Cylco de Mayo!

Yesterday, I went for my longest ride in a long time, logging above 132km in less than 4.5 hours. I felt pretty good during and after, which, I suppose, means that my body have adjusted for endurance. I even had enough left-over energy to maintain speeds over 35kph in the last 30 minutes of the ride 8) I could have probably continue riding and score a century ride (miles), but it wasn't the plan ...

This was my second ride with my new Giro Air Attack helmet, which I really like. I can't really comment on the aerodynamic advantage compared to my older (and crappier) helmet, but it's definitely a better fit and a lot lighter. Not to mention, it look sleek :P

My feeding plan was the following:

• one home-made power ball every 30mn (starting at 45mn into the ride)
• two sip of my home-made energy drink every 30mn (starting at 45mn into the ride)

Pre-ride, I only had a single energy ball and a small sip of water after waking-up. Since this was going to be over 4 hours long, I wanted to minimize the chance that I would have to stop to urinate; it worked well.

Post-ride, my legs were not as sore as they have been in the past rides. Going up and down stair was a little painful, but they felt okay during this morning (Monday) commute ride to work (on which I got a puncture on my rear tyre). Stamina wise, I didn't feel utterly wasted for the rest of the day. However by the time I hit the sack (at 10PM), I was tired.

Busy Monday #3

For today long ride, I decided to solely rely on my energy drink, even-though I was carrying with me 12 dates (to be munched on during the day). That didn't work out too well as I was kinda low on energy for the last 10 kilometres or so. Could also have been that I only consumed half of my bottle of home-made energy drink ... Anyway, lesson learned. From now on, I'll make sure to always consume something half-way (for ride above 80km).

Here's the ride on Strava:

I made my usual energy drink, but with one little spin which turned out to taste pretty good. Instead of adding 2 tablespoon of (grounded) Chia seeds, I used a 50/50 mix of (brown) Flax seeds & Chia seeds. Nutrition wise it seems to make some sense as both seeds seems to complement each other (calcium, omega-3 ...) while providing both calories and proteins.

For post ride snack, beside my 12 dates, I had one Luna energy bar (yes, I know it's optimized for Women ...)  and one Nature's Path bar. Seems it was enough to top-up my glycogen and general energy level as I felt pretty good throughout my ride home and subsequent run:

... in fact, with an average pace of 4:54/km it wasn't bad at all. I guess, I ought to eat more during the day to fuel my following work-out. Not really a surprise ...

Labour day long ride

For today ride, I headed out to climb Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver (technically, it's in West Vancouver). This is a pretty popular climb for local cyclists with about 910 meters of climbs from the shore (Marine Dr). Since I was going to leave from home, I knew it was going to be a relatively long ride ... and it was with a moving time clocking at just over 4 hours:

I wasn't disappointed by the ride, it was pretty nice. The Cypress' climb was easier than I was expecting and while it is somewhat long, it's a pretty constant grade. In fact, I though the climb from Marine Drive to the Highway (on 21st street) was a lot harder than the actual climb. Passing trough downtown on the way back was a bit less fun since the traffic had picked-up in the couple of hours since I had gone in on my way up north. The temperature was pretty constantly dropping as I climbed and it was clearly chilly at the top. The downhill was pretty fun (with a top speed of 75kph, wheeeez!) albeit freezing (I was dressed warmly for the late season). 

Here's a few shots I took (on the way down):

To fuel myself, I prepared my usual energy drink and packed 10 dates. I didn't have any eating schedule in mind and just snacked on some of the dates here and there. At no point in the ride did I felt low on energy not did I feel any digestive issue. I made sure to drink some of my drink each time I had dates. Since I had gotten-up to close to the start of the ride (5:30am wake-up time) I didn't eat anything before starting the ride. Probably not optimal, but I have an hard time eating so close to a ride (or run).

Busy Monday #2

I went to my now usual Monday long ride this morning (on my way to work). The weather forecast was a little worrisome, but it was actually rather nice (14C, mostly sunny). Since some rain is (or was) forecasted for later during the week, I really wanted to get that ride done before my next long ride this coming Sunday:

So, instead of making my now standard energy drink, I went with a lighter version of it:

• 2 bags of Jasmin Green Tea brewed in 800 ml of filtered water
• 2 tablespoons of Agave Syrup
• 1.5 scoop of Maltodextrin (so about 120 kcal of Carbs)

Since I had (over)eat enough Sunday (it was a day off), I didn't feel like I really needed the extra calories punch in my drink not the electrolytes (since it wasn't going to be too hot). For nutrition, I packed some leftover home-made Larabar from our Saturday run. My hydration/nutrition plan was the following:

• Couple of sips of drink every 20 km
• One Larabar every hour

Worked pretty good as far as I can tell, except for the fact that the bars are kind of hard to chew and swallow while in aero position (in which I was for most of the ride, without much pain). I probably should cut them smaller so that I can chew and breath with more ease ;-)

To finish-off the day, I did an easy 8k run (with da wife). Felt pretty good doing it. Which I guess is a good thing ...

