Eating to train - Fueled by Zipvit

I'm always asked about this and and I have wrote about it a few times before. What to eat in training, and what I eat in training.

Well, todays training was basically three and a half hours, easy enough riding in the flats for the first half - endurance, a few eight minute hill climb intervals and then a little more endurance riding. So a mix between endurance and threshold. Riding in the "fat burn" zone and "glycogen only" land.

This was the ride:


This is what I took:

Basically, two 750ml bottles of Zipvit Energy Drink Elite, one homemade rice bar inspired by Allen Lim's Feedzone Cookbook (I'll post my recipe soon enough - it was chocolate, coconut and almond), one Zipvit Energy Bar and one Zipvit Energy Gel before the threshold work.

Also, twice a day I take one each of these. Glutatione, Cod liver oil and Quercetin.

Sometimes, I go through a period of taking Acetyl-L-Carnitine too - basically three per day. And with my anemia from last year still fresh in my mind, I go through periods of supplementing iron - although now that I eat a lot more red meat, my ferritin levels are remaining good.

Amazing Irish weather for March

It has been a long time since I put sunscreen on in Ireland for two days in a row while training. Yesterday and today it was shorts and jersey only weather, no thermal jackets, no knee warmers, not even gloves - it was amazing.

Panarama taken with Photosynth on my iPhone 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling broken

As I have mentioned in a few of my other posts lately, I have not been feeling great since the start of March. I have had some reasonably good days, but in general, my body and my general feelings have not been as consistent as usual – my body has been acting weird. I had put in a really great winter of training, recovery and watching my nutrition and was in the best shape I have ever been. In February, I was fit, strong and confident - but since March, it seemed to be whittling away.

The motivation is usually there for racing but during training, a lethargy encased my body. It was hard to push, hard to really give it everything, was I a 'wuss', did I need to HTFU? Was it over-training? I gave my body time to recover, looked through the symptoms – but I really didn't think it was overtaining. Was it something else? Did I pick up something while I slid along the Malaysian side walk or some virus/bacteria afterwards? All I know, is that since then, I have not felt normal.

Initially, I put it down to needing more rest, so I focused on that, but the feelings were not leaving. In races, I was hitting max and average heart rates I have not seen in years. In training, I was still going out and setting some personal bests on climbs – they were shorter climbs though. Nothing too long. I was stronger than ever, but there was something holding me back.

I was frustrated and got more blood tests done – oh, why didn't I do this earlier? The results highlighted a lot of what was wrong – my Hematocrit (PCV) values where 20% down on where they should be – Hb (Hemoglobin) was also way down. That and a bunch of other results showed one thing – I am anemic. This explains a lot – the high heart rates, the tiredness, the recovery issues, why I could set personal bests on shorter distances/efforts but just 'normal' on the longer.

Knowing what is wrong is half the battle, the other half is fixing it. I'm on the first steps in that direction and am confident that I'll be tearing the cranks off again soon.

With all of this, it was really unfortunate that I had to decline my place on the National Team this weekend for the Lincoln GP – a classic road race that would have been great to race in (my teammate for the weekend, Philip Lavery, finished 2^nd in it last year). But alas, my body needs a little down time (well, I'll still be training, but training for 4 hours, is a lot easier than traveling and racing for the same!) - the An Post RAS is just a few weeks away and I want to be fresh and ready for it.

There were actually other issues uncovered, allergies, breathing issues etc... but they are a little less interesting than the above and a little easier to fix. Man, elite sports is hard on the body!

2011 January Training - Part 2

Finishing out from Part 1 on my January training diary, I'll cover the 'meat' of the Gran Canaria trip and then the recovery.

After doing several 3 day blocks of 2 hard days, 1 easy day, I was ready to move to 3 days on, 1 day off.

The first part of the first day of each block remained the same – 3 x 13 minutes at Threshold – why 13 minutes? That was roughly how long the climb was, I would have rathered it being 15 minutes but the location was perfect – a 45 minute warmup from home and at the most arid part of the island - so the least chance of getting rained on while doing the tough intervals. The remaining part of the ride was mid tempo climbing up to the maximum amount of riding I had planed. It started as 3.5 hours but worked up to 4.5 hours.

