Cold Rainy Biking - What To Wear

Wet.  Cold.  Dreary.  Brr.

I just did a race where the bike was shortened due to participants getting too cold.

The temperature was about +8C (+46F) - which in fall in Ontario is not particularly unusual - a bit on the low side, but it happens.

What made it so much worse, though, was the rain.  It wasn't pouring, but sprinkling just enough to keep you soaked to the bone the entire ride.

I've done a lot of bad weather racing (off-road/spring crazy Paris to Ancaster stuff) but this one stung.  Road bikes are fast, which creates........

Wind

Cyclists make their own wind.  Going 30km/h on a still day is like standing in a 30km/h wind - when you're wet, it gets miserable, fast.  The evaporation of the water sucks heat away from your body and leaves you ice cold.

The main strategy, then, is to block the wind.  Wear layers that don't let the air through.

Torso and arms and legs

I think we all know how to block wind here, don't we?  Yet I saw so many people wearing just cycling jerseys with arm/leg warmers that didn't look very wind blocky.  Crazy!

Hands

The folks officiating the race said people's hands became so cold they couldn't operate their gears or brakes.

Completely avoidable... I was wearing Head Cross-Country ski gloves, didn't have any trouble at all!  They're designed to be wet in cold temperature but keep your hands warm.  There are lots of options like this - I'd imagine most people didn't really think of winter-oriented gloves for a fall race, but that's what it takes.

Feet

This is where I suffered - I could have used feet covers to keep the wind off my feet, but it was a duathlon and those transitions need to be fast.  I stupidly skipped out on them, and as a result my feet were freeeezing.  It even caused some cramping at one point.

Bottom line - wear coverings that keep your feet dry as possible, but most of all block the wind.

... Or Stay Home

Seriously, go for a run instead (significantly reduces the wind issue, as long as it's not windy!), use the indoor trainer... if it wasn't a race, I wouldn't have been out there.  It was pretty miserable, even reasonably well prepared and appropriately dressed.

Race Report: Overdrive Race & Relay Series Duathlon (Standard Distance)

The Track.  Wet.  This is the only flat part.

I have so much to say.

What a wild ride this race was.

I showed up at the race site with a lot of trepedation - I knew sign-ups were low, and the weather was going to be awful.  Maybe +8C, and raining the entire race.  I didn't know what to expect, at all.

The Venue: Mosport (aka Canadian Tire Motorsport Park)

The venue was really excellent, spectacular.  I've done a lot of races where everything was tents and porta-potties - here we had a first class building, washrooms, even a change room area. 

Not only that - the building looks out over the Grand Prix circuit, where the race would be taking place.  Great for spectators who didn't want to brave the weather!  And because the race was laps, you would see the racers pass over and over.

Brilliant.

The Grand Prix circuit was wonderful too - it's one of the original natural terrain race circuits, with plenty of elevation change (more on that later) - and surrounded by trees.  Fall colours, very pretty!

Race organizers had everything sorted out top notch - lots of room to rack bikes, porta-potties, lots of parking.  Nice bibs, chip timing.  All top notch.

Run #1 (10.5km)

We did the pre-race briefing in the rain, sprinkling, but constant.

I looked around and was struck by just how good everyone looked... caught some bits of conversation, and it was clear most of the folks here were braving the weather to get qualifying spots for the World Duathlon Championships. 

This was pretty much confirmed when the race started and everyone took off, leaving me in the dust!  Of the 20-25 participants I was 4th from last (and dead last of the men!).

(This seems like a good time to note that my goal was "ride the Grand Prix circuit at Mosport" - I wasn't really "racing" as such, and I'm pretty mired in off-season not-training right now!!!)

The run course started with a short hilly/rough 2.5km loop of the infield, followed by two 4km laps of the full Grand Prix circuit. 

The 2.5km was tough - steep climbs, some gravel.  I tried to just keep within myself and not get left entirely in the dust.

The 4km Grand Prix circuit was amazing, but there's about 100m of the 4km that are flat (I may be overestimating).  The rest of the time you're going either up or down.  The first half of the track is mostly downhill, then you get to Turn 5 at the far end and it's allllll uphill to the start/finish straight.

