Day 22 - Week 3 Summary

Week 3 is now in the books and I'm starting to find a routine with this keto lifestyle (I'm not calling this a diet any longer.)  This last week was an active one, with over 10 hours of saddle time including a big group ride and several quality interval sessions.  Food is getting easier to visually measure.  My daily ketone measurements are pretty consistent and starting to constantly stay above 1.  As I stated above, I'm finding my routine.

On the food front things went well.  I was a little more hungry this week than the previous two.  I think it may be due to the up-tick in training/riding time and intensity.  When I am hungry, I'm not starving or having intense pangs like I once did, it's just a subtle feeling, sometimes accompanied by a little stomach growl.

I'm still working to keep the carbs at 25 grams net.  Really I'm trying to do it to 25g total but I'm finding that difficult so I go by net (total carbs - fiber = net carbs.)  On the weekend I had to take in more carbs because of the big ride Saturday.  I'm thinking the 25 net carb goal is working for me as I've been able to keep my daily ketone measures of blood and breath well in to the ketosis zone of .5 to 3.  I'll keep watching this through the week and next.

I'm still not really watching calories.  I watch them but I don't let them drive me.  I measure for carb grams and to make sure I stay within the 25 gram range.  The rest of the macro nutrients just seem to sort themselves out.  I'm still loosing weight, down to 228 lbs today (15 lbs total)  so when I stop or plateau I'll pay more attention to the total calories.  The last 3 days I have been at 228 but I'm not to worried because I abused my body badly on Saturday's ride and I have a feeling the stagnate weight readings are just my body's way of repairing itself.  My equator reading is currently 39", I lost another .5" around my midsection.  I can definitely feel that missing .5" in all of my clothes - it's NICE!!!

Last week saw some really good time in the saddle.  I did quite a bit of zone1 and zone2 work.  I did this for a few reasons.  First I wanted to spin my legs during the week and keep them loose before and after the workouts/rides.  Second, zone1 and 2 is where all the fat is burned and the mitochondria are conditioned.  Lastly, I need the saddle time.  All in all my body does not feel to bad after completing a good week of riding.  

Looking at my Training Peaks performance management widget, my training is way off.  My chronic training load is currently at 36.  It's kind of funny but indicative of where I am in my training this year.  To be blunt, I haven't done a lot of it nor have ridden much this year compared to past years.  This is typically in the 60's for Leadville it was in the 70's.  The good news is that it is trending back up to the "normal" zone.  The even better news, I'm still considered "fast" in an untrained state - this is truly exciting to me!  

Up top I mentioned I did a lot of zone1 and zone2 riding last week.  I'll likely continue that trend over the next few weeks as I try to ramp my training up (both volume and intensity.)  I have found through research, coaches, and personal experience that ramping up volume and intensity at the same time requires a watchful eye and a lot of caution.


Here's a shot of the volume and intensity (volume of various intensities) over the last few weeks.  Zone1 is at the bottom in the very light purple and then it works up from there. It should be re-stated that this is week 3 of keto for me.  You can see how these first 3 weeks went from a riding perspective. 

The charts and widgets from Training Peaks are helpful (and I'm sure WKO4 will be even more helpful when it's finally released for Windows) but you have to watch your body for signs that you are overdoing it.  I'm not going to get in to a discussion here about the signs but I'll be looking for theme especially considering the new keto lifestyle combined with an up-tick in training volume AND intensity.  This is really important and further compounded by my impatience for where I'm at and desire to get back to where I was in my conditioning and training.  Right now is the time I have to be really vigilant and listen to what my body is telling me.

It should be noted that very few people can successfully go on a calorie deficit and train well at the same time.  The two do NOT go hand in hand.  It is my experience that a good training plan and proper nutrition can elicit weightless but typically you can not restrict your calories and expect to lose weight AND make training progress.   Your results may vary.  


Today's post is long enough.  I'll sign off now.

Day 20 - Trial and ERROR

Earlier in the week my buddy Todd planted a bug in my ear to do the Bike Barn ride on Saturday.  After two good interval sessions during the week I decided last night to get up early and go with him.

This  morning I woke up at 5:30am and ran through my morning ritual: weigh, check blood ketones, log everything, and then meditate for 15 minutes.  With the ritual complete, I hit the coffee and started getting breakfast ready.  Weight this morning was 229, I picked up a pound in the last 24 hours - might have been the 6oz of cashews, walnuts, and almonds that I gorged on yesterday.  Blood ketones measured 1.2, right where I want them!  Ketonix read 59.  In another week or so I'll probably cut back this monitoring as it's starting to feel a little excessive and my levels are fairly consistent.

Interesting thing though probably not publicly correct but it's my blog so...  While I was meditating I was so relaxed I suddenly needed to go to the bathroom.  Held out as long as I could but with 1 minute to go I couldn't wait any longer.  When I was done in the restroom I got back on the scale just for shits and grins (no pun intended.)  My new weight was 227, a 2lb difference!  For those of you who are trying to max out your weight loss at each weigh-in, you might want to consider going to the restroom before hoping on the scale...

For breakfast I had a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of butter, 3 scrambled eggs, 3oz of salmon, and an ounce of Colby cheese.  I also had a cap of Elete electrolytes.

After breakfast I got dressed, loaded my jersey pockets, filled my bottles and got ready to leave.  Prior to leaving I took one serving of KetoForce.  For bike nutrition I took a small dropper-container of Elete, a 2oz bottle of MCT oil (2 servings), and for backup a small bag with about 2oz of almonds and Brazilian nuts.