A sample threshold day - 2,400m of climb in total

 The following day was a long endurance type ride – between 5 and 6 hours – I would ride tempo on the long sustained climbs – about 80-85% of FTP and the rest at endurance pace. This is when I get to see most of the island.

The last day of the block had 2 options – a group ride if I can find a descent one, or a split day. If it was a split day, 3 x 20 minutes at Sweet Spot (90% of Threshold) – if I can. This would be followed by 1 minute on, 1.5 minutes off by 10-15 times in the evening. If it is a group ride, I would plan for 6 hours with a few harder efforts thrown in (as well as a coffee stop!). By the end of this, I'm pretty toast and ready for a recovery day.

Out with my wife on a group ride :)

As the weeks progressed, my Threshold power increased steadily so that my final sessions where the best of the trip despite having acquired a lot of fatigue – somehow, all my best efforts come when I'm in a fatigue hole.

Upon returning to Ireland, it was 3 days of very easy riding and a weekend of longer rides, but still at an easy enough pace (group rides to add in some social aspect). With that, I was ready to start February and build again.

2011 January Training - Part 1

I love the training I do from November through to January – it covers so much of what I love about cycling (aside from the racing) and builds the big base that I utilize for the rest of the year. Long bike rides, beautiful scenery – many of the spins more social than my normal routine – a lot of riding by feel and really listening to your body. An important aspect for me is training the body pretty hard, but not having to use much 'mental energy' – hard training and racing uses a lot of 'mental power', so in the winter I recharge that. I have already talked a little about what I did in November/December, here I will bring it up to date with January.

Well, first, once Mel and I returned from the US – we had one small problem to deal with – the Irish weather. Freak weather meant that much of our training over Christmas and until we headed off again for Gran Canaria was going to be indoors – on our indoor trainer and on the rollers.

I was never a fan of training indoors but the Cycleops 300 Pro indoor trainer has really helped change that (so much so that all my recovery rides are now on the trainer – just more time efficient and I can really tune out). A good road feel, built in power, sturdy and super quiet – it ticks my boxes. When we were away from home (around Christmas) – the turbo trainer and rollers where out. A bunch of two hour sessions (I was doing things like 2-3 x 20 minutes at upper tempo with constant change of pace) kept the legs ticking over.

Before long, it was January 4^th and time to travel to Gran Canaria for our 3 week camp.

Stop to enjoy the view (sometimes)

Traveling to the Canaries at this time of year is really a no brainer for cyclists that have the flexibility of performing their day-job from anywhere. Mel and I are both fortunate in that all we need are our laptops and a fast internet connection.

For the first 9 days, I follow a 2 days on, 1 day off training protocol. Too many people when they go to training camps burn themselves out by going on back to back 6 hour epics each day. While we are there for 3 weeks – it is important to treat it as a normal training block and ease ourselves into it.

This is a simplified version of what the first 9 days looks like:

Day 1: Long warmup, and powertest – see where the legs are at – rest of 3.5 hour ride is by feel – enjoy it. I do the same ride at the start of each year.

Day 2: Long ride – again, ride by feel – 4-5 hours – throw in a hard 3-5 minute effort – see how the legs are feeling and use it as a marker for the trip

Day 3: Recovery ride – easy 1 to 1.5 hours, go for lunch

Day 4: Upper Tempo (say 80% of Threshold) on climbs (1.5hrs total at 80%+ of Threshold power) 3.5-4 hours

Day 5: Long Endurance – Upper Tempo on Climbs – focus on various skills (fast pedal etc...) - 5 hours

Day 6: Recovery ride – easy 1 to 1.5 hours, go for lunch

Day 7: 3 x 15-20 climbs at Sweet Spot (90% of Threshold) – sprint work at the start. 4 hours

Day 8: Long Endurance – Tempo on Climbs – focus on various skills (fast pedal etc...) 5.5 hours

Day 9: Recovery ride – easy 1 to 1.5 hours, go for lunch

At this point – the body is pretty well acclimatized and it ready to up the intensity a little.

