Bars, bars and more bars.( Part 1)

Happy Friday everyone! I’m crossing all my fingers and toes for sunshine on the weekend. I’ve been off training for a week and starting to get serious cabin fever ( Due to an infection, but that’s another story).

So another picture heavy and nutrition post. The bars we eat before, during or after rides I think is a really subjective topic. Some people like bars that taste like real food, others like it artificial and of course everybody’s stomach is different. For me I like bars that have a bit of protein in them, because that for me is usually what picks me up out of the gutter rather than a sugar hit. Today I’ll be showing you two bars that I use regularly, one is a new favourite and the other I’ve used for the past year or so. I’m doing these posts in two parts because I realised I actually have quite a lot to write on the subject.

This is a side view of what my nutrition box looks like:

First up is the Hammer bar: Hammer Ultimate Energy Bar, flavour: cashew coconut chocolate chip. Hammer offers five grams of protein, 5 grams of fibre( base of the bar is made up of dates) and 100% raw. Raw generally means that it is gluten, dairy and sugar free, and is made without being cooked or processed. The back of the packet tells us that the bar is gluten free, 100% vegetarian, cold processed, Alkaline forming, no trans fats, preservatives, additives, coatings, soy, peanuts, refined sugars or diary. Cold processed means all the ingredients have been chucked in a blender and then refrigerated in order to bind it.

The ingredients are: organic cashew butter, organic dates, organic agave nectar, organic brown rice protein, organic dark chocolate chips (non-diary organic evaporated cane sugar, organic chocolate liquor, organic cocoa butter, non GMO soy lecithin), organic coconut, organic bio sprouts- quinoa and flax.

So as you can see by the ingredients the Hammer bar does actually contain quite a lot of sugar just not refined sugar.

One bar is 50grams and that equates to 230 calories. Interestingly there is a little foot note on the packet which states that the percent daily value has been based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet.

Hammer bars are available online for purchase by the box as well as the shop that I work at (Cheeky Velosport Randwick, Sydney). The bars are $2.70 each, which I think is a pretty good deal considering the ingredients used to make the bars. I absolutely LOVE these, I’ve been using them on the bike, they are easy to chew and get down also most importantly the packet is really easy to get open. The chocolate taste isn’t too strong and the bar doesn’t leave a strong after taste. I’m looking forward to trying the other flavours of this bar, the apple flavour is rumoured to be amazing!

http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/shop/nutrition/hammer-bars/

The second bar I use almost daily is the Clif’s Builder’s bar- snack size. The flavour I’m currently eating is chocolate mint, but they come in loads of different flavours. You can’t get these in Australian bike shops currently. You can get Clif bars, but not the high protein ones. The snack size Builder’s bar has ten grams of protein in it. This makes it an ideal afternoon snack, between lunch and dinner.

Ingredients are: Soy protein Isolate, Beet juice concentrate, organic brown rice syrup, organic dried cane syrup, palm kernel oil, unsweetened chocolate, organic rolled oats, organic soy protein concentrate, organic sunflower oil, vegetable glycerin, natural flavours, organic almonds, rice starch, cane syrup, inulin(chicory extract), cocoa butter, organic flaxmeal, organic oat fibre,soy lecithin, salt, coloured with beet powder.

The builder’s bar also has a load of vitamins and minerals in it. I like the Builder’s bar because generally at that time in the afternoon I feel like chocolate, so it’s nice to have a bit of a treat that fills you up, and at the same time has a load of protein and vitamins in it. The bar is the equivalent of having a protein shake made with water instead of milk. As I said before you can’t get these in Australia at the moment, I bought a box of these on ebay for about $20 dollars for 10 bars.
I probably wouldn’t use these on the bike just because they are chocolate coated and the tend to melt, but they are a great post-workout snack purely because of that 10 grams of protein. These are however not gluten-free, they are wheat free though.

That’s part one of the review on the bars I use… Part two will be up next week.

Enjoy the weekend!

New Bike!

