For fitness sake

Revisiting this original topic. I’ve never been anything special but I had some decent results and a certain points. I felt fantastic on a bike. It was always when I did lots and lots of zone two and I’m reinforcing that after talking to Jeremiah Bishop at Stokesville 6040 last weekend. He was able to ride with and then drop the national champ Cory Petersen in ultimately beat him by seven minutes. Cory is obviously a very fast at sea racer and has done very well at endurance races but Jeremiah told him there is no substitute for volume.
 
Dave Taylor said:
I felt fantastic on a bike. It was always when I did lots and lots of zone two
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I agree.

Speaking from experience, and specifically about me…. I’ll take the fitness from 8 hours of z2 over 5 hours of intervals from whatever online app or plan. It’s not really even close.

Maybe I had to get to a certain fitness level for that to be the case but that’s my reality now.
 
Yeah... as much as I enjoy riding my e-bike, it does not seem to be a substitute for the simple hours in the saddle of road riding. I was barely on my road bikes at all last year and I feel like I've really suffered for it.
 
Ian F said:
Question for those who use LMNT... does anyone else get pretty bad heartburn from it? One of the single-serving packets into a 24 oz bottle gives me really bad heartburn, but given the single-serving packet, I'm not sure how to lower the mix ratio with any level of repeatability.

Right now, my favorite hydration drink is grape Gatorade powder - 2 teaspoons in a 24 oz bottle.
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I've had zero issues with it since day one; it's been one of the best changes I've ever made to how I fuel my body.

I used to be chronically dehydrated despite drinking tons of water: constant headaches, popping Advil like candy, the whole deal.

Then, one brutal mid-summer day, I got hit with serious heat exhaustion (probably not far from heat stroke). That finally drove home what @Jeremy was saying: plain water flushes electrolytes out, and without them you're just making things worse.

Since I started consistently adding electrolytes, I can't even remember my last headache or the last time I reached for Advil.

For me, it's been a total game-changer; not just for rides, but for daily life.
 
Robin said:
@Jeremy we like LMNT too but not the cost…looked into making our own but haven’t tried yet.
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just fyi, The homemade stuff doesn’t taste as good but it does work the same. It really just tastes like mildly salty water. But I use sodium citrate so I think that makes a difference. If you use sodium chloride it may taste way saltier.
 
Jeremy said:
just fyi, The homemade stuff doesn’t taste as good but it does work the same. It really just tastes like mildly salty water. But I use sodium citrate so I think that makes a difference. If you use sodium chloride it may taste way saltier.
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Do you also add stevia? Almost positive they use it as a sweetener, no? Although that may only be flavored varieties, so if not going for flavor, maybe not?
 
rjr44 said:
Do you also add stevia? Almost positive they use it as a sweetener, no? Although that may only be flavored varieties, so if not going for flavor, maybe not?
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I usually add it to my drink mix which is basically sugar. So I don’t bother.
 
rjr44 said:
I've had zero issues with it since day one; it's been one of the best changes I've ever made to how I fuel my body.

I used to be chronically dehydrated despite drinking tons of water: constant headaches, popping Advil like candy, the whole deal.

Then, one brutal mid-summer day, I got hit with serious heat exhaustion (probably not far from heat stroke). That finally drove home what @Jeremy was saying: plain water flushes electrolytes out, and without them you're just making things worse.

Since I started consistently adding electrolytes, I can't even remember my last headache or the last time I reached for Advil.

For me, it's been a total game-changer; not just for rides, but for daily life.
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Maybe check out ATH Sport's "Lytes" - small company in Texas, works better for me than LMNT, Liquid IV or other hydration. I take it just about every morning to rehydrate - it's got a ton of electrolytes (hence the name), uses Himalayan sea salt and monk fruit instead of Stevia.
 
