my bike

Early Morning training ride

First attempts at Final Cut Pro...Video blogging is the future after all! I am busy delving into the complex world of video editing with the aim of producing our first clip documenting our race next weekend - it certainly beats writing about it!

Nissan #3 Down and Dirty - 70km Marathon

Tapering - Final preparations for the big race

We have arrived! with 2 weeks to go, we have made it, several long rides (longer than 4 hours) in the bag,  we figured out nutrition and pacing and everything else that goes with it!

I am actually more interested in how our training programme turned out - only then will we get the answers: "Did we do enough? Too much? Too little?". Training for such a big race as the Hill2Hill is quite an undertaking!

So we have started the two week taper. The idea is to decrease your training load, while allowing your body to rest and increase fitness as a result. Yes, if you train less you will lose some fitness, but that is why you try to minimise the loss (with specific training), so that you gain fitness as a net result.

The idea is to train in this period like the race you are preparing for. In other words, shorter race-pace like workouts which still gets you in the zone, without adding too much fatigue to your workload. You need to  start each of these last few workouts feeling fresh and ready.

For instance it is a good idea to pick a course that is similar to your race, and then time trial it. With each lap you should try to decrease your time, while the total time of your workout should be shorter than usual.

It is also a good feeling to finally get to the taper period, because after a well executed Build period (including the aforementioned 6 hour rides) you are worn out. Tired from the sheer load of your training. That is another reason why you don't do your longest ride just before your main race, since you will undoubtedly be tired from it. Don't worry, the training is in, now you need to let it perculate!

Now is also the time to focus mentally on the race. Study the route maps and elevations, take note of waterpoints. Talk to others who has done the race before, go see the route beforehand if possible. If it is a road race, take your car and drive it. You will feel much more confident knowing what is coming. The fear of the unknown can also lead to silly mistakes regarding when to eat and drink. One of the defining traits of all champions, they fussed over every single detail. Leaving nothing to chance is the way to succeed. So you need to decide how important the race is to you, the more it is, the more details you will consider.

I have also been running mental pictures of the race, imagining what it will feel like on race day, it will be cool in the morning, with a 6am start, how many people there will be, how my legs will feel. All of these details have been playing through my head on the long climbs when things get harder. This prepares you, because when you arrive at the actual race, you already are familiar with it.

This confidence will then translate into the rubber on the road. When you start that race, there will be less to worry about, because you have already run through a few scenarios in your head, what happens when you puncture or what you are going to do at each waterpoint.

These strategies should ensure success and deliver you at the starting line ready to go!

Race pace all the way.
Cornelius

Endurance Fuel 101: the long (mountain bike) ride.

For the past 34 weeks we have been training 6 days a week, 3 weeks hard, 1 week easy.  We learnt early on not to only eat and drink for each training session, but also to plan ahead and re-fuel for the rest of the week.  We realized the importance of eating for recovery, always making sure your body is able to repair muscles and restore glycogen before the next swim/bike/run!

The biggest question in the beginning was how to stay fueled during our 3-6 hour long rides.  We narrowed it down to two factors:  Pacing (start easy, finish strong) and nutrition.  

Over time we realized that eating and drinking for endurance is more complex than we thought and can only be perfected through trial and error.  We are constantly trying new food combinations and supplements.  I read about this guy who boils pasta, then liquidizes it, adding yogurt, bananas and honey, pours it into zip-lock bags and voilà; long ride snack! I will admit this is the one recipe I didn’t have the guts to try; I prefer to chew my food thank you!  

Because we mostly follow a Paleolithic eat plan, we only ingest simple carbohydrates during long rides and in the recovery stage (the first 30min after a session).  During the recovery phase your muscles will replenish depleted glycogen stores.  You are able to store 1500-2000 calories as carbohydrate in your muscles and liver, depending on body size.  When you take duration and intensity of training into consideration, this is not always enough to get you there and back.

So what do we pack for a long ride (3h+)?

It is all about planning ahead.

Food: We make sure we eat once every hour, even if we’re not hungry – luckily this is never the case for my always-hungry team member!

We pack a combination of the following:

• Bananas. We never leave home without them. A medium banana contains +- 14 grams of sugar; no other fruit contains more digestible carbohydrates.  
• Long ride muffins, packed with calories (recipe to follow). 
• A salty ham and cheese sandwich. After 4 hours we usually start to crave real food.  The high salt content is great for restoring much needed sodium.

Drinks:

• Water: We try to consume 500-800 ml/hour, depending on day temperatures.  
• Carbohydrate drinks:  We always choose a brand with a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein.  I try to take a few sips every 15-20 minutes.
• Electrolytes:  Most sports performance drinks contains enough electrolytes to prevent dehydration, although, on a very hot day we add Rehydrat® to our usual Carbohydrate mix.