I really enjoyed the run, just stayed within myself, didn't get too fussed about my position.

Ride (40km)

The ride consisted of 10 laps of the 4km Grand Prix circuit.

I was pretty tentative at first - we'd been warned it was slick out there, and last thing I wanted to do was crash.  I do enough of that on my mountain bike!

The climb on the backstraight... oh my gawd, it was tough.  The first time through I was in a bit of a not good place, and my low gear didn't seem spinny enough for it.  It hurt! 

Second lap I had gained a lot of confidence.  I noticed my descending was awesome compared to most of the people I found around me.  Guys who flew by me up the hill couldn't match my pace descending - I had a road set-up (not a TT set-up) and the bike just felt awesome under me.  I barely braked at all on the lap, used my momentum downhill to get up the other side as much as I could!

My lap times:
9:09 (shorter due to where the mount line was)
9:10
9:26 (???)
9:14
9:05
9:16...

During my 6th lap, someone passed me and made a comment about how tough it was.  I said "if I never go up this hill again it would be too soon!"

So imagine my surprise when, at the end of the 6th lap, they were diverting us into the transition!  I told them "I haven't finished 10 laps yet"... but apparently the race director and the Triathlon Ontario folks had decided it was too dangerous due to the cold.  Some folks had hypothermia or something.

My immediate reaction was to be a little pissed... the weather was not unexpected, if people didn't dress for it, isn't that on them?

But on the other hand it's pretty unusual to run duathlons this late - the crowd wasn't like the hardened Paris to Ancaster crowd that expects snow and what have you. 

So I get it.  Frankly in that weather I'd pretty much had my fill anyway.

Run #2 (5km)

This run was two more loops of the infield circuit. 

I hadn't really finished my nutrition plan, and my pacing was assuming 4 more bike laps, so I was kind of thrown off at first.  I figured I'd drank enough to just forgo any more liquids and finish - so that's what I did.

It was a little weird - I had no idea at this point who I was racing and who I wasn't.  Was the person catching up to me someone who had done the same number of bike laps?  More?  Fewer?  There was just no way to know.

As I started my last lap, I caught up to one lady and passed her - and spotted another lady about 400m behind me.  I knew she'd been catching me steadily as she hadn't been there before... so I got some fire in my belly.  I wanted to hold her off, this became my new goal.

Less than 1km from the end I could hear someone behind me.  Footsteps, getting louder.  CRAP.

... except it wasn't her, it was some dude, one that clearly had a LOT of pace, so not someone I was really racing against!  Whew.  Except at that moment I looked over my shoulder - and there she was. 

We were going uphill, she was closing in.  I could hear her getting closer.  I tried to find another gear, it wasn't there. 

Closer.

Closer still.

As we finally got to the top of the hill I could tell she was right behind me... but now we were close enough I could tap into that anerobic stuff that I had left and finish strong!  So I did - I put it all out there and sprinted to the finish.

Whew.  Tired, wet.  Gross.

Finished!

Totally cool medal - the Grand Prix circuit map!

The medal is so awesome.   At least for me - as someone who loved the circuit before I ever arrived, having gone to a bunch of car races there... really neat!

This race was perfect except for one thing...

The Date.

Triathletes wrap up in September - this was just too late to draw a decent crowd.  I heard guys talking about it after, they had a hard time keeping their training going to hit this race with anything. 

And the weather can be awful - in this case, it was really, really awful. 

It made it memorable and epic - but not everyone likes this kind of memorable and epic.

An evening in June or July that doesn't conflict with another multisport event and it could work.  The venue is great, the event well organized.  Exceeded my expectations.

And best of all I finally got to ride the Grand Prix circuit at Mosport!  I've wanted to do that since I first saw it.

Race Preview: Overdrive Race & Relay Series Duathlon

Tomorrow I'm racing the Overdrive Race & Relay Series Duathlon.

Me at Mosport, 2004

This will be a chance to ride/run the awesome Mosport race circuit in Bowmanville (now called Canadian Tire Motorsport Park).

The Race

10.5km run, 40km bike, 5k run

The run includes 2 laps of the Grand Prix circuit, the bike is 10 laps!  Should be really cool.

