The Joy of Mountain Biking

MissJR said:
Quick updates:

Rides/Workouts: Rode 25h 5m (every minute counts!) in January. A lot of that was zwift and the FTP Training plan I'm doing. I did get to do some longer mileage rides outside like on the Columbia Trail... and, yes, cookies were consumed afterwards. @Magic even joined us... Apparently, he does still ride bikes! ;P

This is my last week of workouts for the Zwift training plan. Last night I had the hardest of any of the training rides I've done so far. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to finish the hour fifteen. I did the workout during the Watopia Wednesday ride and the support really helped. @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST even went past the WW ride's hour time limit to help me finish the last few reps.

I've also been making sure to have some protein drinks after the workouts. I've never been big on the idea of all these powder drinks but it has help A LOT. I used to get a lot of muscle soreness after a ride, often being sore for a couple of days. But with the protein drinks, I've been way less sore and achy.

Weight/Health: HA! Like I need to lose any... But that's not the point here... It's maintaining it. (BTW guys, I don't recommend asking any woman for their weight unless you're setting up the suspension on her bike.) Anyway... my normal weight range is 120-125 often leaning a little on the higher end in the winter. With some health issues and general blah-ness, I was feeling heavy and bloated to say the least. Right now, I'm on the lighter end of my range and without that bloated feeling. Part of it may be health, part riding, part eating better? I've also mostly given up coffee (down to one day a week from every day) which is saving me a lot of money and helping with some of my stomach-ish issues. Steve's even noticed a huge difference. And the big health thing which I think I'll go into one day (just not today), but it seems to be under control. I'm sleeping a bit better (it would be even better if I could get the cat to cooperate in the morning) and not relying on sleep aids and stuff. Still can't really take naps tho.

Work: So, honestly, work's been sucking lately. It's been non-stop chaos. There are some big changes happening (which I'm not allowed to talk about yet) and it could be very good... but it's definitely causing some tension in the office. We had another meeting this morning about the changes... with yet another one next week.

Races: MONSTER CROSS! It's coming up so fast! I am worried about doing 50 miles. I'll take the first lap at a conservative pace to conserve some energy for the second lap. I'm mostly concerned about food tho. It starts at 10 am and I know I'll be out there for 4+ hours... which means it straddles what is normally my lunch time. I'll have snacks with me and plan to grab something on the way thru the feed zone, but bonking has me worried.

I guess that's it for now. Suggestions are welcomed. Questions will be answered. Maybe I'll even post a cat pic later.
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I dont think you need to worry too much about bonking, but I understand the concern. Even for 4 hours, your body sorta goes into this dont feel hungry mode (similar to the I don't need to pee mode). You just need to be mindful of eating to avoid the bonk because if you start to feel hungry...then you done. An hour is an easy marker to remember to eat something and sometype of calorie drink in your bottle is helpful to get it without having to think about it. This is where pearl's advice comes into play, finding the drinks and food that do not upset your belly. For whatever reason, after 2, maybe 3 bottles of scratch, all I drink is water as the scratch starts to be too sweet as I get dehydrated. For 4 hours, if you mindful for the first two with eating and drinking, you should make it through.
 
Consistency is everything and hopefully you will be rewarded by it at monster cross. Stick to what you are doing. ?

Food. I like one of two things. Lots of real food like Picky Bars and Welches fruit snacks. Stay on a schedule and eat something every 45-60 minutes. The other thing is the infinit powder mixes that has enough protein and calories so that you don’t need real food. I used this at Lucky’s revenge and I think I had 1/2 a banana at one of the aid stations. Otherwise the infinit stuff worked for 8 hours. I liked it cause it simplified nutrition in a place where it’s not so easy to take your hands off the bars to deal with wrappers etc.
 
MX is a two lap race, and you pass through the parking area between laps. If you don't want to carry food on lap 1, you can stop at your car as a pit before lap 2. James is right about trying to get out for a longer ride and dialing in nutrition beforehand, but if you don't have time for that since it's only a week and a half away, then think simple. The ideal is to eat the best option for energy, but if you don't know what that is, don't experiment during the race. Eat something made of carbs you know you like and can handle, And if you're a very picky eater, then make sure it's something you like first and foremost, because anything is going to be better than bonking. Seriously - a bag of chips or some Oreos aren't exactly "performance" food, but they're way better than no food at all if your stomach can handle them and they lift your mood when you're circling the drain. Food can be a great way to reset a dark moment in a race, and it doesn't matter what it is as long as your stomach can handle it. Seriously, I can't count the number of times something as stupid and simple as a can of coke has kept me going when all I wanted to do was quit. Enjoy the ride and keep it fun!
 
scheduled eating is key in my book. also figure out if you perform better on liquid/gel calories or real food. Also also, try looking at grams of carbs/hour vs calories. I've found this really helpful as I've tried to increase my fueling on rides, especially harder stuff. I target 80 grams carbs/hour.

I mix in real food with gels and really like the Isotonic gels/liquids (SIS, Maurten) The harder I go, the more I eat gels/liquid over solid.

