Well, last weekend I rode 70 miles, unsupported, near my house. This past
weekend, I rode 77 miles in an MS ride. Three weekends ago, I road 100km
(63 miles) in a supported ride. My results:
100km -- I didn't carb up at all before this ride, and I was hurting for
the first 1/3 of the ride. I chugged a bunch of carb/protein drinks I
took with me, and I felt better after about 1/3 the way through the ride.
The ride was hard, with a lot of climbing and it was wet and cold. 63
miles took me about 5 hours, 20 minutes (? - I think). The times written
here include times for stops.
70 miles -- There's a lot of climbing involved in this ride. I carb
loaded quite a bit the day before, because the first third of the 100km
ride wasn't good. I even ate pasta, which I haven't eaten in a long, long
time. I ordered pasta for lunch and ate half of it. The result? I blew
through my ride and felt great, until the last 10 miles (which isn't a big
deal -- as there's two brutal hills in those 10 miles). I rode 70 miles in
about 5 hours and 40 minutes. So, I rode 7 more miles than the previous
weekend in only 20 more minutes. I used the rest of the pasta as a
post-ride recuperation meal. I ate mostly low carb after this, although I
also went out and mowed the lawn. That's a lot of calories for one day!
77 miles -- This was flat. There were basically no hills. Had I known
this, I would've ridden the 100 miler. I did carb load with fruit
beginning two days before. I had ridden on Friday and the ride was on
Sunday, so I wanted to ensure that I was carb loaded the day of the ride.
The good news is that this is the fastest I've ridden in a long time. I
rode 77 miles in five hours and 20 minutes!! That's fast for me. The bad
news is that it got brutally hot -- over 95 degrees. The last 1.5 hours
was rough. I ran out of water, and literally chugged water at the last
rest stop. My heart rate was also very high during that time.
Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted my HR data, but I was seeing HRs in
the 168-172 bpm, which is very high for me, especially since I was riding
at a relatively easy pace and over flat land. When you're used to cold,
95 is freaking hot. I didn't take in very many carbs immediately after my
ride,and my recuperation suffered a bit.
So far, I've learned that some carb loading before long (60+) mile rides
is important for performance, as is taking in carbs afterwards. There is
no noticable deleterious effect on my blood sugar when I take in carbs
immediately after a ride. In fact, carbs seem to help my blood sugar
return to normal. I experience no cravings when I eat carbs after a ride
(unlike at other times). For short rides (20 miles or less), I don't take
in any extra carbs at all.
Now, I'm going back to riding shorter bike rides and lifting weights. I
plan on riding 75-95 miles a week with two days of lifting. I will ride
40 very hard miles (as many hills as I can pack into the ride) one weekend
and the next weekend, I'll ride 60 miles with an emphasis on reducing the
time required. I'll begin in August to build up for another 1-2 centuries
(100 miles). Last year, I rode 100 miles in a local ride in 8 hours and
18 minutes. I'd like to take at least an hour off that time and would
prefer to ride this in under 7 hours. However, this is a very hard ride,
with a lot of climbing (as compared to the MS ride, which had basically no
climbing). And, if they include the hill that they put in the 100km ride,
the 100 miler will be an extremely hard ride, as that hill would occur
toward the end of the 100 miles, and that hill was so hard that many
people walked up it. Last year, there was also a ton of wind during that
century. I also have to hope for good weather.
So, my goal is to continue to see how many carbs I need, in an effort to
reduce the amount of carbs to the minimum while still maximizing
performance. Weightlifting is going to throw another wrench into the
works, I'm sure.
--
Bob M
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