tombeej

Agreed . EDIT: Strike that. TBH the large portion of my fat calories come from animal fats. The only other fats I have in safe abundance are coconut oil and macnut butter. I like olive and avo oil, but since both have around 10% PUFA content, I tend to have them in moderation.

If you mean oils from cereal grains, then corn (maize) is just one of them (other cereal grains = wheat, barley, rye, sorghum, etc.). But the ones I was talking about (canola, soya, sunflower, etc) are called oilseeds. What they all have in common, though, is how bad they all are for us in general.

Ok that answers a question I was about to ask you: whether it states specifically that the olive oil used is the cheap commercial refined crap (just as bad as any other bad vegetable oil), or if it is in fact extra virgin. To see that it is extra virgin olive oil, that's great, and something I'll look out for now.

LCHF myth #1: all carbs are bad. LCHF myth #2: all fats are good.

If you don't have a local Checkers with a fresh/frozen seafood section, then regular pilchards in tomato sauce is a much better choice. The vegetable oil used in tinned sardines is almost always cheap bulk-grade canola, sunflower or soya oil. O6 PUFAs - no thanks. And to make things even worse, that stuff is normally hydrogenated (carcinogenic trans fats) to maximise shelf life. Nasty.

Those sardines have been drowned in unhealthy vegetable oil. Which is why I don't touch them. I'd rather buy my sards fresh from the fishmonger and cook them up in ghee or butter. Much healthier and much more tasty .

Thanks Harry. Not 100% carb free... more like low carbs. Eggs & bacon for brekkie. Then a banana on the start line a few seconds before the gun, and a packet of 32GI chews on the road. Besides that, water only. The cramping was not from lack of nutrition/water, more like a lack of fitness and also the legs not being used to that sustained intensity for such a long time (my first bike race in years).

The phrase 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater' comes to mind. Something the LCHF community seems to constantly want to do when it comes to discussions around carbs. Which saddens me. 'Carbs' in general are not the enemy. Just the bad ones. Such as grain-based white processed/refined carbs, like the wheat flour that was used to make that pizza base. Now replace that pizza with a delicious green salad and half a grapefruit (all 'carbs') - along with the usual fat & protein - and you have brilliant meal.

Started in P batch and was basically on my own the whole way. I really enjoyed the cool weather considering the punishing heat, humidity and wind that we often have to ride in here. Those were great riding conditions, I don't know what folks are complaining about. Started strong: by the bottom of Inchanga at halfway I was going through D batch and just before Hillcrest I started seeing bits of B batch. That's when the wheels fell off a bit. Cramping in both legs from about 30km out, to the extent that I couldn't stand at all, and was forced to just spin the rest of the way home. Was on track for a sub-3hr solo ride (on my own the whole way), but limped in at 3h12. Still, I had a blast. Lovely course and great organisation. .

Yup, looks like a cross wind all the way. Folks in the fast bunches will be pushing to stay in the front so they don't get guttered. And in those conditions, expect the medics to have a busy day. Looking forward to an awesome day on the bike! Just the opportunity to ride down Fields hill with not a truck or car in sight is in itself worth the full entry fee .

Updated weather forecast showing a slight improvement in ambient temp for the day (perceived temp of 19 deg). And see how the wind forecast is changing. From an East (head wind) to SSW (R to L cross wind). If it goes SW then it will feel like a slight tailwind, especially from the bottom of fields hill to the finish.

I tried that with Melissa at Amashova already (we're one of the suppliers to the event) and she blocked me (very sweetly of course ). The organisers have no jurisdiction over seeding - all from Racetec. I will be in blue and white 'Container Conversions' top with black shorts. Riding a white Tarmac SL2.

Garfield, if you're together going into the last 5km, I would make him pull through DBN city centre (still a head wind at that stage), then right on the corner as it hooks left to the final stretch to the stadium I'd go full taps right there and open a gap. Because now you'll be in a strongish R to L cross wind and he won't be able to sit on your wheel. Even a small gap on that corner should be enough, if your legs are still good. In a cross wind, lots of opportunity to open a gap and hold it from relatively far out.

Road bike. You?

My problem is that since this is my first race in years (last race was '99 XCO Nationals), I don't have a seeding. So they stuck me in P batch (2nd last batch). I've got a 106km individual TT to look forward to, and into a cold/wet head wind the whole way. Fun, fun, fun!

Weather is looking *** for Sunday. Max. 12 - 14 degrees, drizzle, and the south-easter will be blowing. Essentially this means a head wind, and the SE is a cold wind. Wind chill should bring perceived temps down into single digits. The descent down Fields Hill should be an interesting one if it's slick. Pack the thermals, folks.

Kefir Quinoa

Agreed HMT, if you're burning the candle at both ends, doing back to back hard rides and not doing the necessary work to ensure you start the next ride with full glycogen stores, well then how can you then moan about tired legs and no 'zip' during the next ride. Reminds me of that old roadie stage racing (e.g. TDF) truth: when eating on the bike during, and then and after the stage, they say "I'm eating for tomorrow". And if you understand human physiology enough, you'll know that eating a high GI carb meal before a long hard ride or race, you are setting yourself up for a possible bonk. Plain and simple.

