IM Nutrition, Man-Scaping, Boy Scouts, Other Random Crap

107 Mile Jungle Ride!

I went for a nice 107 mile ride yesterday, and, can I just say, that I LOVE Boy Scouts. Not like-love, but love-love. The ride started nicely, but there was a NASTY storm the night before. It turns out the Gateway trail was pretty messed up – downed trees, branches, and crap everywhere! I had to dismount and carry my bike over or under a ton of trees. About 9 miles into the ride, I came across a series of downed trees all in one spot. I think they went down like dominos. I couldn’t see the other side of the trail at all! I was stopped there with a middle-aged couple, and the 3 of us blazed a trail through the trees around to the other side of the trail. We went back and grabbed our bikes, threw them over our shoulders, maneuvered them around trees, and got to the other side of the mess. When we came through, there was another biker looking at us like we were crazy. We were covered with mud from the knees down and wet leaves from the waist up! It was like jungle riding!

In the next mile, I came across a troop of Boy Scouts cutting apart downed trees and clearing the trail. I shouted my thanks to all of them. Boy Scouts ROCK!!!

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. It was windy and sunny. I finished in 6:25 on the bike, and 6:58 total time counting pit stops. Not super fast, but the important thing was to simply get the ride in. Oh, and the toe held up OK (see previous post below). It just turned a little bluer.

Perpetuem, Recoverite, etc.

Last week, I tried to do up to 100 on the bike, but I tried Perpetuem. Bad idea. It didn’t go over well with my digestive system. I don’t think I was really ready for the fat and protein that Perpetuem has in it. I had to stop at mile 72 because I was getting close to ralphing. This week, the nutrition was much better. I had a bottle with good ole’ Carbo-Pro (1400 calories) that I sipped on the entire day. I had some Power Bars, some Hammer Gel, and a bunch of water. No problems.

And has anyone out there tried Recoverite?!? That stuff is AWESOME!!! I used that for the first time after my hard 10 mile run earlier this week. I really think it helps with some of the muscle fatigue issues and sore muscles the next day. Yesterday, I got in the house after the ride, IMMEDIATELY ordered a pizza, chugged half a gallon of chocolate milk, and then mixed up 2 glasses of Recoverite.

Also, about 2 months ago, I received 2 free cases of Accelerade. I was supposed to try it out and write about it on my blog. I kind of have the same feelings as TRI Vortex. “Accelerade = Cottonmouth.” It doesn’t taste good. Not even cold. I’m not a fan. But they did send me a sweet shirt a few days ago. I’m totally going to wear it.

Man-Scaping

Embarrassing Thought: There are now 2 razors in our shower:

Even MORE Embarrassing Thought: Mine is the pink one.

The last time I touched up my shaved body, I got some razor burn around my navel. It looked like my belly button had herpes. I don’t have a photo of that...

...you’re welcome.

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First 100 Mile Bike Ride!

That’s right folks, Sarah and I did our first Century Ride yesterday! Here’s how it started a few days ago:

Sarah: “I’m going to go for a 100 miler on Sunday. Wanna come with?”

Steve: “Ummm...I’ll think about it.”

Sarah: “I think I’ll pick an extra hilly route in order to train for Wisconsin.”

Steve: “Hey...that sounds...super-duper. One hundred miles and lots of hills. Ummm...OK. Let’s do it.”

Steve’s internal dialog: “Our first one hundred mile ride AND the hills out near Stillwater? That sounds super. How about adding 40 mile per hour winds? And lets line the trail with monkeys so they can fling their poo at us. Flaming hoops – lets add flaming hoops every few feet! And maybe some landmines too. Ooh, barbed wire at random points across the trail sounds great! Spectacular! Crap-tacular! Stu-frickin-pendous!”

But we made it just fine (although there were some annoying 15 mph winds out there). Here’s a rundown of yesterday’s ride:

We got ready by mixing A LOT of Carbo-Pro with some Gatorade. Here is one bottles worth ready to be mixed:

Carbo-Pro is just added carbs for energy. It turned a bottle of diluted Gatorade (100 calories) into something that could sustain us over a long distance (around 1200 calories!). Sarah displays about 2400 calories in 2 bottles:

Along with the Carbo-Pro, we also packed salt pills, which help keep hyponatremia from setting in. Hyponatremia, or “water-intoxication,” is a lack of salt in the body from sweating out too much salt while only drinking water. I think I had 7 salt pills throughout the ride. And we packed the other normal essentials: Luna Bars, Powerbars, Fig Newtons, etc.

