For the most part, I don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t been racing long enough. For example, I don’t know how I should feel before a good race, versus how I feel before a bad one. I’ve thought I felt great, and raced terribly, and visa versa. Sure, I’ve read a lot, and talked to a lot of people about this stuff, but for me it’s still just guess work.

Last weekend at Nationals in Canmore, I had a good race. Best result of my season for sure, coming in 3^rd. It was a great experience landing on the podium, and one I’d like to repeat. But now with only 2 races left this season, I’m convinced more than ever, repeating that is going to be something that’s a lot easier said, than done…

Kabush signing my jersey

A seasoned racer who has a pre-race routine, a specific pre-race ritual concerning training sched the week before, favourite meals, knows measured volumes of fluid intake, their sleep patterns and so on, might be able to confidently repeat a performance. Me on the other hand, I’m still learning about all this, and about myself. That said, I have learned a thing or two about me. None of these are ground-breaking, but very likely, many of them may apply to you as well:

I really need my sleep. I am an 8-9 hour a night guy, day in and day out and I know this. If I get less than 8 hours sleep one night in the 2 days leading up to a race, I will do worse. Case in point, most of my races in 2009. Excited about the race, Ken and I would normally go out the night before, have dinner and stay out and have a few beers, only allowing for 5-6 hours of sleep. For me, this is not good.

That leads me to my second observation, beers the night before do not help me. 1, or 2 is fine, though likely not beneficial. Any more than 2, and it has certainly proved detrimental. Not only does alc dehydrate, but for me, now a 35 year man who drinks almost never, I feel like crap in the morning after any more than 3 beers.  So, I need to shut it down after 1 or 2 the night before if I care about how I am going to race the next day.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate… And by this I don’t mean drink a couple glasses of water before the race. I mean stay on the water for a couple days leading up to a race. It can take up to 7 days for your body to fully hydrate, meaning, absorb into your deep tissues. Drinking a bunch of water quickly, and then peeing clear is really only a sign that your body has taken in more fluid than it can absorb at that time. Both alcohol and caffeine will dehydrate, so I need to keep them both to a minimum.

On the podium

Stretch. I am terrible for this. I don’t enjoy it. It hurts and most often I will come up with some reason not to do it. When I do, though, my legs feel soooo, sooo much better. They recover faster between rides, meaning I can train more often, but if nothing else, stretching before a hard effort like a race wakes my legs up, and gets the blood flowing. I’m also less likely to cramp, or injure myself – which are both things I am on board with now that I’m getting older and hopefully wiser.

Eat 2 hours before the race. Eat 3 hours before if you can. For me, oatmeal with a handful of trailmix seems to be a pretty good meal. Easy to digest. Good carbs, and the nuts provide fat, which is great long burn energy that I’ve found is optimal for me, versus just straight carbs. Further to this, make yourself eat, and drink during the race. It’s hard, I know… You’re breathing hard and chewing food, or drinking just interrupts your already laboured breathing even more. But, this is key to making sure you have the energy to ride strong the whole race, and not just the first lap or two. If you can only do one, choose to drink. Find an energy drink you can tolerate that will give you energy, electrolytes and hydrate you. I’m still fiddling with this. Last race, my drink of choice nearly made me puke. Not because it tasted bad, but because it just wasn’t sitting that well. Top of the climbs on lap three, it was a close call. This might just have been because I was drinking too much at once, and not just sipping at it over the race. I am still trying to figure out how to do this.

Know yourself. Are you a racer that can blast out of the gates, be first to the singletrack, gap the field and hold on, or are you more like me, and need to start out moderately? Two weeks ago, at the Edmonton Canada Cup, I chased Ken and Gord for 2/3 of the first lap and blew up after lap 1. They were too fast, and I cracked, leaving me to struggle just to finish in 20th. Last weekend at Nationals, I went out more slowly, paced myself and tried to build up speed as I went – to push hard, but stay steady. The result was 3 moderately fast laps, and luckily, a spot on the podium.

Lastly, pre-ride the course. I never used to do this. I figured I was always just following people anyway so I didn’t need to know where I was going… But pre-riding the course is about more than knowing where you’re going. It’s about knowing what’s coming, and having a game plan. You know where you can push hard, because you know how soon you’ll hit a section where you can recover, or you know where to surge and catch someone’s wheel so you’re in position to pass when you get to the wide section coming up. In Canmore where the trails can be super technical, you’ll know better which line to take, or how fast you can go without crashing. These are just examples, but you get the idea. Knowing the course is a huge advantage.

Gord with the pull

These are some of the things I’ve found to really make a big difference for me. In the end, though, you can do all of this stuff and more, but still fall short in a race, because circumstance plays such a huge part. In my race at Nationals, I was ready physically to race well, and I did, but several circumstances played into my 3^rd place finish. Some of these circumstances were that we raced in the morning before it got hot. I race better in cooler temps. The course was set up to my strengths. It had long, grueling climbs, and tight, twisty, singletrack descents. Had the course been different, with less climbing, the result would have been different. I also had a teammate to ride with when I caught Gord on lap 2. Having him push me just that little bit to stay with him, helped a lot. I wasn’t willing to push myself to the point that I’d blow up again, but he definitely helped me out there, and encouraged me to keep up. Thanks Gord! I owe ya.