Leon, just to reiterate what Dave said, poor quality high GI carbs like sweets, chocolates, doughnuts... and of course pasta (no discernable difference your body sees between a doughnut and pasta) will cause instant high blood glucose spike & insulin response. The BG spike is followed by the inevitable mini BG crash which triggers the hunger pangs, the energy dips, switches off the bodys ability to burn any fats for fuel at all, and you're wanting to do this just before the start of a race? Not counting the serious health defects that grains (pasta = wheat flour) have on our bodies, and that grains have no place in Paleo... The only possible reason you'd want to load up on carbs Before the race starts, is if your glycogen stores are not fully topped up. And if that's the case then your problem is less about adequate nutrition and more about questionable preparation. No one should be going into a race already somehow in a state of partially depleted glycogen stores. Pre race meal should be low GI as possible, high in nutritionally dense foods (pasta is about as nutritious as cardboard), and very high in satiety. Check out Happy Martins post about how, as a confirmed vegetarian and carb eater, he still will only have eggs or similar pre-race. And he's nowhere near being insulin resistant. Note that people are talking about consuming high GI carbs only well into the race when your body can handle them and is primed to absorb them very efficiently without any negative side effects. But that would still mean high GI carbs that are glucose based, with no sign of nasty grains involved.

Come December I will have been doing this for 2 yrs. I'm still very much in the process of becoming more fat adapted, less and less 'bonkable'. This takes a lot longer than people think. I am convinced of that. People who think they're fully fat adapted after 3 - 6 months... well actually there's still a very long way to go in your journey (which is a good thing, enjoy it ). TBH I've only recently started putting a banana or dried fruit in my back pocket on a long ride mainly as a result of what I was reading on this thread. If I'm honest with myself, I'm not enjoying it and I get the feeling I'm going backwards a bit. So I'm going back to things like water only on the bike and maybe some pemmican, macnut butter or coconut oil before the ride. The upcoming Amashova is going to be my first bike race since '99 and I've now committed to doing it on water and LCHF only. I'm unseeded so will have to ride from the back of the field so will be one long time trial. I'll soon find out if I need carbs for racing or not .

Just a little thing on Oscar Chalupsky's Molokai surfski wins... I've done a bit of surfski myself in the past (participated in 2 world cups) so just to explain: the Molokai is an ultra endurance event. 50-odd km over open ocean, no high intensity stuff there. Actually a perfect race for someone who is very well fat adapted. And Oscar wins over olympic level paddlers half his age because of his legendary ocean skills. Because a large component of surfski is how to 'link the runs', hooking on to each wave or ocean swell as it rolls underneath you, linking from one wave to the next, catching endless little free rides along the way. At the highest level if you miss a link or two in a row you're soon 100m behind the guy who was just next to you a minute before. It's more about seamanship than pure athletic ability. So it's not really a race where you'd need high GI carbs at all.

Jcza, I didn't mean to say it's wrong to have GUs; I'm sure they are excellent products. Just a personal choice thing. I'm actually with you in terms of the need for quick release carbs during high intensity exercise. In fact, those with a long memory will remember that at one stage I was almost alone in my defence of the humble carb on the old thread, and my experience that my performance on the bike only started really improving when I started bringing more (top quality) carbs back into my diet. A similar journey that HMT has just been on. So just to reiterate, I'm with you all on the need for high GI during intense exercise. But just cautioning on WHEN to take them. And re. GU, I try eat similar, but are high GI dried fruits, etc. This means I might have to start eating them slightly sooner than you'd start on the GUs coz their rate of absorption is a little slower .

While I choose to eat real, whole, nutritionally dense food as a rule (no processed factory made GU for me), as I understand it the speed at which the body absorbs these injections of glucose can be measured literally in a couple of mins (esp. if swallowed with water). Combined with the fact that you've got about 90min of glycogen stores before the rate of depletion starts, at a rapidly increasing rate. So there's lots of time to settle properly in the session/race before turning to these foods. Normally I don't need any food on a 80 - 100km ride, if just riding at a comfortable tempo. But by making the mistake of eating a single banana 15min before a ride, if I hadn't taken those extra carbs on board I wouldn't have made it past 50km. Just saying...

On Sunday morning, just before heading out on the road, for some reason I decided to eat the banana I'd put into my back pocket for later. Then the missus delayed me for about 15 min for some house admin. Eventually I could leave, but luckily I had the presence of mind to stuff my back pocket with dried fruit, etc. Because my BG was already spiking and there's only one logical outcome to that: the inevitable mini crash, the old raging hunger on the bike that must be continually fuelled. And that’s exactly what happened. I was ravenous all morning, couldn't get enough of the food in my pocket, after 70km started looking at road kill in a mouthwatering new way, and when I got home, absolutely had to raid the fridge. So I get that our bodies can process high GI carbs very efficiently when we are exercising hard, but from my own humble viewpoint, please consider when to start consuming them. Like Dave says, I’d start about 30min into the ride, when your own glycogen stores are still relatively full, but far enough into the ride that there's no risk of possible backlash.

Reading some recent posts to this thread (re. sudden enthusiastic adoption of high GI carbs during intense exercise), and that snippet from 'The Paleo diet for athletes, a big word of caution about taking in these carbs right from the start of an exercise. Even worse, taking them before the ride. Might not end up with a very positive outcome...