I have a thing UCAN on the counter but opted not to take any.  This would come back to bite me in the ass later.  UCAN is a slow release "super starch" that a lot of keto endurance folk use to keep their glucose stores maximized during a performance event.  Some folks have reported not needing it as they get more keto adapted.  After my intervals sessions this week and the success I've been having with nutritional ketosis AND 10+ days in ketosis, I thought I'm good and I don't need that stuff!  <-- this is where the ERROR in trail and error started today!

I met Todd at 6:40 and we rode the 12 miles up to Bike Barn.  No issues there, it was an easy pace and we got their with 10 minutes to spare.  I felt good but I was a little nervous for how the day would go.  The route for today would take us 30-40 miles South West of our location.  My backup plan (calling my wife Michelle) would mean she is 30-50 minutes away if I needed her.

Here's the ride up to Bike Barn by the numbers:

At Bike Barn, the groups formed up and we pulled out of the parking lot a little after 7:30am the ride was on!  We had a good group of people and definitely some big motors in the field.

It took 1:22 to make the 31 mile trip from the Bike Barn to Wee-Mart, the halfway point of the ride.  The first 10 minutes were pretty tame and I spent a lot of that time up at the front talking to my friend Mickey.  After those 10 minutes passed, the pace started going up.  I was feeling really good when the day's antics started.

I spent much of the next 50 minutes chasing breaks, working with the breaks, and ultimately going a lot harder than I probably should have.  It didn't mater to me at the time, I felt great.  One thing I feel I have to mention, my breathing was stupid calm (like in the intervals earlier in the week - 45 breaths a minute) even when the watts were high and my heart rate was pegged.  This still amazes me.

I felt so good I bridged up to a break about a mile away from the intermittent sprint zone.  Once I bridged up I set in for a second when my buddy Todd came flying by.  The 3man break didn't have anything left to chase him down so i left them and bridged up to my buddy.  I passed him and kept going, no time to catch a breath because the field was in chase.  I still had a long way to go but just stayed on the gas.  I felt confident I had the win so I sat up and cruised up to the line.  Out of nowhere one of the guys came flying by me right at the line, it was really close but in my mind I got there millisecons before him -- good on him for not giving up and tracking me through the line.  Good lesson learned there for me!

Sprint segment:

Looking back this sprint from the first bridge to the end was a little over two and half minutes and I was wide open throttle the whole time.  This burned way to much of what little muscle glucose I had.  I'd pay for this later along with a few more big pulls and bridge ups and I did on the way to Wee-Mart.

After we got to the final road leading to Wee-Mart I pulled off and road easy the remaining 2.5 miles to the store.  I knew I had ridden hard and that we'd be taking a 10-15 minute break at the store, I needed to let my legs spin down.  I got to the store last, no biggie, it was a good spin down.

Ride from Bike Barn to Wee Mart:

At Wee-Mart I refilled my bottles with water and a cap of Elete in each.  I also took a 1 ounce shot of MCT oil.  I still felt good though I could tell I had been working.  We left Wee-Mart about 8 minutes after I got there and the legs were feeling good as we pulled out of the parking lot.

The pace for the next 30 minutes was easy and peaceful.  Eventually the speeds started going up again and this is where I started to feel that maybe I had gone a little too hard earlier and I might regret not taking the UCAN.  I was able to hang on the next 10 minutes but almost to the 10th minute things finally started going bad!

I was working with some guys in the front when I started feeling something in my chest, like a heartburn feeling.  It didn't hurt, it just didn't feel right and it came on quick.  I immediate let up and moved over to let everyone pass and just like that I was spit off the back of the group.  "It's going to be a long solo ride home" I thought.

Wee-Mart to Implosion:

After I imploded I backed it down and just rode an easy pace.  Eventually I was able to burp and I felt better, the heartburn feeling was gone.  Maybe it was the MCT oil?  I  didn't push my luck, really I couldn't push that hard anyways, so I limped my way back for the next 11 miles.  It now felt like I was in bonk mode.  When I tried to take the power up, my body would trip a breaker and the power would drop.  Along the way I broke in to my backup almond stash.  I wasn't hungry and I didn't want to eat almonds but figured I needed to eat something, plus these things have carbs!  I started feeling better but nothing like earlier in the day.  I was just done.  Michelle was waiting for me at Bike Barn and she help load my bike and get me home.  3.5 hours of riding and 70 miles, this ride is done!

The whole enchilada by the numbers:

When I got home I felt like shit and I definitely wasn't hungry.  I'm pretty sure my blood sugar was down but I didn't have any glucose strips to verify it.  This pissed me off a little because I've been "meaning" to pick some up for 2 weeks now...  I really wanted to know what my blood sugar was at this time but it wasn't going to happen.  After a shower I laid down for 30 minutes and felt a little better but by no means great.  That's when I decided  I need a boost!  I had a tablespoon of organic maple syrup.  Man it was sweet but so tasty.  10 minutes later I was feeling much better.  Maybe it was placebo, maybe it hit the spot, I just don't know but I do know I felt better.