Jeremy said:
Yep. And when some guys retire they get faster.
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That guy from butcher block racing prime example. Got spit out of pro tour and sat on sidelines for 6 months. Went to crib racing and destroyed everyone.
Jeremy said:
just fyi, The homemade stuff doesn’t taste as good but it does work the same. It really just tastes like mildly salty water. But I use sodium citrate so I think that makes a difference. If you use sodium chloride it may taste way saltier.
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Kirkland cane sugar and sea salt ftw. Guava paste
 
Jeremy said:
I agree.

Speaking from experience, and specifically about me…. I’ll take the fitness from 8 hours of z2 over 5 hours of intervals from whatever online app or plan. It’s not really even close.

Maybe I had to get to a certain fitness level for that to be the case but that’s my reality now.
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@Jeremy Stupid question, but just to confirm, are you referring to base only meaning that you still do intervals as you get closer to racing season or is it just z2 all the time? I got out of the racing game some years back, but before hanging it up, I had been doing a SS program on Trainerroad mainly because I had limited hours to train. I felt at the time that it made me very strong, but was not sustainable long term due to burnout, etc and not having the strong aerobic base to support the intensity.
 
I kept my running up all winter and I think it’s paying off now that riding season is upon us. What I wished to avoid was that feeling I lost ground or worse, the dreaded nausea sensation(!) on my first ride in spring. I think I more or less kept 90% of my fitness levels from December when the trails started getting snowed and iced over.

So I ran multiple times a week and did some light weights, especially upper body.

This is part of my home gym setup.

Treadmill:

IMG_9838.jpeg


Nike zoom flies:

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Blood, sweat and tears: (ok, no actual blood, but maybe some sweat and tears) 😭

FullSizeRender.jpeg
 
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vanseggern1 said:
@Jeremy Stupid question, but just to confirm, are you referring to base only meaning that you still do intervals as you get closer to racing season or is it just z2 all the time? I got out of the racing game some years back, but before hanging it up, I had been doing a SS program on Trainerroad mainly because I had limited hours to train. I felt at the time that it made me very strong, but was not sustainable long term due to burnout, etc and not having the strong aerobic base to support the intensity.
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For me, sweet spot is hard to recover from. I went through a few years of TrainerRoad before figuring that out. My last coach had me do a ton of z2 and a light went off. 1 day of intervals a week, sometimes 2, but they were never anywhere near as hard as TR intervals.

My FTP didn’t go up, but I am much better at holding a high tempo/ race pace.

Again this is me. Everyone is different. My coach was really smart and I leaned a ton from her. I just couldn’t justify the money it cost for how little I could race.
 
I agree that there is something to be said for doing a lot of volume. I did the 31/31 two years ago and saw a really nice fitness improvement from it. But I have also seen gains from interval training along with lifting over the last year.

Struggling to put it into words but I've listened to enough podcasts to be convinced you need both.

We all know how much harder gains are to come by as you age and I'm just happy to still be making progress in my 40's regardless of how I ride and train.

As for supplements, I'm on the creatine game and haven't noticed any negative effects, daily multi vitamin and vitamin d during the winter months. I cycle on and off of Metamucil throughout the year.

Just recently bought a 30 day supply of magnesium to see if I notice any recovery improvements, the verdict is still out.
 
Hair Face said:
I agree that there is something to be said for doing a lot of volume. I did the 31/31 two years ago and saw a really nice fitness improvement from it. But I have also seen gains from interval training along with lifting over the last year.

Struggling to put it into words but I've listened to enough podcasts to be convinced you need both.

We all know how much harder gains are to come by as you age and I'm just happy to still be making progress in my 40's regardless of how I ride and train.

As for supplements, I'm on the creatine game and haven't noticed any negative effects, daily multi vitamin and vitamin d during the winter months. I cycle on and off of Metamucil throughout the year.

Just recently bought a 30 day supply of magnesium to see if I notice any recovery improvements, the verdict is still out.
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I agree strongly about doing both. I'm a little older than you and still able to maintain my fitness and making some progress, just at a slower rate. Only riding a SS from May '24 thru July '25 made a huge difference for me as well.
 
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