Race Day Nutrition

I’ve been wrong before, but I’m predicting a brief life for the Quaker True Delights Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut bar. It’s just too far away from tried and true chocolate and peanut butter granola bars. I picked up a box of these bars because they’re new and eye-catching. Then I ate my way through the six pack and made plans to never buy them again. Why? Because it’s a bad version of a granola bar. It didn’t really make me feel wonderful and exotic as the flavor implies. I wolfed each one down in two bites and always reached for a glass of water to wash out the funk they left in my mouth.

Suction tires were invented by Jeremy who got the idea from the octopus. He attached the suction cups to his tires using a rivet gun. Nice work, Jeremy.

Did you plant too many cucumbers in your garden again this summer? You can still unload a bunch on your neighbors and coworkers later in the season, but save a few for your water.
That’s right, try flavoring your water with a slice of cucumber instead of a wedge of lemon. It’s a refreshing idea that I picked up from the crazydiets blog a couple years ago.

Start with unwaxed, fresh cucumbers from your garden or local farmer’s market. The fresh summertime cucumbers are most flavorful.

For a single water bottle, peel half the cucumber, slice lengthwise into a few pieces. Fill the bottle up with water halfway, insert a cuke into bottle, cover with more water. Place it in the fridge. Give it some time for the flavor to come out.

For a pitcher, peel a whole cucumber and slice lengthwise. Place all cukes into the pitcher and cover with water and ice. Chill and enjoy!  Consider replacing the cucumber daily for freshness.

(Cucumber image courtesy of atomicshark.)

Crank Sports is fed up with their e-Gel eletrolyte energy gel being the underdog gel product.  They recently released a marketing email directed at weakening their energy gel and energy chew competitors.  The side-by-side comparison tables for Hammer, GU, Clif, and PowerBar products are helpful, but I recommend reading Crank Sports’ explanation below each table.

For example, Hammer Nutrition is known for it’s technical and authoritative approach to endurance sports nutrition.  Yet Cranks Sports rips into Hammer Gel’s low electrolyte content and questions the labeling of fructose, glucose, and sucrose as “fruit juice concentrates.”

Crank Sports:
While Clif SHOT Bloks and other “chew” products may be fun to eat, we strongly recommend that you closely examine the ingredients and nutritional facts of these products before using them in your training and competition. These chew products are a lot like eating candy and it should come as no surprise that there’s not much difference. Check out our head to head comparisons with your favorite products:

• e-Gel vs. Clif SHOT Bloks
• e-Gel vs. Clif SHOT Gel
• e-Gel vs. GU
• e-Gel vs. GU Roctane
• e-Gel vs. Powerbar Gel
• e-Gel vs. Hammer Gel

In 2002 I participated in a mountain bike ride with friends at Kettle Moraine South State Park in Southern Wisconsin.  I woke up around 6am, ate one PowerBar Harvest Bar and drove an hour and a half to the park.

Joining the rest of the group in the parking lot, I laced up my shoes, strapped on my water-filled CamelBak, and eagerly awaited the ride.  The whole group was more experienced than I.  But I was younger and had more to prove.  As we pedaled off into the woods I was full of energy.

Eighteen singletrack miles later, after countless climbs, numerous bone-rattling descents, and a handful of spirited sprints, I started to feel funny.  I could no longer kick it into high gear whenever the need arose.  I was out of water and felt hungry.

As the group took a brief break at the Emma Carlin trailhead, I asked if anyone had any extra food I could have.  I never ask for food.  I’ve never really been in a position where I needed to ask for food (besides at Denny’s or White Castle).  But this was different.  I could tell we were still deep into the Kettle trails, miles from the parking lot, and my energy was fading.  Much to my disappointment, no one offered up any morsel of grub.

I was a little annoyed, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want these guys to think I wasn’t strong enough to finish the ride.  After all, this more experienced group was impressed with me so far and I was hoping to be picked to compete with them in an upcoming 24-hour race.  With no offers of food, I shrugged and hopped back on the saddle to finish the ride.

Less than a mile later, I met the big wall.  I bonked in a way that I have never experienced before or since.

I fell to the back of the group.  They quickly pedaled out of sight.  My head lowered, and my posture went limp.  I could no longer think clearly.  My control of the bike was almost gone as I wobbled along the path struggling to avoid the most obvious rocks and trees.

