Day 50 - Week 7 Summary

Yesterday completed week 7 and I gotta say I'm starting to like what I see!  The bodyfat is slowly coming off.  I was looking in the mirror this morning and for once in long while I was quite pleased with what I saw.  This is coming from someone with BDD, I never like the mentally distorted imagine I see when I look in to the mirror.

This morning the scale said 222, up two pounds from Saturday's 220 but I'm finding that I put on weight 2-3 days after an intense race (probably something to do with the damage repair my body is doing?)  Measuring the equator, I got yet another 7-week surprise, I was at 37.8 around  my waist.  This is down .5" from last Monday's measurement and almost 5" from where I started just 7 weeks ago!

Excited about the mirror and the tape, I decided to try on an old pair of my 36" waited dress pants for work today.  I was rewarded with a little more euphoria when they fit me - no muffin top, no "sucking it in" to clasp them, and they just fit as tailored dress pants should.  This week is starting out well!

Last week I reached out to the folks over at Nourish Balance Thrive for a quick chat about calories, blood-work, and potential diet guidance.  I spoke with Chris and ultimately decided to utilize their services.  (More on their services in coming blog entries.)  After speaking with them I've decided to work with them to get some professional guidance in getting my calories dialed in.  I'm doing this because I'm really not sure how many carbs I should be eating let alone how many calories I should be taking in.  On the bike, when I train, I could use up anywhere from 450 calories to in excess of 3,000 in one session.

I'm hoping to work with the folks at NBT to figure out how many calories I should be eating on a daily basis and then how many I should be adding based off of the workout(s).  Equally I'm hoping they can help me dial in my carb needs.  To be clear, I "think" I've done well with my own experimentation over these last 7 weeks, but I want to make sure I've got things figured out and dialed in for my body and my body's needs.  Again, more on this as we go along.


Food wise, not a lot to report from last week.  Michelle made some chocolate mousse this weekend that was magnificent!  Not only did it taste good, it didn't knock me out of ketosis.  That's about the highlight for eating.  One other thing worth noting.  I've been drinking a lot of Crystal Light mix in my water.  This doesn't seem to have to any effect on my blood sugar or ketosis but it does make me feel like a kid drinking kool-aid.  There's no calories and no sugar though I refuse to completely read the label and contents simply because it's not jacking up my blood sugar or knocking me out of ketosis so no need to potentially ruin a good thing by reading what I'm really ingesting.  :)


Food Log (week 7)

Training wise I took it somewhat easy again last week.  For the week I ended up with a hair under 9 hours of volume, mostly light.  Truth be told, it's Monday and my legs, glutes, and back are still sore from Saturday's cyclocross race.  I did a light ride yesterday (Sunday) with Michelle on the trainer to help spin my legs and ride out some of the stiffness.  Today they feel much better so I'll either ride easy or I'll take the day off.  I expect to get in two interval sessions this week.

There's an XC mountain bike race on Sunday.  I'm expecting to race it, XC is my main focus in cycling though I haven't done much of it this year.  This should be a really good test of everything though I have to admit I'm a little worried.  Despite all my recent racing, training, and nutrition success, I haven't been on a mountain bike on the dirt in months, MONTHS!   Hopefully, racing XC on the dirt is like riding a bike, once you learn you never forget - you just get back on the bike and ride...


Training Log (week 7)

Intensity Log (last 4 weeks)

Day 47 - Cyclocross Race

Cyclocross race in ketosis, no problem!

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 8:30am I had breakfast - bacon, eggs, salami, and some raw broccoli - a nice keto race breakfast!  I added a little extra "meat" since I had a while until my race and I knew I wouldn't be eating again.

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

Day 42 - Week 6 Summary

I made it, today marks the end of 6 weeks of being on a keto lifestyle.  Going in to this I just wanted to see if I could do a keto diet for 6 weeks and then re-evaluate.  To be honest, I thought it would be a lot harder than it turned out to be.  I really didn't know what to expect.