Racers Ready?

In the last email there were only about 25 people signed up, split between Sprint/Standard distances.  That's a shockingly low number in a province where triathlons/duathlons get hundreds pretty routinely.

So it's going to be a little weird.

I have a bunch of thoughts, but the Cole's Notes version - October is late and could be cold, not everyone has a draft-legal bike, and the number of events initially on the calendar was really confusing... it wasn't clear who the event was meant to be for, who the target audience was.  There's so much potential here, the venue is really neat - but again, not sure how much of the triathlon/running/cycling community really knows about it. 

The Weather

We're looking at almost certain rain and temperatures around +10C ... so it's going to be a pretty crap day.

I'll gut it out, because I really want to ride the Grand Prix circuit.  I have wanted to since the first time I saw it attending a race there.  It's just so cool.

It will likely be lonely out there though!  Draft-legal race, with nobody to draft.  Sniff.  Drafting in the rain kind of sucks anyway.

Mountain Biking Hardwood Ski & Bike, near Barrie, Ontario

Hardwood Ski and Bike is a private mountain biking facility near Barrie, Ontario.

This is my second time riding here, but the first was at an 8h event and we did a 10k loop over and over - so I haven't really experienced riding here properly.

We are very spoiled to have Durham Forest and the other free trails near our place... so driving 1.5h and paying $15 to ride was a tough sell.

... but is it ever worth it!

Trails!

The singletrack is purely for mountain biking. 

No dogs.
No hikers.
NO DOGS!!! (sorry for the obsession, but had some recent off-leash dog experiences I'd rather avoid!)

Just mountain biking.

Oh and all the trails are single direction only - so you can bomb down the trails without worrying about riders coming the other way.

Glorious!

The trails are categorized by difficulty - Easy, Medium, Advanced, Very Advanced.

Lots of obstacles - log-overs, man-made bridge things, rock piles/gardens.  They all had bail-out options, so if you're feeling brave you hit it, if you're not you go around easily.

Only complaint - there were a lot of branches down - I guess from the recent wind storms?  They claim to keep them clear, but they weren't... my only minor beef, and it's one that's probably not a problem most of the time.

We started with a "Medium to Advanced" trail called Serious.  It was really cool, except my buddy bit it on a rock within the first 10 minutes!  Just one of those things, we were new to the area and a bit tentative, and mountain biking doesn't reward the tentative. 

After that we took on the "Advanced" trail Gnarly - which lived up to its name.  It had everything - roots, rocks, man-made obstacles (bridges/etc), and really tough sharp climbs.  Really beat me up!  My legs were burning by the end, especially the climbing down in the south-west section near the end of the loop. I think the section was called "Hill and Dale"... it was brutal.

Stopped for lunch - another benefit of the place is there are actual (gasp!) facilities!  You can buy food, replenish water, hit the washroom... all very civilized. 

After lunch we took some faster easier trails - Crank'd and Fun.  Both were fun, but I really loved Fun.  Not technical but there are things you can choose to do (Parry's Planks?) and some fast flowy really fun stuff along the way.

All in all a great day, and well worth the $15.  Definitely worth a few trips up next year!

Weight Loss (Again)

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So with that in mind... I'm going back to a few things that have worked for me in the past, and a few new ideas.

1)  Weight Loss During the Off-Season

One I picked up from the Velonews podcasts is to do your weight loss during the off-season.

When you're doing full-blown training, creating calorie deficits may seem easier - burn a few thousand calories on a ride, pretty easy to create a big caloric deficit!

... but without the calories things will just go sour, fast.  It's a recipe for not being able to recover properly, burning out, and just generally failing at weight loss.

2)  Crash Dieting Works

This one is more controversial...

According to this study, participants who lost weight quickly were more likely to stick to the plan, and less likely to put weight on again after.

"Across the world, guidelines recommend gradual weight loss for the treatment of obesity, reflecting the widely held belief that fast weight loss is more quickly regained,” said Katrina Purcell, dietician and the first author on the paper from the University of Melbourne

“However, our results show that achieving a weight loss target of 12.5 per cent is more likely, and drop-out is lower, if losing weight is done quickly." 