It had been five hours since I ate that Harvest Bar and 16 hours since I had dinner the night before.  My body was closing for the day.  I coasted down hills and walked up others.  When I finally reached one of the four road crossings on the trail, I sat down and thought about taking a nap.  All I wanted to do was fall asleep.  It seemed like such a good idea.  It was warm and the grass felt comfortable enough…

“What the hell are you doing?!,” Mike asked.  He volunteered to go back and find me when the group realized I was missing.  They all thought I had crashed.  Mike expected me to be hobbling back with a broken arm or something.  He didn’t expect to find me with my eyes closed trying to nap along the road.  The whole group was waiting to go home and here I was laying by the road a few miles from the parking lot.  I said I was tired and needed to rest.

I tried to reason with him that I wanted to take the road back to the car.  He said I was out of my mind and that the road I chose to take a break at would take me miles from where I wanted to be.  Somehow I knew he was right.  I could barely hold my head up, but I knew he came back to help me and that I should follow his instructions.  He made me get back on my bike and start pedaling.

I coasted where I could and walked wherever gravity wasn’t helping.  Mike was following and I could hear him sigh everytime I got off my bike to hobble up a little pile of dirt.  We eventually arrived at a road crossing which would take us directly to the parking lot.  I’m sure the stretch of pavement was less than a mile, but it felt like it was 20.

We reunited with the group.  They checked me over for broken bones.  I explained that I bonked.  The unimpressed group disbanded into their cars and headed for home.  I headed straight to the LaGrange General Store where I devoured a sandwich.  It was the best food I have ever eaten.  Then I passed out in the passenger seat of my friends car for the entire ride home.

I have been back to ride Kettle Moraine many times since that experience.  In fact two days ago I enjoyed over 25 miles of the same singletrack.  My Garmin GPS watch and heart rate monitor indicated that I burned 4011 calories.  A toffee flavored PowerBar Harvest only has 260 calories.  I was very far in the hole on that ride in 2002.

Now that I’m older and wiser, I carry extra water and nutrition on these types of rides where I’m far from civilization and expect a variable length of time.  Before the most recent ride, I ate a full breakfast and consumed one energy bar (Planter’s Big Nut Bar) and two gels (PowerBar Gel and Hammer Gel) during the ride.  I was tired later in the day, but was far from feeling the need to take a nap alongside an unfamilar road.  I still stopped at the LaGrange Country Store for a sandwich simply because they make such good food.

Be safe and carry more nutrition than you think you might need.  Ride with friends and keep an eye on other riders who may look a little weary.  Most of all, enjoy your rides this summer!

Just to have a little fun with my Garmin Forerunner 405CX I decided to use it while mowing my lawn. It worked well. I mowed 1.80 miles of grass in 50 minutes. My top speed was 4.3 mph, my average heart rate was 124 bpm, and I burned 723 calories. It turns out that lawn mowing with a push mower is a pretty good workout.

So far, so good with my new “do-everything” GPS watch. I ordered the Garmin Forerunner 405CX a few weeks ago and have since had several opportunities to get to know it better.

My first activity using the watch was a group bike ride only an hour after receiving my new watch.  I gave the battery a partial charge and headed off for the ride.

Unfortunately, I had not read the instructions and recording the ride was not successful.  I did manage to record 4 seconds of waiting at a traffic light, however.

No hard feelings though.  I didn’t expect a quick glance at the instructions to be enough to understand how to use this device. The 405CX is Garmin’s latest GPS enabled watch. It is very similar to the 405 except that the CX model features a more sophisticated heart-rate based calorie computation.  By the way, a heart rate monitor is included with the watch. Other accessories, such as a bicycle cadence sensor, are available through Garmin retailers.

Loading workout data onto your computer is mostly effortless. After creating an account with Garmin Connect, you are instructed to bring your watch to within 9 feet of your computer (with the USB Ant stick plugged in) to transfer data.  I haven’t found the sweet spot yet and have to either press a few buttons or move the watch to get the transfer to start.  But once the data is loaded, the Garmin Connect web site does a fantastic job of displaying all of the information in a very easy to read format.

The internal rechargeable lithium battery does not last as long as I’d like.  If I do two 2-hour rides in a week, I need to recharge it to be sure it will last for the next workout.  Garmin advertises the battery life at 8 hours in training mode.  That seems like a stretch.  However, Garmin wisely programmed the 405CX to save the current workout in the event of power loss.

I’m eager to explore other features of the watch and to check out the GPS receiver reception quality while riding MTB trails in the woods. Otherwise, it’s working well and I’m mostly pleased with my purchase.

