Dietary habits of a fat fat fatty

I used to eat like shit.

Now I don't.

While I wasn't a literal fatty, I definitely wasn't fueling my body with the best gas to get me to the finish line. It took about two months of serious discipline to break the habit. Now I can safely say that I'm not a fat fat fatty. The test? Friday I had a cheeseburger from Culvers and felt slow and sick and gross for the rest of the evening. Saturday I had a huge salad with cottage cheese, spinach, carrots, broccoli, etc. It felt good. It felt normal. I believe this the establishment of a habit.

A normal day of food looks something like this:

On a medium-volume training day: For breakfast: oatmeal or wheaties AND apple, banana, or plum. If it's a long training day I'll have some scrambled eggs with cheese and toast.

For lunch: plain pasta of some sort and yogurt, and at least one entire fruit (oranges, lately) and two kinds of veggie, usually raw.

Dinner: a large salad with just a bit of protein. Maybe cottage cheese or legumes.

This is all still very strange to me.

More product plugs

Today I'd like to talk about why I use the products I use. My only sponsor (and an unofficial one at that) is my employer, Trek Bicycle Corporation.

Regardless, they do make amazingly well thought-out saddles: The Bontrager inForm. I ride a medium RXL on the road,and a large RL offroad. The lighter foam density on the RL is better for bumpy dirt rides. Now, this is a road-rated saddle, and has some fangs on the back, so it's not ideally suited for off-road use. However, there is a mountain bike version on the way that I've been testing for a few months, and it is the most comfortable MTB saddle I've ever ridden. Hands down.

For pedals, I ride Shimano XTR. They're not the lightest, but I can bash them on rocks all I want and they don't break. I actually chipped a football-sized rock while knocking it out of the ground and the pedal remained intact. I spent some time in the air, and then some in the brush, but the pedals were just fine. If the pedals were the unstoppable force, I would say the rock reconsidered its role as the immovable object.

My drivetrain consists of a Shimano XTR crank, cassette, and front derailleur, SRAM X.O shifters and rear derailleur, and SRAM PC-991 chain. Coincidentally, the Fisher Procaliber had my ideal drivetrain setup when I was shopping. This was before XX came out, and before Top Fuel 9.9s came stock with the compact 20-speed option.

I use Fox suspension because it's smooth, stiff, and light enough. I also like the tuning and Propedal features. My Procal has a 32 RLC up front, with an RP23 in back. Depending on the course I'll use the different propedal settings. Learn your suspension: it makes a difference.

I'm mentioned two contact points, but the remaining two are the two about which I am the most particular: the grips, and where the bike contacts the ground.

For grips: I love ESI chunkies. They're light, comfy, and fairly durable. And they have a lot of grip, which is good when the name of a product is a quality it is supposed to have.

And tires: tires are a talk for another day.

My Training Tools

I've been asked by many customers what I use for training. Here's a basic list:

2009 Gary Fisher Procaliber. Shimano XTR pedals.

2009 Trek XO-2 with SRAM Rival and Bontrager Classics Wheels. Shimano XTR pedals.

CycleOps Powertap SL+ on a Mavic Open Pro rim.

Trainingpeaks.com and WKO+ software for power analysis.

CycleOps Supermagneto Pro trainer.

I don't currently have a road bike, though I will by May.

Power test graph

How to take a power/threshold/LT/zone test

Ingredients:

1. Water.

2. Required music: Punkrocker by Teddybears featuring Iggy Pop.

3. Optional music: The Fire And Flames by DragonForce, Dance Dream (Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics) by Divide and Kreate, I'm not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You by Black Kids, or anything by Silversun Pickups.

4. An empty 2-gallon or larger bucket.

5. Cheerleaders, hecklers, supporters and mourners.

6. A stationary trainer, bicycle, and some form of measuring effort (HRM, SRM, or Powertap)

7. Cytomax, Endurox, Recoverite, Bell's Oberon Ale, or Nesquick (chocolate).

Instructions:

1. Warm up on the bicycle approximately 10-15 minutes at a moderate pace. Be sure to hydrate. Place ingredient 4 on the ground behind the vertical plane of the handlebars, but in front of the range of the cranks.

2. Complete 1-2 warm-up sprints to get cardiovascular system ready for the effort.

3. Spin 5 minutes. Cue ingredient 3.

4. Turn inside-out. Do not pop, bonk, puke, stop, or black out, but come as close as possible without doing so.

5. Spin for 15 minutes at recovery pace. Drink some water.

6. Turn inside-out. Do not pop, bonk, puke, stop, or black out, but come as close as possible without doing so. Closer than in first effort in step 4. With 10% of time remaining, cue ingredient 5.

7. Cue ingredient 3. Spin until symptoms listed in 4 and 6 have subsided.

8. Consume your choice of ingredient 7.

Of training: momentum, weight, and power.

Training indoors, for me, is a thing of momentum. I have a hell of a time getting going on trainer rides, and making a habit of riding the trainer each winter. Once I get into a ride, say, 15 minutes, it gets easier. After the first few brutal 45-minute spin sessions, it gets easier, and I can bring on the pain. Other things that help:

-Group trainer rides. Peer pressure or social fun, it gets me riding. My training buddies are awesome!
-Downhill racing movies by Clay Porter.
-Awesome music. Not good music, but super wicked-sick rad awesome bubblegum-poppy rock. I'll post more playlists soon.
-ABC's Lost on DVD. If I'm just spinning at tempo for a while, I can put down two episodes, which come out to between 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30. Perfect for base.

Oh, and I've been eating pretty well lately; and not in the sense of eating large volumes of Cindy-cooked food. I've actually lost two lbs. since New Years, and have managed to effectively cut the quick dinners from restaurants. Though maybe I should try Taco Bell's new training regimen.


The Powertap arrived, but I haven't had time to learn where to put the squirrel food, where to sacrifice the goat, or how to extract the black magic it employs that will make me what Phil Ligget call "a hardman of the peloton."

In other news, I'm contemplating my next road bike. Major factors include price and timliness of delivery. P1 6-series Madone with Force is all I have so far.

Training smarter

I've been keeping my training resolutions and my diet has changed drastically as a result. Also, I've been riding more, about 5-6 hours at tempo weekly as opposed to the 3 at endurance I was doing for a while. It feels great to ride more and harder. My motivation level has been really high in all aspects of my life, which helps in this midwinter lull.

My Powertap is on the way, which should help with a few of my specific goals for the year. The biggest is my ability to maintain a consistent speed on climbs. I have great initial acceleration, but can't maintain it very long. It's good for sneaky crit breakaways and drag racing kids around the neighborhood, but not much use on longer rides.

I'm also getting a new road bike in a few weeks. It's going to have a custom paint job, so I'm geeking out a bit.

Spring break? Yeah, that coin is still spinning mid-air, but I'm not worried about the outcome. If I have to, I'll just make it a brutal week on the trainer. If I can go, I plan on at least two days of 5 hours on the mountain bike.


On the iPod:
by Jay-Z: 99 Problems, Run This Town, Empire State of Mind
by The Killers: Sam's town (the album)
by Dot Dot Dot: Edge of the World
by Phoenix: 1901