wait. Hmmm.

So if I just finish a race and I'm not going to be racing again for a couple more hours or riding in a couple more hours, that Cola might taste pretty damn good and refresh me but, it's just going to set you back. Anyway. I won't get into more along the lines of my post ride/race fueling strategy. I believe there is good evidence to do as the brick shithouse suggests (super skinny old fast dude aka mini-skeletor agrees) following a race IF you are going to race the next day.

But after a training ride, or say your Wed night workout or the sunday after that race. no. skip that shit and just eat a sensible and well timed meal.

Like I've been saying, I need to get this shit out of my head sooner than later.

But

the other thing. The lost art. And I'm not referring to the 24x30 prints that are framed but stored in the back room at the museum right now agonizing me with the delay.

The Lost Art of a Group ride. This is a 'new' post. On an old subject. MKR talked about it a few times. Hell how many of you know fast guys who go on lots of group rides anymore. They ride, certainly. But mostly alone or with a few select others. I can't say I'm much different. But not riding and riding as infrequently as I am lately had made me selective for other reasons.

To ride for months each year in the small ring.
To take your cycling shorts off immediately after a ride.
To start with a humble bike, probably used.
To pull without surging.
To run rotating pace line drills and flick others through.
To form an echelon.
To ride through the top of a climb.
To hold your line in a corner.
To stand up smoothly and not throw your bike back.
To give the person ahead of you on a climb a little more room to stand up.
To respect the yellow line rule.
To point out significant road problems.
To brake less, especially in a pace line.
To follow the wheel in front and not overlap.

It is a good read. Maybe getting it out to the "social medias" will help. I've got a pretty strong feeling that anyone reading it here is going to be more of a "preaching to the choir" than "oh wow i hadn't thought about that."

Thing is, most of 'us' fall into the category of 50k+ mile riders. Hell I would doubt even the most fastidious of us (cronoman or solobreak) have recorded every mile ridden. I can extrapolate that I'm certainly WAY over 50k lifetime mileage. Easily. And I've had a good handful of years off the bike as an adult.

Anyway.

I'm trying to coach myself more with feedback. Probably means under trained but maybe fresh. Certainly not fast. at this point i'm really close to just busting out the trainer and cranking the HR to 170 and pedaling for 20 minutes. The roads still have a ton of shite on them from Irene and w/the new schedule and the travel and everything else it is just proving to be impossible to squeeze anything in. I could get 2 twenties in between when everyone else leaves for School/work and when I need to be here. But I can't fit riding out to one of the many TT loops and getting ONE 15-30 min effort in and still transition, esp if I want to do it w/o a backpack on. One thing I know about myself is that I have a pretty good track record of being able to push myself on the trainer for X min intervals.

That and I tweaked my groin yesterday and then in the one game of volleyball i play a year I pulled it further. Feels passably okay today, but man, I turned 40 on Tuesday and Wednesday I start falling apart. That and now I hear Gloucester is NOT going to be a grass crit this year (more dismounts and running from the sound of it). Son-of-a-bitch. Sort of like Tom Stevens and Paul B noticed I decided to bag running this year and did this just to spite me and teach me a lesson. Oh well. It is still a bike race and being fast on the bike still counts for most of it all.

Well shit. I wrote a few words. Said pretty much absolutely nothing (as usual) but hey, maybe I can transition the active typing motion and habit into sorting this other stuff out.

Oh i'm still wicked tired from the wedding weekend. The retreat food yesterday set me back a few pounds too. Salad for lunch for the next week!

Heddwch
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