The number of people who regained weight after three years was also the same in both groups, 71 per cent, suggesting that crash dieting is better than gradual weight loss in the short term and no worse in the long term 

This flies in the face of a lot of conventional wisdom (as they note).  I find this happens a lot in nutrition and obesity, it just seems like no matter how much research is done, it's a tough nut to crack - and too much is taken on faith rather than actual study.

I'm going to revert to the old adage "know thyself".  I am not a gradual steady-as-she-goes kind of person - I like extreme solutions, and I like to see results.

I'm not going crazy with it - 1800kCal/day is low, but it's not that extreme...

3)  Intermittent Fasting

I have used 16:8 with a lot of success.

This helps curb hunger, counter-intuitively.  I found it much easier to stick to a low calorie diet if I compress the calories into an 8 hour period than if I try spread that out.  Lunch, dinner, very little snacking, and cut-off early in the evening.  Feel full a couple of times a day rather than be hungry all the time.

The Plan and The Math

Daily caloric requirement (based on 192lbs, average weight during weight loss): 2628kCal

Calculator here: http://www.marshmallowman2ironman.com/2011/02/daily-calorie-requirement-calculator.html

Exercise burn per hour (low intensity / base mileage) - 800kCal (estimated)
Exercise hours per week - 5
Add in some walking and other daily activities - 100kCal/day
Total daily requirement - 3300kCal

Target weight loss - 3lbs/week = 10,500kCal
Deficit per day - 1500kCal

3300kCal - 1500kCal = 1800kCal/day

Easy peasy!

Goal weight: 180lbs. 
Current weight: 203lbs. 

9 weeks = 27lbs ... a few cheat days in there, should be able to lose 23lbs, right? YAY!

Today, the work begins.

Race Report: Vulture Bait (50km trail run) - DNF

DNF!  In fact I barely made it through 25km. 

The Course

Before I moan about my horrible race, I wanted to make some course notes while it's still fresh in my mind.

In my previous report I said the second half is more technical - this isn't really the case!

First 6km

This is a mix of single/double track, and it's all very non-technical.  There's even a kilometer or more of road.

The only thing kind of crappy was the volume of runners - we ended up single file with some really slow people at the front.  This was OK though, as it kept my pace in check.

Oh and at 5km there's a pretty wicked hill up to the dam. 

6km - 11km

This part is pretty technical - a lot of little sharp rises, sharp downhills, roots, rocks.  Definitely tougher than I remembered it (and it was wet, which added a bit more sketchiness).  I'd say this was probably the toughest part actually.

11km - 12.5km

Road.  Paved.  Easy.  Aid Station.

12.5km-17km

More trails, winding.  Not as many sharp/technical things, but still not entirely trivial.

17km-17.5km

Short road section

17.5km-18.5km

Tough little trail section, up and down and stuff.

18.5km-19km

Road, bridge.

19km-25km

Almost all trail, up and down.  Short reprieve through the golf course parking lot, then double track to the end...

Moaning About My Race

I slept like crap, but that's not unusual for me the day of a race.

Woke up, had a normal race-day breakfast (about 4 hours before race start - lots of digestion time!).

I felt tired on the drive.  Could have used a nap.  But again, this isn't that unusual...

Rain stopped, got my kit.  Chilled out in the van.  Lined up at the start, normal start-line jitters. 

Start - paced myself with the crowd, backing off, letting people past.  Legs felt great, felt like I was setting up for a good day.

... except my heart rate was out of whack early.  160s, then 170s, at a really easy pace.  What the hell?  I had an average heart rate of 157bpm in my last training run - and when I was this easy, it was under 150 consistently.  I couldn't figure it out!

It only got worse from there.  I tried to reason that it must be the warmth or something, and I must surely have the energy for this slow pace.

... and I felt fine!  My perceived effort was reasonable, consistently.  I walked the steep hills, I ran at a gentle pace.  But my heart rate just kept going haywire.

I ate my Cliff Blocks (which I'd tried in training).  They went down well.  Life should have been good.

Just shy of halfway into the first loop, fatigue set in.  Complete energy crash.  I pushed through, occasionally walking now - but this was looking grim, and I wasn't even 1/4 of the distance.