Michelle cooked meatballs and made a keto cheese sauce to go with them.  I ate half a lb of that stuff and it tasted great.  Afterward I went to the drug store and finally bought some glucose strips.  By now, 3 hours had passed since I got off the bike and 45 minutes since I ate.  Blood sugar tested out at 85 so I guess it was good and that's why I felt better?  The Ketonix showed I was at 51.  I didn't test my blood ketones.

It's now been 4 hours since I ate and I feel pretty good.  It feels like I rode hard today but my legs aren't too bad and my body feels okay.

I've read that athletes take 4-7 weeks to fully adapt to ketosis and from there they continue to adapt and slowly start to use ketones at higher levels of performance, off setting glucose needs.  After today I am NOT fully adapted.  This is day 20 of ketosis journey so technically I'm not even 3 weeks in so it was a little naive for me to go out with out a carb helper this morning.

A couple takeaways from today:

• My body is not fully adapted to ketosis, 3 weeks is simply not enough to ride at the intensity I did today for 2+ hours.  While I learned a lot, going on this ride was not the smartest decision I've made of recent.  
• In the immediate future, if I'm riding more than an hour and a half, I'll be supplementing with UCAN.  
• I can still go hard on the bike while in ketosis, I just have to be a little more careful with the watts.
• I don't know what caused the heartburn feeling that shut me down.  I need a lot more experimentation as I have a ton to learn about what works and what doesn't where ketosis bike nutrition goes.  
• While maple syrup may not be ketosis friendly, it is good for a pickup when you're in trouble.  (it worth noting, 3 hours after taking th maple syrup, according to the ketonix, I'm still in ketosis.)  
• Don't procrastinate when you think about ordering testing equipment.
• I need to experiment with testing my blood sugar when I get off the bike.
• Don't let up until you cross the finish line, EVER!

I learned a lot today and I hope this is helpful to some of you.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  -don

Day18 - Interval Session 2

Well workout number 2 sucked.  I'm pretty sure it would have sucked regardless of the fuel - ketones, carbs, or alcohol.  First time I can recall doing over-unders this year.  An hour thirty worth of saddle time tonight with 30 minutes at intensity.

Today I felt pretty good.  I slept last night pretty well but still got up early.  Got on the scale this morning and was down to 229 lbs, I've broken in to the 220's!  

Legs felt recovered so I opted to workout today.  They were a little tired yesterday from the previous workout but today they felt fine.

I opted not to eat any food prior to the workout however I did take a shot of KetoForce and the standard 5 MAP Aminos.  I took these approx. 10min before I got on the bike.

For today's session I was inside on the trainer so I could control the workout.  I figured I'd do 20min of easy zone 1 and 2 to warm up to break in the legs followed by 2 sets of 15 minute over-unders.  This gives me 30min of volume which is what I figured I could pull off with my current fitness level.
After the 20 minutues of warm up, I loaded the over-under program and got to business.  This program has its own warm-up so 10 more minutes of easy riding to get ready.

The first session was tough.  I was breathing hard and my legs were feeling heavy after it was over.   I had 5 minutes to recover and get ready for the next.   The second was tough from the first 10 seconds through the end.  With one minute in, I was starting to wonder if I could finish 5 minutes let alone 15.  Taking it breath by breath and minute by minute, I pushed through and finished.  It's amazing what you can do when you break down such sessions of misery in to breaths or pedal strokes or whatever you can distract your mind with.  That 2nd 15 minute session was almost as tough as last weekend's scratch race, all that was missing was last weeks heat.

I pedaled for another 25 minutes to spin my legs and cool down.  It was a good workout but very tough.  I didn't bonk on this one so I think I'm far enough along the keto path to race and go on longer group rides.  Form what I've seen this week, I don't think being keto will be an issue, I won't know for sure until I do an actual race but I'm convinced I can still train and perform while being in ketosis.


Warm-up Session

Interval Session

Day 17 - The Day After

I woke up this  morning, early, again.  This is now 3 days in a row that I've woken up around 3am.  I was able to get back to sleep today but it took awhile.  Not sure what's going on here.

This morning I was officially down to 230 lbs and my blood ketone measure was at 1.7, ketonix said 52.  It seems the more intense or longer sessions on the bike peak the blood ketones the next day.  No science here just a general observation.

Legs are a little heavy today but not too bad.  They don't hurt they just feel like they got a little workout yesterday.  Overall I feel pretty good.  Not sure if I'll do intervals today or maybe a recover ride, I've got options and I'll do something.  Two interval sessions a week should be enough for the next two weeks as I work my way back up the volume ladder.

Did I mention how exciting it is to be training and have the genuine desire to train again?  This has been something I've been missing for well over a year now.  It's pretty damn cool to be paired up with my old friend.  While the velodrome got me re-engaged with cycling, the world of keto opportunities has given me back my desire to cycle.

Last night after dinner I went and sat in the hot tub for a bit.  It was relaxing to just watch the rain fall from the porch covered tub.  I've been doing this for a few weeks now (obviously not so much watching the rain) and I haven't felt that relaxed in a while.  I think it had to do with the intervals from earlier in the night.

For breakfast I didn't really feel the need to eat but I went on my morning pilgrimage with my buddy to grab some eggs, bacon, and cheese anyway.  Ate the bacon (about and ounce) and cheese (another ounce) and maybe two of the generous serving of 4 or so eggs.  I threw the rest out.  It would probably be better if I didn't eat but at the same time I didn't eat it all nor did I stuff myself.  As the days go by and I'm more mindful of what I eat, it gets easier to walk away from food without feeling like I need to eat all of it.

