ProLine Sports, Nutrition Blog

Long and Hot Day on the Bike

After pushing myself pretty good in the pool and doing some hill sprints, I wanted to get in another good day of training on Sunday. In the Midwest, we had some pretty hot weather going on, but it wasn't too bad. Most of the day it was in the mid 90's and fairly breezy. Hot enough to cut the Madison Marathon down to a half, but that didn't stop a lot of bikers getting out on some long rides. One of them being me.

I got plenty of sleep and got up a little later than planned, so I already felt behind. I generally like to get out the door between 7-8am on my longer days. Especially if the weather is going to get hot. But since I let myself recover, I didn't get out until around 9am. Mistake on my part. The weather was already in the upper 80's and rising.

I planned a loop out around Blue Mound State Park in Wisconsin to see what I would have done the day before in terms of the TT I missed out on. I knew it would be pretty hilly, but I wasn't totally sure how bad. I put my loop in the Garmin and got on the road.

The first part of my ride is part of the Olympic bike course for the Capitol View Triathlon I am planning to do in about a week and a half. It's pretty open and flat with a few short, somewhat steep hills. But nothing I need a triple up front for. However, once I got through Cross Plains, WI and started heading South and West, things started to change.

I ran into a few good long hills, and they just kept getting worse. But me being me, I was smiling and having a good time the whole way. I rode my Trek, so I had my granny little ring on the front to crank away at. I hit the first two larger hills pretty good, getting my HR up pretty high, but not overly taxing my legs. I caught an older gentleman on the second, giving him some words of encouragement as I scooted by a few mph faster. He wasn't riding a triple up front, so I was feeling a little sorry for him. These first two hills seemed like they could have been rated Cat 4 hills, but it seems they didn't quite make the cut. Probably not quite enough elevation change over the course of the hills.

The tricky part was that I hadn't scouted this area out, so each uphill was met with an insanely fast downhill, but right back into another large hill. I played it safe with it being so hot, and coasted most of the downhills. I wasn't looking for points hitting the 50mph mark or anything, even though I nearly got there just coasting.

Then came the back to back monsters. The first is a long, grinding 2-mile (+/-) Cat 3 climb that just keeps coming at you. You can probably find it on the map below. I stayed in the small ring, and switched my Garmin over to see how much elevation I was gaining. It seemed with every revolution of the cranks, I was going up another foot.

This hill plateaued out, I came around a corner, then stared right into another Cat 4 climb before I reached the summit. This one wouldn't have been too hard on it's own, but after climbing for what seemed like an hour, this extra push just drained me. So after I came over the top and to a good stopping point, I took a few minutes to catch my breath and get some nutrition in. I was around mile 45 at this point. Barely over halfway done with my ride...

The ride back around Blue Mound and back tracking wasn't terribly difficult. Just being so drained from hitting 5 large hills back to back made it a little more uncomfortable than I had planned on. I stopped twice to refill my water bottles on my way back. Otherwise I may not have made it home.

Throughout the ride I went through my camelbak full of water, and 4 water bottles. I carried two, and refilled each one once along the way. I would definitely reccomend having more on the bike than I did. I don't think having enough water while riding in heat like this should ever be an issue. Especially when you don't really have anyone to call should things go badly.

After I finished, I came right into my apartment and jumped right into a cold shower, still wearing my bibs. I grabbed some recovery nutrition in a protein drink, lots of fruits, then ate a huge salad and some nuts. I was hungry again in an hour though! But I think mostly I was just dehydrated. So I spend the next few hours rehydrating and having my feet up. It felt so great to be inside in the air conditioning.

It's rides like these that give me a greater respect for those who race professionally, and do rides harder, longer, and climb more, day after day. I covered around 83 miles in total and climbed around 4,000 feet. I can only imagine some of the rides covering over 100 miles and climbingg 8-10,000 ft. Maybe they wouldn't be so hot though!

 

-Dave

 

Race Cancelled, Now What?