About Energy Drinks (part #2)

I was at a nearby Running Room store Saturday and grabbed some energy drink supplements which I had heard about from listening to Coach Brett's podcast:

• eLoad FLY (carbohydrate fuel)
• Nuun Active Hydration (electrolytes)
• Chia Seeds (proteins & fat)

While I'm still trying to formulate (I got the Chia at another store BTW) the most appropriate drinks for my running and cycling (see previous post on the subject), I though I'll give these a try during my Sunday's ride and assembled the drink as follow:

• Russian Earl Grey brewed overnight in 800 ml of filtered water
• 3 tablespoon of Agave Syrup
• 1 Nuun tab (orange flavoured)
• 1.5 scoop of carbohydrate powder (so 120 kcal of carbs)
• 2 tablespoon of grounded chia seeds (which may have been too much according to a twitter exchange I had with Coach Brett)

The Orange flavour of the Nuun tab was very pronounced, and I probably should have used a tea that marry better with it; but overall the drink didn't taste bad and I didn't get any stomach issue as the result of consuming it (yay!). As the weather was on the cool side, by the time we were done our 2:47:00 ride I had only consumed about half of it and finished the bottle on my drive back home.

So, did it help? ... Maybe. My legs felt a little less sore and I didn't feel hungry for a while after the ride (I skipped breakfast when I came home and instead had a late small lunch before an early dinner couple of hours after) ... but that could have been coincidental. This week long run (+28 km) may serve as a better test platform for that drink ...

to be continued ...

Busy busy Monday

A few weeks ago I started trying to do one long ride (+80km) per week. Since we're in priority training for a Marathon in October, I used to have to alternate between a long run on the week-end or a long ride. But then one day I realized that on the week that follows a long run, I could just do my long ride on my way to work ... Sure I get to work a little bit late that day, but that's no biggie ;-) No sure why I didn't think about doing that earlier in the season (or in the previous years).

Here's this morning commute:

It's a pretty flat route, perfect for working and improving my speed and spending as much time as possible in aero position (ouch!). The Iona part (which is on the side of the Vancouver's Airport and appears to be a pretty nice park BTW) is a pretty popular segment on Strava among the local cyclists. The leader of the leader-board has a an average speed of 50kph ... Gasp! 

At the end of the work day, I had to go home (which is a usual 9k) and then we went running. We were planning on doing a 10k today, but the wife wasn't up to it, so we only did a 8k:

Considering I had already depleted by glycogen stores earlier that day (I did consume a little bit of food during the day), I felt pretty good until the last kilometre or so even with a bee sting on my right hand. Seems I should try to stay clear of bushes at that time of the year ...

Failed Monday ride

My plan for yesterday (Monday was an holiday in British Columbia) ride was to head to North Vancouver and do the Cypress Mountain climb which is about 706m of ascent over 14km. Unfortunatly, when I woke up, I just didn't feel all that energetic nor motivated. Still, I forced myself to get ready and head out with the idea that after I warmed up I may found my mojo. Alas, it wasn't the case as my right knee started to hurt by the time I got to North Van (about 18km in the ride). My backup plan was to push to West Vancouver all the way to Wycliffe Park, which is located not to far from Horseshoe Bay, so that's what I did (see ride info on Strava bellow):

I'm still a little unsure to what exactly happened that early morning, but I think it has to do with getting only 5 hours of sleep that night. I usually sleep about 6.5hrs on week day and I did oversleep a little that Sunday (by around 2 hours). This caused me to not fall asleep until after 00:30 on the Sunday-Monday night ... So, the take away is that I need to stick to the usual sleep routine the day before a ride.

tl;dr: get more sleep

Prepping energy drink (for tomorrow morning ride)

• 3 tablespoon of Agave syrup
• 2 heaping teaspoon of tea leaves (I used Earl Grey)
• 800ml of filtered water
• brew over night