Internal Mono(b)log

The Importance of Carbohydrates and Glycogen for Athletes – Posts – TrainingPeaks Blog.

A good write-up on fueling.  The picture of bread accompaning the article threw me a bit, because obvisouly there are more nutrient rich and less inflamatory sources of carbs than bread and pasta (why is it when people think carbs they think “bread, pasta, rice, potatoes” and not “fruit and veggies” is a mystery to me – social conditioning I guess…)

Anyhow, article generally aligns with my belief that you can go low carb, fuel with fat, and be in ketosis and fat-adapted using ketones for energy, but you’re going to be missing the top-end that glycogenesis provides to muscles that are working hard and need fuel to burn through fast.  Restated: you may be good for a 6 hr bike ride at a leisurely pace, but pick up the pace and try to trash a few hills and you may end up thrashed at the side of the road 😛

An interesting blurb from Michael Greger MD in my mailbox this morning.

Diet vs. Exercise: What’s More Important? | NutritionFacts.org.

and I agree w. him totally.  We all know a calorie isn’t a calorie and the composition, processing, additives, and personal food sensitivities around diet choices can make a MASSIVE difference in how your body is using those calories.

In that vein, I have recently been conducting a personal nutrition experiement (in the constant stream of them that I am continually doing), and cutting dairy from my diet.  I previously wasn’t a HUGE consumer of milk or cheese, but I did eat cottage cheese and yogurt pretty much daily and in pretty good quantities.  About 2 weeks ago I cut these “staples” from my diet.  The results?

Well, 1st and foremost I note that I feel mentally clearer like a light fog has been lifted.  This is surprising because I never felt that dairy had any negative impact on my physical or mental well-being, but it would appear that I’m wrong.  I’ve also noted lower morning resting heart-rate (this may just be due to being fully recovered from The North Face Endurance Challenge Ultra that I did in early December, so not too confident about this being dairy related, but noteworthy), less phlegm and muscus, reduced hunger, less frequent sleep interruptions, and least important but still happy-making, a drop in fat-mass without a loss in lean-mass.

All things considered, it would appear that the experiment is  having positive results and as such I’ll probably adopt it into my normal dietary regeme.  I still occasionally have a bit of cheese on my eggs or a drop of milk in a particularly medeocre restaurant coffee but my daily habitual consumption has, at least for now, come to an end.

TrainingPeaks is offering an advanced 3 day course for coaches on how to use and maximize their athlete’s use of TrainingPeaks.

TrainingPeaks University will take place March 8-10 in Boulder, Colorado.

The topics covered look great.  Almost enough to make me wish I was a coach..

.. almost 🙂

My coach is one of the best kept bike fit secrets in Toronto.  Why he isn’t run off his feet just doing bike fits is beyond me!

Seriously, if you’re a triathlete or cyclist in Southern Ontario, do yourself a favour: book a fit appointment with Ian and get your bike dialed in.

Yet another glowing review: Purchasing a tri bike based on numbers!.

Last weekend I had the opportunity via Klout and Cadillac to have a Cadillac ATS for a 3 day test drive.  I know it’s off topic a bit for my blog, but I really wanted to share my experience with this car.

2013 Cadillac ATS (Photo credit: Automotive Rhythms)

So let me start by saying, a Luxury Sport Sedan is not in my snack-bracket.  In fact, living in the city, a 15 minute walk from work and close to all my amenities, I would have a hard time justifying a car at all.  Autoshare, Zipcar and Car2go supplemented with traditional rentals works just fine for me and is more cost effective.  All that said, IF I were in the market for a luxury sport sedan, the ATS would be atop my list.  Does the Cadillac name hold the “name appeal” of Audi, Porsch, BMW, or Mercedes?  Well no, not today, but with offerings like the ATS this may change.

I’ve driven quite a few performance cars, though none as recent as a 2013, and I have to say, I’ve never driven anything that impressed me as much as the ATS.  I had the 2.0L turbo with winter tires on (actually) wintery roads in Toronto.  I had the opportunity to drive the car on messy side-streets as well as clear and dry highway.  The car easily has the pickup and handling characteristics of a mid-series BMW.  Even aggressively accelerating onto the highway it was smooth and effortless.  Really though, the things that impressed me with the ATS were all the electronics systems and systemic integration.

Frankly, the ATS is a geek’s wet dream.