It is always super important to watch hydration and nutrition during this time (well, ANY time!) especially if the conditions are different from what you usually train in. Weighing yourself first thing in the morning, and then after you return from the ride is a great way of monitoring your hydration levels. On long hot sessions, I tended to lose about 700 grams of body weight – about 1% of my total body weight so more than acceptable for hydration loss. The first thing I do everyday when I arrive in from training is grab the ZipVit Recovery from the fridge, put the feet up and enjoy.

Eat well!

Part 2 coming up soon.

Best of 2010 - ZipVit Sport

Since Mel and I started racing, nutrition has always been at the top of our priorities – my past in other sports had shown the importance of this to me before and starting an endurance sport made it that much more relevant. I changed by diet a lot from my 'party' lifestyle I had between sports and it has benefited me in many ways even outside cycling. Anecdotally, I was on the borderline of needed glasses/lenses a few year years ago – I have since stepped away from that border – I put that down mostly to nutrition.

But I digress, back to ZipVit.

At the start of 2010, Mel and I had the opportunity to start working with ZipVit. I had used some of their products before and was very happy with the results so we went all in. I'm so happy we did.

ZipVit are a relatively new sports nutrition company but have quickly become part of the leading edge of sports nutrition – their products are constantly being adjusted and perfected (let's just say that I didn't like one of their Recovery Drink flavors at the start) with the aid of their testing team and athletes they support – teams like Cervelo Test Team, RadioShack and the Irish National Team.

Throughout the year, we used all their products during racing, training and even on our honeymoon, what impressed us most though was their gels, bars and recovery.

There are two major things I love about the gels. First, is their size – they are about 30% larger than standard gels and contain around 200 calories. When racing, when under pressure, the last thing I want to do is to have to take a gel every 15 minutes (my stomach can handle a lot of food) – these are a size that are still easy to swallow but yet give a lot of important carbs. The other major thing for me, is that these are not jammed full of electrolytes... One of the problems with lots of sports food is that everything is now full of various salt solutions – okay, if you are only taking one or two gels/drinks, but if racing and eating 5 gels and 4 bottles of energy drink, I get way more than I need and end up feeling bloated for a day or two. These gels are a lot more subtle and have helped me feel a lot better (and retain a lot less water) in the days following a race.

The Bars – well, they have the right amount of carbs/protein etc... but the major feature is their taste – yum. When a new batch arrives, Mel and I have to split the boxes, half with “Mel” written on the side, the other half with “Ryan”. We like them that much that it is hard not to live off them – especially the recovery bars. Being mostly pescatarian (we eat meat if out at a restaurant though – we just don't cook it in general) – getting enough protein can be tricky enough at times – that is where the recovery bars have come in (or as the snack between lunch and dinner). For hot conditions, I would stay with the uncoated chocolate energy bars as the others can get a little melty.

Water -> Chocolate Milk -> ZipVit Recovery... That has been my progression in post training/racing recovery. If there is one thing that I can say that can greatly benefit riders, it is to really sort out your post ride recovery. Whenever I train any longer than 1.5 hours, I always have my recovery drink prepared and waiting in the fridge for when I get in. Taking this straight away kick starts my bodies recovery process so that I can then get cleaned up and make a proper lunch knowing that I have done everything to ensure that I can gain the maximum out of that session and start the preparation for the next. Of the flavors, Chocolate and Vanilla are my favorites.

Doing the 'loop' in GC

The 'loop'

It is not that often I write just about a training ride, but this one was pretty cool. A lap of Gran Canaria. It is around 185km and pretty tough in places. A group of about 12 of us left from Maspalomas at 10am (8 of us finished up). A steady pace the whole day with some amazing views – we even picked up a few other riders during the spin.

Some dude called Fabien went to the front... :P

A sheer drop off - stunning

HR, Power, Altitude for the spin

8 of us finished up the ride in the end. One more training session on the island and my training block will be complete.

Early season training

I have gotten lots of questions lately about how I approach the off-season and how I prepare for the next season. In this post, I'll bring you through a little of my preparation for the 2011 season. I have been influence by lots of different things. Joe Friel and his blog/books, Hunter Alan/Andrew Coggan book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" as well as the Wattage Group and 100s of articles/papers I have read. Oh, as well as my own personal experiment – that is me.