On Saturday my brother and I had planned to do L'Alpe Bl'Huez Time Trial (Blue Mound, WI TT). But leading into the night before and the morning of, we were hit with some pretty good storms in the surrounding area. Ready to ride in the rain, and up early to make sure we had everything ready for the short drive from Madison over to Blue Mound, we got a text message around 7am telling us that due to the storms in the area, the race was cancelled and a rain date would be settled and sent to us later on. Unfortunately, no refund. But it was fairly cheap, so we're not too concerned.

In light of being a bit bummed about missing out on some crazy hills in a time trial setting, we were able to hit up the local bike and triathlon shops that morning and got a few miscellaneous things we were both needing. I grabbed some gels and bars and he got a new Speedfill A2  to mount on his aerobars and a few other things.

He took off home to get in some training, and I grabbed some lunch and got ready to do some training of my own. I wasn't really planning on doing a big swim, but since I missed out on the morning training session, I went all out. My wife, along with my sister, mother, and mother-in-law, all had a spa day, so I had the day to myself to do whatever while they were off getting pampered and having a good time. 

I hit the pool and wanted to get in some good yardage. So I got it in my head that I would shoot for 5k yards and see how it went. Luckily the water was a little cooler than it generally is, so I wasn't worried about overheating. I kept my rest short between sets, but also never really pushed my limits either. I knew I hadn't swam this much in one session before, so I needed to pace myself. I started off with a short warm up and some stretching and got right into my main sets. 

Starting off with 5 x 200, I was able to get in some good yardage pretty quick. I followed that up with 2 x 500 to get a little more endurance building and see how it felt after having in over 1,000 yards already. Next I dropped back down to 10 x 100, then back to 5 x 200 again, and finished with another 10 x 100, but broke the last 200 yards into 4 x 50 as my arms were aching. 

I took a good while stretching and relaxing after that and checked in to see what the ladies were doing, and since they showed no signs of being home too soon, I relaxed for a bit, refueled, then decided to hit up some hills. I wasn't too sure about how hard I could go, so I got on the soft trails behind our place and found a good hill that rises probably about 30-40 feet over about 50 yards and did some sprints there after some jogging around the trails and disc golf course that intertwine with each other. 

My knee was feeling great, and the soft ground from the rain was making me feel good too. I didn't need to worry much about too much pounding, so I got after it and put in a good 10 hill sprints and it felt great. I hadn't gotten my HR that high in a long time, so it was almost like a new thrill all over again for me. I missed that!

After I finished my last hill, I took a nice slow jog about a mile around our complex to cool down, then got inside and called it a day. I grabbed some food and just sat on the couch the rest of the day waiting for the girls to come home. I was stuck on dog duty for the day, so I had three dogs running around me trying to play, but it could have been worse! 

I just wanted to write this to show anyone out there that gets frustrated about a race being cancelled, that there are things you can do to make up for it! Even though I was mentally prepared for a TT, I was able to switch my thinking and get ready for a different kind of rough day. Something you should always be ready for on race morning. Let's say in a triathlon, the open water swim gets cancelled due to high winds. Can you mental prepare yourself to start the race on the bike and deal with the winds all day? Or if the heat takes a marathon down to a half marathon like it did in Madison over the weekend, can you mentally get yourself ready to run shorter, but faster in such a short amount of time? 

I honestly can't understand why they moved the marathon down to a half. Ironman events go off all the time in conditions much worse than what the weather was on race day up here in Madison. Both 70.3's I've done were hotter and they last much longer than most people ever think about finishing a marathon in. But that's a whole other can of beans for me!

-Dave

Juan Pelota Tears It Up

For those of you who aren't much into cycling or following cyclists or triathletes, but are still part of the sport(s), there's one name I'm sure you know: Lance Armstrong. He's quite the household name nowadays, well, ever since he started his comeback from cancer and tearing apart the Tour de France time and time again. But what some people may not know is his triathlon past. 