Somewhere around kilometer 14 or 15 I decided to walk, to really get the heart rate down.  Even walking, I just couldn't get the heart rate to drop much... nursed it under 150bpm, but as soon as I'd start running it'd shoot back up over 170bpm!!!

Frustrating.

By the time I got to the aid station around kilometer 17 I was done.  I figured I'd walk the 8km back on the course and DNF.

I did manage to mix in a bit of running after awhile, but heart rate was still silly, and if I ran too long I'd crash again.

I even managed to wipe out on a downhill... I think my brain was out of juice too at that point, went sprawling.  Cramped up.

Then the weirdest thing of all - my ear got plugged up, like when you're in the shower or pool and accidentally get water in it.  Then it unplugged... and a little later, plugged again!  Then unplugged... then plugged. 

Still, something in me wanted to keep going.  I knew the cut-off was based on 8:30/km pace ... I had run the first 17km at 7:00/km, and even with all the crap going wrong I had still managed 8:41/km pace!

But when that ear thing started I got freaked out.  I figure I'm sick with something, it was really weird.  No point in pushing and doing real harm here - I chose to live to fight another day.

Sheepishly pulled out after 25km, went to the medical folks.  They checked my blood pressure and heart rate - all pretty normal.  They didn't seem too concerned about the ear thing, just said if it doesn't clear then get it checked out.  It cleared.

I'm still feeling exhausted now, as if I really did 50km (I assume this is what that would feel like, having not completed one!). 

Really sucks!  All that training, suffering through taper madness... to have it go so bad when it mattered the most... gah!

I know I can do the 50km - I'm sure of it.  My legs felt great, even after 25km.  I'll do it.

Just not today.

Race Preview: Vulture Bait (50km trail run)

My first "Ultramarathon"!

Exciting!  And ... slightly terrifying.

I signed up for this while keeping track of the insanely insane Barkley Marathons.  Specifically, Gary Robbins's heart-breaking non-finish.  I don't know what about that level of pain/suffering compelled me to jump on board, but there's some instinct there about figuring out just how far you can go...... I've always had it, now I'll take my first shot at it with running.

Vulture Bait

A 25km/50km race around Fenshaw Lake near London, Ontario.  Almost all trails.

I ran the 25km version of this race in 2009 after my first Ironman - the 50km is two loops of that same course.  8 years have passed so my memory is a bit fuzzy on the course, good thing I have a blog to refer back to!

It wasn't massively technical.  I even ran it in regular running shoes (didn't own trail shoes back then), and I don't recall having an issue with the terrain.  I remember the second half being winding with little sharp climbs now and then, and having to cross a creek.

It also isn't massively hilly - it pretty much follows the lake, so there's some little hills carrying you away from it and back toward it at times.  Nothing that stuck out as particularly tricky - not sure I can trust the GPS elevation, but my watch had it at half the elevation gain of my training runs.

My Preparation

I've been biking about my normal amount, although I've tapered that off into September to be fresher for my runs.

Running - hills and trails. 

For my short runs, hills near my house (regular road running). 

For my long runs I literally ran up a mountain in Banff in August... but that was a bit special!  Mostly I've been heading up to the hilly and technical trails in the Durham Forest area.  My last couple of runs were ~3 hours.

I'm a bit worried.  It's been a hot September, really unusual.  Anything over +10C or so and my running has suffered. 

I had one cooler run (my last long one) and lo and behold, it went amazingly well. 3 hours, 26k, under 7:00/km (on some tough trails/hills) - and at the end I felt like I could have kept going.

So a lot will depend on the conditions....

The Race - Temperatures

Right now the forecast is not looking good - low of +14C in the morning, +21C and sunny in the afternoon.  Very little chance of rain.

I know it doesn't sound all that hot - but for fall running, that's hot!  Any research on marathon performance backs that up - for example, this study shows a significant drop in performance as temperatures exceed +10C. 

The maximal average speeds were performed at an optimal temperature comprised between 3.8°C and 9.9°C depending on the performance level

I'm particularly vulnerable to heat - I sweat a lot. 

Do I sound paranoid yet?

