A while ago I attended a Sani2C social evening hosted by BOE in Cape Town. One of the guest speakers were Prof Tim Noakes (author of the famed Lore of running and instigator of the recent low Carb debate in sporting circles). In 1 hour I had my dietary belief system re-aligned. The day after the Argus I bought the latest version of Atkins Diet (New Atkins for a new you) and started reading. If I was going to cut out the beloved carbs from my Diet, I needed to understand why. What struck me very early on is how honest the author was about the whole concept and later on I was impressed with the accurate description about how you end up feeling while being on the eating plan. I also liked the manner in which everything was explained.
6 weeks and 2 days into the Atkins programme I have shrunk from 103kg to 90.5kg and with no signs of slowing down. Since starting with the Atkins plan there have been numerous articles in weekly magazines, interviews on Carte Blanche and healthy debate about the effects of a low carb diet and endurance sports. My experience so far is that it works very well for me. Admittedly my longest training rides are only about 4 hours long. Before I would eat anything that moved after a long ride. Now I am very comfortable to eat at my normal meal times and to eat regular portions. I suspect that herein the secret lies. Before I felt hungry all the time while training hard, now I feel energized and meals give me a distinct feeling of rejuvenation, rather than feeling bloated and tired after eating.
Racing at Sani2C will test my new eating plan and I am curious to see what effect the slightly longer (and much harder) days will have in conjunction with my eating plan.
For those interested: My current eating plan consists of:
Breakfast
- 150g beef mince with 25g chopped onion and 25g chopped peppers
or
- 2 scrambled eggs with 4 rashers of bacon
- Coffee with full cream milk (no sugar / sweetener)
Snack
- 1/2 avocado with salt and about 18g cream cheese (not combined with the avo!)
or
- Droe wors (about 50g)
Lunch
- 150g chicken breast tossed in Nando's sauce (its a good low carb sauce if you like spicey foods), 50g lettuce, 50g tomatoes, 50g cucumber
or
- 150g beef strips, 50g lettuce, 50g tomato, 50g cucumber with Ina Paarman Cesar dressing (also a nice low carb dressing to use)
Snack
- USN Pure Protein IGF 1 (low carb) shake
Dinner
- 200g Lamb chops with 100g grilled cauliflower/Broccoli covered with cheddar cheese and cream
or
- 200g Grilled Hake fillet with garlic butter and 80g fine green beans steamed and dressed with olive oil and herbs
or
- 250g Rump steak (you can leave the fat on) rubbed in olive oil, coriander and pepper corns with 100g portabella mushrooms with garlic and cheese (perfect for the braai)
My nutrition during training / racing:
- Race drink similar to USN Cyto Power (I get a supplement from T Nutrients that has similar ingredients, but tastes better to me) - about 1 bottle in 2 hours, alternating with a bottle of clean water
- USN Pure Protein Bar alternating with Droe wors (about 20g portions) every hour.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Paul Cluver / Thandi Trails - Fun, Fun!, FUN!!!
Today was the opening of the Paul Cluver / Thandi Trails mountain biking trail system. Those who ride the Epic or Wines2Whales races would be familiar with the trails, but for those of us that tend to race a bit further from home, the opening of these trails heralds a new era in the Grabouw area.
Long, long ago we had only Lebanon. Then Oak Valley got prominence when the ABSA Cape Epic established Oak Valley as the penultimate stop of the race. Since Grabouw has seen some trails at Oude Molen Distillery opening, but I am unsure whether these trails are still operational. Thandi had for a short time trails to ride, but I only ever rode these on invitation with locals that got permission to ride here. Now the trails are open for everyone and for most parts well marked.
Surely there is room for a light multi stage event incorporating the 3 Musketeers of the Grabouw/Elgin Valley, but more on this in a future blog. The focus today is purely on Paul Cluver / Thandi.
I have often been critical of the PPA for being too political and not enough cycling orientated. Here is another example, with the Schapenberg trails, of what can be accomplished with members fees.
On arrival at Thandi the parking lot was filled to the brim and eager mountain bikers were chomping at the bit to get a crack at the trail. The number board system employed at Schapenberg was copied for Thandi and after paying my trail fee I was issued with a temporary number for the ride.
The first section of the course reminds me of a typical cross country course with countless switchbacks taking you higher and higher in the plantations. The big difference is that the gradient is kinder than most XC type courses and that the switches are well placed, leveled and beginner-friendly. The climbs are stepped throughout the first 5 km and laced with fun sections of single track in the pine and wattle plantations. At the turning point the trail points mostly downwards and takes you past the newly built BMX track that promises to be lots of fun. But before you get to the BMX track you have some fun single track sections with sheer drops on your right from time to time, so remember not to look down while riding this section as vertigo while riding is not ideal.