Having grown up in triathlon, being surrounded by the likes of Scott Tinley and Scott Molina, who at the time were more than ten years his elders, Lance has had triathlon steaming through his blood since before even his teenage years. He won is first event at age 13, and IronKids event. Eventually, in 1989, he made the switch to full-time cycling, and we'll leave that be that. Along with if you dislike him as a person. I don't care who you are and what you do, but you can't deny the athletic talent and vigor he has.

Jumping back into triathlon, and the nowadays since leaving cycling as a professional, he's taking his hand at triathlon again. And if you're not a heavy Twittter follower, or use Strava, you may not know Lance's alter ego, Juan Pelota. I'm sure it has mostly to do with people who only really want to find him to find him. Rather than following him just to follow sake, his pseudo name is more or less a stage name.

But the main reason for this article, is to talk about just how good he is. Ok, we all know he's going to be good on the bike. Probably leaps and bounds above most, and still better than the likes of Chris Lieto (Trek's uber biker) and Andreas Raelert (BMC Time Machine and current world record holder for the IM bike distance). 

After a few good performances and showings in his early 70.3 races, such as finishing second in his debut to Bevan Docherty at IM 70.3 Panama, Lance has found his winning stride. He also took 7th at the Memorial Hermann IM 70.3 and 3rd at IM 70.3 St. Croix. None of whic were easy feats. But coming into Haines City, FL and the Florida IM 70.3 race, he sure was something else. And we have the Strava Report from Juan Pelota himself to prove it.

Looking at just his bike split, he was cranking along at a mere 399W and 28mph average. To add insult to injury, he cranked out a 1:15:56 half marathon, best of the day as well. 

Now I don't know about you, but those are just the kinds of numbers most of us can only dream of. Maybe not pushing 400W in a single effort, but to push that for 2 hours is a whole different story. As well as doing 13.1 miles in 1:15, cruising over 10mph, is something else as well. Especially after having put out that much energy in a mind bending fast bike split. 

Does this mean we should crown him IM Champion right here and now? I don't think so, not by a long shot. Yes, he's the best on the bike, and he's good on the run and swim. But will he be good on the day. Too many factors weigh in on the day of the race for someone like Lance to be crowned before the race even starts. Take Craig Alexander this past year. Most likely counted out due to a weak bike. He came out of nowhere with an insane bike split, 2nd best of the day, and 2nd best marathon. Which proves you don't need to be the best at any of the criteria in the race, you just have to be the best at the race, on race day.

I wouldn't put my money on Lance taking the IM World Championship, but I wouldn't count him out either. He definitely has the personal drive to become the best. But let's remember how much drive guys like Raelert, Lieto, and Alexander have to win, too. They're not just some chumps. If anything, if Lance isn't on the podium, he's sure to have lit a fire under the asses of those in front of him, most likely leading to some more record-breaking performances along the way. He may or may not ever be at the top of the 140.6 distance, but he will definitely affect the sport as we know it.

-Dave

 

Back At It!

It's been just over four months since my ACL surgery, and things are starting to click more and more. I have been doing a little bit of running here and there, but, I think I'm nearly to the point where I can say I'm back to training full-time. My knee is healing up well, and I'm slowly getting better at my physical therapy exercises as well as some lifting and plyometrics. 

The running has been a long and slow process for me. Sometimes almost so infuriating I wanted to just call it quits. I had a few points where I felt like my knee was never going to get better after having done some really light jogging on it. A few days after, I felt like I was back at week six all over again. I was mentally drained from dealing with slight pains all the time, every time I wanted to take a jogging step.

But since that point, my knee has been getting stronger and stronger. And with the amount of biking I've been putting in, my cardio and heart strength is still high. My running muscles are another story, especially in my ankles and hip flexors, but those will come. 

Over the past two weeks I have been slowly building up my time and distance. I started off really short, just going out for a little over a mile of walk jogging. From there, I did the mile straight through without stopping or feeling any pain right then and none the next day either. A few days later I was able to get up to two miles. Then a few days later again, I bumped it up to a 5k, no problems.