So many things come into play in a race, from how hard you’ve trained, to the course design, what you ate, the weather, the field of racers that shows up, to the state of your bike’s mechanical integrity. I mean, blow a tire, snap a chain, and there you go, end game. I guess, that’s why as little, or as much as I know now about racing,  as much as I can control about my diet, sleep, training etc…, you never really know what’s going to happen on race day. You can race smart, but in the end, no one knows how it’s going to play out. I guess it wouldn’t be much fun if we did know, though would it…?

Related posts:

1. Coffee – An Athlete’s Edge
2. Are you ready for a stage race?
3. Smart Bike

The last time Smart was up for the Deadgoat Summer Solstice we got to talking about riding (surprisingly), but more specifically nutrition on the bike.

Smart was lamenting that a lot of the bars and energy products on the market don’t really feel like they’re very good for you. Granted, they’re built to “fill a gap,” but most of them are full of chemicals, waxes and acids and rather than ingredients a normal person can recognize.

I continued to think about the situation, and decided to do something about it. After some internet scouring, I narrowed things down to two recipes. One from natural food blogger Heidi Swanson from 101 Cookbooks, and one from nutritionist Pam Vagnieres from an interview with the Daily Camera.

Making both the recipes was pretty straight forward, and even for a non-chef like me, everything was very straight forward. Because some of the ingredients were a little difficult to find I did make some substitutions – which I’ve noted (I found The Cook’s Thesaurus invaluable when searching for ingredient substitutions)

Chopped Fruit Power Bars – Pam Vagnieres

15 bars @ 313.8 calories per bar
Full nutritional breakdown

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup skim milk powder
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds or walnuts (I used all sunflower seeds, but would recommend you split it half and half)
11/2 cups raisins/apricots chopped and dried (I used half apricots and half dried cranberries)
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions: In bowl, combine flour, sugar, milk powder, what germ and baking powder. Stir in raisins (or apricots– and seeds. Mix eggs, oil, molasses, and peanut butter. Add to dry stuff; blend well. Spread in greased 9-inch cake pan. Bake 350 degrees, 35 minutes or until browned and firm to touch. Let cool, cut in 24 bars.

Ken’s Pro Tip: Put the oil in the measuring cup first… Then the molasses and peanut butter just sliiiiide right out ;-)

Can store on shelf, in air-tight container, for up to 5 days.

Big Sur Power Bars – Heidi Swanson

15 bars @ 263.4 calories per bar
Full nutritional breakdown

If you can’t find the crisp brown rice cereal, no worries – just use regular rice cereal for ex: Rice Crispies – just stay clear of “puffed” rice cereal, it will throw the recipe off. Feel free to substitute other types of nuts, seeds, or whatever little goodies you can dream up.

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or regular butter) (I used butter)

1 cup pecans, chopped

1 cup slivered almonds

2/3 cup (unsweetened) shredded coconut

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal

1 cup brown rice syrup (I substituted 1/4 cup maple syrup + 1/2 cup honey)

1/4 cup natural cane sugar (I used brown sugar)

1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt (I used regular salt)

2 tablespoons ground espresso beans
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking pan with the coconut oil. If you like thick power bars, opt for an 8 by 8-inch pan; for thinner bars, use a 9 by 13-inch pan.

On a rimmed baking sheet toast the pecans, almonds, and coconut for about 7 minutes, or until the coconut is deeply golden. Toss once or twice along the way. Mix the oats, toasted nuts, coconut, and the cereal, together in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the rice syrup, sugar, salt, espresso, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the oat mixture and stir until it is evenly incorporated. Spread into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into whatever size bars you desire.

Makes 16 to 24 bars.

The verdict?

The big benefit to the ‘Big Sur Power Bars’ was the fact that there was no baking required – I would compare them (in preparation and in taste) to a ‘seedier’ version of puffed wheat square. Nice and light, easily digestible. Didn’t really sit too heavily in your stomach either, and SUPER tasty.

The fact that the nuts are toasted really makes for a nice ‘nutty’ flavour, and the ‘glue’ that holds everything together isn’t too sweet. The two kickers (for me) were the flavourful addition of the coconut and the delicious kick of the espresso. Definitely a win.

The ‘Chopped Fruit Power Bars’ are a different beast entirely. They’re considerably heavier, but not necessarily in a bad way. They’re much more calorie dense, so you get a lot more bang for your buck. I enjoyed the flavour, but found them a little ‘sunflower-ey.’ If you were to attempt these, I would probably suggest using half sunflower seeds and half walnuts for the nut mixture.

Because these were more dense, they had a really substantial and filling quality to them, coming mainly out of the tasty combination of peanut butter, brown sugar and molasses. The seeds and dried fruit did a great job ensuring that the bar wasn’t *too* heavy as well. You could probably also cut the bars a little smaller, but I wanted the nutritional information to be comparable between the two bars.