So, my time trial bike is here! It’s built! and it’s been ridden… once. A big thanks to Adam and Joe at Cheeky Velosport for sorting it out for me so quickly. I ended up going with a Cannondale Slice with Shimano Ultegra groupset. It is one of last year’s models but to honest I like the colour scheme more than this year’s Slice. 

The bars the bike came with were WAY too wide ( it being a men’s bike and all that). So we put on Profile Design T1+ Carbon bars and levers. 

The crank length is 172.5mm

Ultegra groupset, the purple ends are a nice touch by Joe. 

 

It came with Fulcrum 7’s, not ideal for racing but a good training wheel. 

I’ve already taken in for a spin with a friend, and we decided to do hills! I can say it climbs and descends very well, it’s easily lighter than my road frame and it was a joy to ride. I can’t wait to start racing on it. The only downside was the saddle it came with, which was easily the most uncomfortable saddle I’ve ever ridden on. I’ve ordered a Fizik Arione Donna to go on it rather than a TT saddle, just for now, I’ll go with something I know I’m comfortable on. Once I’ve ridden and raced it a bit more I’ll look into a time trial specific saddle. 

He still needs a name, my friend and I have been calling him ‘The Creature’, but I think he deserves a proper name. 

I’m so pleased with this bike, and I’m hoping it will set the tone for my racing this year, on to bigger and better things!

The drinking of electrolytes and such…

Apologies for the radio silence readers! University started and I added three more sessions to my week. I pledge from now on I shall keep it weekly, and hopefully I shall have some cool new stuff to try. 

Starting with my recovery electrolytes! 

According to HowStuffWorks and electrolyte is: 

A medical/scientific term for salts, specifically ions. Electrolyte means an ion that has been electrically charged and they are important because they are what your cells use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses/muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells. 

When one exercises heavily we lose electrolytes through our sweat, our kidneys work hard to keep the electrolytes balanced in our blood, but they can only do so much. So I take an electrolyte supplement to help boost electrolytes in my blood. I guess the more electrolytes floating around help the heart pump more blood around putting oxygen back in the muscles. 

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/information/question565.htm

 

So last year I was using Shotz! Hydration and this year I shall be trying ZERO by High Five

Ingredients of Shotz! Hydration include: 38mg Ascorbic Acid (Vit C), 31mg Calcium carbonate, 13mg Calcium, 150mg Magnesium Sulphate -dried, 20mg magnesium and 500mcg riboflavin sodium phosphate.

ZERO by High five ‘s ingredients include: citric acid, sodium bicarbonate,sweeteners, mallo acid, tri sodium citrate, potassium citrate, magnesium carbonate, natural flavouring, natural colour, maltodextrin, tea extract(caffeine), calcium carbonate and Vit. C.

So the ingredients are basically the same. The tablets basically look the same:

The difference for me is, how easily I can chug it down, because I’ve got to drink it reasonably quickly once I get home. The Shotz! one is a little bit fizzy, and I don’t usually drink fizzy drinks it makes it a little bit harder for me to get it down. It also has a slightly odd after taste, sort of plastic-ey. The Zero just tastes like pink… I like pink. It’s also not fizzy, so I can chug it back in all it’s pinkness. The tablets are a little bit different in strength as well, the Shotz! tablets I used two, the Zero’s I use one and a half per 600mls.

So I’ve got 5 more tubes to go, and twenty tablets per tube… Once I finish this lot I can try a different brand.

It’s program time!

It’s new program time!

This will be a 5 week program… as per my previous post I cracked at 5 and a half weeks. This program will focus on strength and endurance in the lead up to racing in May. I will be starting weights training again and hill repeats.

MONDAY: Morning – Hill Repeats. Afternoon – Weights
TUESDAY: Morning – Bunch ride. Afternoon – Ergo
WEDNESDAY: Morning – Swim. Afternoon – Track
THURSDAY:Morning – Bunch Ride. Afternoon – Off
FRIDAY: Morning – Ergo. Afternoon – Weights
SATURDAY: Fast Bunch
SUNDAY: Recovery Bunch

So… Yay.. Hill repeats… yay.
-5 Minute hill repeats, up a looooong hill. 3/4 Times, going up a gear each repeat, with a 5 minute recovery between each set.
-The ergo will reflect the hill repeats.. 5 minute efforts but with less gear and more cadence.
-Weights will be dead lifts, squats and cleans..
-160 Laps at the track starts again in 3 weeks. My goal is to make it to 100 laps (consistently).