6 weeks later and I'm planning to keep this lifestyle for the foreseeable future.  While I miss beer, sweets, and bread, ultimately after being away from them for 6 weeks I'm okay without them.  As I've studied and learned more about nutrition and ketosis along the way, I don't know if I want to put the sugar and alcohol in my system.  When you look at how these substances affect your body it's hard to justify going back.

I'm noticeably slimmer and slimming more each day.  Veins are starting to show throughout my legs and arms and the outline of my core and its various components are starting to show.  Even though the scale isn't showing me the numbers I want to see, the mirror is.  I'm very happy with the progress I've made over these last 6 weeks.

____________________


Week 6 was an interesting week.  I saw my weight come down from 225 to 223 and then hover at 223 most of the week.  This morning I had a huge keto present, my blood ketones were 2.9 and my weight was 220!  I haven't seen 220lbs in well over a year.  That's a total of 23lbs in 6 weeks.  While it hasn't necessarily been steady, when you do the math, that's almost 4lbs a week in weight loss.

Food wise the calories took care of themselves.  I eat when I'm hungry and I eat to satiety (maybe a hair past satiety) and my desire to eat habits are slowly disappearing.  On multiple days this week I skipped a meal because I simply wasn't hungry.

The last three days (Friday through Sunday) I've had more carbs than normal.  I'm wondering if this has something to do with this morning's weight loss?  It's definitely something to consider as I play with the macros again this next week.

Food Log Week 6

Training wise I had planned to do a recovery week and take it easy this week.  I did several easy zone1 rides early in the week.  On Wednesday, I went on our weekly group ride and even though I knew it was a recovery week I went out and got caught up in a hammerfest.  I know better than to go with the group when I'm trying to ride easy and yet I went anyways.  I felt really good though, fresh, and very strong while mixing it up with the guys.  It was pretty incredible how well I felt especially while attacking.

I needed a recovery week because last weekend I did the road race and in the weeks leading up to that race I had upped my training time and intensity each week.  Further, I wanted fresh legs for the crit races I had planned to do this weekend.  For the most part it was a recovery week and on Saturday I was pretty fresh for the crit races.   The crits got their own blog write-up.  You can see in the logs below I spent a lot of time last week in zone1.

Training Log Week 6

 Volume Log Last 5 weeks

Going in to week 7 I think I'll do another light volume, light intensity week where training is concerned.  I have a cyclocross race next weekend so I'd like to be fresh for it.


6 weeks down and 23lbs lost and still able to race.  The keto lifestyle is legit!

Day 41- Keto Crit Race x2

Today I did two crit races.


The day started out at 5am as I got up and went through my morning ritual.  Weight was 223, BHB was 1.0, and blood sugar was 64.  Breakfast was at 6am where I had some eggs with pepperoni and colby cheese.  

I was meeting my buddy Todd at 8:30 to ride up to the race.  This race was literally a "local" race, only 5 miles from the house.  Todd races a different class and his race was at 10am, mine wasn't until 11am.  Michelle was taking the car up to the venue so I packed my race bag and threw it in her car.

In my bag, food wise, was .7 scoop of UCAN with some BCAA powder, and a serving of Ketoforce.  No solid food, I'm eating bodyfat. Since my race was only going to be 45 minutes in duration I was torn on whether I needed the UCAN or not.  I know I didn't need it but at the same time, I have it and I thought "why take a chance?"  I decided to take half a serving, except half seemed to small volume-wise so I put in almost 3/4's of a scoop.  Also, I took approx. 1.5 gallons of water because it was going to be hot (mid 90's) today.

I met my buddy Todd at 8:30 and we rode up to the venue.  Once we got checked in and got our numbers we continued to ride to keep the legs loose and the blood flowing.  Todd eventually rolled up to the starting line for his race and I kept riding.

With 30 minutes until the start of my race I took my serving of Ketoforce and my UCAN mix.  I met up with another one of my buddies that I'd be racing with and we rode a little more to stay loose and warm-up.