The execution

One additional thing that I’ll mention is that you should try to take the size of the pan you use into consideration when baking these – I would suggest using a larger pan (ie. 9 x 13″) so that the bars are a little flatter, and will fit in your jersey pocket a little more easily.

I would also suggest that you think about how you want to package your bars. I didn’t have a lot on hand, so I decided to use mini-ziploc bag, which did the trick admirably.

The last thing I’ll highlight is SparkRecipes Recipe Calculator. I thought this was important mainly because I really wanted to be able to get a full nutritional breakdown for the bars. Both to compare the bars to each other, but also to others I’ve got in my shelf.

No related posts.

I might be a little premature, but I hazard to proclaim that spring is here (despite the weather yesterday). April is fast approaching, and with the sun setting well after 7:00 it looks as though we can leave our vampiric, sunless winter behind us.

As the sun rises on a new season, thoughts turn to long days of tearing up the local singletrack, or for those of us longing for more epic challenges, thoughts may turn to stage racing.

Unfortunately, when preparing for your first stage race, I’m not sure you ever feel 100% ready – you just try to prepare yourself as best you can. In an effort to ease some of your trepidation and potentially avoid some painful lessons being learned in-race, I will impart some sage words of wisdom based off the extensive experience I have (ie. 1 race ;-).

With that said, I’ll apologize ahead of time for the somewhat monumental nature of this post, but I feel (or at least hope) that most of this advice may prove helpful. So grit your teeth and bear it, with strength and determination you can make it to the end ;-)

I’ve pooled my deep reservoir of knowledge into eleven provocative sections:

1. Know yourself
2. Know your partner
3. Keep the calories comin’
4. Check your ego at the door
5. Be able to dig deep
6. You’re not strong enough
7. You are your own wrench
8. Gear up for adventure
9. Know what hours in the saddle feel like
10. Recover
11. Enjoy the ride

1. Know yourself
Riding within yourself is probably simplest advice to give, yet some of the hardest advice to follow. As anybody who’s done a race or two can tell you, the excitement at the start line makes it pretty easy to start out too hard… Pushing things like this can get you into trouble.

I also found it invaluable to have a better understanding of what type of racer I was – Do you like to chase? Do you like being chased? What motivates you?

Sheldon and I were a little bit of both, we were always using the faster teams as rabbits that we would chase throughout the day, and when we were having an off day (or an off couple of hours), we’d be gritting our teeth trying to stay ahead of the teams that were slightly behind us. Developing a friendly rapport with the teams around you helps with this as well (ie. “See you at the top of the next hill”, or “Save some chips for me at the next stop”)

It’s a never ending game of cat and mouse. Though I think for Sheldon and I, using the other teams like that was more of a motivational aid than pure competition. After learning our lesson the first day we chose to generally ease into the days and work our way through the pack, picking teams off as we could, rather than go hard and hold the pack off.

2. Know your partner
This is probably one of the most important, yet most challenging pieces of group stage racing. Generally on this note Sheldon and I were pretty damn solid. We’ve both ridden with each other long enough, and have been friends long enough to know how and when to push the other teammate and how and when to back the hell off ;-)

It was interesting seeing the other team dynamics on the Transrockies. I would say that the majority of the teams we hung with were pretty well balanced, but some of the less synced teams would yo-yo back and forth with the stronger rider taking off into the distance until the top of some huge climb where they would then wait for their partner… Generally getting cold and complaining while they waited. When their teammate finally arrived, nearly shattered from attempting to catch up, the lead rider would take off again, leaving their teammate in the dust. There’s only so many times a team can stretch like that before the elastic breaks.

You need to understand what your teammate needs and in some cases, letting them ride in their own zone is fine – should one partner be ‘bursty’ and the other be more like a diesel engine. Be aware of these differences and have a strategy to deal with them.

3. Keep the calories comin’
Similar advice goes for nutrition & hydration – you need to know what food your body is going to metabolize the best.

Happily all the nutrition products supplied by the Transrockies agreed with me (unlike the savory, yet ultimately disastrous stew in Priddis), but both Sheldon and I had brought armloads of our favorite bars and gels to be on the safe side. You’ll want to make sure you’re doing your best to limit your battles to the hills and the kilometers, not your digestive system.

Hydration is a similar story, and you need to ensure that you’re regulating a steady stream of it to ensure you’re properly fueling the engine. Both of these can be especially hard when it’s cold and wet (which was 80% of the time during the 2009 Transrockies), but you need to get into a rhythm, both on the bike, and regarding the intake of solids and liquids. This is something that reared it’s ugly head for Sheldon and I on Day 1 of the Transrockies…

Looking back, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising, it was our first stage, we were in Panorama, we were jacked up and full of adrenaline. It was exciting just to be breathing the mountain air with hundreds of other riders. But as such, we probably weren’t keeping an eye on our nutrition and hydration as much as we should have been. By the end of the day when we limped past the finish line Sheldon ended up in the medi-tent being rehydrated through an IV… Not the way you want to start things off, but things could have been a lot worse.