First off, my 2011 season starts after the day of my final race, my second National Title of the year at the MTB Marathon Championships. I had not felt raced out towards the end of the season, indeed, I wanted to race more but I did feel pretty trained out. I had enough of the structure and intervals and looked forward to some recovery time. After spending a couple more days in Ireland (I rode or ran each day – just for fun though) Mel and I headed for our delayed honeymoon in Peru.

For the first time since I started riding, I would be moving away totally from the bike for a few weeks – I was not sure how I would respond to it afterwards. Fortunately, from a fitness point of view, our trip was very active with lots of hiking, climbing and running around – all this at high altitude meant that despite indulging a little (or a lot) more than usual we came home from our trip a little lighter! Gotta love traveling to altitude.

No bikes found up here - climbing a 6,000 meter mountain

This takes us to around the 19th of October – my official, “start training” point is November 1st (a Monday, so for me – a recovery day) so up until then, Mel and I joined up on various group and social spins. Moving the legs, meeting new friends and being brought down roads and loops that we had not seen before. I really enjoyed it – some of the spins were 6 hours long, but at a pace that was closer to recovery for me I would still come home fresh, both mentally and physically. I felt like a social cyclist.

As November comes along, things get a little more serious training wise. My body seems to handle the rigors of training very well and doesn't seem to need a break, but after almost 16 months straight of racing my mind does. This time of year I focus on doing rides that can be hard (in some cases, very hard) but are not mentally challenging. For instance, a lot of rides would be simply, endurance on the flats, tempo on the climbs – if I want. If I feel good and want to ride harder, I will, if not, no biggie. Get the volume in without causing any mental fatigue. So for the first few weeks of November, it was about doing training to prepare myself for the 'real' training.

As I mentioned earlier, the 2.5 weeks gap off the bike was by far the longest time I had spent off the bike since I started riding – even breaking my collarbone (and the resultant surgery) only meant 2 days not riding. For the first few days when I started riding again, the bike felt a little alien – I didn't feel my legs spin as easily as they had in September and I'll be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried... Two weeks later however, while out on a normal training ride I came to a hill I often perform tests on, I decided to ride hard, but not too hard – as I closed in on the top of the climb, I noticed I wasn't actually very far off a PB set in the summer (while wearing shorts and a jersey – not all the winter garb I was wearing then). My mind was set to rest. My body and mind had time to recover from the 2010 season and my legs weren't going too bad either!

Cyclocross - for something a bit different

Next was the first proper training block of the year – like past years I went to northern California to get some quality riding in. In the past it was to meet work requirements, but that had changed a little and now my trip was to take advantage of better weather, nice roads and a change of environment. While there, the weather was not exactly typical for the time of year (I got rained on a lot and it was pretty cold) but having seen what Ireland was going through, I was very glad to be there.

Many of my longest rides of the year (at least in the past – I will have a different focus in 2011 so this will change a little) came in this block - packing in 20-30 hours of riding a week. In the area there is a set of hill climb races that I take part in (and blog about) and they served as great power tests. Mentally, it is so much easier to push hard when in a race and being timed. I rode two this year and the power figures (for November) where good, actually, very good. There are lots of great, fast group rides on in the area – many Pro cyclists and National Champions make up the bay area cycling scene so you can often get your hours in in great company.

For the solo rides – a lot of it is basically, endurance riding on the flats (focusing on high cadence work too and some sprints), and riding sweet spot on the climbs – that is basically riding at 90% of my threshold power. Basically trying to get 1.5-2.5 hours of tempo (or better) riding in per day. The climbs in the area are all pretty big (15-35 minutes) so getting good steady efforts in is pretty straightforward. People say that I have a big engine (in cycling terms), I put a lot of that down to this type of riding I do this time of year. Again, if I'm out and the legs, mind or body really are not feeling it, I can ease off, enjoy the scenery and charge up the batteries for the next day.

Climbing hills - big ones... (pic from here)

Now, after 4 great weeks training I'm back in Ireland – a few days of recovery first and then back to building for the 2011 season. Due to the weather, I probably will not be able to get in the same sort of hours, but the intensity will no doubt rise a notch (especially considering I expect a chunk to be on the indoor trainer).