The first bike computer I ever had was a CatEye Vectra I bought used from my brother sometime around 1990.  That device was pretty tough.  It slid into position from the front, and in particular crashes it became a lauched projectile.  Like the time I ran into a parked car - in my own driveway.  That same CatEye is now attached to my mother’s bicycle.  It’s been working for over 20 years now.

I hope to find something as durable when I pick out a new bike computer this month.  Wireless speed and position via GPS seems to be the leading technology.  The new units also store data which can be downloaded/uploaded into mapping and plotting software at home.  This will be very useful in saving and reviewing my riding and running excursions.  I’ve also begun to train with a heart rate monitor, so having that functionality would be ideal.

In my research for a new bike computer, I’ve narrowed my search to three devices that are unlike anything I’ve used before.  In fact, none of the three even resemble a typical bicycle computer.  The Garmin Forerunner 405CX is a wristwatch, the Apple iPhone is a phone, and the Garmin Edge 705 closely resembles a handheld GPS device.  The two Garmin devices come complete with all the typical stats like speed, trip mileage, odometer, and options to include heart rate, cadence, and power.  The iPhone doesn’t report those metrics out of the box, but can easily be loaded with an application like iRPM+ from smheartlink.com.

Below is a table that summarizes my comparison of the three devices.

	Garmin 405CX	iPhone 3G w/apps	Garmin Edge 705
Setup	Wrist Watch	Phone	Handheld Device
Display (pixels)	124 x 95	320 x 480 color	176 x 220 color
Perceived Durability	Best	Good	Better
Versatility	Good	Best	Better
Weight	60g	133g	104.9g
Battery Life (using GPS)	8 hours	5 hours	15 hours
Camera to capture friend’s crash	Ha, no	Yes	No
HRM strap included	Yes	No	Yes
Suggested Retail Price	$369.99	$199.00 (8Gb)	$499.99
Monthly fee	None	$69.99*	None
Cost after two years	$369.99	$1878.76*	$499.99
*I may be able to run the apps on an iPod Touch which does not carry monthly fees, but then I’d kick myself later for not buying the iPhone.

Now, I could buy all three.  I’d use the 405CX for running, the 705 for cycling, and the iPhone for, well, a phone.  But, I’m a big fan of keeping life simple.  And quite frankly, for a couple thousand dollars I’d rather buy a new bike.

My choice is the Garmin Forerunner 405CX.  It appears to be the most versatile and durable for my needs.  It is also the device I feel I will make the most use of.  The 405CX lacks a screen capable of displaying a map, but in the deeps woods where I would need a map most, satellite signals are weak.  I already wear a stopwatch on my wrist for all my runs and most of my rides.  With the included heart rate monitor strap I can now save and review the cardio portion of my workouts.  The speed and cadence sensor, available separately for $60.00, will be a nice addition to my cycling metrics.

The Garmin Edge 705 comes in a close second place.  I like that I could use it as a handheld GPS device and possibly in a car (though I’d want to be parked before fixing my eyes on the 1.37″ x 1.71″ screen).  If all I intended to use it for was for biking, the Edge 705 would be my choice.  But the thought of a $500 piece of plastic bouncing in my pocket on a run is not very appealing.

Though the iPhone is incredibly powerful and I could use it for much more than running and cycling, Steve Jobs didn’t have endurance sports in mind when he and Apple designed it.  Besides, I already have a cell phone contract and would rather not incur the additional monthly data fees.

As stated above, the 405CX retails for $369.99.  It is currently in production and for sale at a number of retailers.  I located and purchased from an eBay vendor selling the watch for $329.99.  I’m excited about my purchase and will post a glowing review in the next week.

The inaugural Illinois Marathon and Half Marathon took place this past Saturday, April 11. Approximately 10,000 runners converged on a chilly Champaign, IL to see what this first time event could offer.

Turns out that the organizers put together a pretty cool race.  The marathon and half marathon route took participants through all the classic places in Champaign-Urbana including Green St., Pennsylvania Ave., Meadowbrook Park, and of course Memorial Stadium.  The University of Illinois loves to show off its football stadium.

Temperatures were in the upper 30’s at the start of the race.  Pulling off the warmup jacket and pants proved to be more effective than caffeine.  Fortunately, the body heat from thousands of runners and the steamy Port-o-lets lining both sides of the street made the loooong minutes before the gun more tolerable.

The finish was a little bit of a surprise.  Everyone knew that we’d be finishing on the 50 yd line of Memorial Stadium.  What we didn’t know as we approached the brick and stone icon was that we’d be chicaned around before we could reach that 50 yd line.  Once we finally made it through the entrance, we could see the finish line, but we had to run the perimeter of the field first.  It was mentally challenging at the end of  a long race, but tolerable I suppose.