4. Check your ego at the door
Pride has no place in a stage race, period. An overactive ego can end a race early, especially in a team scenario. Granted it’s ok to go out there with something to prove, but individual goals, unless properly coordinated with your teammate have a tendency to wear at the fabric of the team.

Ensure that goals and strategy are part of your pre-race preparation. Just because one teammate is a good climber doesn’t mean that they should tear up the hill and majestically lord their climbing prowess over the weaker riders below, rather – a strategy Sheldon and I came to become quite adept at was either to take turns ‘pushing’ the other rider on the lower grade hills, or on the super steep ascents (ie. hike-a-bike), whomever was feeling better would head to the top then come back down and relieve the other teammate of their bike. It’s all about moving faster as a team, not about proving yourself as the stronger rider.

5. Be able to dig deep
For most mortal riders, there will come a time when you don’t want to go on, you don’t think you can push any further, you just don’t think there’s any way you could actually turn that crank one more revolution…. Well, I got news for ya… You can, and you will.

Coming into the race with some degree of mental fortitude, while not necessary, will definitely help you at multiple places throughout the race. A stage race like the Transrockies is a non-stop onslaught to your optimism… Climb after climb it will try to crush you. And for those weaker in will – it will succeed.

I remember talking with one of the Ambassadors during a rolling ascent (ie. we were able to actually talk) and he was mentioning that a number of riders had to be shuttled off the course the day before. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something to the effect of:

I kept explaining that all they needed to do was hold their pace, they had lots of time to reach the next CP, but all they could see was the massive climb in front of the them and they just gave up… It was so frustrating!

Stage racing is not for the weak of spirit, I will say that. For me it was a character building, mettle-testing affair. I think it’s the same reason people climb mountains, and push themselves to the limits. When you’re out there on the bike, the epic nature of it all strips everything away. It’s just you, the bike, and the mountain – and either you’ve got the cajones or you don’t. To be honest I think Sheldon and I bested a number of more fit teams simply through perseverance alone… Though the same can probably be said for a number of teams that passed us as well. Just keep your head down and turn the legs… You’ll summit that climb eventually ;-)

6. You are not strong enough
Regardless of how much you train or what the circumference of your quads is, you’re not strong enough to simply ‘power’ through a stage race. Stage racing is about economy, strategy and unbreakable spirit. Those with more experience can head into each stage a lot harder than a guy like me, but one thing was universally true as Sheldon and I moved through the ranks at the Transrockies… You need to be able to rely on your cardio and supplement it with strength, not the other way round. Climb after climb, if you’re out of the saddle mashing at the pedals in your middle ring, you’re not going to last.

Two words… Sit and spin. Usually a negative inference, it’s solid advice for a stage race. If anything use that extra muscle to up your average speed on the singletrack, or maintain it on a false flat – you’ll reap much larger rewards this way, and won’t needlessly burn matches. You’re going to need everything you have by the end of things.

7. You are your only wrench
Should something happen on the trail, it’s up to you to deal with it. By the time your stage race rolls around you should be well versed in all the basic repair techniques (ie. flat repair, replacing broken spokes, breaking chains, etc.) and at least have enough mechanical sense to have an idea how to MacGyver your bike should things really turn nasty (ie. turn your bike into a fixie ;-).

If you’re not mechanical, ensure your partner is. If you’re both nancy-boys that get all their work done by a mechanic – take a course at your local bike shop. I know that the Transrockies offers the support of ‘TR Ambassadors’ (riders armed with lots of repair material and know-how that floated throughout the race), but taking advantage of their services slows you down considerably – You have to wait for them to show up and you incur an additional time penalty because of it. Not to mention that I’m not familiar with any other race offering this kind of service, so unless you’re racing the Transrockies, you’re out of luck.

8. Gear up for adventure
This isn’t a Sunday ride, there’s no team car, and for hours on end there’s no end in sight. Dress the part.

Sheldon and I learned this the hard way and ended up nearly hypothermic on Day 4 after hours of rain, damp conditions, and alpine mountain descents. Take it from both of us, carrying the extra 6oz. of a good rain jacket is well worth it, even if it doesn’t keep you 100% dry, it’ll help keep you warm. On the flipside, if it’s blazin’ outside, ensure that you have enough water and are hydrating liberally. Sunscreen will also play a big part, though neither Sheldon nor I would know anything about that since we didn’t see the sun too often last year ;-)

9. Know what hours in the saddle feels like
Like most people, you may not have the opportunity to simulate a stage race prior to your stage race, but you should do your best to at least simulate a day in the saddle. I know both Sheldon and I raced in a few enduro events leading up to the Transrockies.

Between the TransStoney, the Giver-8-er, and our epic training rides we had at least an idea of what a day in the Transrockies might feel like. Granted, looking back, nothing had really prepared us for the adventure as a whole… But I guess that’s part of the fun!

