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.
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