It IS all about the bike: CCS 2014

[jonathon.e]

If the chlorine is causing sneezing, try this natural product,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw ... je8u5trl_b

[IanM]

Other thought for the day is that I really need to make a concerted effort to give up sugar. Slightly brought home to me through the consumption of a can of that San Pellegrino orange stuff at school quiz night on Friday (which despite claiming to be all full of mineral water & fruit juice, it would also appear is as laden with sugar as coke) - left me feeling really awful (cold sweat etc) later on. All this 'accidentally leaving a family sized bag of Haribo in my desk at work, then scoffing the whole thing for breakfast" has to stop - it can't be good for me, and is increasingly making me feel really crap, both physically, and on the self loathing front.

I'm in the same boat. My annual easter confectionery addiction seems to have started early, and I'm eating way too much junk. I bought this, as recommended by Ade, and will be reading it this week.

[Tritans]

I know I keep banging on about it, which troubles me a little as it coincides with this years media frenzy, but for me it has made a significant difference. Not just in weight and appetite but also general well being. None of the headaches I used to suffer, nor huge swings in energy levels.

I think to do it justice you need to commit to at least a couple of weeks.

I know cutting food groups out completely isn't seen as a great plan, but I can honestly say I haven't missed it, and am going to carry on.

My only "failing" has been tomato sauce. But in the scheme of things.....

[CCS]

Interesting.... have been taking a look at all that... and will give it a try.
Where do energy drinks and gels come in the sugary scale of things (had always rather assumed they were mainly sugar, and therefore presumably bad)?
... and I take it, this means the end of the 'emergency mars bar' (TM) - still, think we may be suffering from mice in the attic, and I have heard they make great bait for traps...

[Tritans]

That is the only cloud on the horizon.

Yes, in theory all bad. So far I've been using bananas but so far my rides have either been short and sharp or medium paced middle distance so haven't really had cause to test anything out.

There are plenty of long distance Triathletes who are low carb (sugar) so it must be possible. Graham Obree used peanut butter sandwiches for example.

Prof Tim Noakes is an advocate of low carb and has planty of ideas.

Incidently, I am absolutely convinced the reason I haven't lost weight over my last 3 IM campaigns is the amount of sugar laded bars and gels I consumed.

[scibby]

Peanut butter sandwiches are not exactly low carb! They're not pure sugar (like gels) but they still have a relatively high carb content.

There is a newish strategy that I recently heard of: train low, race high... It basically suggests that if you constantly load your body with easy sugars during training then your body becomes inefficient at burning far as a fuel. If you train low (glycogen depleted state) you will retrain your metabolism and become more efficient at burning the fat.

Then come competition day when you load up of carbs before and during you effectively have two very useable fuel supplies...

(I think train low, RACE high is probably a bit much. Probably more like train low 80% of the time and load up for hard, fast sessions...)

[Jack Hughes]

Have you tested your blood sugar levels Tritans?

[Tritans]

I agree with both.

It is just a bit of a leap of faith, having bonked on long hard rides, I still take some persuading.

[Jack Hughes]

Most pros do "starvation" rides at this time of year.

Laurens Ten Dam is very good at logging his stuff on Strava - it was interesting to see what he got up to.

I did quite a lot of starvation stuff last year to see what it was like.

[Jack Hughes]

I find gels and sugary water give me stomach cramps on long rides.

Pork pies work much better. Good fat/carb/protein balance with lots of salt.