I think part of the reason some of this running has been coming back nicely is that the first mile of most of my runs is all uphill. A slow, easy grade, but still all uphill. This takes a lot of the pounding out of landing. Added to that is the fact that I've been solely running in my Newton's. Again, taking pressure off my knee and getting my footstrike where I want it to be.

I have also been able to get associated with a gym just a couple miles from where my wife and I are living. They have some top notch equipment and some great treadmills. For some of my longer efforts, I have been going there to take all the banging I get on the pavement out of the picture and just focusing on form and getting in some quality run time. I was able to put in an hour straight this week. I honestly don't think I could have done that out on the roads. With the forgiveness of the treadmill, I'm able to go much longer and at a slightly quicker pace. Nothing too fast, but it just feels good an natural.

I'm hoping to be able to get into a race in the next few weeks. However, I haven't decided on the Sprint or Olympic distance yet. I've ridden the course, and either way, I know I have to crush the bike to have any sort of chance. Some pretty nasty hills, but very fun. 

I'll for sure have a post to recap when I do race. And I may be doing a TT this weekend should the weather hold. A couple of Category 4 climbs ought to really test my strength out! 

-Dave

On Wisconsin!

Ok, not really. But kind of. I'm still a Chicago sports fan. But I will take Madison over Chicago for lifestyle any day of the week. Anyways, a few weeks ago my wife and I decided we were making the move to Wisconsin for many reasons. But one GREAT reason was for the amazing training around the area. We're situated in the Madison area, and couldn't be happier. The amount of routes for training outside the city is astounding. But even within the city limits, you can find countless routes and people filling them. The amount of people being active is truly amazing. But the amount of bike lanes and room made for bikes is even better. You can't go a block without seeing someone on a bike. Whether they're just cruising around for fun, commuting to work, or grinding away at a training ride, they're everywhere!

I've only been living here a little over a week and already I'm in love with the area. I've seen Neil deGrasse Tyson give a speech to the graduating senior class of UW-Madison, tried out some of the local pubs for some beer and grub, and of course, tried out some of the training features that Wisconsin has to offer. 

My first ride consisted of an out and back loop to the Trek Bike Headquarters in Waterloo, WI. A nice, fairly flat ride with a little over 1,100 vertical feet and a slight wind out of the NE, this ride was great. There was a few nice rolling  hills along with some good climbs. But nothing to write home about.

I have been able to put in some running, slowly, and it seems to be coming along great as well. I got in a 3 and 4 mile run this week. The good thing about all the hills near where we're living is that going uphill running takes a lot of sting out of impact, so I'm able to go a bit further  or longer without putting as much stress on my knee in terms of recovery. It's been about 4 months since surgery, and my knee is coming along slowly, but, I've been given the green light for running as I see fit and comfortable. After a few bouts with some 10min/mi paces through 2.5 miles or so, I'm starting to see 8min/mi and I never thought I'd say this, but it feels great to be going so fast. Not my typical fast speeds, especially over such short distances, but for recovery, I'll take it!

              
(Above: Random wildlife around the route (left), Trek Headquarters (middle) one of countless hills on the IM course(right))

Finally, I took a big jump and hit up the Ironman WI loop starting from home and hit it hard. The course for the full IM is 2 loops, so I decided to just take on one and see how it went. This course is hilly! Nonstop hills once you get out of Madison and head West. None of them are so over the top that they crush you, but they just keep coming. One after another. There's no break points. Ok, so here and there you get a mile maybe of some flats. Instead of charging, however, I spent my time recovering and refueling in these parts. 

Overall, this move plays a huge part in the way my wife and I  want to live our lives. Madison is an amazing city, full of things to do. But it's not overwhelming or overly expensive. There is so much activity and so many great people we've come across already, that we're certain this is a place we want to be for a long, long time. We're still close to our families, but we also have the training and playing grounds right out our back door for the summer time and winter when we go skiing and snowboarding. And it's a perfect place to raise our baby on the way, too! 