Training and Food diaries will be kept, along with good ol’skinfolds at the end of the 5 weeks.
Sugar, milk(apart from breakfast), biscuits and ice cream will all become off limits again. I still have fruit!

I’m really looking forward to starting this cycle, I feel like it’s all starting to come together.
New TT bike and helmet are on the way, yes I will be wearing one of those hilarious helmets. Very exciting!
Happy riding and I’ll see you out there!

The day Maddy cracked…

So… I had been neglecting my training diary and the result of that was that I totally missed when I should have taken my time off. The result of that was my body cracked in a major way at Wednesday night racing. In fact previous to this I got dropped on my usual bunch ride Tuesday morning. Luckily out and back to Kurnell is mostly bushes as I had to take a sneaky vom. Crawling back home… all I was thinking is must.get.through.three.days. Wednesday night, I couldn’t get off my track bike after the last race.

I didn’t realise that that was my body telling me enough is enough… Consequently I did not make it Thursday’s session.

So from now on.. I will be keeping an up to date training diary.

Onwards after my 7 days off the bike….

I’ve realised though that I can push myself through the pain and suffer properly. Which I’ve heard is what bike riders do. So I’m well on the way to my goals!

Now it’s program writing time!

2014 Race Calendar – well some of it.

As well as track racing this year, I will be targeting some road races over the next year. The point of me racing these is to keep me motivated and keen as well as chucking in some racing practice. Here are some of the main road and track races I’ll be targeting this year up to May (which as it turns out is very busy).

MARCH:
1/3 Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club Open Track Carnival
2/3 Calga Time Trial

APRIL:
6/4 Calga Time Trial
25/4 Bowral ANZAC day Track Carnival

MAY:
9/5 Canberra Women’s Tour
10/5 Canberra Women’s Tour
11/5 Canberra Women’s Tour
25/5 Ken Dinnerville Memorial Handicap
31/5 Sydney Road Titles

And this is the time trial bike I’ve been jonesing after….

And this one… But I’m being realistic with what I can afford

The Cannondale Slice RS is totally rad! But is waaaaaaay out of my affordability… The downside of working in a bike shop is that I always want the new thing..

What I eats!

Happy Tuesday folks!

Today I’m going to give you a quick run down of my diet. Until about 2 weeks ago, I was trying to lose weight, so now a few more pleasurable foods have been added back into my diet, that I was previously avoiding eating. Like cheese! Yay, cheese is back!

So for breakfast I have muesli, milk and yoghurt.

The muesli is a gluten- free muesli by a company called Brookfarm. It is the best gluten-free muesli I’ve ever had, and it’s packed full of yummy things like dried apricots and macadamias.

Lunch I will have tuna salad, sushi, pasta or a sandwich. I try and get a fair amount of protein in at lunch, I don’t usually eat fish for dinner so I’ll try and get it in at lunchtime instead. Ham, Turkey and Chicken are my other protein staples for lunch, with salad or some greens.

And dinner is pretty much the same as lunch, with a big boost of carbohydrates. Potato, rice and pasta is generally as far as the imagination stretches in terms of carbohydrates. I almost always want steak too! I usually treat myself to one out meal every week or so..

In between meals I’ll usually stuff my face with fruit, I try and buy what’s in season, at the moment we’ve got a veritable fruit salad in the bowls at home. Every time I go to Harris Farm Markets, I come back with armloads of fruit. Also I eat some different nuts and dried fruit like almonds, pistachios, dried apricots and dates. Also banana bread and fruit bread get a bit of a look in, when I feel a little low on carbs.

I drink Earl Gray tea with honey during the day, watered down juice and ribena to mix it up a bit.
Post training and racing in the evenings I’ll have a protein shake before bed.