One other thing I've mentioned before but it's worth mentioning again, my attitude is getting a lot more even keeled.  I don't struggle with mood swings near as bad as I was.  I'm assuming this has to do with the more consistent blood sugar?  I'll keep an eye on this, but it's a huge benefit that I didn't consider before.  This benefit alone (if eating keto was evening out my mood swings) going keto would be worth the journey.



I've gotten 4-5 request now from friends who want to take their own keto journey and are looking for some assistance.  I'll probably put together something in the next few days to help people get more information so they can determine if this is good for them.  There's a lot of people who fail on HFLC and I believe it's because they weren't properly educated on the pitfalls and the work it takes to get in to ketosis.  It's my recommendation that if you do want to go this route, don't do it because of what you read here, get educated on the topic a little before you decide.  This will greatly improve your chances of success.  More on this in the coming days.  For now my standard reply is grab a copy of Keto Clarity and/or Keto Power and give them a read.  Both are really good books and quick reads.  

Day 16 - Training Starts

For whatever reason my legs were feeling a little heavy today.  Not sure what that was all about but it didn't stop me from knocking out an interval session.

I decided to chance it and not eat prior to the workout.  I had lunch around noon (1/lb of brisket and 1.3oz of macadamia nuts) and I wasn't hungry when I got home.  I did take 5 MAP amino pills about 20 minutes before I started.

I loaded a program, loaded the bike in to the computrainer, and turned the fans on.  The workout today was 3x10 minute threshold intervals in ERG mode.  I did these on the lower end of threshold, upper end of sweet spot - giving myself a little buffer considering it's been awhile since I've done 3x10 at full threshold.  There was supposed to be 5 minutes off between sets though between sets 2 and 3 the break was 10 minutes.

Going in to this I really didn't know what to expect.  Not eating prior to the workout didn't sit well with me but I figured I'd take the training wheels off and see what we had.  Worse case I'd implode, best case I'd get through the session.

Set one was uneventful.  I felt it but nothing too bad.  Breathing was surprisingly low copared to my heart rate.  I counted my breaths for two minutes (I do this as something to distract me from the discomfort of the intensity) and I averaged 49 breaths a minute.  That's less than a breath a second and my HR was in the 170's.  It's just amazing to me how "slow" I breath now...

Set two got a little more uncomfortable midway through.  I started counting breaths again.  This time it was 46 breaths.  46!?!?  At the end I was feeling it but I knew I had more.  Frankly I was thinking I might bonk in the middle of set 2 but it never came.  Never even felt like I was going to bonk.  "this is really good" I thought!

Set 3 and all was well for the first few minutes.  These were starting to drag me down.  My cadence was dropping a little and I could feel my legs starting to fatigue, not bad, just starting to get that 'we're not fresh anymore' feeling.  I started counting breaths 51 this time.  The last 4 minutes I just focused on my breath.  Yes, I got this idea from meditation and it works for me.  It got me up Columbine last year at Leadville.  I finished out the set and my legs felt like they might have another set in them.

Set 4 didn't come.  No sense digging a training hole. I haven't done a lot threshold work over 5 minutes this year so doing 40 minutes worth today on my new keto system probably isn't in my best interest.

I was quite pleased with today's work.  I really thought there was a good chance I'd bonk on set 2 and if I made it to 3 I really didn't know what would happen.  I got through all 3 and I feel pretty damn good afterwards despite the puddle of sweet on the mat under the bike.  This workout has me excited about what's to come!

Everyone keeps telling me it's going to take 4-6+ weeks to get fully adapted.  I supposed I'm not fully keto adapted but my bike performance is coming back and I'm making ketones.  I was at .9 this morning, been above .5 for about 10 days now.

Ketonix readings were 35 prior to the start of the workout.  39 ten minutes after the workout.  48 three and half hours after the workout.

For the purposes of this blog and to help others I'm going to continue posting my top-secret workouts and power numbers for the next few weeks.  In all seriousness, I don't really care that I'm sharing this with anyone, power numbers mean nothing if you can't go when you need to go or you can't suffer to hold on.  

For those of you who geek out on the interval breakouts.

Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, going to see how my legs feel and we'll go from there.  So much to figure out....

Day 15 - First Two Weeks Summary

That's a wrap on week 2 and I'm on to week 3.  This morning I got on the scale and I was at 231.  Twelve pounds lighter in two weeks.  The 'tell of the tape' showed I lost 2" from my equator (midsection around my waist at the belly button)  in these two weeks.  It was 41.5" on the 10th of August and this morning I am 39.5".  I can definitely tell my pants are fitting better.  This morning I could actually gather some space and make a little gap at the front once my slacks were fastened.   That's really encouraging to see.  Looking at some previous records, I was at 39.5" equator earlier this year I'm still 5lbs heavier than I was when that measurement was taken in January.

I measure my blood ketones (BHB) each morning when I get up.  I got over the magical .5 the first week on day 4 I believe but I didn't start measuring in the morning until last Saturday on day 6.  I struggled to find when is the best time to test.  Since I couldn't find anything that definitively said when to test, I just decided to do it when I wake up.  Here's how the blood test shake out.