-Dave

Bikes & Ignorance Don't Mix

I generally like to think that most cyclists out there have a good head on their shoulders. They know that biking is a healthy way to get some quality exercise, and it also has minimal impact, so it is sustainable for longer periods of time as well as longer into your lifetime. However, over the past couple weeks I have been noticing a bit of lack of knowledge, responsibility, and mostly just some straight up ignorance. Both on the parts of bikers and automobile drivers.

I highly recommend reading this article written by Enzo's which actually got me started on paying attention and eventually writing this one for myself. The group of riders in that article are much more skilled, seasoned, and faster than I am, but the story itself rings true all the way down to the beginner ranks. The main premise being that if you're biking, if you want to be treated equally as an automobile, you have to follow the same rules as well. Stopping at stop signs, signaling for turns, lining up at lights, and so on. If you're out there being a jerk, expect to be treated like one.

In comes my additions to the article mentioned above. On my big ride last weekend, I was about 30 minutes out from finishing, legs aching, just cruising down the home stretch. I came to a crossing where only the road I was on had stop signs, as the crossroad was a high speed, fairly busy road. I kind of wanted a break anyway, so as I pulled up to the stop sign, I unclipped and eased to a halt, planning to rest for a couple minutes and let a few cars go by before I made my cross. However, a lady on the crossroad had different plans.

Now I was completely stopped, both feet unclipped, and drinking some water from my water bottle. You couldn't ask for much more obvious of signs that I wasn't going to cross unless I pulled out a hammock and took a nap. Instead of just cruising on by, the lady decided to stop, in the middle of the busy road, slamming on her brakes and frantically try to wave me across. I merely shook my head and waved her along. Thought that would be the end of it as I finished drinking my water. NOPE! She persisted in waving me across, going as far as honking her horn as if I weren't getting the picture. After a few cars backed up behind her and a couple screeched in, the car that lined up next to me went ahead, and I clipped in and took off. I wanted to go over and knock on her window and say "Thanks for being courteous, but this is a bit much. I've been riding for over 4 hours, and am in no rush to cross such a busy road." I was too tired for this, so I just shook my  head at her and gave an apologetic shrug of the shoulders the other motorists waiting behind her.

The next three incidents all happened on the same ride I took two nights ago. The first being with another cyclist. As I was leaving my house to go out on a 90 minute ride or so, I saw another bike cruise by on the street just north of me. At first I thought, "Great to see people getting out on such a beautiful day". As I got up to the stop sign to jump on another decently busy road, with not much of a shoulder to speak of, I began to retract my previous thoughts. This guy was a sight to see. Probably about 6'2", big broad shoulders, no helmet, no shirt, and cranking his tunes. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, so as I checked behind me and made my pass, I gave a courteous wave and a smile to a fellow cyclist. He was on a mountain bike in about the biggest gearing, so why he was on this road completely phases me.

As I'm approaching the four way stop ahead, I tuck in behind a car and take my place in line, acting like I am part of traffic, instead of avoiding it just to make it through faster. What's the point of putting yourself at risk when it takes an extra 30 seconds to wait for a few cars to get through from all the corners of the 4-way stop? As the car in front of me takes off for it's left hand turn, and I am about to follow as the other cars are about to go, what do I see? My big meathead friend in the left lane, not signaling, slowing down or giving any clue to the cars as to what he's doing. He makes a sharp left turn in front of the car in front of me and cuts it off. The car honks, as the man should have been hit, and I sit back shaking my head as shame has just been brought on to the cycling community.

I take my turn and continue to catch the man again, but this time, I'm not so friendly. I wanted to run him off the road and give him a full piece of my mind, but where would that get me? So instead I just give him a small tidbit saying, "You've gotta (expletive) kidding me dude, you're going to get yourself killed!" And I sped away, figuring he probably didn't even hear me through his headphones and large ego.