10. Recover
Keeping a steady stream of liquid going into your body during a ride is a given, but once you get to camp and get off your bike your day hasn’t ended. Recovery is as important as riding and you have to be almost as disciplined (since you’re bagged from an epic day of riding).

For Sheldon and I, we kept it pretty bare-bones, and focussed mainly on hydrating (sipping almost non-stop on Ultima or Gatorade), stretching, eating as much as we could and sleeping. Doesn’t sound too tough, but somedays all you want to do is lie down and sleep. We also treated ourselves to the odd massage as well, and as Ferris Bueller would say “if you have the means, I highly recommend it.”

11. Enjoy the ride
All this racing and preparation hoopla aside, it’s important never to loose sight of the grander goal to your journey…

Chances are you’re doing this race mainly for the adventure, not to finish on the podium. As you roll up and over the mountains, don’t forget to take a breath or two to enjoy the scenery and marvel at what you’re doing.

If any of our readers have any other valuable advice, I’d love for them to add it below!

Related posts:

1. Gearing up for a stage race
2. Ready for the TransRockies?!?!
3. Bacon Buffet + TransStoney Race Report

Well, ok, not really. But despite our ethical views against doping both Sheldon and I have wondered over a beer or three just what it might be like.

Would we instantly feel like supermen and fly past our competition, ascending hills as if immune to gravity? Or would it be something more marginal… An increase based on our training volumes, finally beating those riders that tend to always edge us out?

I think I speak for both Sheldon and I when I say that it was always more of a conversational fantasy over beers rather than a curiosity founded in any type of reality. Whenever I actually think about something like that it kind of makes me a little queasy.

I just don’t think I could do it. It just wouldn’t feel natural. And realistically, at this point in my life, there’s absolutely no reason. I race for the sport and fun of it, any results I get are simply a bonus, not something I live and die by.

Well, it turns out that somebody else had similar thoughts, but actually decided to go through with it. The author takes you on an 8 month journey from a clean amateur cyclist training an average of 15-20 hours a week, to a chemically augmented version of himself.

I have to admit, I started reading the article with a somewhat bemused curiosity, but by the end I was feeling something very different. I’m not sure how to categorize it. Shock? Anger? Disgust? Perhaps some combination of them all. All I have to say is that never in my life will I start walking down that road.

It’s a bit of a longer read, but I think it’s very much worth the time. You can read the full article at one of my favourite blogs Cycling Tips.

Some of the more dramatic quotes from the article:

“I want to be leaner, stronger, with better endurance,” I told him. “I don’t want more mass.” I thought for a moment. “And seeing better…that sounds good, too.”

He looked up from taking notes and nodded. “I can help,” he said.

And so he did.

After a few weeks of the HGH, I began to notice subtle changes. My skin started getting… better. Sun blotches that I’d had on my arms for a year faded away. One morning I woke up and a scar on my forehead—which I’d gotten from a mountain-bike endo two years earlier—was more or less gone. Even though I was training like a madman, I looked more rested. Younger. A little fresher.

The last time I’d ridden 200 miles, I felt awful the next day, like I’d been hit by a truck. After the Solvang race I woke up and felt hardly a touch of soreness. I also felt like I could easily ride another 200, and I realized that I’d entered another world, the realm of instant recovery. I’ll be frank: It was a reassuring kind of world, and I could see why people might want to stay there.

A month later, when I added a basic anabolic steroid to the mix, I felt like I’d grabbed on to a car moving at 60 miles an hour. The effect was powerful, fast, and difficult to modulate.

Related posts:

1. Know Your Game
2. Coffee – An Athlete’s Edge

I usually don’t have sweets in the house – generally speaking I don’t really crave them, but there are some things, when placed in front of me, that have a tendency to disappear in fairly short order. The first are potato chips. Crisp, salty goodness… Should a bag open, it will not be closed until only crumbs remain (which usually doesn’t take long). The second are Guylian chocolates… Aromatic roasted hazelnut praline filling enrobed in silky Belgian milk chocolate… I will literally continue to eat these until I feel like I’m going to vomit. I cannot stop. It’s different for everybody though… Should you find yourself out to dinner with Sheldon and find crème brûlée gracing the menu you’re in for a treat. They might as well serve it with a straw ;-)

More recently Sheldon went to town at McDonalds – A very infrequent binge both he and I used to enjoy when I was living in Edmonton. Since he was going for a record, he posted his attempt: 2 cheeseburgers, 1 medium fries, 6 McNuggets, 1 McChicken, 1 Parm Chicken Wrap and a Coke. Impressive to say the least. So I decided to do the math:

2 Cheeseburgers	600 calories
1 Medium Fries	380 calories
6 McNuggets	280 calories
1 McChicken	360 calories
1 Parmesan Chicken Wrap	340 calories
1 Medium Coke	210 calories
Total	2,170 calories

To be honest, I was surprised. I thought it would be a lot higher. To put it in context most people could burn that many calories riding for 2.5 hours at a solid medium tempo. Next time you’re going to have to commit and shatter that record Smart ;-)

So Bikeridr is curious to know… What’s your dietary Achilles heel?