Many thanks to my brother and his family for taking Mel and I in under their wings while we were in California - you guys made everything so straight forward for us to get the best training in while still meeting our work commitements. THANKS!

So that is it for my first month and a half of training. Basically it is about building the engine/base for the harder things that follow without making it too hard on yourself.

Best of 2010 - Massage

Mel and I are always trying to optimize our equipment, nutrition, training, racing and recovery. In 2010 a new thing popped along for us to take advantage of that we had not used in the past. Namely, one of the main reasons we all shave our legs – massage (well, other than vanity and it being a hell of a lot easier to clean up...).


PRO cycling has long had the connection to pre and post massage to aid warmup and then recovery after hard training and racing. Indeed, I "enjoyed" my first long stretch of post race massage during the FBD RAS – Eamon Brady from Dungannon was our team's masseur and his deep massages (ouch!) had our whole team's legs flying every day (we won the county team award, amongst other things). While this was excellent when you were doing an arduous 8 day stage race, the biggest advantage we got over the year was the weekly massage via Stewart Carr.

When putting your body through as much hard racing and training as we do, over time small niggles can arise – maybe the cleat was 2mm out or your legs seized up after the 4 hour cramped car journey after the race (both of these happened to me this year). The weekly massage quickly found any such niggles and worked them out before they became serious. We have both been fortunate in that neither of us had to miss a days training due to these niggles growing into injuries – in a large part I put it down to regular massage and checkup. On the other hand, those massages were great just for relaxation too :)

We would like to thank Stewart for all the support during the year (and about 100 other things you helped out with) – I would also like to mention that he runs his own studio for sports massage out of Sprocket Cycles in Bray – their number is 01-272 3010 to setup an appointment. He is an all-round good guy and a fountain of knowledge with all things biking.

Having a weekly or fortnightly massage I believe to be much more beneficial then buying those bling set of carbon wheels.

Another GC Update

Sunday was the second day of a big weekend of bike rides. Saturday saw lots of threshold climbing and a sigh-seeing trip to Las Palmas in the evening (beautiful - pictures to follow).



Sunday was much more 'serious'. The main part, well, the bit that looks toughest was a 27km climb that climbed almost 1900 meters. There were long sections of this rough climb that averaged 18% with little or no reprise. Hitting the top of the climb (around 2,000 meters above sea level – the air was noticeable thiner and a hell of a lot colder then when I started) – a quick pic and a mad dash down the mountain to warmer temperatures. To end it all, a 20km ride from Maspalomas back to Vecindario into a 60kmph head-on wind. I was in the climbing gears the whole way home on the flat rode!

Tenerife in the distance

Best of 2009: Garmin Edge 705 + BikeRouteToaster

It is around a year since I got my Garmin 705 and I have realized that didn't blog about the devices best use case (outside of Powermeter integration) over the 305. I didn't think that mapping would be a huge thing for me, but a few weeks with the device and I was proved very wrong – not only did the mapping help Mel and I navigate our way around Europe, Africa and the United States like a normal car GPS when getting to the race, but it has been a great tool for training in new areas when used with a website I love – bikeroutetoaster.com.

An example toasted route from last week

Bikeroutetoaster basically allows you to trace out a road loop on a google maps style interface and easily upload the result to your Garmin for playback. Not only that, it will also give you an elevation breakdown of what you are about to do which can even be viewed on the Garmin. For instance, last January in Gran Canaria, in the morning over breakfast I would trace out our routes, check the profile (make sure there is the right about of climb for the day) and distance, upload to my Garmin and go. Not once did we ask for directions, get lost or need an external map – perfect.

Pictures from today's ride

I few pictures from today's ride. A 155km point to point from Livermore over Mount Hamilton and back to Palo Alto. Nice weather throughout (but it was really cold) :)

Mount Hamilton Observatory

On Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Low Key hill climb will be going up Mount Hamilton - I'll be giving it a go before I head back to Ireland later that day.

Climbing

The secret to climbing well in the summer - lots of this in the winter:

There are no shortcuts.