Ride up and warm-up

I was feeling really good when we rolled up to the start line.  I recognized a few of the guys.  There were several of my Cat1 mountain bike race buddies there.  There were several other guys I'd raced against earlier in the season at other crits.  I took mental note of the ones I felt I needed to mark and the race got underway.

For the most part the race was somewhat tame.  I stayed toward the front and tried to cover any attacks that tried to go off the front.  With 15 minutes to go one of my buddies attacked through one of the tight corners and I happened to be right with him.  I shot around him and after about a minute of work we split the field nicely.  There were now only 6 of us.  I liked those odds.  We maintained our 6 man group until the last lap.

With one lap to go my buddy attacked I followed, I eventually found myself on the front, again.  I tried to relax and keep the pace in the upper tempo zone - fast enough to keep everyone behind me honest but slow enough that I was recovering and waiting to pounce.  On the 2nd to the last big 90-degree turn I came out of the corner and attacked.  We still had half a mile to go but I figured it was now or never and I liked my chances.  It turned out to be the right move.

The move created some good separation and I was able to keep it through the next tight turn, the lapped traffic, and in to the 200 meter finish for the win.  Going full gas for 1 minute, after covering several attacks I was a little tired after this race.  Again, like last week's road race, I probably worked a lot harder than I had to.  With that said, a win is a win is a win.

Attack to the finish

Race #1 by the numbers

After the race I spun down, took a podium pic, and sat in my chair under the tree.  It was noon-thirty and my next race wasn't until 4pm.  I checked my blood sugar, it showed an astounding 179!  Holly cow, I don't know if I needed that UCAN or not but whatever the case my blood sugar is through the roof.  I thought about something ketosis race expert Chris Kelly from Nourish Balance Thrive said "your blood sugar will be raised after a race anyway so don't worry about it too much" so I tried not to worry about it too much.  I felt a little weird but I don't know if was the placebo effect of seeing 179, the race stress, the heat, or what.

After watching the P12 field go off and make a few laps Michelle and I decided to call it a day.  The heat was rising and ultimately Michelle and I decided to go home.  I really didn't cherish the idea of sitting around 3 more hours until my next race.  Plus we had another event we were going to try and attend.

Once home I took a shower and cooked some ground meat.  I was starting to get hungry.  I ate a little raw spinach while it cooked.  As I was cooking I started to consider going back to the race and doing the other race.  We weren't going to be able to make our nephews soccer game so maybe a 2nd race was in order afterall?


Food Log

I ate and then laid on the couch for a bit to rest my legs.  I then made the decision, I'm going back to race.  I wasn't in the mood to race but I felt like I needed to do it regardless of how I felt.  Worse case I'd sit in the field and try to sprint it out for a higher placing.  I packed a light backpack of water and a change of clothes as I got dressed.  Michelle was going to drop me off about 4 miles from the venue and I'd ride up and get my legs loosed up.

She dropped me off and I was once again riding.  My legs felt okay but a little flat.  It was now almost 3pm, one hour to race time!   I rode around for quite a while trying to get my legs going.  The heat was a little hotter than I'd prefer but manageable.   I did not take any UCAN or anything else for this race.  I'd eaten about 2 hours earlier and that was going to be my fuel.  Besides that, I figured the 179 blood test earlier meant I had enough glucose running around after the last race to top off my stores.

Warm-up 2

Because attendance was down, they combined my class with another.  This combination in turn caused the race director to delay our race by 20 minutes.  I rolled back to the spectator area and just chilled under a tree with my wife and friends.

As we gathered at the starting line, one of the guys asked very publicly and very loud, "Oh, Don Sutton is here, he won the race earlier.  Everyone get his back wheel."  Then he proceeded to ask me about my mountain racing and track racing background.  Almost everyone in the group was looking and listening, I was now a marked man and this race just got that much harder, I didn't even have fresh legs.

The race started much like the previous one, tame.  After two laps the attacks started.  Again, I stayed up in the front and covered the breaks that looked like they had a chance to stick.  Often someone would break away and I'd just leave them out there hoping others would chase them down or they'd peter themselves out. It was clear I was marked as any move I made seemed to bring the group with me.