After a nice warm-up like this the trail takes you up the first sections of switchbacks and at the crossing point you cross over from Thandi to Paul Cluver. The trail runs on mostly good farm roads with very technical black sections (the infamous Pofadder section included) looping out of the red loop. I refrained from riding some of the more technical sections as the rainy weather and a tyre combination on the hard tail less suited for wet weather persuaded me otherwise.
30km later I was back at the start and with over 600m of ascent in the short distance it provided a good workout.
Well done to PPA, Wines2Whales and all involved with bringing another world class trail to the riders. With our imminent move to Somerset West an annual permit is surely on the cards for me to ride these trails.
Long, long ago we had only Lebanon. Then Oak Valley got prominence when the ABSA Cape Epic established Oak Valley as the penultimate stop of the race. Since Grabouw has seen some trails at Oude Molen Distillery opening, but I am unsure whether these trails are still operational. Thandi had for a short time trails to ride, but I only ever rode these on invitation with locals that got permission to ride here. Now the trails are open for everyone and for most parts well marked.
Surely there is room for a light multi stage event incorporating the 3 Musketeers of the Grabouw/Elgin Valley, but more on this in a future blog. The focus today is purely on Paul Cluver / Thandi.
I have often been critical of the PPA for being too political and not enough cycling orientated. Here is another example, with the Schapenberg trails, of what can be accomplished with members fees.
On arrival at Thandi the parking lot was filled to the brim and eager mountain bikers were chomping at the bit to get a crack at the trail. The number board system employed at Schapenberg was copied for Thandi and after paying my trail fee I was issued with a temporary number for the ride.
The first section of the course reminds me of a typical cross country course with countless switchbacks taking you higher and higher in the plantations. The big difference is that the gradient is kinder than most XC type courses and that the switches are well placed, leveled and beginner-friendly. The climbs are stepped throughout the first 5 km and laced with fun sections of single track in the pine and wattle plantations. At the turning point the trail points mostly downwards and takes you past the newly built BMX track that promises to be lots of fun. But before you get to the BMX track you have some fun single track sections with sheer drops on your right from time to time, so remember not to look down while riding this section as vertigo while riding is not ideal.
After a nice warm-up like this the trail takes you up the first sections of switchbacks and at the crossing point you cross over from Thandi to Paul Cluver. The trail runs on mostly good farm roads with very technical black sections (the infamous Pofadder section included) looping out of the red loop. I refrained from riding some of the more technical sections as the rainy weather and a tyre combination on the hard tail less suited for wet weather persuaded me otherwise.
30km later I was back at the start and with over 600m of ascent in the short distance it provided a good workout.
Well done to PPA, Wines2Whales and all involved with bringing another world class trail to the riders. With our imminent move to Somerset West an annual permit is surely on the cards for me to ride these trails.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Two Oceans - The view from the back
On Saturday morning I got up earlier than I have ever gotten up for any race in my life, cycling included. The alarm buzzed at 3am and by 3:45am we were ready to collect 2 more crazies for the 1/2 marathon.
We stopped outside the Baxter just as the last party goers left the clubs after a big night out. I tried to get into my race routine before the time, but with 3 ladies in the car, it was impossible to go through my visualization routine. We made our way to the start at about 5, with about an hour for the race to start. A 30 minute wait for a toilet saw me starting right at the back of "E" group, meaning that there were roughly 16 000 runners ahead of me.
At 6 the gun went off and at about 6:09 I crossed the start line with a slow walk. The first 4km was a stop-start affair, but once we were on Wynberg Hill I could get into my stride. This being the first climb I was taking it rather slow, but to my surprise I kept passing other runners and with some weaving through the traffic ahead of me I managed to string a few sub 7min/km kilo's together. With the turn onto Ladies mile my pace was steady and I was feeling quite good, but the persistent weaving to make my way up the field was starting to grate me.
With the turn onto Southern Cross Drive the heavens opened and in a matter of 5 minutes the roads were flooded with the first winter rains and we were all drenched. The cold would set in later. The immediate challenge would be to keep momentum up Southern Cross Drive. I knew that slowing down or walking would bring with it stiffening muscles and my core temperature dropping.
As we turned onto Rhodes Drive I started to feel the cold for the first time. I made a quick calculation and realized that I needed to run the remaining 6.1km in 33 minutes to get to the sub 2h30 mark.
GAME ON!
I lengthened my stride and kept looking down to my Garmin unit. A few 5:50min / km kilo's gave me renewed hope for that 2h30min. The road narrowed at places and now I was not weaving anymore but simply shoving my way past runners that was walking 4 abreast after obviously starting out too fast. A few dirty looks my way made me even more determined to get to UCT within my goal time.
As I turned in onto the sports field at UCT I saw the time on the stadium clock at 2h29m flat. The next 300m felt like 3 miles as I went from my brief jog into a full sprint for the last 200m.