Practicing what works during real rides, including indoor rides.

Also, try fueling those hard indoor rides with some carbs. Riding indoors for an hour at Sweet Spot, Threshold, Vo2, etc, is really, really demanding. I find I'm nailing my workouts more consistently if I fueling during anything an hour +. As example, today I had indoor ride with (4) 10 min intervals fluctuating between tempo and threshold pace. I rode for 1h15min and consumed 80 grams carbs in liquid form.
 
My recommendation is to eat whatever you normally eat for breakfast at whatever time you normally eat it, but eat twice as much. Then eat a clif bar or its equivalent half way through the race. Have gu or shot blocks or whatever on you in case you need it during the second lap. Don't overthink it. That said, I typically don't eat on the bike until I'm hungry, so I clearly know nothing.
 
Do Not eat a cliff bar every hour.

I did this a few years ago while racing 6 Hours of Cathedral. Two days after the race I produced a cliff bar cinder block, which hurt more then racing for 6 hours. I'd rather bonk then have to deliver that baby again.

Well anyway, have fun and if you suck, just pull a Dave Taylor and blame it on your nutrition.
 
pooriggy said:
Do Not eat a cliff bar every hour.

I did this a few years ago while racing 6 Hours of Cathedral. Two days after the race I produced a cliff bar cinder block, which hurt more then racing for 6 hours. I'd rather bonk then have to deliver that baby again.

Well anyway, have fun and if you suck, just pull a Dave Taylor and blame it on your nutrition.
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On eating on the bike...

Another option is eat less more frequently. As in every 20 minutes take in a little something. So you are eating the same amount of calories in an hour but also not shocking your blood flow.
 
rick81721 said:
I used to eat on rides but now more like Kev. Unless I'm doing 3+hrs I don't carry anything other than water.
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If it works for you go for it. Good thing you aren't training to race. You would be in trouble with that routine.

So @rick81721 can we confirm you are not suggesting this to @MissJR who is trying to dial in her eating for racing:)
 
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Some quick updates on biking and life in general... Since there's a lot of stuff, I broke it all down into separate spoiler sections. Feel free to jump to whatever you want to read about.

@shrpshtr325 My FTP is 136 right now. I plan on taking another FTP test but I'm waiting until after Monster Cross... just in case the number doesn't increase or is only a slight increase. I don't want that fucking with my head leading up to and during a 50 mile ride.

So I really liked doing the training plan on Zwift. I liked not having to think about my ride. It kept me in the right zones and pushed when I needed to be pushed and forced me to chill other times. I didn't like the fact it doesn't take outdoor riding into account. Yes, I realize it's a training plan but I need some outside time too. And outside riding is another type of prepping for a race. I also didn't like the fact certain rides expired before I got to them. I can go back and re-do the ride if I missed it, but I wasn't able to push back a ride due Thursday to Friday to accommodate a late night work schedule. Overall tho, I would totally do more of these workouts on Zwift. It was also nice that I was able to do the training plan during the WW group rides. I got to ride with other people but still stay on a set plan.

So I think I'm actually pretty ready for MC. I'm still a little worried about food, but I think I'll be ok. Slightly bigger than normal breakfast, small snack while waiting around for the race to start, PBJ sandwich waiting for me at the feed zone for lap 2, various snacks in my backpack (which if I have to stop and dig into, something has gone terribly wrong) and some gu chews in my pocket for easy on the bike snacks. And, of course, water with gu/scratch in it. Again, I've never done a race this long before so I don't know what to expect, but I do know that on longer, off-road rides, PBJ sandwiches totally hit the spot. I just need to not go too heavy on the PB.

So some of you already know, but work has been extremely busy, to say the least. So mid-2019, one of the editors (T) announced his retirement for the end of the year. He owned a stake in the company so my 2 bosses (A & D) decided to have the company assessed and buy out the editor's share. Well... that uncovered a massive theft by one of the employees. We're a very small company (like 40 people) so everyone is basically like friends/family so this hit hard. We weren't told the amount initially because of legal issues.*** Anyway, so that all led to A & D thinking about their own retirement and what they're going to do with the company. So they sent out feelers over the Christmas break to see if anyone was interested in buying the company. Apparently, there was a lot of interest. And one company stood out so now we're in the process of being sold. The new company seems to be really cool with some great benefits but the loss of the editor T and now A & D by the end of the year plus all this new company stuff is putting a lot of stress on people. People keep asking me what I think and I'm like whatever happens happens. I'm not quitting. My current job is good. The continuation of the job with the new company looks good. But if that all goes to shit, well, then I consider it a kick in the ass to do something different with my life.
$48 million. Yes. THAT MUCH!

And finally... without much ado... The answer was yes. Of course. :D

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First, Congrats again!

second, good job sticking with the training plan, i concur with the theory of not pushing an FTP test right before a big event, you dont want to be fatigued going into the test OR the event, make the test fit into your plans, still waiting to see how much the training plan increased your number.
 
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