Things I loved about the car, in no particular order:

• configurable HEADS-UP-DISPLAY (HUD) projected on the windshield for the driver – OMG yes!  I wish it was bigger and used more of the windshield to display more stuff but even as it is it’s amazing and so convenient

• 360 degree monitoring and alerting (blind spot, parking, being-tailgated, etc)
• lane-drift warning (if it detects road lines and you start crossing without signalling it alerts you)
• a haptic alarm in the driver’s seat (yes your seat vibrates when warning conditions are active – SO COOL!)
• adaptive cruise control (cruise up behind someone who is travelling slower than you and the cruise control slows you to keep a safe distance)
• dynamic driver’s console and center console, further the center console is all touch activated (no mechanical switches)
• heated seats AND STEERING WHEEL
• strong voice recognition that better understands informal speech

Would I buy one?  No, it really doesn’t suit my needs (if I could justify a car at all, it’d be a SUV, Jeep, or pickup to support transporting bikes and race/training gear).  Would I give away/sell one if I were to win it or be given one?  NOT A CHANCE! 🙂

Thanks Klout and Cadillac! That was a lot of fun.

Over at friction-facts.com they do some pretty cool testing. Recently released were findings on dirty vs. clean and properly lubed chains.
5-6watts for dirt is nothing to sneeze at!

Checkout the report here: http://www.friction-facts.com/media/wysiwyg/Cross_Test.pdf

If you like it, consider buying their paid reports – some pretty cool info in them.

Here are some of my training stats from 2012.

Events

• Around The Bay (30k)
• 2 Marathons (Toronto Waterfront and Scotiabank)
• 1 Ultra (The North Face Endurance Challenge San Fran)
• 2 70.3’s (Panama and New Orleans)
• 1 Full Iron (Mont Tremblant)

Injuries

• Shin-splints for IM70.3 Panama – yea this one really sucked
• Shoulder strain from poor swim form – form fixed, shoulder too 🙂
• Adductor Magnus strain from 50k mud run in San Fran – repairing 😉

All in all a pretty amazing year.  On tap for 2013?

• Chilly 1/2 Marathon (C-Race)
• Around The Bay (B-Race)
• Toronto Waterfront and Scotiabank Marathons (C-Race)
• Leadman Epic 125 in Tempe, AZ (A-Race)
• Ironman Mont Tremblant (A-Race)
• probably 1 or 2 sprint/oly distance Tri’s for shits’n’giggles (C-Race)

My training focus for 2013 divides the year into quarters, generally in the format of “speed, then endurance, then an A-Race event”.  Need to push to get faster in 2013. I know I can do the distances, now to just do them faster.  Looking forward to some BIG brick workouts leading up to the A-Races in 2013!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Adhara, my husky, recently had to undergo a myelogram, CT scan and subsequent back surgery on a herniated disc. She’s recovering at the veterinary emergency clinic now (hurray) but the bill is estimated between $6k and $9k. There was no question that we’d do what we could for her, but now our credit cards are smoking and we’re pretty much tapped out. If you can chip-in towards my little-girl’s expenses we’d really appreciate it.

Pecan Pie Ice Cream | Raw Ice Cream Recipes | Healthy Blender Recipes.

OMG this is SO good and 100% dairy free.  I could eat waaay too much of this far too easily.

I’ve been a long time fan of The Sufferfest cycle training videos.  As the name suggests these are true tests of your cycling mettle and the newest title The Wretched completely lives up to the Sufferfest standard.  In fact, it may set a new bar in Sufferlandia.

The Wretched runs for just less than an hour and is packed with suffer-inducing climbs, attacks and break away simulations using actual licensed footage from the Tour de France. 

The Sufferfest videos always include an RPE scale to indicate how hard you should be pushing in the given segment, but new to the Wretched is a cadence indicator.  So now with the effort and cadence guidance not only do you get a good hard (ok very hard) workout, but because of the cadence recommendations you’ll get to work different energy pathways and muscle groups while participating in a breakaway or a long and tortuous mountain climb.  The addition of cadence is a great idea and is well implemented.  You’ll love to hate this feature. 🙂

For those of you with computrainers, tacx trainers or other computer-integrated bike trainers, the sufferfest courses are programmed into Perfpro, Trainerroad and others so that the effort output is managed for you synced to the course.  The cadence is still up to you, but do it and feel the burn 🙂

If you, like so many of us, are stuck on the trainer for the winter months, I encourage you to try the Sufferfest videos, they really help you mix up the trainer work and keep it interesting.  

Enjoy the suffer.