I also acquired a Ketonix breathalyzer.  I got that last week.  Though the instructions are quite simple and the device is equally as simple, it's been a learning curve for me to figure out how to use it.  I got it down now.  I use this device several times a day when I'm home but I only log one blow in the afternoon.  The Ketonix info says breath and blood ketones won't necessarily be in alignment and I'm finding that to be true.  No big deal, I just need to find out what the base line is.  Down the road I can see using the Ketonix and maybe only checking blood when I'm stuck, sick, or maybe for a weekly routine check?  I'll figure that out as I go.  From a use perspective, the Ketonix is pretty easy to use and seemingly reliable once your figure it out.  I'm staying pretty steady at 48ish.

Food wise, things are going well. I have a lot less hunger cravings and when they do come on they are more subtle than before.  Kind of like "Hey Don we should probably eat when you get a minute" instead of "STOP, GET FOOD NOW!"  When I do eat, I don't stuff myself.  I eat until I have enough.  I guess the best way to describe it is that if you're feeling your gas tank in your car, you fill it to 3/4's or 7/8's but not completely full and I definitely don't pack it.  I'm conscious of the calories but I don't let them drive me especially over these two first two weeks. I did track my calories but it was more of a side effect from tracking my carbs.  I was working to keep my net carbs as close to 25 as I could.  I gave myself a little leeway these last two weeks because I frankly didn't know what I was doing.  My main goal for week one and two was to get in to ketosis.  I think I'm there.

Interesting story, I woke up early Sunday morning around 5am.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and started working on this blog (I'm obsessive.)  I had a few cups of black coffee and at 10am Michelle and I went and rode an easy 90 minutes on our bikes.  We were home by noon and I while I hadn't eaten yet, I still wasn't hungry.  I had been up over 6 hours, rode the bike 90 minutes (albeit easy) and I hadn't eaten nor did I have hunger pangs.  This is not the norm for me and truthfully I typically get a little irritated and short when I don't eat, especially in the morning as my blood sugar drops.  I was cool as a cucumber and not hungry that morning.  We did eventually eat lunch a little after noon.

Along with this story another interesting thing happened.  I got on the scale after we got home from our ride.  I was at 226lbs.  I didn't sweat a lot on the ride, it was an easy ride.  Not sure where the weight went and how it came back this morning?  Maybe water weight?  None the less, I weigh myself in the morning after I get up (to keep it a constant time of the day) so I didn't count the 226 weigh in as it was outside the normal measuring time.  The scale didn't lie but I'm in this for the long haul so official weight wise, that measurement didn't count.  It was REALLY freaking cool to see though!!!

Here's how the last two weeks went from a tracking standpoint.  Exercise calories are based of kilojules from my power meters, I may have rounded them up to the nearest 10 but they are in line with the power file.  I use my fitness pal to track everything I eat, they've got a pretty dang good database.

I stated above I was obsessive, I have two of these scales, one at work, one at home.  It's crazy how "off" my visual calorie guesstimates were.  Thanks to the scales and Myfitnesspal.com, I'm getting re-calibrated at guesstimating.

Food wise, if you want to know what I eat, here's a link to my myfitnesspal food journal.  You might notice I do enjoy the ribeye.  Keep in mind, I'm trying to figure out what works for me, how much I need, and how much I can have.  This is a journey and I'm sharing it with you so that you may have less struggles while on your journey.

Cycling wise, my energy is coming back.  I'm really pleased about this.  Saturday's race showed I could still race on the track which are short and very intense races.  I have a feeling this is going to be a great week on the bike.  I'm actually quite excited to start training again.  I want to see what we can do.  "I'm excited to start training again" is not something I've said and meant in over a year.  I'm genuinely excited now!   There will be another post shortly talking more about what I have experienced with training and while on the bike over these last few weeks.  

Christopher Kelly over at Nourish Balance Thrive is a professional mountain biker who's been living keto for 3 years now.  He sent me a link to a great  youtube video about endurance performance on a Keto diet.  The bottom line I took from the video, give your body a few weeks (4-6) to adapt and you will perform at the same level as you were prior to going keto.  Not only will you perform at the same level, you can keep getting better just as you would on a more 'traditional' training diet.

One of the biggest challenges has been with not drinking and frankly it hasn't been to big of a challenge as long as I stay mindful.  I talked about that in the week 1 summary post.  Michelle and I attended a pool party this weekend and we didn't drink.  The crazy thing was - the party didn't stop, we still had fun, and everybody respected our decision.  It was good to see and talk with all of our friends.  We didn't shut the party down but we had a good time without drinking.  I can't say that I will be a life long non-drinker but I'm okay with not drinking for now.


This post is getting long so I'll close for now with a summary.  Two weeks down, I've shaken the low-carb flu and I'm feeling great.  Hunger is not something I have to deal with now as I'm never really hungry.  My mood is a lot less volitale which probably has something to do with the blood sugar.  Weight is coming off and my midsection is getting smaller.  Bike performance is coming back and I'm excited about training again.  These two weeks have not been bad at all and I'm looking forward to the next two!

Thanks for reading -don

Day13 - Master Reginonals Scratch Race

I made it out to the velodrome to race.  I decided I'd skip all the events and focus on the 8k Scratch Race today.  I love the kilo but I'm not to sure my knee is going to be happy with me on the start.  I hurt my knee a few weeks ago and have been somewhat nursing it back to health.  The logic today is let's see how we do in the scratch and if we do well, we'll race the points race tomorrow.  I had already decided that my knee can't take any sprints and individual pursuits.