No related posts.

So, this week I met with my new coach, a Mr. Mike Sarnecki. He’s going to see me through the following months, as I get ready for my second race season. Though I haven’t seen my new training schedule yet, I’m guessing my volumes are about to increase here right away. I have some big goals this year though so I’m ready to put in some solid time. In prep for this, I’m going to need to be a bit more diligent about my diet – specifically, my caloric intake. I’m happy to report, I’ve dumped all the weight I gained over the Christmas Holidays (some 9 lbs) and I’m back to a reasonable fighting weight. This is good news but, I’ll need to be sure I’m fueling my body properly moving forward, or risk dropping more weight, which I don’t want to do. More than that though, this year I want to make sure I’m fueling my body with the ‘right’ stuff, so as part of that, I started to dig into the Fat vs. Carbs debate.

Endurance athletes tend to lean toward carbs when it comes to fuel before a big race, hence the cliché, ‘Carb up!’ I’ve done this, eating more breads and cereals in the days leading into a race, and then gorging on a mounding plate of steamy pasta and tomato meat sauce the night before. I’m hungry just thinking about that actually. But, fat as a fuel source, at 9 calories/gram is actually by far the true powerhouse!

The body accesses carbs in two ways. One way is by digesting what foods you have in your stomach. So, in this case, your body is relying on that pre-race bowl of oatmeal. The other way your body accesses carbs is to dip into the body’s glycogen stores in both muscle tissue and the liver. This, like the bowl of oatmeal, offers a limited amount of energy, typically measured up to 90mins. After more than 90mins of intense exercise, you’ll need to get more carbs into you, or bonk. Now, consider fat. I know we have a predisposition to want to avoid fat in our diets, but adipose tissue (stored fat) as a fuel source can sustain exercise up to 120 hours. Hard to believe, I know!

So, based on that info, is it safe to say fat is the superior fuel for me as a rider? Not quite. The optimal fuel is task-specific. Although fat provides more bang for the buck calorie/energy-wise, it is harder/slower for the body to digest, and access, while carbs are more readily available when you put your body to work. Carbs are therefor better for the short and more high intensity work, while fat is better used for long sustained activities. Going to race the Perogy XC this spring, go ahead and carb up. If you’re taking on the Bow 80, plan to get some fat into you. You’re gunna need it!

Some foods you’ll want to pick up if you’re looking for ‘healthy’ unsaturated fats would be:

• Almonds
• Olive oil
• Flax seed
• Avocados

But, you might not want to totally discount ‘some’ saturated fat sources like:

• Cheese
• Eggs
• Butter
• Yogurt

In all reality, from what I understand, the body is burning both at the same time, just to varying degrees. In a short, high intensity race of 90mins or less, you’re going to be burning ‘primarily’ glycogen stores, but after that you’ll shift to your fat stores as you power on for a few more hours.

The best advice I can give, and I’ll be taking it myself, is to make notes on what you’re eating. Keep a diary and then pay attention to how you feel and perform during your training between now and spring. That way, you’ll have a good sense of what agrees with you, and what doesn’t.

Related posts:

1. Dietary Alchemy
2. It’s 2010 and I’m Fatter Than I’ve Ever Been!

Well, welcome to the New Year everybody, to help kick things off, I thought I would pull together a little collection of links. There’s nothing like a Top Ten to get things started on the right foot, so I decided to combine two.

First – With all the fixie hype of late, I present “The Evolution of the Hipster,” curating 10 years of hipster culture from 2000 to today. As an added bonus, I also thought I’d include an interview with Steevo Cummings, the man who brought you “Hipsters Discussing Cyclocross.” The article is worth a read and guaranteed to make you grin – One of my favorite questions from the interview:

Since you’re a PRO, when you go out for a long training ride… Is everything “epic” and in black and white like on the Rapha website? Sometimes I do kinda’ longish rides on Saturday mornings… I have yet to see a glimpse of black and white… When was the last time that you saw anything in color?

Second – I wanted to highlight both Sheldon and my top articles of the last year (based on your viewership). As we look to make 2010 a stellar year both on the bikes and on the blog I thought it fitting to pay homage to the articles our readers liked the most.

Sports Drinks vs. Water The Fixie Hydration is Not a Cup of Coffee Critical Mass – Edmonton ’09 Bikes Are Traffic Not Targets

The winter kit Spandex Bibs vs. Shorts Versus “Race Tracker” Hairy vs. Smooth What’s in your music library?

Also gracing the top posts were our group authoring efforts on the Transrockies:

1. Transrockies ’09 – Stage 1
2. Transrockies ’09 – Pre-Race

Related posts:

1. 2010 Trek Dirt Series
2. Are you ready for a stage race?
3. 2010 Transrockies: TR3

With the flip of the calendar, it’s suddenly 2010 and like many people out there, I recently took stock of the state of things in my life. I pondered on things like my general happiness, my place in the world, my family life, my career, my dreams and goals, and on my physical health. All in all, I like where things are at, and where they’re headed – I’m looking forward to 2010 for a lot of reasons. That said, when it came to my health, my body is changing, and not for the better. I’m about to turn 35, and I’m well into ‘the slow fade’ so to speak, which comes with a slower metabolism, which in turn brings, you guessed it, more body fat. I can say with certainty that today I am fatter than I have ever been in my entire life (excluding when I was a wee baby of course). So now what?