Gels: We usually pack one or two sachets, although we don’t always feel the need to use them.  Gels are great for:

• An energy boost:  the highly concentrated carbohydrate content gives an instant boost.
• Electrolyte replenishment during a very hot day or in the case of a much hated cramping episode.
• Caffeine boost:  some gels contain caffeine. When you start battling with concentration on the trails, it is an instant ‘wake me up’, Redbull shots work even better!

• 2 golden rules when it comes to gels: 

1. Always chase them down with enough water to aid digestion and absorption.  Otherwise the GIT will re-absorb water from your blood plasma, causing dehydration.
2. Know your flavour! Choc/banana sounded like a good combination, but for me it ended up tasting like over-ripened banana goo!

We will be the first to admit that not everything we believe about nutrition is always scientific or  “according to the book”, but it works for us.  Because we get/steal most of our advice from fellow athletes, I thought it good to share as well.  Therefore, as promised, I share my long ride muffin recipe:

 

LONG RIDE MUFFIN RECIPE:

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 125 ml sugar (brown/white)
• 15 ml oil (olive/avocado)
• 5 ml vanilla essence
• 125 ml milk (fat-free) 
• 250 ml cake flour
• 250 ml oat bran
• 125 ml Pronutro (whole-wheat)
• 60 ml desiccated coconut 
• 10 ml baking powder
• 5 ml bicarbonate of soda
• 5 ml cinnamon 
• 2.5 ml salt
• 2-3 mashed bananas 
• 200 ml apple sauce (KOO/Purity)
• 10-20 dates chopped 
• Chopped pecan nuts 

Method

Blend the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, milk and apple sauce together.  Add the dry ingredients, mix through and lastly add the dates, nuts and bananas.   

Spray a 12-hole muffin pan with non-stick spray, scoop mixture into muffin pan.

Bake in a 180°C, pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 Muffins.

We only eat them on long rides, I usually bake 12, let them cool overnight, wrap them in plastic and freeze them.  We then take them out as needed.

Enjoy!

‘We are indeed much more than we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are’ - Adelle Davis

Until next time.

Tarrin

A new frame of mind

This week I made a massively important decision, one that has haunted me for a few years now. I decided to buy the new 2012 GT Zaskar Carbon Hardtail frame, as I have also decided to build up my dream bike from some of the components that I already have, along with a few from Santa's carbon wishlist. 

This way it will definitely be cheaper than a new bike, and I get to choose the specific components that I want. Piece by piece, which I have always found is more exciting as each piece comes together you are so excited over every detail and you appreciate it more. I mean I would love to buy a whole new bike, but the bikes I want are not the ones I can afford! So I decided to make the big decision and start with the frame. 

Next I will buy the fork and the wheels, light and fast - and then I will have a whole new bike and hopefully a whole new outlook on mountainbiking! 

The frame is all black with only the logos in white, I must say I am a big fan of black in terms of sportskit colour. There is just something strong about it that says RACE! It will be my first foray into the world of carbon fiber, as I aim to build the lightest bike I can possible afford, if I can get it below 11kg that would be superduper.

Getting a grip by letting go.

We are nearing the end of our training plan for the Hill2Hill - doing the long rides, (we managed a 5h30 ride on Saturday, including Pretoria's Four Towers, the Voortrekker Monument (rocky, twisty singletrack with more than enough climbing), Fountains Valley(world class XC loop), Groenkloof Nature Reserve (steep, rocky, twisty singletrack and lots of climbing) and Fort Klapperkop (straight up and down, one of the longest climbs in Pretoria on Tar).

We were successfully testing our Nutrition (several bananas, homemade gourmet muffins, 1x booster gel/red bull), Pacing strategy (Try to start slow and go faster - still working on that little detail).

For me personally, I was working on my 'flow', going into corners relaxed, looking at the entrance of the corner and then the exit, not the corner itself (which will just slow you down to toddler walking pace), making the ride flow so that you can put sections together to get through it quicker. With less stress.

I have managed to pick up a nasty neck muscle spasm, (due to a destabilised scapula our manager tells me). This is due to a lot of tense neck muscle action during all the hours of cycling. Which can also be attributed to my generally very high level of expectation when I clip in. I usually get very irritated very quickly at the slightest thing that goes wrong. I have realised this is because I need everything to be perfect during the ride. Nothing must go wrong or it is a total failure. This weekend I realised that I need to just enjoy it.

Let whatever happen, just happen. no good, no bad, it just happens. Then I found I was lighter on the bike, I felt more relaxed and more able to control it, and savour the moments. When I get the flow right, when I realise that I can enjoy it. Then I could enjoy it.