The men’s half marathon was won by Jeff Jonaitis coming in at 1:11:27, women’s by Bridget Montgomery coming in at 1:22:26.  The men’s marathon was won by Jacob Kendagor who clocked in at 2:26:12 followed by the women’s winner, Meghan Kennihan at 2:55:06.  Other races included a wheelchair race, a marathon relay, and a 5k.

The Expo on Friday was decent.  Not as well attended by sponsors as other more established races.  I can imagine that filling out booth spaces for a first time event is not as much of a priority for the volunteers as, say, coordinating with police to block busy streets.

The Illinois Marathon website promoted the course being “FILLED with ENTERTAINMENT and FUN!”  Runners found the entertainment to be a little lame.  One or two water stations had boom-boxes cranked up to, uh, 5.  I recall seeing four other musical acts: a guy on his front lawn playing an electric keyboard, some lip-synching Elvis facing the wrong direction, a brass quartet in the park that must have been “in-between sets” when I ran by, and a trio singing quietly on one of the neighborhood street corners.  Maybe the event organizers were burned by a bunch of college jam bands that promised to play at 8 in the morning, but had second thoughts when they woke up with hangovers and saw the frost on their windows.  Not that we came here for a concert every mile, but when you promote it, you gotta bring it.

Overall the event was organized in a professional manner.  The course was fun.  Timing was flawless.  As the event grows, it will get even better.  Thanks Christie Clinic and all of the other event sponsors.  Well done!

The Yahoo! home page has eye-catching headlines about politics, celebrities, sports, and health. Recently, one particular headline caught my attention: “A race with twice the heart risk as a marathon.”  Following the first link leads to a second, more provocative headline and a brief description.

“Twice as risky as a marathon,” reads the next title followed by, “Another type of popular race poses a greater risk of sudden death than running 26 miles.”  Whoa!  Sudden death??  What could this be?

Following the next link finally gets you to the article with yet another title,  “Study: Triathlons can pose deadly heart risks.”  Before we even begin reading, we’re all buttered up for a story about how participating in an event that we may not even understand can cause us to die.  Die?!  We don’t want to die!  The majority of us will skim the article and conclude that we’d rather chill on the back patio with a drink than risk dying in a triathlon.

Thanks Yahoo!, AP News, and Dr. Kevin Harris.  We’re now destined to become a fat, lazy people.  Dr. Harris, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, led this study using records on 922,810 triathletes competing in 2,846 USA Triathlon-sanctioned events between January 2006 and September 2008.  Combing through this pile of data, Dr. Harris found that 14 died.

Okay, let’s see here… 14 divided by 922,810…  multiply that by 100…  equals 0.0015%.  Therefore, we have a 0.0015% chance of dying while competing in a triathlon.  Why is this news?  How is this significant?

Let’s look further.  Of those 14 people that died, six were autopsied and four of those six were found to have underlying heart problems.  Hmm, okay, that’s 66%.  Let’s assume 66% of the 14 had underlying heart problems.  That’s 9-1/4 people - which we’ll round down to nine.   What this says is five out 922,810 people that don’t have an underlying heart problem may die while competing in a triathlon.  This equates to 0.00054%.

So, really, the Yahoo! news title should be revised to read:

Joe Schmoe has a 0.00054% chance of dying while competing in a triathlon

But, that’s not very scary is it?  That wouldn’t draw attention to the insignificant results of this study.  The media is in the business of selling news.  If it doesn’t scare you or seduce you, the media can’t sell it.

Aggravating us further, Dr. Harris says, “While not a large risk, this is not an inconsequential number.”  What?  What can be more inconsequential than 0.00054%?  I encourage doctors that have time to study something but have no idea what to study,  find answers to one (or all) of the following:

1.)  How many people will become sedentary and die after reading this Yahoo! news story?

2.)  How many deaths occur from installing ginormous flat screen televisions.

3.)  What are the sudden death statistics occurring within a 50 ft radius of Krispy Kreme restaurants?

Answering any one of those questions will result in far more beneficial news than presenting the risk of sudden death from triathlons.  The fact that people may be discouraged from even considering an endurance event poses a greater health risk than this miniscule half-hundred-thousandth.  Inflated news headlines like this do more harm than good.  I suggest Yahoo! and the Associated Press help improve our health and save  us time by not publishing such meaningless fodder.