HappyMartin

Depends how you race I guess. Road races I am fine until the attacks start. Eventually I get shelled and then fight back once. The next attack I am toast. Awful to look down and see your HR at 95% as the group slowly rides away from you. That's when carbs are being burnt. The thing is if you can't efficiently burn fat at lower intensities then you are never in the race. The whole fat burning thing is the foundation for me. Keep chucking cheap carbs down your neck while sitting on a couch and you are doing huge harm to yourself.

Just to be clear on my admittedly unscientific and flippant remark regarding eating everything in sight during a race. I expect to be well fueled at the start. My general eating should take care of this. I eat a low carb meal the morning of a race. Usually when not racing my breakfast is porridge. When racing it is usually eggs. On the start line with just a few minutes before the start I will eat a bar or a banana. Next fuel will be once I have settled in usually about 20 minutes. Then it is game on. High carb fueling ends with a recovery drink straight after the race then its back to normal On very long rides my hunger snacks at petrol station shops is usually a packet of crisps and a half little of full cream milk. I find this comforting for some reason. A good solid block of base training should also aid fat burning adaptation giving you two engines. Fat at low intensities, but this must be trained for, and carbs for when you are burning matches. If you are not fat adapted by either diet or base training your body will try to burn carbs even at low intensities leaving nothing in the tank when the attacks start. Anyway that is my theory based on vague readings and experience.

The riders and teams employ chemists to make new drugs? Really? All the drugs ever used by cyclists were developed for other things and in other industries. There is simply not enough money in cycling for it to be at the forefront of drug development. When one sportsman, Alonso, from another sport, F1, can buy an entire cycling team it puts it in perspective. The costs of developing a drug are astronomical. We are talking billions of dollars in many cases. The doping doctors working in cycling were barely able to keep the names on the bags of blood straight a lot of the time. But lets wait and see. Froome said his win will stand the test of time. We all know what he meant and I believe him. Anyway to call it a road cycling thing is kind of strange since it seems they mostly catching MTB guys at the moment.

When in a race I eat everything I can lay my hands on. I stuff my pockets and treat it as a rolling feast. Training I am quite disciplined. A race is a desperate struggle for survival and desperate times call for desperate measures. I have tried various things and for me what works is to be sure that a drop in energy is not caused by insufficient fuel. Fortunately I don't get an upset belly like some people seem to.

I do have a coach. A very good coach. Unfortunately he is also the person who kills us all in the 50 plus cat. Actually I feel privileged to race against a current world champ and I love the racing. Sometimes I do even manage to stick to the end but only in certain races. I love it all anyway.

I think the quote was " one bike is a ride, two bikes is a race" I love to race. I train hard, follow a program, lose weight, spend too much money on lightweight bike bits then show up on race day looking the dogs bollocks. Two hours later at the most I am usually shelled and riding to finish all dejected. The next day I don't want to ride anymore but by Tuesday I have a new cunning plan and I'm onto it again. Tried everything but PED's. Next time I pick better quality parents. Actually even that is no excuse. Have Olympic cyclists and national champions in my family. I'm just flipping useless. Yes. I race.

Soon as my machine arrives going to have to give that a go. I assume I will be able to find a YouTube video for guidence?

Yep we all find our own way. I am about 1 third carbs, 1 third fats and 1 third protein. Would never have considered this if not for the LCHF diet.

Meanwhile in South Africa we have the planets most miserable cyclists. Well if some of these threads are anything to go by.

A humble purchase by your lofty standards V12man but today ordered the Oscar and grinder. Didn't go for the combo that is on special but a better grinder called the MDX. No stock at the moment. Two weeks. Sigh

I would be up for that Wet Ears. Never like coconut other than the green ones they hack open on the side of the road in Tanzania for you to drink from. Now I chuck through the stuff.

I wasn't at all clear now that I read the post. Apologies. By miss something I mean something in your nutrition. As in I felt grim after an exercise session and ascribed it to the coffee I had afterwards but when I didn't drink the coffee I felt the same so it wasn't the coffee. It was not taking on enough nutrition while exercising. I hope that explains it more clearly. Now I have a recovery drink and no problems. My suggestion, and it is only a suggestion, is it might be you need something like more liquids when training, just as an example, and not eliminate something such as the recovery drink.

Helpmytrap, what occurs if you skip the recovery drink? Just an idea but are you perhaps not missing something else rather than being intolerant to something. You could have multiple causes as well. This might not be one thing. Can make it tough to untangle. For your sake I hope it's just lactose. Be the easiest to fix.

I am shocking at socially acceptable. Turn up at braais and don't drink or eat meat. Avoid the chips and rolls as well at the moment. Makes people nuts. I don't get it. I don't give a dam what they stick in there faces. Why do they care what I don't stick in mine?

Hey htone. Tell your vegetarian friend from me not to be so sensitive. It gives us veggies a bad name. Been off the bike for 6 weeks aft a crash. Had pins taken out my hand yesterday and they took my BG at the same time. 4.4. Am well pleased. Even more pleased I have only picked up 1kg in the past 6 weeks with very little exercise. Time to lose weight and get going again. Think I must be the only vegetarian on a lowish carb diet. Just sort of drifted into it. Carbs, fats and protein all about equal at the moment. Lots of work but it sure has helped to keep my weight steady.

Lhasa to Kathmandu. Over the Himalayas. The last 100km you lose about 4000m. Would be a blast

Not sure where to post this but since its a rant, can't do the race, and a rave, it's a great race, I will try here. Have an entry for my wife and I for the Berg and Bush that we can't use. Hoping to get at least some of my money back selling transferring the entry. We did it last year and loved it but this year won't make it. This entry is for the decent by the way. Anyone interested please pm me. Thanks

Collar bone. Ribs don't really count. Happens frequently and other than a fear of sneezing no long term effects

In search of Robert Millar is a great read. Sex lies and handlebar tape Fascinating story about Anquetil. Slaying the Badger. Very good. Fallen Angel. One of the best cycling books I have read, about Coppi Between the lines. Victoria Pendleton. Really enjoyed it Hunger. Boring in my opinion. Liked both books by the Roches but funny enough enjoyed Nicholas Roches book more.

Stupid little accident on my way to meet friends for a training ride. Still a bit dark and I think hit ice. Dislocated thumb and broke off a bit that holds the bone in the socket. Pushed it back in myself but it popped out again. Hurt like hell. Had it set under anesthetic but it came out again. Had an operation to pin it. Now it is fused and in a cast. Have the pin taken out in 3 weeks. Hopefully I will be back on the bike then.

I am not happy at all. New bike and everything.

Three weeks since my last off. Three weeks to go. I look the other way when I walk past my 3 bikes. I try not to stare at cyclists on the road. I don't get too uptight when I see guys on MTB bikes but on Sunday drove past 2 guys on Empire road on De Rosas, that was a bit emotional. I'm in the depressed phase now. Don't feel like doing much. Life feels long and tedious. Only 3 weeks left.

Two things I don't like in photography. Panoramas and HDR. Panoramas have been done to death, I've contributed to that to my shame, and HDR is plain cheese.

Like Topwine said. You must figure your own way. I did not so well on low carb. I looked at my diet again the other day. I always think I am high carb but I m under 200 g a day. About 150 g protein. The rest must be fat I suppose. Quite stable weight. Use sugars when riding but up to an hour sometimes 2 just water. Whole foods and homemade stuff works for me.

In Joe Friel's atestblog he quotes Noakes extensively. Joe is now also a LCHF convert. For those that don't know he is the author of the Training Bible series of books.