Week 1 review Part 2 – Wow I’ve learned alot

Picking up where I left off yesterday –  some more serious cycling stuff. The other major things I have learned this week can be put in 3 categories – climbing, nutrition, and pacing. Let’s start with nutrition.

Nutrition

Twice in the past 10 days, I’ve found myself in a caloric deficit. I am not going to drill too deep into the science of maintaining energy as a 6 day on one day off cyclist – but basically you will burn more calories during your ride than you can comfortably consume. After that – as you start to approach a 1500-2000 calorie deficit, something called bonking happens.

This is bad for two reasons. 1.) you are done for the day. You basically have to bust your ass to go faster than 8mph because your body is simply out of energy to burn. 2.) This actually sets you up for a bad day tomorrow as you now have to replenish calories up to baseline in your body, then you need to eat enough to get ready for the next day.

If you are burning ~3000 calories just on a ride then another 2500 per day – you need to make up 5500 calories in less then 12 hours. At 500 calories per hour – this is not really possible and you go into the next day at a deficit. This plain sucks. I can’t describe the feeling – but it’s not fun. You basically have to not ride, or ride very little the next day to get back to baseline and to get ready for the ride the day after. So – yea this has happened to me twice. Combined with mad climbing.

Climbing

So let’s say that Rochester, NY where I live has a few “anthills” and that’s about it. You need to ride well over 50 miles to actually get 2-3K elevation, and then – it’s spread out over that distance. Well folks, welcome to the Blue Ridge/Appalachains/Ozarks of VA/KY/MO. Suffice to say that if I climbed more than say… 6000 feet all year, I’d be surprised. Well, week one alone, I climbed over 25,000 feet. This is no joke. Now, these aren’t 5000 foot days over 70 miles, these are proper Tour de France caliber climbs. Turns out climbing 1000 feet in 3.5 miles if fracking hard, especially with a pitch averaging 6-8% (12-14 degrees). Now – not that I didn’t suffer up to the top – I did, but on some days – burning 1000 calories in an hour during the beginning of the ride – they just kicked my ass.

My first and longest climb – up the Blue Ridge Parkway on July 18th, was my longest climb ever in my life. It was 2500 feet up in about 10 miles. Then 2 days ago, I climbed Hayter’s Gap (aptly named) at 1000 feet in 3.5 miles (the climb I mention above) and then yesterday – 2 climbs (700 feet in 2.5 miles) and 600 in 1.5 miles) just took everything out of me. Now – I weigh a few more pounds than I’d like to and every extra pound you need to pull up a mountain means more work – but I honestly think my muscles just need time to repair (hence the day off today) that was proudly earned. I really wish I could do every mile – but man the climbing is unforgiving.

I have to thank my man Dave Bonan who messaged me on Facebook and reminded me to scoop up with my legs while going up hill – this tip single handedly got me up the Blue Ridge parkway and subsequent climbs. Thanks Dave!

Pacing

Let’s wrap up with pacing. So – when riding in Rochester – it’s not really a big deal to power up a “anthill” as you will reach the top in 20-30 seconds on most climbs – way before you get anerobic. Not out here – even on the quick up and downs – I naturally want to burst of these hills with the logic of the faster I’m over it the less I have to be on the uphill. Well – you can’t really do that with a marathon. I have had to learn to force myself to be ok with starting a hill at 6-8 mph and just slowly powering up it. I notice my HR stays down or at least it’s longer til I have to get off my bike for a moment, and I’m generally more successful getting up the mountain.

So a huge thanks to Bruce, Heidi, and my dad – Art, for putting up with my learning curve as I start to get comfortable being in the saddle everyday and behaving the way I should on the road, and with my eating as I start to transition in to an amateur long distance cyclist. Here’s to hoping that this is the first of many multi thousand mile journeys!!!