When the race wasn't chasing I found myself on the front.  When I'd slow down nobody would come around so I'd just keep the pace at low to mid tempo so I could recover and be ready to attack or cover should an opportunity present itself.  Also slowing down the race meant one or two less laps and I was definitely okay with that - jokes on you, field!  :)

When the lap cards came out we had 3 laps to go and things started picking up.  I was able to stay toward the front.  With 1 lap to go one of the guys made an attack I was able to cover him with another guy.  I went in to the last 1km in 3rd and started liking my chances for a win.  The guy in 2nd took the final turn to wide so I shot inside of him and grabbed the wheel of the guy in the lead.

200m to go and my legs were not happy when I said "go".  I slowly got up next to the guy and nipped him at the line by half a wheel.  I remember my legs were literally quivering as I pounded the pedals and poured everything I had left in to the last 100 meters.  Win #2 for the day is now in the books!

Race #2 by the numbers

So that was two crits in one day with a 4 hour separation between the two.  250 total minutes of riding and 2,700 kilojules of energy expended.  Not a bad day by the numbers.

Did I need the UCAN for these races?  I think I did, actually.  Maybe not for the first race, but I think with the intensity of these crit races the UCAN helped replenish and top off my glucose stores.  That allowed me to race the 2nd race.  This is my theory anyway.

So last week I did a road race, this weekend I did two crit races, next weekend I'll do a cyclocross race, and in a few weeks I"ll be doing a XC mountain bike race.  I'm quite convinced that you can indeed race short duration - high intensity, mid duration - mid intensity on a keto diet. Next week's cyclocross (CX) race is going to be very high intensity, likely more so than this weekend's crits.   I'm not looking forward to that suffering but at the same time, this will be a good chance to ultimately confirm keto will work fine for a high-intenisty short duration race.

On a final note, one of my buddies that I raced with in the first race started doing keto a few weeks ago.  He was there with me as one of the 6 riders in the final break during race 1.  He actually set me up on the final lap so I could launch my attack and ultimately win.  Thanks Mike!

Day 39 - More of the Same

Over midway through week 6 and nothing new to report.  Things have stabilized, and I just see much of the same.  I now occasionally fast, skipping a meal, and it's no big deal.  Weight is staying consistent around 224.  I wish it were lower but alas, it's not.  Haven't had a chance to play with the macros (fat, carb, protein) this week because it's been rather hectic at work and home, frankly, I just haven't felt like putting forth the effort.

The weight (or lack of losing any significant weight) is less frustrating to me now than in weeks past.  I can look in the mirror and see that I am noticeably thinning out, especially in my midsection.  A 1lb a week drop is healthy so hopefully that'll be a constant.  If it is not, I could stand to stay at this size.  My love handles are just about gone.  I really believe that training (or should I say a return to training) has a lot to do with the consistent weight and lack of dropping any more weight on the scale.  I have no concrete evidence of this, it's just a haunch.

On the riding front, it's a recovery week.  I've been doing some very light zone 1 work on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Both days I skipped breakfast, had a 1,000 calorie lunch and then went to ride after work without eating.  I wasn't hungry on the bike though I was starting to get hungry immediately after.  It's still funny to me that the hunger pangs aren't drastic, they're just little sensations that say "we could use some food when you get a second" instead of "STOP and FEED ME NOW!"

I have yet another theory to go along with the haunch above about what's going on, I believe my body is saying WTF, as it tries to re-adjust to training, ketosis, and feeding time changes.  Maybe I'm throwing to much at it at once?  Go big or go home, right?    We'll see what the next few days and weeks have in store.

Big crit races this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.  Depending on how I do and how I feel, I may try to race two races a day instead of just one.  Wishful thinking, maybe?  We shall see.

