HappyMartin

I think the cheating can be an issue. I also think the worst time to cheat is after dinner. That is the one time I am super strict. I might cheat at Inch or breakfast but you really need to be carb free when sleeping. A lot of fat burning occurs when you are asleep and any sugars in you mess that up totally. I don't know about alcohol. I don't drink at all but I suspect beer and the sugary mixers that go with spirits are going to be a problem. Since you say you have a lot of weight to lose and it's not coming off easily you could be quite severely carb resistant. That will make cheating more of an issue and also mean you need to aim for the lower end of what is allowed in terms of carbs. I am talking in the region of 50g per day. Look we are all different. I have cut out all sodas and deserts and that tipped the balance for me. I am struggling to lose weight at a reasonable rate at the moment and have dropped about 4kg in the past month. Too quick in my experience. I will have a pizza on a Friday and even had a small bowl of icecream on Sunday. Still the weight is coming off. Stick with it. It can work.

You Capetown okes. Really!

I find I'm getting more thirsty and drinking more water on the LCHF diet. No big deal and not gallons of water but it is noticeable.

Think I may have finally gotten somewhere with this blasted diet. In the past month I have dropped about 4kg. A bit worried about that. Seems a little quick for me. I started drinking more water thinking perhaps I am measuring dehydration but no, the weight keeps coming off. Went from 83kg to just under 79. Was a shade over 84kg at the beginning of the year. I have started eating more to slow the weight loss. So far that is not working but we will see. I do have weight to lose. My target is 74kg. I am 181cm so not a real fatty even now. What I was terrible with in the past was fruit and about every second day a soda. Fruit I have dropped to just 2 pieces a day. Living on fatty cuts of meat, eggs, salads and steamed veges. Find I am craving veges so it's spinach at breakfast and broccoli, colli flower, gems and such like at dinner. Eggs for breakfast and meat at supper. After decades as a vegetarian turns out I like liver. Beef and chicken. My riding has been on the back burner. Busy times at work and a divorce caused that. Slowly get back into it. I have noticed on the trainer that my power is up and that seems odd in view of how little training I have done. Perhaps something needs to be calibrated. Average power over an hour is up more than 10%. The extra weight I am carrying will negate that. Yesterday I decided to do Suikerbos reserve. It was windy. My best time ever in still conditions was 2:09. I knew I was way too unfit and fat to get near that but I thought I would do my best. The wind would cost me at least 5 minutes and my weight about 10 minutes. Who know with my poor fitness. I ended up doing 2:25. Not bad. What was interesting is it's the first time I did that ride with just water. Breakfast was about 100 g of Kassler. I expected to really suffer but no such thing. I felt really good. Average hr was 164

I know that the whole recovery window thing has been pretty much discredited but I am afraid I can't let it go. Especially with a low carb life style. After a hard session I use a recovery drink ASAP then get back to low carb. When on the trainer I drink about half a bottle of energy drink in the last 5 minutes when cooling down. Works for me

Only shoe uglier than crocs. Should have been sued for that.

Could be your taste buds are becoming more sophisticated. Time for a real machine?

The thing with rules, particularly in SA, is we have and still have so many stupid ones that we get used to breaking them. Then it becomes a life long habit. When I was younger it was against the law to sleep with a person of another colour. It was against the law to have a copy of Black Beauty because some idiot thought it was about a black woman. Now we have roads full of potholes, traffic lights not working for weeks at a time, road markings so poorly thought out that you have to disobey them if you want to stay alive and actually get anywhere. All of this causes me to not take rules very seriously. Last year in July I hit a patch of sewer water running across a road in Bedfordview. I broke and dislocated my thumb. It took 2 operations to sort out and as a self employed person lost 6 weeks of income. That sewer is still leaking across the road. I now cross a solid white line to avoid it when no cars are around. Then I hop onto the pavement to avoid a large pothole that has been around for ever remembering to look out for the manhole cover that was stolen some years back. Next I get to a traffick light that sometimes works. It's hard to say until you have stopped at it for a few minutes. My point, rather tediously made, is all of this leads me to not take rules so terribly seriously. I look around and if it harms no one else I do as I see fit. I don't buy the logic that says if I skip a Red light someone in a car will then disrespect cyclists so much that they get pissed and ride another cyclist over and drive off leaving them to die on the side of the road.