Simultaneously as this is happening, I had checked behind me to be sure I could pass him. I was clear, however there was a car coming, so I planned to make it quick. As I got about even with him, I could hear the car downshift and speed up. "You're kidding right?" Instead of maybe gently braking, or most likely just taking his foot off the gas, the car speeds up to prove a point and swerves around me. All the while this is happening in a no passing zone (bikes should be treated as cars, too). And as we crest the top of the hill, a car is coming from the other direction and has to veer off the road in order to avoid being struck head on.

Maybe a bit of this was my fault, but I truly feel I had plenty of time to pass, and the fact that the driver sped up instead of maintaining his speed speaks for itself.

My last bit is about another driver as I was coming down the long steady downhill about 5 miles from finishing the ride. I was tucked down in aero, cranking away pretty well around 29-30mph with pretty light feet and a fast cadence. Being in a passing zone and there being no cars I could see ahead, I gave myself an extra foot of space to my right as the only shoulder was a few feet of gravel then a large ditch. Seeing as how there was so much room to get around me, and being in a passing zone, I figured I was safe. However, some hick thought otherwise. Instead of just passing me at whatever speed he likes (I could care less), he decides to be sure he's right on my rear wheel before moving into the other lane and as he's just to my side, blares on the horn and takes off. My question to him is, "What are you trying to prove?" Do you honestly think I'm in the wrong here? Are you showing off to your girlfriend that you have more horsepower than I do? Or are you just trying to make me crash? I always wonder where the cops are when things like this happen to cyclists. Scaring a cyclist while you're driving is about the worst idea out there. It's one thing to pass us closely, but we're used to that. I wanted to catch the guy and ask him how he would feel had I gone down and got my wheels wrapped up under his car, injuring or possibly killing me? You don't see people passing motorcycles and blaring their horns, so what makes a cyclist any different?

All of these incidents only further my credo when I go out riding: never trust anyone else out on the road. Don't assume anything. And least of all, don't assume anyone is looking out for you. Unless you're out with a group of good friends riding. But even then, they may make mistakes.

Get out there, have fun, be safe, and please be conscious of what is going on around you. If you're head isn't ready and in the right place before you clip in, pack it up and get on the trainer. Save the road for another day when you're mentally ready.

-Dave

Honey Stinger

It's always hard to find nutrition that works for me consistently. But over the past few weeks I think I'm finding something that will work perfectly for me in both training and racing. I've been using Honey Stinger Ogranic Stinger Waffles, and they taste absolutely amazing!

I have usually been a PowerBar and GU/PowerBar Gel person. But PowerBars start to get old and the lack of flavor leaves me wanting more out of my nutrition. For what it's worth, you can't really beat what's inside a PowerBar in terms of endurance nutrition, but sometimes they're just not for me. Mostly on those colder days on the bike when they turn to a brick. Bring in Honey Stinger Orgranic Waffles, and my problems are solved!

On my big ride this past weekend, I took a few with me to see how they hold up in the colder air and how they nourished me on a long ride. I put in about 80 miles of tough riding through the steadily rolling hills of southern Wisconsin along with a good wind out of the East. About 90 minutes in I pulled out my first waffle and was ready to put it to the test. It wasn't the easiest thing to open at 20+mph, but I got it sorted out.

The waffles themselves are pretty slim, but they pack a good amount of carbs for only 160 calories of energy. The big complaint I have about these, though, is that there is 0 protein! I would have thought with Lance Armstrong as their front man, that Honey Stinger would have put together a perfect ratio of carbs to protein for the endurance crowd. Something along the lines of 4:1 is generally what I see and am used to. But to have 0 protein while breaking down muscles over the course of a training circuit or race, I am not totally sold on these just yet. However, they taste like candy! A nice break from the blandness that rules the endurance nutrition world.

I did have some Clif Bars with me on the ride in case the waffles weren't holding me over, and I did break one out to eat. I just don't think the Honey Stingers quite do it for me in terms of being the sole staple of my nutrition stash. However, I will definitely continue to load them up in my bag of goodies while I'm training as they're great tasting, pack a lot of carbs, go down easy, and taste great. But I will definitely need to pull something along that has a shot of protein as well.

-Dave