Got in 15 minutes of warm up on the track with my race gear.  I felt reasonably well, the gear (92") seemed a little tall but it's been a month and half since I've been on the velodrome so this is normal.

They called us up and we made our way up to the top of the wall.  It was a good strong field.  My buddy Todd was in there.  A couple stars and stripe jersey (as in national master track champion jerseys) as well as a couple of stout looking racers I hadn't seen before.  I remember thinking "this might not be the smartest thing I could be doing right now."  Quickly I shut those thoughts down and focused on the task at hand, we got 24 laps and I came to compete.

It's a strange thing, that mindset you go in to right before you race.  You push away all the fears and uncertainties and you get a degree of swag in your attitude as you shift in to knowing you can and will win this race.  Despite having no idea what my body would do or if I could put out the watts I would need or hold the intensities I was going to need, I was in that "this is my f'n race" mindset.  Man, I miss this mindset, it's been a while, since Leadville last year when I truly felt that way.

We had a good field of strong riders but everyone including me had John Murazak marked.  He's just a bad dude and a favorite to win whatever he shows up to.  Since everyone  had him marked and getting his wheel was not going to be easy I decided to stay out front and either control the race or be in a place that I could respond without getting blocked in.

As expected John was the primary attacker.  He launched several attacks.  The first 3 were covered well and I chased him down with the group in tow twice.  His last attack came so viciously by the time he got around me at the front he was doing 30+ and accelerating hard while I was doing 24 or so he and another guy managed to breakaway before I could cover or respond.  I gave chase for a lap and when I looked back for help, I was solo.  I pushed harder to get on to the 2 person break.  Half a lap and I got to within 15 meters and backed off the power.  I knew I could bridge but if I did I'd be done and unable to respond to anything else that came.

Here's a video of how wicked Murazak's attacks were.  This video is from my friend Luke who was also in the field.

As I backed down the power, I looked back and had a big gap on the next chasing group.  I decided not to wait from them and I'd just fight it out in no-mans land until they caught me.  I remember thinking "it's a long shot but maybe I can hold them off".

A couple laps later I'm still maintaining my gap and John spits his breakaway partner off his wheel.  I quickly catch him, he's done and go by.  I'll be getting no relief from him.  My gap on the chasers is still holding.  Maybe, there's a chance.

The next couple of laps were misery as the heat and the intensity were starting to get to me.  I was way in the red and maybe my mind was a little stronger than my body.  With about 6 laps to go I had my skinsuit unzipped and I slung off my visor to get as much airflow as I could.  Forget aero I need air.

The laps click down and I get to 3 laps.  I'm hurting by now, way in the red.  "1 kilo, you got this Don" I assure myself.  My gap on the chasing group is still good and they are now down to two riders.  This is really looking like I can hold out for second.

The final lap and I know the chasers are coming I see them go.  I try to push the watts a little more.  I'm so far in the red I don't feel much surge coming from the orders I issue my body.  I tell myself that's all we got just keep pushing.  I get to turn 4 and see the home stretch, so close. I turn to look and 3rd has broken away from 4th but has opted to sit up because he knows he can't catch me!  That's the most awesome thing I've seen all day and I know I can finally back it down as 2nd is now mine.

When I got to the pits my core temp was high.  It took me a long time to cool off and settle down.  I felt like shit most of the rest of the day.  Michelle took me home shortly after the race and after a shower I laid around a bit.

One of the interesting things from this race, despite the heat, despite the intensity, my breathing was controlled the whole time.  This has got to be the ketosis.  I was hurting and yet I wasn't on the very edge of hyperventilating like I normally am.

Looking at my performance file, I'm not impressed with my performance.  Obviously I did well enough to pull off a second but the performance file says I have got some fitness to work on.  First my cadence was low, which is telling because I didn't have enough power to keep it up in the 110-115's where it should have been.  I normalized at 398 for this 13 minute period, that should have been 420 or higher.  That's the critic in me though, a good placing isn't enough I've got to analyze the hell out of it and figure out how to improve.

In all truthfulness, I'm incredibly happy with the race and the results.  These days I throw around the word training a lot but I'm not doing a lot of training, its more like maintaining.  Less than 2 weeks ago I started the switch from glucose to ketones.  I haven't spent a lot of time on the bike (definitely not with any intensity) this last month since we went to the Bahamas and then starting this diet.  All things considered, it's a pretty damn good feeling to know I got on the podium.  

One big take away from this race is that if I make ketosis a way of life, I can still race at the velodrome.   This gives me a whole new level of excitement for this journey I'm on.

Day12 - Down 11lbs

This morning, 11 days in and I'm down 11lbs total by the scale's reading and a total of 1.75" around my equator to 39 3/4. Most of the weight up to this point has been water weight so I expect going forward I'll be chiseling out up the fat. My dress pants are fitting me better. Last night's bike interval session was much improved over the last weeks performances. It's hard to not get discouraged that the weight doesn't just fall off but it's coming off rather rapidly for weight-loss. I'm not morbidly obese and I'm pretty damn healthy so these numbers are pretty good.

Performance wise, I like what's happening. As the previous post states, things are improving and coming back to 'normal' on the bike. To perform in the upper zones (3-6) you have to utilize that minute store the body has of glucose. It seems I still have it and a good store of it in my muscles. This is good. Is it enough to race? I don't know but we're going to have to experiment. Everything I read says it's going to take 1-3 months for my body to adjust once I hit ketosis. This excitement could be premature as this is only day 11. This shit is more exciting than the week leading up to an A-race...