Even just 5 years ago, with the activity level I have these days, I’d have been a lean, mean machine, eating everything in sight just to keep my weight up. For most of my life it’s been a struggle to keep weight on. I suppose that’s lucky, so I won’t complain but always being the ‘skinny guy’ has its downsides too. I remember all through high school, wishing I was bigger, more muscular. I’d hit the gym with my buddies, and we’d spend whatever little money we had on protein powders, amino acids, and creatine, products that I can’t say if they ever really did anything. We’d spend months straight in the gym, and sure I’d put on some muscle, but never anything major, maybe 5-6 lbs bumping me from 140 lbs to a whopping 146 lbs! At 5’10”, I was a monster haha…

I’ve always been able to pretty much eat whatever I wanted, within some reason, and still stay slim and trim, but those days have been fading further and further away – this year, over the holidays I saw clear evidence of that. I weighed myself about two weeks ago, and I was 158 lbs, and as of today I am a thundering 167 lbs – a 9 lbs swing in about 14 days. And even more to the point, I was a spry 148 lbs walking into the Transrockies this summer in August – so that’s almost a 20 lbs swing since then (mostly around the midriff too). That’s a bit startling to me. It’s not like I stopped training. I’ve kept up with things pretty well, even over the holidays where it’s clear the butter tarts, the shortbread, the pecan pie, the eggnog, and the chocolates did their handiwork very well this year…

I guess what worries me most, is that although I’ve had it fairly easy this far, my body is changing, and it’s clearly going to get harder and harder to keep the weight off as I get older – and I wonder just how far will it go? Will I be able to hold back the inevitable? Based on my family genetics, I know I’d be walking around much heavier if I didn’t train as much as I do now. What will happen when I’m not able to train this much? Will I be reduced to eating spinach salads with light dressing on the side? My current schedule allows me to do spin class twice a week, go to the dojo twice and even hit the gym and do a lift once a week – that’s not a schedule I expect I’ll always be able to keep, with career goals, and especially as family responsibilities come more into play.

Aging is a funny thing… When you’re 6, you can’t wait to be 10. And when you’re 12 you can’t wait to be 16, but at some point, you stop wishing to be older. Now, about to turn 35, I wonder where the time went, and I want things to slow right down, even reverse. Somebody hurry up and invent something to reverse aging, haha… I’ve heard that beyond about 30, getting older is like watching your body slowing betray you. Hrmm… Yeah, I can see that. Good times, good times…

Related posts:

1. Dietary Alchemy
2. The Elephant and the Rider
3. Fat vs. Carbs – The Fuel Battle

How much do we really know about diet? Are we still basing it off our grade school memory of the Canada Food Guide? For the most part, that’s where my mind goes to when I think about a healthy diet. I remember the four major food groups: Fruits and Vegetables are one, Proteins are another, then Dairy, and then Grains and Cereals. Eat three balanced meals throughout your day based on these groups and we should be good to go – I won’t argue that. BUT, is there more to it? Is there a smarter way to construct your diet?

We know that some foods are ‘super foods’ when it comes to things like energy, such as bananas, or nuts, where other foods like tomatoes and avocados are high in lycopenes, and bright coloured vegetables like red peppers are rich in antioxidants that may help fight against certain types of cancers and cardiovascular disease. Spicy foods like chili peppers can help you expel toxins from you system, while omega 3 fatty acids are another good example of our new perspective of a healthy diet with good fats vs. bad fats. Of course these are only a few examples but if you think about it for a minute, you’ll probably find that you can quickly come up with a so called ‘super food’ for almost every goal, whether that be weight gain, weight loss, cancer fighting, cardiovascular health, maintenance of brain function, skin and hair care, eyesight, and the list goes on… So with all this food specific knowledge, the average person can make more sophisticated dietary decisions as they forage the local grocery stores than say 20-30 years ago. But is there still more to it? You bet…

More than just the individual foods we choose, the food combinations are important as well.  We can to start asking, how are our foods reacting, or counteracting? Some good examples of this would be tomatoes with olive oil. This combination works especially well because the fats in the olive oil help the body to absorb the antioxidants (carotenoids) in the tomatoes. When it comes to fruits, a variety or mix is better than any single fruit alone when it comes to antioxidants in that they can have a positive compounding effect. Garlic and fish is another combination that you might want to make note of because the two together deliver a lower level of the LDL cholesterol that can come from natural fish oils. Again, this is just a short list of the kinds of food combinations that can have a marked impact on the health potential of your regular diet.