In other news - the start to Saturdays CX race in Sierra Point:



That was the start of the cat A race - there was probably around 700 racers in total!

A healing up shoulder

Early this morning I went back to the Sports Surgery Clinic for my first X-ray after the operation on my broken collerbone. As usual, the service there was amazing and I was soon sitting down with Mr. Colville (my surgeon) looking at a very well healed collerbone. It takes months for the bone to heal fully (you can see it is not perfect in the image) but I have finally been given the goahead for MTB riding again, as long as I don't crash!


As far as training is concerned, I have been able to ride my road bike normally for the last few weeks – with the last two feeling like nothing was wrong at all. Considering the last two months, I'm still pretty fit but I'll have to see soon how that converts to MTB fitness. Tonight I'll be going for an offroad ride finally taking in some of the new singletrack my club created for their two XC events that were held in the last two months.

Again, I highly recommend the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry – it has the best medical facilities and staff that I have seen and also thanks to Garreth and Avril in Physio Dynamics for referring me to them.

Saris PowerTap Disc Brake wheel

This year, Saris were able to help out with a few pieces of equipment through Paligap – the most interesting piece being the new PowerTap SL 2.4 Disc built by Cycleways onto a Stans NoTubes Olympic Rim with Sapim Race spokes which just so happens to talk wirelessly with my Garmin Edge 705. I have used power on the road bike for over a year now and have found it a great training tool – sometimes, I do admit to riding t o a number (which is good sometimes) but the advantages for training specificity, pacing and training/performance recording has been immeasurable. With all that in mind, I was always intrigued to see what the difference would be off-road versus on the road. With a few weeks of training and an offroad time trial on the wheel I can start making some initial observations.

Full built wheel including brake rotor and rim tape is 1,250 grams

Firstly, mountain bikings power profile is dramatically different from the road. Looking at a road power file, you see power rise and fall a lot, this is nothing in comparison to what you find on a mountain bike. The amount of time that you spend at Anaerobic power levels is astonishing with the time spent around Threshold power levels being dramatically lower (unless of course there are long steady climbs in the ride/race). My observation is that you are basically coasting (steep or technical descending), riding at endurance pace (fireroad descending) or are at VO2max/Anaerobic Power Zones (all climbs).

A muddy one

Throughout the winter I spent a great amount of time training for increased power at Threshold/Tempo and increasing the time I can spend at it – it works well for the road but the power requirements for off-road are quiet different and something that I will be altering my training for.

For instance, if you take two rides, one on the road and one off-road that you would consider equally hard on your body, the MTB ride would have a much lower average power, but with a lot higher peaks. Also, generating the same power off road is much more difficult than on a nice smooth road.

Secondly, the cadences at which the power is output is dramatically different. Road riding, unless very steep (and not enough gears available) you can basically decide the cadence you wish to ride at, again, it is so steady. In mountain biking, the cadences vary dramatically, with a large chunk of the high powered efforts at low cadences (50-70). I guess this is a lot of the out of the saddle steep climbs, but again, a thing that my road riding had not prepared myself for properly. On the road, I do train at the slower cadences, but not at that power level – my Anaerobic, VO2Max efforts tend to be at the 80-90 range.

So what am I changing, without going into too much detail, more high powered steep climbs (not necessarily technical, I seem to handle those well), more 3-5 minute climbs and, if you read anything about my Cyprus racing, more training in relation to fast starts – clearing lactate etc…

My prerace and preride nutrition

It seems that every few weeks I see a post from someone getting into racing/riding wanting to know what other people eat and drink before, during and after rides and races. I try to give some advice, always with the “this is what works for me, everyone is different” disclaimer – I think at this point I should write down something on the blog that I can refer to. Again with the disclaimer, I’m an Elite rider that has been doing this for a few years so what works for me will not work for everyone, also, I think I’m naturally able to eat a lot on the bike and make it available to my body – in longer races/events, this is very important.

Anyway, I’ll give a few examples of what I do.