The Race - Pacing

My weight is a lot higher than 2009, but my overall fitness is a lot better.  But I'm older.

I averaged 6:03/km for 25km back then... 50km is a totally different beast.  I'm thinking something around 7:00/km would be decent, but frankly I'm not going to obsess about my pace - it's more about managing the effort.

Bottom line is that I need to really take it easy, nurse the heart rate, and think about the long game.  It's so easy on race day to get caught up in the excitement and blow one's wad - in a 6+ hour race that would be catastrophic.

Walk the steep stuff.  Keep the heart rate low. 

The Race - Nutrition

Last time I relied on the race nutrition, which was a disaster.  I didn't consume enough, couldn't really measure it, rookie mistake.

This time I'm taking my own Cliff Blocks - 200kcal/package, one per hour, plus some water or whatever sport drink they have.  Should do the trick.

Did I Mention Temperature?

Still parnoid.

Velonews Fast Talk Episode 21: How to ride better in the hot hot heat

My notes:

Me After a Really Hot Ride Feeling Awful

Fact: On hot days you'll be slower.  

Dissipating Heat Takes Energy

Your body first tries to cool itself - it moves blood to the skin, sweats, and all of that takes energy.  This is "cardiovascular strain" - shows up as cardiac drift (higher heart rate in heat).

Core Temperature

There's a point where you can't keep up and your core temperature starts increasing.  Once it gets high enough, your body will intentionally slow you down to produce less heat so as not to risk overheating.

So that shitty fatigue you feel is mostly your body trying to protect you.  Thank it.

What can you do?

• There are ways to trick your body/mind into thinking you're cooler than you are.  This is probably a bad idea... it's doing everything it can to keep you safe, don't trick it into not doing that.  Unless you hate your organs functioning.

• Evaporation of water dissipates more heat than drinking it!  Dumping water on your head can work - if it's dry.  If it's humid (ie. around my place, gahhh) then it's useless (or worse)  It won't evaporate well, it'll just drip off and not cool you much at all.

• Some cyclists use women's nylons full of ice, stuff it down their jersey, and let it melt and keep them cool.  Ice vests, too!  Wild.  Some people use pre-cooling too - drink a slushie, swallow ice cubes.

• Dehydration is actually not as big of a deal as people think... it's more important to lower your core (cold drinks or ice slushies!) rather than just consume luke-warm water.

• Clothing ... light colours are maybe not even better - hard to say. 
  Base layers when it's hot - this is something people do.  For moderate heat this might be ok - we can spread out the sweat better.  But if we're going to be soaking, it's not helping.

What can I do?

I'm going to make more of an effort to have cold / frozen beverages in the heat, but it's tough.

I have a 50km trail run coming up this week - and the high is about +19C - not crazy hot, but uncomfortable for running.  I'm thinking of taking an ice bottle with me (it's 2 loops, so maybe I'll put it somewhere and pick it up on the 2nd lap??  If that's allowed - I'll check first).

Velonews Fast Talk Episode 15: Nutrition!

I loved this one.  Blew apart so many nutrition myths.

Link to the Podcast (or find it on Google Play Music)

My summary from the notes I made (and it's worth listening to the whole thing for the full explanations behind these things).

It's (almost) all about the Sugar

There's really only two kinds of sugar in the end - glucose, and fructose.  No matter what you eat, that's all it ends up as in your bloodstream for use. 

Maltodextrin, etc, is just a bunch of glucose bonded together that is ultimately broken down into glucose and absorbed into your bloodstream.  It's not different. 

Maple syrup is sugar.  Honey is sugar.  Natural, organic, none of it ultimately matters (much) when we talk about energy - it's sugar.  Some of it tastes sweeter, some of it is digested quicker/slower, but those are subtle things and less important than the glucose/fructose ratio...

Before The Ride

Avoid eating an hour before an event!

Eating causes an insulin response that tells our body's cells "start taking glucose out of the bloodstream, there's too much". 

When you start exercising, your muscles now want to gobble up glucose that isn't there - and your blood sugar levels will drop before your body can adjust.

On The Bike

Keep it simple.  

You need sugar in a good glucose/fructose ratio (3:1), and some electrolytes (not tons).