*** It should be noted, my legs are a little heavy today. Not hurting, just heavy and tired. I ordered some MAP aminos that are supposed to help with that. They'll be here today and I'll implement them pre-ride as recommended going forward.

Day11 - A Test

Great workout tonight with no bonk. For the first time at high intensity, I felt like old self. Not exactly sure if this is because I'm settling in to the ketosis or because I took a tbs of MCT oil tonight before the workout. I was feeling a little tired at work today too so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised though when the workout was done.

This is a little workout I do pre-race, and since regional masters track is this weekend, it was a good primer. Actually it was a test to see if I would even consider racing this weekend. All things checked out and I think I'm physically good (or good enough) to race. 

A really interesting thing was how fast my hr was coming down after each interval. It didn't go as high either. Best of all, my breathing was much more controlled. I've noticed the control breathing a few times over the last two weeks when I rode. Typically in zone5 I'm breathing right at 65-75 breaths a minute. Today I was at 50-60. Yes, I count breaths, it's a distraction and something to focus my mind on. Anyhow, pretty interesting and very welcomed. 

Red - 3 weeks ago
Green - today

Now I have to decide, race or no race.

Day 9 - Went on a Group Ride

Swallowed my pride and went to ride with the guys tonight. I wasn't expecting much though I'm feeling a lot better. Truth be told I expected to get dropped out of my normal lead group and draft off the guys in the chasing groups - this is not what I'm accustomed to.  

Did a warm up lap with my buddy Todd at an easy pace and then met up with the guys. 10min in Jimbo attacked, I was able to bridge to him with a few other guys. We were working together and determined I felt reasonably good. When I bridged up the acceleration was there, like normal. We got to the final overpass and Jimbo attacked again and I was the only one who bridged up to him. The others caught the light so he and I worked together fighting the wind and opening the gap for the next 10 or so minutes. 

Here's a power snippet of that break.



Shut it down after that and limped my self back home. I was spent but I could have gone more, though not at that level. No sense digging a hole that would need some extra recovery tiime. While not my best performance of the season, the diesel has its turbo's back and might have enough boost to race Masters Regionals this weekend in a race or two. 

All in all, it looks like the power is coming back around, I definitely couldn't do this last week though I'm still quite a bit off from where I was when I started this odyssey. It might take few more weeks to get things more evened out but this is a good sign. That San Jac crit is starting to look like a possibility!

Michelle Hits the Wall

Funny little thing happened yesterday. Michelle (my wife) has changed her eating style too along with me. She's not tracking carbs and doesn't really care too. I think her eating style would be classified more Paleo than Keto as she is eating less fat and more protein and pretty low amount of carbs. Anyhow, Paleo eaters get the carb flu too. 

Yesterday we were riding an easy 1 hour of zone2 and she couldn't make it 20minutes before she was having issues. I noticed early on she was not comfortable and seemed to be working harder than normal. Even at 60% of her FTP she had no power in her. We lowered the resistance wattage significantly and she was still struggling. Finally she said "something's wrong with the bike or the trainer or the computer because this is way too hard." I got on her bike and pedaled for 20-30 seconds. It was okay, nothing wrong. She just finally hit that "no energy" spot where you got no strength or power. She didn't get back on the bike and called it a day. 

She'll ride again tomorrow and we'll see if her strength is back. I'm assuming it'll return by the weekend. Luckily for me, mine dropped off but no where near that bad and it appears to now be coming back. I think it's because I ride a lot more than her, but that's just an assumption.

Day8 - Week1 is in The Books

Week1 is in the books and I made it through the week (including the weekend) without beer, alcohol, and consuming many carbs. I managed to get in a little over 6 hours of saddle time (more on this in a minute.) The toughest part of the week was getting over two huge hurdles. 1. How am I ever going to force myself to eat this much fat  2. I'm not okay with my bike performance suffering for a bit. Once I got over those two things I was at ease with the decision to go high fat low carb (HFLC.) 

After week one I'm down to 235 this morning. Most of this is supposed to be water weight. That's 8lbs, seems to go along with everything I read about the first week. Measuring around the center of my equator (waist at the belly button) I went from 41.5" last Monday to 40" this morning. I can feel a difference in my work pants already, there's no micro-muffin top this morning. 

Energy wise and side effect wise, I'm still getting small headaches but these are easily fixed with some water and electrolytes.  (I'm using Elete for this.)  This is reported normal as your body makes the switch from carbage to ketones. I'm hopeful I adapted this week but it could take 2-3 weeks. From what I read, unfortunately, the more athletic you are the longer it can take. At the same time, the lower carb eater you normally are, the faster it can happen. I'm athletic but also eat lower carbs typically. Today I have energy (less than what I had two weeks ago) though I do find myself laying around more. I'm not sure if this is because my energy is down or because I'm just bored with not being able to drink or cram food in my face? All in all, I'm not struggling with energy or the side effects, my transition seems mild compared to others.

Riding this last week has been disappointing though when I look at the numbers from the workout, it hasn't been that bad. Everything I've read and talked with others says my performance is going to go down until I adapt and then it could still be down a little while after that. This is the hardest thing for me to accept. I rode in my typical tues/thurs pre-ride last week and I could feel I wasn't right. Tues a thurderstorm forced us to go home early before the group met up. Thurs I opted to ride solo because I could feel I just didn't have that punch I'd need to ride normally. My HR was a little higher at endurance and tempo paces. It was through the roof at threshold and above. This is not normal for me. Also I didn't have that ability to stay on the gas like I used to have, at least I didn't feel like I did. 

