I don't know about you all, but when the training season hits I always find myself in front of the fridge. Our fridge isn't stocked that well right now but keep opening it as if a meal would magically appear. Kinda like the Jetson's food processor. I always used to get crap from my buddy who thought I had a tapeworm. I've always been able to eat a lot and stay around the same weight. Poor Marc I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not complaining. But, I do think it has an affect on my ability to maintain necessary energy levels while competing. For example, I burn through 5 energy gels in 1 hour and a half long mtb race. Is that typical? How many do you go through?
4 comments:
I don't know how much I go through as I've resorted to using the flask. I would say in a race I go through about half a flask - not enough I'm sure, but I've never been one to eat or drink much on the bike.
Nice flash from the past in that pic!
zero - that's how many I go through. I've certainly paid the price with some pretty bad bonks. Dirtspanker a couple of years ago comes to mind, but that was a muddy slog in oppresive heat. Sickboy remembers that one I'm sure, as he decided to "save" himself for another day. :)
nice pasty legs.
yeah, ramping up training season (which has been going for about a month for me now) I get an absolutely voracious appetite. Since I don't really have to focus on dropping weight this year, I've given myself the liberty of eating a little extra. Though this refers purely to my off the bike eating.
last year in tucson on one of my rides with Ian (this one happened to be a 106 mile grinder) we stopped twice for food and until then I never realized how badly I was depriving myself during races. I would always crap out during hard races after about 2.5 hours. I've since learned that if I'm not downing at least 2 gels and 1 clif bar per hour, I'm not eating enough. I try to hold off on the gels until later in the race, just because they are a little sugary (and can cause a sugar crash if you don't have enough of them).
I also try to get a handup of energy drink too, and start with at least one large bottle of it along with straight water. Gensan electrolyte drink is really good during the hot months.
back to off the bike, be sure to have some protein within a half hour of ending a workout, otherwise your muscles won't rebuild adequately. One of my favorite post-training meals is Hamburger helper, except substituting whole grain rice or whole wheat pasta instead of what they give you. You can also throw in 1 to 1.5 cups of TVP instead of meat, which I do to accomodate the vegetarian girlfriend....
and yeah dan, I remember that Du Lac race. the mud was only about 2 miles but was just ridiculous. I think that race, with basically an hour of going all out followed by stopping (with no cooldown) set me back in my fitness by about a month because my legs were tight for like a solid week afterwards....
Don't I look like Rainbow Bright? How many colors can I wear? I mean really!
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