A tale of low carb performance.
We arrived on the Catalina Express, bikes and gear, ready for the 2015 Catalina Gran Fondo. It’s a mountain bike race that offers 3 different lengths, a 14 miler, a 41 miler and a 54 miler. Of course I opted for the 54, but after the recent rains, the organizers shaved off 9 miles of the course to protect the trails. My race wound up being 45.5 miles from start to finish with about 6742 feet of climbing. Definitely not the easiest day on the bike, but incredible views, great camaraderie and of course, a little suffering.
I’ve been training a bit, but I haven’t ridden as much as I would’ve liked to prepare for this race. My latest motto, “You don’t have to go fast, you just have to go,” has given me much motivation. I had no idea how I would do on this race. I typically finish in the top 30-40% of the overall field, but without a lot training I didn’t have high expectations. I am in the middle of a more important experiment which is conditioning, training and racing on fat fuels as opposed to carbohydrates. This race would be a challenge. Somewhere between 4 and 5 hours I predicted, but I would be racing without my normal gel packs, gus, energy bars and carb mixes. I would rely solely on hydration liquid and fat fuels.
This is not my first foray into this kind of racing. This year I’ve been dealing with a new diagnosis of Insulin Resistance, yes, pre-diabetes, but I’m unwilling to give up my adventurous athletic lifestyle because of a silly diagnosis. In the last 3-4 months I’ve trained and raced without copious amounts of carbohydrates, so that wasn’t the challenge. The challenge would be doing it for 4-5 hours at high intensity. I’ve recently raced in running relays where I was required to run 4-8 miles at a time, three times in 24 hours and one half marathon trail run which took me just under 2 hours.
This would be my first attempt at anything over 2 hours without the fuel I’ve trained with for most of my adult life. How would I do? How would I feel midway through or three quarters of the way through? Would my legs fatigue and loose energy. Would I need some sugar and caffeine just to get through the race? Or could I rely solely on my fat stores for fuel?
For those of you interested or in a similar situation, Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple and the Primal Blueprint is an incredible resource (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ & http://www.primalblueprint.com/). Also, Drs. Jeff Volek, PhD, RD & Stephen Finney, MD, PhD have authored two books which have been very helpful to me, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living and The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance (http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com).
The race started with a long slow climb up to the ‘Airport in the Sky,’ it was a 1400 foot climb right out of the box! I had to manage my output to make sure I didn’t explode too early. Thankfully, it was a cool day, I always seem to suffer more in the heat. I made my way to the top churning my legs like pistons. The faster guys were already way ahead, but I for sure wouldn’t be last.
The views from the top of Catalina Island are amazing, but what’s even more special is the small harbors that we went down into and the rock laden coastlines. At about midway through the race there is a big climb out of one of the harbors. I made a wrong turn and about 10 guys that were right on my tail passed me by. I had to catch up, but I also had to be cautious because we were on the downhill and I’ve seen too many bad crashes that I didn’t want to risk too much. I was able to pass one or two on the downhill.
After we hit our bottom and started climbing up and out there were 8 riders in front of me. I knew this would be a long climb and something inside me said, “I want to get to the top of the climb first!” This was my fiercely competitive side rearing it’s head. I was able to catch the first group of 4 riders and just as that happened a guy behind me encourages, “Great job, keep it up!” Motivation from an external source?! Now, he was on my tail, so I had to work a little harder. He and I charged toward the second group and bridged the gap. I waited for them to continue their effort up the hill, but they seemed to slow down after we got on their tail. Not more than a few seconds and I kept on riding. This was my chance to take the lead up that climb. I did reach the top in front of all of those riders and even dropped the guy who was my nameless external motivator. On the fast downhill into the next harbor I was able to look over my shoulder to see that even my new friend was a bit behind. I sped right through aid station at the bottom of the hill and continued on up the next climb hoping to put more distance between me and anyone behind me.
Now about 3 hours into the race and feeling really great. I was so surprised that my body continued that consistent output for such a long period of time. After the big uphill there was a descent followed by a long 10 mile slog back up. This would be the final climb followed by a very fast descent into the finish. I was worried that one or many of those 8 guys would be clawing their way back. I didn’t dare look back. In racing there is a cardinal rule and a cardinal no-no. The rule is that “they will always be chasing you.” And the no-no is never look back at them.
I made it to the top and sped to the finish in 3 hours and 55 minutes. Faster than I expected to finish. I continued to encourage myself to stay within my comfortable “Zone 2.75.” Zone 3 is more for sprinting so there is constant dialogue happening between my mind and my body. “Go a little fast, catch the guy in front of you, keep your pace, hold back, etc.,” it’s very chatty. But that communication along with a little external motivation allowed to reach a new level in my fitness. I know my body can perform at a high level for at least 4 hours. I finished 32nd overall out of about 250 riders on the long course, so top 15%. A welcomed result for me and more data for the science project that is my life.
Photo Credit: TeddyMcDonald.com