If you’re interested in reading more about this there is tons of information out there. I’ve included some links below to get you started. I find this stuff really interesting and one food combination I read about recently that really impressed me involved the relationship between carbohydrate absorption, protein intake and hydration. Apparently there is a sort of ‘magic cocktail’ that you want within the 30-60 minutes following your workout because your body is primed for carbohydrate and protein absorption – your body wants to get busy repairing itself. The magic ratio is 4:1 carbohydrate to protein and the reason is that the protein helps the body absorb the carbs more easily. What’s more though, is that you may want to make sure the protein source is a whey protein, which also helps with hydration. That’s killing 3 birds with one stone.

Related Links:

1 Superfoods

2 Superfoods

3 Superfoods

4 Food Combinations

Related posts:

1. Fat vs. Carbs – The Fuel Battle
2. It’s 2010 and I’m Fatter Than I’ve Ever Been!
3. Coffee – An Athlete’s Edge

Who doesn’t like to wake up to a mornin’ cup’a joe?

For lots of us it’s a ritual, and for people like me it can be the reason I get out of bed, period. It’ll be 8:30am on a Saturday and I’ll be rolling over for another half hour of sleep when I’ll think, “Oooo… I could get up and have coffee!” The next thing I know, I’ll be up.

For a long time coffee had a bum wrap – it was simply considered bad for you and that was the end of it. Recently though, a lot more research has been done (notably on people who don’t also smoke) and suddenly that nasty cup of mud water has almost become a health drink. If you do a quick Google, articles pop up on how it reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 Diabetes, Cirrhosis of the liver, Arthritis and even certain types of cancers, liver cancer being one. That’s a pretty impressive resume for a beverage that used to be ‘bad’ for you. Coffee has also recently been cited as a proven performance enhancer for athletes.

A while back I wrote an article on hydration and how coffee, or more precisely the caffeine in coffee was a diuretic and could seriously hinder an athlete’s performance. Even a 10% depletion to our hydration can drastically decrease our muscle’s ability to operate at peak levels. Once hydration drops, less blood is flowing through your circulatory system and therefore less oxygen is getting to your muscles – lactic acid builds up, cramping sets in, light headedness and nausea follows and blammo! You’re done for the day. I should know from stage 1 of 2009 Transrockies. So, in light of the dehydrating effects, I wondered how it was that coffee was being recommended as a performance enhancer for endurance athletes.

Well, in a word, caffeine. The very same ingredient that can cause dehydration, can also help you perform at your best.

Caffeine (aka: Trimethylxanthine or C8H10N402) has a very similar effect on us as Cocaine or Heroin (which I find a little scary):

• Makes you feel alert by inhibiting adenosine reception
• Makes you feel more energetic by increasing adrenaline levels
• Makes you feel happy by its effects on dopamine

Caffeine can also help with pain suppression, which would make sense since it’s in pain relief and headache medications.

It’s not hard to see how these kinds of effects could help an endurance athlete. Being more alert, having increased energy and a more positive mood are all clear advantages. What’s more though, is that recent studies found caffeine is an ergogenic agent. This means it helps release calcium from muscle tissue, allowing muscles to contract with more force, increasing power output.

So is caffeine the missing ingredient to your pre-race routine? Should you be downing a few cups of coffee before the big race? Maybe. Some caution though, and this goes back to the risk of dehydration. You wouldn’t want to be loading up on caffeine for days in advance because it would only counteract your efforts to get well hydrated. But if you’ve been diligent about your hydration in the days leading up by drinking your 2 litres of water per day and limiting your caffeine and alcohol, you could indulge race morning if you’re looking for that extra edge. Just be sure to stay on water/sports drinks as well.

For those of you who don’t consume a lot of coffee, or caffeine laden products like pop, tea and chocolate, how much do you really need to still get the performance benefits? Well, in a recent article by Gina Kolata from the New York Times you might need as little as 200 milligrams, or 1 medium cup of coffee to see a measurable impact on your performance.

As a point of interest, here is a list of some usual suspects and their caffeine content per serving (via Energy Fiend):

• 5 Hour Energy (1 bottle) 138 mg
• Coca~Cola Classic (1 can) 34.5mg
• Starbucks coffee (Grande) 330mg
• Full Throttle (1 can) 144mg
• Monster (1 can) 160mg
• Red Bull (1 can) 80mg
• Tim Hortons coffee (Large) 200mg
• Brewed tea (1 cup) 47mg

Final thoughts:

There such a thing as too much of a good thing, but caffeine if used properly, can be your ally and for us coffee drinkers/addicts – this is great news! Something else to consider is the length of time caffeine affects you. For most people, a cup of coffee in the mid-afternoon, around 3pm, will still have lingering effects for up to 6 hours. So, if you’re looking to get a good nights rest to recover from a weekend of racing or hard training session, caffeine late in the day might not be a good thing. You might still sleep, but likely won’t reach that deep sleep you really need. Really, like most things, some moderation is the key. Avoid overuse when trying to hydrate yourself before training, or the big race and try to stay away from that late day cup of afternoon pick me up (easier said than done, I know)

(Video via Troop! – Official Sketch Comedy)

Related posts:

1. Racing Smart
2. Top Ten for 2010
3. Dietary Alchemy