Your body can use up to:
60-90g of glucose per hour
20-30g of fructose per hour

Nutrition guy on the podcast eats Swedish Fish (from Canada though - so better glucose/fructose balance than American versions which have too much fructose).  Another guy uses Twizzlers.  Not in a race... but for longer training rides, you just don't need much more than a bunch of sugar.

Anything beyond that will put a strain on your gut, especially as you go longer/harder.

Right After the Ride:

Sugar it up, baby!  Immediately after a ride (~15 minutes) you want simple sugar to replenish your glycogen.  Wolf it down.

Protein - about 15-20 minutes later, along with a bit more sugar.  Now you need electrolytes - more important now than before or during!  Helps your body re-hydrate.  Chocolate milk, for example.

Rest Of Your Day

You DON'T need much sugar - spiking of insulin causes health issues irrespective of your exercise load.  Diabetes, obesity, etc etc etc - lots of bad things.

Eat regular people healthy food.

What About Electolytes?

You don't need nearly as much as you think. You lose more fluid than sodium in your sweat, your blood actually gets saltier - but you actually want to replenish more water than sodium.  And you lose more sodium than potassium.

Velonews "Fast Talk" Podcasts

I've turned to these as a pretty nice resource - lots of interesting topics, and they generally bring in some real experts/pro coaches, etc.  Not to mention a decent dose of science (most of the time).

Check them out:
http://www.velonews.com/tag/fast-talk-podcast

Episode 26 - Cramping Myths Debunked

This one was amazing.  Imagine, real science about cramping, not just urban legends!

It's not electrolytes, so stop wasting money on salt pills.  It's not hydration.  It's nothing you can fix by purchasing a product.

No, it's something much harder to fix - it's your conditioning.  If you don't train enough or you push too hard training the week of a race, you're at risk for cramping.

Don't show up for a 3+ hour event where you plan to race hard having not done the miles/intensity in training.

I've had serious cramping problems but it's always early season at Paris to Ancaster.  Long race at a time I haven't done much that long or that hard... in years I have, no cramping!

Episode 10 - Hit Race Weight The Right Way

Garbage science - and they knew it, but they posted it anyway.  They warned up front that the science was garbage (not in so many words).  Dr. Philip Goglia is not a guy I'd line up to hear again - he can stick to telling the stars nonsense fad diet advice.

The one thing I did get out of this one - it's better to leave weight loss to the off-season and base building periods, not during the race/training season.  Trying to lose weight when you're in race season is counter-productive, you'll just feel like hell (and have the results to match).

I think I already knew that, because no matter how many calories I burn I manage to not lose weight during the summer... food tastes good, exercise prompts appetite.  And when I have created large caloric deficits, it's lead to lethargy and crappy workouts.

As for the milk-bashing and stuff, give me a break.  The nonsense about  heat ... heat is a by-product of caloric expenditure, it's not the cause.  A calorie is not a measure of heat, it's a measure of energy.

But I digress.

Episode 2 & 3 - High vs Low Intensity

This one was excellent.  I learned two key things (but the entire podcast is worth a listen):

1. The body can't handle more than 2 high intensity workouts per week - you burn out.  And this is true for both amateurs (me!) and pros alike - the stress it puts on your system isn't something you can train to take more of.  
2. High intensity work isn't a substitute for piling on base miles... but if you're not a pro with 5 hours a day to spend on the bike, it's probably fine (but taking into account point #1

They talked a bit about reverse periodization  - conclusion: nobody is really doing reverse periodization (ie. intensity early and base miles later).  What they are doing is introducing intensity throughout their training, rather than only doing base miles at the start.  For pros this is partly about being ready for their early races.

What should a week look like for a time-crunched cyclist?

• 2 intense workouts per week. Short intervals with little rest (ie. 20s all out, 10s rest, repeat for 4-5mins) have best results.  
• 1 long ride, 4-5h at "talking pace".  In the season this can be made more intense, but not crazy.
• Alternative to long ride - 95% of threhold for 20 minute intervals - not nearly as good, and not a real substitute for the long ride (but could work in the winter to some degree)

Happy 'casting.