I would do exactly as you say above Dave. I think I would chuck a few goodies in my bag though. Coconut oil, macadamia nuts and so on. Not to use while racing but for the evening and morning meals.

I nearly always stop at red lights. If I see the road is clear and not cars in sight I might amble across. If I'm in a rush, and I will be honest here, I might run a red after checking its safe and making sure there is no one with a MTB on a bike rack on the back of their car. I am always worried it might be a MTB hubber and those okes are hectic about rules.

That Illy book is $95 as an ebook!!!!! That's a lot of beans. Must admit I'm tempted

In Joburg at least our winters are dry. Bone dry. Hard on skin and eyes in those cold mornings. I remember riding in July as the sun was coming up. Temp around zero. Not as harsh as Europe but cold non the less. I tried telling my great uncle how tough it is here in winter. He was Norwegian national road champion is the 1950's. He thinks I'm a cry baby.

Never got sick riding in the cold. Get sick from working 7 day weeks and long hours. Got sick from not getting enough rest and sleep. Got sick from not eating a healthy diet. Got sick when I used to smoke. Riding in winter feels great. That warm buzz you have when you get off the bike and have a cup of coffee. Marvelous.

Cecil Nurse the office furniture people brought Lavassa in a number of years ago. Basically you got the machine on contract and agreed to certain minimum number of pods per month depending on the machine size. They gave it up after struggling for a few years with very poor support from Italy. Not sure what happened after that to Lavassa but I still see the machines around. I would look into support before going with Lavassa. Perhaps it has improved.

In Clarence for Easter. The worst coffe I ever drank was in Clarence. I have had better Coffee in the army. Aeropress to the rescue.

I was a vege from 1983 to 1995. In 1995 I cycled from Israel to South Africa. 4 months into the trip I was starting to break down and wasn't finding enough to eat. For survival I began eating meat. Try riding 200km in one day with a fully loaded touring MTB bike in the heat of Tanzania and then eating a single bread roll for dinner. Get up the next day and on a light breakfast of biscuits do another 140km. I did that. It was not so easy as it sounds. I ate meat for a few years after returning to SA and then reverted to vegetarianism about 11 years ago. I have been trying to race in the vets groups. I'm no pro but I do my best. Get shelled and have my butt handed to me. Still I try. I noticed the same symptoms of my body breaking down as I had when cycling Africa. I spent a lot of money and a lot of time doing research and using various supplements and eating a variety of vege super foods. Still I struggled with recovery and wasn't putting out the power I hoped. I got professional coaching and everything. Lost a lot of weight. Did a lot of riding. End of last year on a whim I bought meat. I liked it. I added it to my diet. I have put on weight. My recovery is better. I am putting out 10% more power even though I am currently not at all fit. People are telling me I look better. I feel better. I have done a lot of reading and research on vegetarian and vegan diets. I am not convinced they are good for people. I don't profess to know what the meat vege balance should be. I am not saying my experiences are proof. I know that the collective noun for anecdotal evidence is not data. But I know how I feel

I was a vegetarian for a shade over 20 years. I have been eating meat now for 4 months. I'm not convinced by your statement.

My bad. He never actually says that. I misread

Well we knew but he has now gone on record as saying that fat Pat knew he was doping. That a pretty interesting I think.

I'm was a bit disappointed in Peter Sagan but who am I to talk. Still I named my cat Peter after him. Might be the only cat in the world called Peter Sagan. Sent him in for castration this morning. The cat not the cyclist obviously. The vet phoned a few hours later to say can't castrate Peter. Turns out he is a female. Anyway I hope it doesn't jinx Sagans chances on Sunday. The fact that the cat I named after him turns out to be female I mean

Who would do that? Crazy!

What always amazes me in a discussion around expensive bicycles is the assumption that only stupid people spend big money on bikes. What's the deal hear? Only stupid people make money. I dunno. I have some very wealthy friends. They are well smart. I know a guy that recently launched an international burger franchise in SA. He is not the worlds best cyclist but hell is he bright. He can buy any bike he feels like. There you go Wyatt. Doing my bit to keep this dead horse moving

Joe Friel

It's worth every penny. A no brainer

The point of the OP was it's getting too easy technically. I have had quite a few mates do the Epic. Some made some didn't. Those that didn't make it dropped out not because it was too technical. They dropped out because it was too physically demanding. Too a much climbing. Too hot. Too long.