So we got to the end of the Gateway Trail and out to the hills by Stillwater, MN. Here, Sarah and I are going up and down the typical rolling hills on Hwy 55 heading south into Stillwater:

25 mph with no hands while taking photos.
Good times.

At the bathrooms near the end
of the Gateway about 44 miles in.

We went back and forth on this 5 mile stretch 5 times before heading down into Stillwater for lunch. We stopped at Darla’s Old Fashion Malt Shop. They treat a rider right! Always great fuel for the rest of the ride. At this point, we were 52 miles into our ride.

I started with a blueberry malt that didn’t last long!

Ham & Cheese with homemade chips. Incredible!

We left Darla’s with full stomachs and had the most missive climb of the day. We headed up the GIANT hill on Hwy 12 from the St. Croix River towards the west. It’s about a 3/4 of a mile hill that cannot be described in words. For those of you out their training from IM WI, Sarah told me that this hill is bigger and harder than any hill out there (except for maybe one)! So take that! We went back to the Gateway along Hwy 55 and headed back towards home. Then we took Hwy 12 from the Gateway back to Stillwater. From the looks of this ride, you’d think that Sarah and I must be in love with Stillwater! In actuality, we were just in love with the hills near Stillwater.

Coming into town, we were headed down the large, large hill again. Being I still have a 10-year-old boy living inside of me, I had to see how fast I could go biking down that hill. The 10-year-old boy wanted to hit 50 mph. However, I could only make it to 48 mph. I know I could have done it with my Specialized Hardrock MTN bike because the gear ratio is much greater on that bike (and I’ve put narrower tires on that bike so I can go pretty fast on paved surfaces. That’s the bike that I put nearly 1,000 miles on in 10 weeks last fall). On my Tri bike, the gear ratio is much closer, making the high gears not actually as high as on a MTN bike. You bike nerds out there know what I’m talking about. I think I can break 50 on my Tri bike though. It just wasn’t going to happen yesterday because I had already put 72 miles on my legs, and they didn’t know what the hell was happening to them when I was furiously peddling down that hill!

So we headed back up that hell hill one last time, and headed for home. (And by the way, both times up that hill, I stayed in the saddle! I sat the entire time. Last year I would have never thought that possible.) Once in St. Paul, we came within 3 blocks of home, but knew we had to go 6 more miles, so we biked down to St. Thomas on Summit Ave and back to get us there. We pulled into our yard, and the computer said “100.37 miles.” Sweet, sweet victory. How it hurts so.

Some final stats:
• 100.37 miles
• 14.9 mph average (hey, we didn’t do it for speed)
• 48 mph top (soon to hit 50)
• 6 hours, 40 minutes total time

Here’s a look at what we rode on paper, in case you ever want to try the “Sarah and Steve Hilly Hundred” (or the “Double S, Double H” for short):

Click on the map to see a larger version

Once home, I was sore all over. Notice the sore spots as illustrated by the Ken doll below:

I used a Ken doll to illustrate my point because
I’m anatomically built much like him...unfortunately.

I decided an ice bath would be best for me and all my sore areas. So I filled the tub with one foot of the coldest tap water possible, and then added 10 pounds of ice.

Who made ice so cold?

It felt so good, except for certain parts.
You know...THOSE parts.

Now, all is well. I had a decent nights sleep and I’m recouping well. I’ll be ready to do another ride like this tomorrow! And by “tomorrow,” I mean “2008.”


p.s. Sarah and I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota the night before the ride, and I got warmed up for the ride on the bike-machine that you peddle in order to light up some lights and ring a bell. I could ding the bell easily after about 5 hefty peddle strokes. Sarah tried time and time again, but she couldn’t get that bell to ding. She was so frustrated. She’ll hate me for telling all of you that.

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