I crossed the line in 2h29m53s. After getting my medal the search started to find my wife. With the ensuing rain the big screen where we were supposed to meet was taken down. So I had time to reflect on my accomplishment as I grazed on the rugby field looking for my wife.
As after every race I had a good think about what I could take from this event. Here is what I have learnt:
- Training is important, but getting to the start chute early is even more important. With no staggered start the first 4kms of the event could best be described at chaotic.
- Be prepared. What saved me in many ways was having an energy bar with me as I came up Southern Cross Drive. A few bites made sure that I would get to the end. When I got to the car I could change into dry, warm clothes that surely saved me getting a cold (fingers crossed on this one) and knowing where to find good coffee in times of peril is a life saver.
- Fixed meeting points are way more reliable than temporary ones. My wife stood in the rain for another hour while our 2 passengers to the race were grazing looking for her. By the time they got to the car, they were frozen stiff.
- Reliable weather forecasts helps with preparing for events. Thanks yr.no for an up to the minute prediction on the rain. SA Weather - why are you bothering?
- Acknowledge the support on the side of the road. Thanks to all that braved the rain to come out and cheer us along. You feel like a champion with people shouting your name as you passed (OK - so our race numbers had our names on, quite nice I thought!)
Next big challenge is surely Sani2C, which promises to be bigger and better than last year. With 5 weeks of training time left I have some hard work to do, but at the same time I am looking forward to 3 days in the saddle on what must surely be sacred ground in mountain biking circles.
We stopped outside the Baxter just as the last party goers left the clubs after a big night out. I tried to get into my race routine before the time, but with 3 ladies in the car, it was impossible to go through my visualization routine. We made our way to the start at about 5, with about an hour for the race to start. A 30 minute wait for a toilet saw me starting right at the back of "E" group, meaning that there were roughly 16 000 runners ahead of me.
At 6 the gun went off and at about 6:09 I crossed the start line with a slow walk. The first 4km was a stop-start affair, but once we were on Wynberg Hill I could get into my stride. This being the first climb I was taking it rather slow, but to my surprise I kept passing other runners and with some weaving through the traffic ahead of me I managed to string a few sub 7min/km kilo's together. With the turn onto Ladies mile my pace was steady and I was feeling quite good, but the persistent weaving to make my way up the field was starting to grate me.
With the turn onto Southern Cross Drive the heavens opened and in a matter of 5 minutes the roads were flooded with the first winter rains and we were all drenched. The cold would set in later. The immediate challenge would be to keep momentum up Southern Cross Drive. I knew that slowing down or walking would bring with it stiffening muscles and my core temperature dropping.
As we turned onto Rhodes Drive I started to feel the cold for the first time. I made a quick calculation and realized that I needed to run the remaining 6.1km in 33 minutes to get to the sub 2h30 mark.
GAME ON!
I lengthened my stride and kept looking down to my Garmin unit. A few 5:50min / km kilo's gave me renewed hope for that 2h30min. The road narrowed at places and now I was not weaving anymore but simply shoving my way past runners that was walking 4 abreast after obviously starting out too fast. A few dirty looks my way made me even more determined to get to UCT within my goal time.
As I turned in onto the sports field at UCT I saw the time on the stadium clock at 2h29m flat. The next 300m felt like 3 miles as I went from my brief jog into a full sprint for the last 200m.
I crossed the line in 2h29m53s. After getting my medal the search started to find my wife. With the ensuing rain the big screen where we were supposed to meet was taken down. So I had time to reflect on my accomplishment as I grazed on the rugby field looking for my wife.
As after every race I had a good think about what I could take from this event. Here is what I have learnt:
- Training is important, but getting to the start chute early is even more important. With no staggered start the first 4kms of the event could best be described at chaotic.
- Be prepared. What saved me in many ways was having an energy bar with me as I came up Southern Cross Drive. A few bites made sure that I would get to the end. When I got to the car I could change into dry, warm clothes that surely saved me getting a cold (fingers crossed on this one) and knowing where to find good coffee in times of peril is a life saver.
- Fixed meeting points are way more reliable than temporary ones. My wife stood in the rain for another hour while our 2 passengers to the race were grazing looking for her. By the time they got to the car, they were frozen stiff.
- Reliable weather forecasts helps with preparing for events. Thanks yr.no for an up to the minute prediction on the rain. SA Weather - why are you bothering?
- Acknowledge the support on the side of the road. Thanks to all that braved the rain to come out and cheer us along. You feel like a champion with people shouting your name as you passed (OK - so our race numbers had our names on, quite nice I thought!)
Next big challenge is surely Sani2C, which promises to be bigger and better than last year. With 5 weeks of training time left I have some hard work to do, but at the same time I am looking forward to 3 days in the saddle on what must surely be sacred ground in mountain biking circles.
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