Today I did my first official cyclocross race. I went in to this race not knowing what to expect but mentally I was confident I'd get a top10. Everyone says cyclocross or CX is tough, from what I've seen on youtube and tv I believe "tough" to be a fair assumption. Since I'm a cat1 mountain biker I got a mandatory license upgrade in cyclocross from cat5 to cat4. . Because of this, I opted to skip the 4/5 race and just jump right in on the 3/4 race - go big or go home!!! :)
From Wikipedia: Cyclo-cross (sometimes cyclocross, CX, CCX, cyclo-X or 'cross) is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter (the international or "World Cup" season is October–February), and consist of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5 km or 1.5–2 mile) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike while navigating the obstruction and remount.[1][2] Races for senior categories are generally between 30 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions. The sport is strongest in the traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium (Flanders in particular), France and the Netherlands.
I "slept in" until 6:30am this morning. My race started at 12:20 and was only a 45 minute drive from the house so I had lots of time. I started my morning routine. Today's weigh in was 223, bhb was .5, and blood sugar was 82. My blood sugar was a little higher than normal so I assume that's why the bhb was at the bottom limit of ketosis. Not too sure what caused this, I did have quite a bit of vegetables last night for dinner the previous night so maybe that contributed?
Around 10:15am we headed for the race and arrived with plenty of time to get my number, snap some pictures, change, and then warm-up. Prior to warming up I took my pre-race cocktail, which has changed a little from previous cocktails. Today I was going to use some KetoCaNa instead of Ketoforce - both are by the same company, both are synthetic ketones, ketocana is their newest product and it's a powder instead of a liquid. Mixed with the ketocana was .7 serving of UCAN and some BCAA powder. The mix went down smooth and actually did not taste that bad at all.
I made the decision to use KetoCaNa based off this interview/podcast with the Patrick Arnold of Ketosports, maker of Ketoforce and KetoCaNa. The taste is day and night better in favor of KetoCaNa.
I finished my warm-up, approx 30 minutes of pretty light riding, and made my way to the start line. Since this was my first CX race I had no points and I was called up last. I was in the 4th row of close to 30 riders. With 30sec to start I remember thinking "Good thing I'm a really good starter, I'm going to have to burn some matches early if I plan to go with the leaders!"
At the start I quickly moved through the pack and was sitting in about 10th when we got the single track portion of the lap. After that 100yd section was complete I moved up to about 6th and ultimately, found myself sitting 3rd wheel in a pack of three, with a growing gap to 4th. I was in 3rd and we hadn't even gone 5 minutes yet! Did I mention I'm a good starter?
We continued widening the gap between us and those chasing. This went on for the first 10-12minutes when one of the guys in our 3 man group dropped off and then there was only two of us. I was working hard and the heat wasn't helping. I unzipped my jersey all the way to get as much air flowing over my body as I could.
Our race was scheduled for 40minutes. At about 32minutes in, our gap to 3rd and 4th had grown to about 20 seconds (I'm guessing 20 seconds, it was a sizable gap.) As we rolled through the start/finish the lap cards came out. "Oh crap" I thought, "we've got 3 more laps and these are 7-8minute laps. We're going to go way past 40 minutes!" Midway through the 3rd to the last lap, a gap opened between me and the guy I was working with. I'm now in 2nd and I'm on the rivet. If I close the gap I'll like blow-up and give up a lot of spots. I decide to let him go and just fight to hold my 2nd place.
With two laps to go, the gap had grown and I decided that I'd try and keep riding hard but defensive to protect my 2nd place spot. I damn sure am not closing the gap to 1st. My legs were burning, my heartrate was through the roof, and I was burning up. As I came through the start/finish I threw off my gloves so my hands could breath and hopefully help cool me a little more.
Rolling through the start/finish the lap card red "1 Lap To Go" and the officials were ringing the bell. I just put my head down and kept pedaling. I was keeping my gap on 3rd and 4th but the gap to 1st was still slowly growing. The guys in 3rd and 4th made a charge on the final lap and I knew I had to somehow step it up a little. Somehow, despite the heat, the high heart rate, and my screaming legs I held off the chasers and finished 2nd. Not a bad finish for my first cross race.
To say these races are intense is an understatement. While it was intense, the real killer for me was the heat. My Garmin showed an average of 93 degrees, not exceptionally hot, but a little hot for a big guy like me - I typically don't do well at high intensity and 90+ temperatures.
Looking at the power file, you can see a LOT of peaks well above VO2max. The first line going across is my average power (309 watts) for the race, the other line is the upper limit of VO2max (423 watts.) I need to do some different training if I'm going to do more of these races. My legs are smoked this evening.
Some who don't know about power asked how does this relate to heart rate. Seems everyone understands heart rate as it relates to intensity. I think my heart rate was a little higher today from the aerobic spikes but mainly because of the heat. These percentages are a little swayed because my cool down was included in on this power file.
So it was a good race, good story, but what's it got to do with ketosis? As I understand it, once you hit the tempo zone of power you start switching to glucose instead of fat/ketones. Lots of keto athletes and keto folklore say "you can't race high intensity in ketosis or with ketones." I suppose this is partly true - at higher intensities you burn glucose not ketones. I supplement with UCAN, but I want to make a point that you CAN indeed race these high intensity endurance disciplines while living a keto lifestyle in ketosis.
Here's a distribution of my power zones used today (like the heart rate one above but for watts.) Where the red line is drawn is the theoretical area where the body starts using in more and more glucose for fuel Even in a cyclocross race you still spend a significant amount of time in the lower ketone fueled zones. Technically, I could have done this without UCAN (I figure I have an hour or so worth of glucose available with no supplementation) but why would I do that if I have the UCAN and I know it won't knock me out of ketosis? If anything it helped rebuild my glucose stores or kept them from being to depleted.
Over my 7 weeks of ketosis I've done several spirited group rides, several intense training sessions, a road race, a track race, a crit race, and now a cyclocross race. Next weekend is a XC mountain bike race that I'm considering. To date I have found no issue with racing or training for any bike discipline while being in ketosis.
Keto on! -don
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