I’ve been avoiding sugar and ice cream… But I do treat myself occasionally.
At the end of each month I do skin fold testing with my coach to determine how much body fat I have, the next one is within the next week.

Racing

To start off, I apologise for the lateness of my post this week, I have been totally bowled over by my program this week and have spent most of my spare time asleep.

Racing, Racing this post this week. For the moment I am racing Wednesday nights out at Dunc Gray Velodrome and these races are run by Bankstown cycling club. It’s super fun club racing, and allows for time to get used to racing. So for these club races, I’ve been trying to get into a good routine, for example warming up on my rollers before each race start and warming down after each race. There are four races on a wednesday night, they usually start with a warm up scratch, a sprint race (like 1 lap screamers or 3 lap sprint), and endurance race like a points race and a warm down scratch.

In these races I try and focus on the process rather than the end result. So a race plan for me will often be attack off the front and try and hold myself at threshold until I blow up/ hit the wall/ run out of mojo and then pull off and get back in with the bunch. Most of this race practice is so I can practice tactics.

I’ve got a couple of videos uploaded of me racing in the RAW Christmas carnivals. This was a five day racing carnival held at four different velodromes (Dunc Gray, Tempe, Lidcombe and Hurstville). The racing ran from the 27th of December to New years eve. These races were a pretty similar format to the racing I’ve explained above.

In the videos, I’m pretty easy to pick out… I’m the girl in the bright red skinsuit on the big red bike.

Enjoy and happy riding!

What’s next….?

Happy Wednesday everyone!
I’m super happy today because not only did I have a great session with my chiropractor (Nick) and the nutritionist at his practice (Clare), my Bullet blender also showed up. So get prepared readers for some totally awesome recipes and pictures coming your way!

Having sorted out my program for the next six weeks, it was now time to do my M.A.P (maximum aerobic power) testing. I think any sort of threshold testing for most athletes is not a fun task. The threshold testing I did was a step test. I had to hold each set of watts for a minute starting at 220 watts and working my way up by 10 watts each minute until I could no longer hold that power for a minute.

I ended up with 340 watts as my power threshold. As this is an endurance focused program for the next 6 weeks we had to determine from this what my endurance threshold is. This is typically 60% of your max power. For me it is 204 watts, I know doesn’t sound like much. However after two 5 minute efforts and two to go, holding 204 watts starts to sound a bit daunting.

From this we get my ergo/wind trainer efforts for the next 6 weeks, yay!

Which are 4 x 5 minute efforts at 204 watts with 10 minutes rest. All together 4 x 15 minute pieces.

The first one for this program, I did this morning. Who knew one could sweat so much!

Serious stuff this program writing

When it came to writing my program for the next 6 weeks, I thought this shall be tres easy. FALSE! I mostly thought it would be written by my coach hence the fact I thought it would be easy.

Here’s what has to be included in the next 6 weeks:
Swimming
Gym
Track Training
Track Racing
Ergo/Windtrainer
Motor Pacing
Bunch Riding
Racing Time trial

Each Session to be divided into categories – which sessions’ achieve what:
Endurance
Strength
Power
Speed.

“you need endurance to repeat the strength efforts you need strength to produce power and then you can convert power into speed.”

And here’s the draft program I’ve written:

Monday = Morning Swim- Evening: Track training
Tuesday = Morning: Bunch (3 hours) Evening: criterium racing
Wednesday= Morning: Ergo 50 minutes. Track racing (Winter Track 160 laps)
Thursday= Morning: Bunch (3 hours)
Friday= Morning: Ergo 50 minutes Evening: swim
Saturday= Morning Bunch (3 hours)
Variation: Motor pace
Sunday= Morning Bunch (3 hours)
Variation Calga TT

M.A.P( threshold step test) every 6 weeks
Skinfolds done every month
Weekly food diary with calorie count
This program for 6 weeks will focus on endurance

This is a draft program so you (readers) can find out with me if I’ve got it right this time.

Fingers crossed!