I say I didn't feel like I did BUT when I was on the trainer in the lab on two different occasions I said "lets just hold it wide open" and I was able to hold 450 watts for 2 minutes. On all my rides I averaged 230-250 for the ride so it wasn't that bad. I'm not sure what's going on here, is this real or placebo because I read that my performance would drop? I really don't know. I will say I feel really different now when I'm on the bike. 

Different in that my breathing is different. Even at 170-180bpm, my breathing is noticeably slower and deeper. I'm probably breathing half as many breaths as before - maybe not half but it's noticeably less. It'll be interesting to see how this continues. I read that a lot of the hard breathing athletes do when they're working is from the lactate their body is producing and trying to get rid of. It says the breath is where some lactate is expelled. I haven't confirmed that but it could explain why my breathing has changed. I'll dig in to this later in the week.

I seem to sweat a lot more right now when riding. Not sure why but sitting in the lab I was puddling up the floor with endurance and light tempo work. Turning it up to zone6 made streams of sweat come off of me. Going to have to look in to this one too.

I was going to write-off Track Regionals this weekend but based off reviewing my training logs for the week, I may go just to see if I am indeed powerless or what. I'll decide later this week. 

A lot of the info on the web about HFLC and endurance is not based on racing cyclist but rather triathlon, runners, and t-shirt ride cyclist. It's hard to take information from someone who rides but doesn't race (the two are completely different) so I don't know how much of these things I'm reading hold truth. Because of that, I will document my findings so maybe someone can benefit.

A week with out beer wasn't too bad. After taking some time away and paying attention to my habit or desire to have one, I think the desire to drink may just be a bad habit that I've programmed in to my everyday. I really don't crave a beer, I just go for it as a habit. When I notice I want a beer it's not so much that I "want a beer" but rather it's just something that I do at that time or because nothing else is going on. I'm working to unprogram that response and surprisingly it's a pretty easy one to get away from. 

Week1 in the books. Bike performance not to degraded but definitely different. Carbo-flu hasn't hit me to hard. Eating fat wasn't near as bad as I thought and it's quite filling. Not having beer is not life ending. Week one was a little better than I expected.

Day5 - 9lbs Down?

Interesting thing, stepped on the scale this morning I was 234. 9lbs in 5 days?!?! From what I read, this is not uncommon if you do HFLC correctly. It's mostly water, a side effect of getting off glucose. 

I was able to ride last night but my power was still not normal. The fuel pump is unclogged but the turbos still are not working. Got in 80min even though I would have rather rested. Lethargy is still present but I'm feeling a little better especially after the ride yesterday. This weekend will be a challenge since it'll be the first that I don't have a beer in hand or near by.

Day4 - I'm Doing This

Day4 of counting calories and it's been a little eye opening how much I'm shoving down the ole cake-hole. Best guestimate is that I was previously consuming approx 4,000 calories a day. Even on a good day with a 2 hour ride, that was at least 500 more than I was burning. Now I see why there's a lot of big belly folks riding hellacious amounts of miles each week. It's easier to ride than limit your food intake. 

I did this back in 2008 when I was trying to get down from almost 300lbs. It appears somewhere between then and now my built in calorie counter has gotten way out of calibration. 

I quit drinking (for now) on Sunday night. Last night was the first night I actually wanted a beer. It's hard to go from having a couple each night to having none. We'll have to see how this weekend goes as it'll be a test of my will power to not drink especially on the weekends. Maybe there will be lots of naps in my coming weekends?

Monday I switched to eating HFLC (high fat low carb) keto style. I figure I'll give this a go for a month and see if the hype is real. I did Paleo to get down to 198 and a bout 7% bodyfat. This keto style seems to be a lot more aggressive so who knows where it'll go. I'm hopefully optimistic that it still allows me to ride hard on the bike. Only time will tell. Trying to consume 25g or less of net carbs has been challenging. F'n carbs are in everything. 4 days of primarily eating meat, cheese, and eggs and all I can say is these foods are freaking awesome! I haven't eaten meat fat in a long time. Had a untrimmed ribeye the other night, damn! I forgot how flavorful that fat was. Same with some brisket yesterday, black crusted fat on some juicy brisket = mouth orgy. 

Started producing some ketones yesterday. Finally up to .4mcl last night. Supposed to take 3-7 days to start making them so hopefully today will be the day shit gets popping.

Got on the scale Monday morning and I was 243. This morning I'm at 238. I'm assuming that's a lot of water weight gone. At this point I'll take it since I'm still in a little state of shock after seeing the 240's flash on the little LED. 

Got on the bike and rode an hour at low tempo. It was f'n tough and had to force myself to keep going. I wasn't struggling, it didn't hurt, I just didn't have any power/energy. Felt like I bonked and was just riding to get finished. This is to be expected especially this early in, hopefully it gets better over the next couple of days. No racing for me this weekend. Hopefully the diesel motor adjust to these ketones, state track regionals are next weekend at the velodrome and The Battle of San Jac crit is in a month. Not to mention CX coming up. If I want to race something has got to change before those races as my big diesel motor is currently without it's turbos and the fuel pump appears to be clogged...