3 hour ride with about 1.5 hour of it at a pretty high intensity (tempo/threshold), the rest at a steady endurance pace. About 2,500 cal ride.
Breakfast:

• Coffee + large bowl of porridge with 2 pieces of fruit and Soya milk
• a large slices of wholemeal bread with jam

Ride (about 1.5 hours after breakfast):

• 2 large bottles of ZipVit Energy Drink
• 1 ZipVit energy bar and one other cereal bar. ZipVit bar about 1:20 into the ride, other bar around 2:10 in.

Post:

• ZipVit Recovery(or chocolate milk, raisons, shake etc…) as soon as I get in.

Within 40 minutes:

• A proper lunch, pretty low in fat, lots of clean carbohydrates, a bit of protein, lots of veg/fruit (and coffee). For example, a large breadroll with beans, homemade savory pancakes, stirfry with extra noodles... If I'm training hard or long, maybe a side of rice too.

2 hour XC race – say, a 5 lap race
9:00 Breakfast:

• Same as normal – probably skip the bread though

11:00

• Some bread/bagel/rice, maybe some protein with it – whatever I feel I can eat – maybe some fruit and/or an energy bar.

13:30 Race start

• possibly a gel 15-30 minutes before hand.
• Each lap (20-25 minutes), I would drink about 350ml of Energy Drink (depending on temperature etc…) and one gel. Not everyone can/should do that, maybe a gel every second lap – again, depending on how strong you made the drink.

15:30
After the finish back to ZipVit recovery. Some people can’t handle eating right after a race, just make sure you eat something – Mel likes Haribo after a hard race. Your body has various time windows for efficiency of food uptake. Getting the food in earlier will mean you feel better later in the day and the following days. If you are starving all the following day, you did something wrong. I try to ride a little after the race, take some extra drinks and food on the bike (fruit etc… whatever you can eat) and when I get back to the car again, try to eat some more carbohydrates, about 800 Cals worth, so a reasonable amount. From then on, I’m pretty snacky for the rest of the day – I try to keep it very healthy for the first few hours but later maybe treat myself :)

Making pretty charts

Two road rides this weekend as most of the trails are still too slushy (I wondered into the mountains on Friday but soon turned back due to the conditions).

On Saturday, I was doing a little prep for for next weekends racing and my legs felt great. I felt like I could keep pushing and pushing. Sunday, my legs felt pretty dead for the long ride except when I was pushing the pace a bit up the climbs.




Recovery today, and my legs need it!

More snow complaints

The roads looked clear enough so after a warmup on the turbo trainer I ventured out. I didn't expect to be able to ride off road but I went up to Ticknock carpark anyway. The Tarmac road had a lot of snow but there was a dug in compacted track to the top of Three Rock (only 4-5 inches of snow there versus 12-18 all around it). It was tricky riding but beautiful. Not exactly training but I was working on my balance and smooth pedaling! As I turned, a big snow storm blew in (and is still here more than two hours later) so I guess everything is impassible again. I think it will be another week before off-roading will be possible again :(

The top of Three Rock

The top of one of the climbs I usually do on the road bike

When the storm rolled in, I had to revert to this - will probably be doing lots more of it in the next few days

A day in my GC life

Mel has just gone back to Ireland (college meetings to physically attend) but I'll be staying here for another week. With that, our little apartment seems rather quiet so I thought I would sit down and write something.

These last two weeks have been amazing. Both our lives during this period have been pretty much focused on two things. Work (the thing that pays the bills) and cycling. The separation here from our normal routine and distractions has allowed us to become very efficient at both and I get a good feeling of being on top of the work and training for the new season. The weekends are fun, and rest days (Mondays and Fridays usually for me) are mostly about work and a tootle to the beach for lunch but the real benefit that I have found is in the other three days of the week. At the moment I'm getting in 3-4 quality hours on the bike each of those days (a little less if I include any intensity).

I climbed up this today...

... and met Mel for coffee here before she left

It is a simple life – one that I could only really stay focused in for a few weeks without a change but I have enjoyed it. You really do ONLY work, ride, sleep and eat.

Riding the "Best Descent"

I've been enjoying a lot of off road riding these last few days now that I'm back home. I had to stop and take a picture of this today - one of the descents in our area. And yes, that is a huge drop to the left - later you actually skirt along the edge.


I had bone dry trails for the last few days, but today things started to get wet again :(