Nutrition and Riding

Lately I've been thinking about diet, nutrition and the impact on performance. One personal pet peeve is this whole chocolate milk commercial non-sense. The chocolate milk isn't better than plain milk as a recovery drink. I'm not going to bother providing links, since there's too many of them. Before Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution fought to ban chocolate and strawberry flavored milk, there weren't many commercials for chocolate milk. Chocolate drinks like Yoohoo and others had plenty of commercials. It used to be milk commercials showed the familiar white milk mustache.

I don't buy the whole argument that if it wasn't for chocolate milk, American children wouldn't get enough calcium or minerals in their diet. Most of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam don't drink regular milk. Do their kids have issues with nutrition due to a lack of milk? Nope, they don't.

I think milk is great, even if I am lactose intolerant. I use Lactaid in my coffee every morning. My kids drink milk and love it. Nutrition for me is about finding the right balance of healthy fresh foods. Not eating processed frozen junk with a ton of chemicals. I find that when I eat a balanced healthy diet, my performance on the bike is much better.

In the mornings I eat some carbs, coffee with Lactaid and fruit. Lunch time it's usually leftovers from the night before, which is rice, veggies and some meat. Night time is usually rice/noodles with stir-fry and meat. Every now and then I splurge. Usually once a year I'll go nuts on a bag of Doritos, since they are wicked evil good. Yes, the ride after the Doritos-fest I ride like the Titanic. If I wasn't so lazy, I would show the nutritional information for plain versus chocolate milk, but that's too much work.

Funny video

I happen to come across this video about Dave mathews getting picked up by a fan.

dave mathew hitches a ride

I happen to notice dave mathews is riding a specialized s works. Can't tell which model, but the SWorks is prominant.

Thoughts on polar blue HRM

Now that I've used the Polar Blue HRM for several months, here's a couple of observations. Compared to my old Sigma HRM, which uses 2032 battery, the Polar blue doesn't last as long. Both 2032 and 2025 are 3 volt batteries, but 2032 lasts longer. Here's the specs for each battery.

Lithium 2032
3V
220mAh

Lithium 2025
3V
150mAh

What does that mean in practical terms? Assuming you use the HRM every day for 1 hour, 2025 will last roughly 2-2.5 months. My sigma HRM with 2032 last for about 4 months on 1 battery. Last year I rode about 5800 miles and needed to change the battery on the sigma HRM once. Basically 2 batteries from March - November.

At the current rate, I will need about 4 batteries with the Polar blue HRM.

Thanks to Salt Stick caps

I had a great time on Saturday riding Mount Greylock Century. For the first 50 miles, the temperatures were in the low 70's/high 60's. When I reached the bottom of East Holly road, my hamstrings started to cramp. Immediately I went into survival mode and went slow. Up to that point, I was doing great and got PR's on the two big climbs.

At the top of East Hawley rest stop, I quickly ate 4 Salt Stick caps. I also drank 2 bottles of water. 30 minutes later, the cramps were gone and I recovered enough to push through to the end. I'm so glad I bought salt stick caps and brought some on the ride. If I hadn't it would have been harder to finish the ride, given there's 11K+ feet of climbing.

I bought them from Run outlet

Why I ride

Today the sky is grey and the ground is wet. Earlier this morning, it was pouring and the water was flowing down the hill like a stream. I felt a sense of dread mixed with a slight bit of hope. The weather report could be totally wrong and I might be able to get a ride in.

Some people have asked me why I ride and why I like big climbs. The honest truth is I am addicted to riding. It helps clear my head each day, gets my heart pumping and forces me outside. Every day I ride, I feel the adrenaline coursing through my body. Before I started riding, my weight was around 185lbs. I had no energy, felt slow and had a tough time dealing with stress.

When allergy season started, I felt miserable. My eyes itched and my nose was running. Using flonase made it bearable, but it didn't wasn't fixing the problem. After I dropped 20 lbs and improved my health, I didn't need flonase any more. Since 2010 I've been off flonase after being on it for about 3 years.

Riding has done a lot for me. Emotionally, spiritually and physically I feel better. Why I ride? The real question for me is "why doesn't everyone ride?"

Making progress

Yesterday I did the Wednesday nite ride at the Old Stone Church in West boylston. Usually I don't get to ride on wednesday nites, but when I do it's fun. Compared to the first time I did the ride, I've definitely improved and gotten stronger. The first time, we took Laurel street to holden, up Elmwood to Ball Hill, then to princeton center. My memory of that first ride was "holy shit these guys are fast." On the first climb up Elmwood and jefferson rd, I got dropped. Luckily they slowed down a bit, but not quite enough for me to recover. By the time I got to brook station road, they were long gone. There was a 2 other people near me. I tried my best to grind up Ball Hill road, but there was no chance of me catching them.

The next time I did the WNR, I did better and managed to hang on until the top of ball hill road. Fast forward 2 years and things are different. For the first half of the ride, I can just hang on the climbs. I'm still at the back of the group, but I'm ok with that. Compared to 2011, my avg mph up the climbs are 2-3mph faster. On a good day, I can hold the wheel in front of me.

Without a doubt I've gotten stronger, but the fast guys are even faster now. That's a good thing and gives me motivation. The downside is that my training sucks. I have no rhyme or reason to how I train. I don't have a plan or schedule laid out. Every day I look forward to my ride and just ride. I'm too happy to be riding to think about how I should be training. The thing, I'm ok with that. I ride for health and fun. For me, it's not about racing or killing myself. The act of spinning up a steep hill makes me happy. I don't know how much more progress I can make without getting serious about training, but I don't really care. At the end of the day, I'm just happy to be healthy and energetic. I hope to keep it up and live to 100. My ultimate goal is to ride a century when I am 100. I want to live long enough to see my great grandchildren. If I'm lucky and live healthy, maybe I'll live long enough to see my great great grandchildren.

Skratch Labs exercise hydration - holy pineapple batman

I am a creature of habit. 3 days a week I ride the same exact lunch route. When I go to a restaurant, I always order the same thing. When I get coffee, I get the same thing. I've been using Skratch Labs since last year. Up until last week, I always used the same lemon/lime flavor. Why change flavor when I know what I like.

My son in contrast loves to try new things and new flavors. Back in March I got a few free samples of other flavors with my usual order of lemon/lime. My son tried it and like it, so I bought a box of variety packs. Last week I ran out of lemon/lime and was heading out for a long ride. What do I do? Rather than get dehydrated on a long ride, I decided to try the pineapple and orange.

To my surprise the pineapple kicks ass! If someone asked me "what flavor do you want on a long hard ride?" Pineapple wouldn't be in the top 10. Now that's changed. The pineapple is refreshing, light and a joy to drink. The first taste of pineapple was on a flat going about 25mph. Instead of the usual "Blech, what is this fruity garbage from gatoraid?" I felt refreshed. Before there was Skratch, I used to use Gatoraid lemon/lime. When I was in my teens, the sickly sweet Gatoraid flavors were fine. After my teens, Gatoraid is just too sweet and hard to swallow. Last year my kids got me a 8 pack of orange Gatoraid. Seriously, that is some haneous stuff. When it's super cold right out of the freezer like a slushy, it's ok. In any other form, it's just too darn sweet. Enough bashing Gatoraid.

Skratch guys thank you for an awesome product. You've changed my hydration routine and made me a believer in great taste. Now, when I run out of lemon/lime my first thought isn't "doh! I forgot to place an order." I look forward to trying the other flavors. I'm still a creature of habit and lemon/lime will still be the flavor I drink 80% of the time. The other 20% is a nice change of pace.