Im in a sinking boat....(Future)

sunnysang said:

.... Does anybody know any good cycling diets, ive started researching diets, to try to decrease my weight 40-50 lbs, but im afraid the diets im looking at dont take in an avid cycler.

In the end it's all about calories consumed vs. calories burned. Burn more than you consume and you'll lose weight. Don't go looking for fad diets or diets that promise dropping pounds fast. A pound to pound and a half per week is about all you should shoot for if you want to keep training and improving your cycling fitness. As a cyclist you particularly want to stay away from low carb diets since aerobic exercise, especially high end training and racing is fueled by glycogen and that comes from carbs. This question comes up a lot and there are a lot of answers in other threads. But here are some key points:

• Eat a good but sensible breakfast every day, it props up your resting metabolic rate which helps burn calories even when you're not training and helps avoid extreme hunger and over eating later in the day.
  
• Drink plenty of water every day, it keeps you hydrated without the calories in soft drinks and helps stave off mid day hunger.
  
• Snack frequently throughout the day on healthy snacks like fruit and cut vegetables.
  
• Cut back portion sizes at main meals. Take a bit less on your plate and wait ten minutes before thinking about going back for second helpings. It's hard to avoid food already on your plate and a lot of times you won't need second helpings if you wait and listen to your body.
  
• Try to eat healthy food which includes lean meats as well as fruits and vegetables. Avoid deep fried food. The occasional burger won't do you in, but think about skipping the fries. If you eat out, think about the smaller sandwich or take home some in a to go box and have it as a later meal.
  
• Use one of the online calories burned estimators like this one: nutristrategy.comcycling.htmOpen ↗ and try to replenish roughly half the calories burned during your training with healthy carbs and some protein, consuming about half of that (a quarter of the calories burned) in the first half hour after training so you can top up your muscle glycogen and train the next day. Fruit smoothies with a bit of yogurt is a favorite as is low fat chocolate milk or commercial recovery drinks but make sure you eat right away when you get home and make sure it has mostly carbs with some protein.
  

Quoted post said:

Also does anyone know were i can learn about cat-5 racing and how to get started and were?

Depends on where you live, but call some local bike shops that sell good road bikes and ask about clubs, teams and local races. Even odds there's a local racing club you can join and you can learn the rest from there. You can also visit the USA Cycling site: usacycling.orgusacycling.orgOpen ↗ (I assume you're in the states based on your college choices) which has a lot of good info including on line versions of the rule book. A lot of races offer one day licenses where you can just pay a small fee to race cat 5's for the day but if you get hooked you'll want to get a season license and start earning upgrade points.

A lot of colleges sponsor intercollegiate cycling teams(that's how I started before filing for my USCF license). Some are more organized than others but you might Google "intercollegiate cycling" or things like that to research which colleges offer organized cycling. I went to school in California (CSU Fresno) we had a small but active team but raced against many better organized and better funded collegiate teams. That was before you were born but back then Cal Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Northridge, Chico and many other schools had very well organized cycling teams. It might help narrow your school choices.

Good luck,
Dave

Heyy, what a coincidence😄, i live in clovis. By any chance would u know what CVC is? I asked my friends, they said it was a racing club but thats all. Do you know what else they do, like is their an actual team in their and do they have coaches and stuff?

sunnysang said:

Heyy, what a coincidence😄, i live in clovis. By any chance would u know what CVC is? ...

Yep, I raced with and for CVC (Central Valley Cyclists) back in the day. They are a club and at least back then they had some very good racers and some good monthly events like a training crit and time trial each month. Trisports had just gone into business and they sponsored a team I joined which had some affiliation with CVC. I don't know if Trisports and Ben Medrosian(the owner last time I checked) are still around, but if they are say hi for me. I haven't seen any of those folks in at least fifteen years.

You've got incredible riding terrain right out your back door and a very long (pretty much year round) season to train. Call Trisports if it's still there or another high end bike shop and ask about clubs to get started in racing. If they're still doing the training races you should get involved. They used to run them as unsanctioned club races broken into 3 categories. All the licensed USCF racers raced A's, B's were getting serious and C's were the place to start. Those were some of the most enjoyable races I ever did as they were fast enough for my abilities at the time but nothing like a fast USCF race.

Anyway, there are a lot of racing and riding opportunities right where you live so check into it with some phone calls and stick with the training.

-Dave