Diet and My Health

When I stopped riding my bike some time around June 2011 I was eating pretty terribly for my body and for my health.  The health thing that occurred to me was at first a great mystery.  I went to literally a dozen specialists and most of them said I was the picture of health.  Blood work was normal, EEG, EKG, stress test (heart), all were normal. I even wore the EEG for three days because they thought I had seizure activity on their initial test.  In any case, all negative.  However, I still felt like I was dying at times, literally.  Sometimes I would eat something and it would feel like I was poisoned.  Without going into very lengthy detail, I eventually cut out everything but fruits, veggies, and meat and ate a stricter version of the Paleo diet.  My diet was actually significantly stricter than that for a while, I started with bone broth and chicken for a month before adding other foods in.  The only test that showed any clue to my issue was a food allergy test I took that told me I was allergic to all sorts of things I eat a lot of.  In any case, after a few months of strict diet I began to feel better and slowly started to recover.  I will most likely write a blog post in gory detail about my health issues, but I want to focus on my diet and how it affects my endurance training these days.

Since switching to Paleo (no grains, no dairy, and no legumes) I have cut out a lot of sources of carbs I was previously eating.  Although I have been gluten free for a few years, adding (or removing) everything else was quite a switch.  Interestingly, I rarely miss grains except when I think of something like pizza.  My only consistent source of carbs these days is apples, some other fruits, and veggies.  I cheat and sometimes have some raw sugar in a coffee but that's pretty rare.  I usually just have raw honey (or Manuka honey) if I need something sweet.  For a while after I got better I was eating a ton of vegan chocolate because I just needed the Paleo vacation after over a year of 100% strict dieting.  That being said, now that I am training again (and plan to continue to train throughout the year) I am cutting out the crap and significantly decreasing the booze intake (which I recently ramped up after cutting for 18 months).  I'm wondering how good my body is at burning fat as a source of fuel these days.

My first commute home I tried to ride 22 miles with 2000 feet of elevation change and a 20 lbs pack.  I bonked hard after about 80 minutes.  I rode another 20 in a state of stupor, barely going 5 mph in some places.  My new house is at the top of a frickin hill and it's overkill for a first ride to do what I did.  What I was worried about, though, is that I bonked after only 80 minutes and I was not hungry.  At least I did not feel very hungry.  It appears that my relatively low carb diet might be affecting my endurance exercise more than I thought.  I have done some long runs (over an hour) on no food and I used to be able to step out the door and ride 2+ hours with no food without a problem.  I know there are many Paleo athletes out there that have low carb lifestyles and still are able to train and race competitively.  My goal is to eat strict Paleo and still perform for my workouts and races.  Let's see how the season progresses.

Back in the Saddle

I'm sure there is a major percentage of cycling blogs that at one point or another do this, so here is my turn.

I have started riding again with the goal of racing CX this season.  The first goal is to make it to my team's training camp and not get dropped on the first hill of every day, at least on the "B" ride.  Coming off of an 18 month layoff is not as bad as I thought, though.  Sure, my power is down and I bonked after 90 minutes on my first ride, but the motivation is really there.  I actually have a feeling I will hit PB power numbers this season (altitude adjusted) but that won't be for another 3-4 months.

Speaking of power, my best 20 minute this season is a whopping 204 watts.  The caveats are that I was on a trainer, I was not doing an all out effort (2x20s), and I now live at altitude.  Regardless, even if I do a "trainer sucks" adjustment and an altitude adjustment, my FTP is at best 210 watts right now.  That is about 25% off of my previous best, set sometime around the last time I blogged.  This time around I'm not going to post pics because it truly is depressing to be killing myself for 200 watt 20 minute intervals.

This week is my 3rd week on the bike and by the end of the week I hope to do a proper outdoor FTP test, although I'm not really sure what for since I will be most likely doing most of my training on the trainer or on a spin bike.  Yes, a spin bike.  It's a fancy one, but it's still a spin bike.

So the nice thing about this is that it actually measures power.  Well, sorta, it throws some numbers at me that look vaguely correct and consistent.  There is no way I can manage to do something like 2x20s or 6x5x1s on this but it is good for Z2, tempo, Tabatas, and even SST (somewhat by RPE but using power to hold the right intensity).  The reason I am using the spin bike at all is due to efficiency.  It's much much easier to throw on kit, sneakers, and a shirt and go kick my ass on this thing then it is to go for a ride or even set up a bike trainer.  I've been doing my trainer rides in the mornings (6:15-7:15 or so) but I can't manage to do that every time I need a workout.

Ah, Tabatas.  I have been wondering what to do to get back into fitness.  All the traditional plans have me riding base for at least 3-4 weeks before doing any intensity.  I decided that for my "A" race this year, which is training camp in March, I'm going to have to get going a lot faster.  I tried a bike commute (21 miles one way, 2000 feet of elevation change one direction and 1200 feet the other) and even a half commute (tough to structure some intervals) by driving half way with the bike and riding to and from work but only 10 miles each way.  the full commute was miserable.  It took me 1:45 to get home the first day at something like 13.1 mph.  It was brutal, I bonked, I wanted to throw the bike in the ditch, call momma, the usual.  Anyways, it was going to take me to long to get to any sort of fitness the traditional way.  I decided Tabatas on the trainer would be the ticket.

Tabatas are quite simple, short lived, but surprisingly difficult if done right.  The protocol includes 8 rounds of 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest.  That is it, 2:40 of work and 1:20 of rest.  One set of Tabatas takes 4 minutes.  If you've never done Tabatas, you can do practically anything as a Tabata.  Air squats, pushups, jumping rope, sprints, cycling, rowing, skating, etc.  The other nice thing about Tabatas is that they scale.  What I mean by this is that no matter the individual, if you truly go "all out" during the 20 seconds on you are pretty blasted after one set of Tabatas.  For trained individuals, you should be able to take a 5 minute break and do another 2-3 sets (with breaks in between).  Getting 4 sets of Tabatas on one day is pretty impressive and even the most fit individuals would get their asses kicked by this workout.  The only remaining question is do they work?  Tabatas original study synopsis is here:

Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max

Tabata found that both anaerobic and aerobic systems were highly stimulated compared to riding tempo 60 minutes a day.  Not a very good test versus a comparison of more modern or more relevant workouts such as 2x20 @ 100% FTP or 6x5x1 @ 106% FTP, however still a valuable result.  Since I cannot easily do 2x20 and 6x5x1 at work, I figured shocking my system into shape slightly by doing some Tabatas when I can't do a proper trainer workout is not a terrible experiment.  We'll just see how bad I get dropped at training camp!