Day 36 - Week 5 Summary

Week 5 was a week of highs and lows.  It started with the frustration of getting knocked out of ketosis and ended with a successful keto-fueled big bicycle road race.  It also saw my weight jump back up 6lbs and ultimately go back to reclaim 5 of those added 6 pounds.

I finish the week 1 lb heavier than where I was at the end of week 4 when I weighed in at 223 lbs. I'm still currently 19 lbs lighter than I was at the start of this endeavor 6 weeks ago.  19 lbs in 5 weeks is not too shabby.  It's not the 1 lb a day that many are experiencing but it's not too shabby.  This week I'm going to focus more on the macros and see if we can get down below 220.  Also it's been 5 weeks of increasing training volume and intensity that was capped off with a race yesterday, I think it's time for a recovery week.  More on this in a bit.

New theory, maybe my weight is in some way tied to the crazy ass stock market?   haha

Week 5 saw the least amount of total calories ingested over these last 5 weeks - for that matter it's probably the least ingested in years.  Some of this was from awareness and mindfulness of what I was eating and trying to determine if I was hungry or if I just felt like eating out of habit.  If you notice my volume log at the bottom, you'll see I put in a lot of time this week on the bike.  Even with that added time I took in less calories than previous weeks.  I think my body is adapting to being in ketosis.  There's still a lot of food under that skin for my body to consume!

Food Log

On several occasions this week I was able to do a mini-fast and go without eating for well over 12 hours.  When I did this I wasn't hungry, my mind was telling me to eat but my body was not hungry.  My ketone blood tests showed I stayed in ketosis throughout.  One two occasions I skipped lunch during the week and even rode the bike after work without consuming anything prior to the days workout.  On one occasion we did some high intensity intervals and I did them in a fasted mode.

This weeks training log shows twelve and  half hours of saddle time.  That's a lot.  Looking at the breakout of time in zones, I spent a lot in the fat burning modes of zone1 and zone2.  It appears being in ketosis and riding at these intensities is no problem.  

Training Log

Volume and intensity log, last five weeks

As I stated above, I think I'll use this week as a regeneration block or recovery week or whatever you want to call it.  I've ramped up the volume quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and I don't want to get sick or go in to overtraining mode.  I'll be doing back to back days of crit races this coming weekend and I'd like to be fresh for these.  I do feel a little bit of a sore throat coming on and have had a little extra green snot and buggers this last week.  Traditionally this is one of those signs my body gives me to let me know it needs a little break and thus I will give it what it's asking for.

I'm not so sure that the weight stall or the weight gain isn't due to overtraining.  The weight itself isn't going to my midsection (it's actually down a little to almost 38.5 down from 38.8 last week).  Maybe I'm holding water in my legs to help rebuild and repair them from all the added riding?  This is a theory I can't prove but I suspect is playing a big part in this.  Maybe I'm simply not taking in enough calories and this is my bodies way of revolting?  I really don't know.  If either of these theories hold any water, this weeks recovery week should give them a little credence, maybe?

A couple of takeaways from the week.

• The day after the race, my legs feel pretty dang good.  My body feels pretty good too, not raged like I'm used to feeling after a race.  I'm not saying I could go race again or do an interval session but I feel pretty dang good.
• The damn scale is a frustrating way to measure your success.  Had it not been for the other measurements (blood ketones, blood sugar, breath ketones, waist, training performance, etc) I might have been really discouraged and discouraged enough to go back to what I was doing.  
• This week a beer sounded really good.  I didn't have one but due to the frustrations with watching my weight rise the week before a road race almost made me ponder an adult beverage or two.
• Equally so, I kinda craved some sweets this week.  More out of frustration with the weight.  I got a feeling of "WTF, why even try?" but ultimately that was just me feeling sorry for myself and basically being frustrated.  It's a journey not an overnight fix.  I'm glad I didn't stray.  
• I'm still so stoked over yesterday's race.  No need to recap it but I'm excited that I can race at intensity for 3 hours and not be hungry or have to worry about having no glucose and all the other issues that surround ketosis and high intensity sports.  
• This morning, a day after the race and two servings of UCAN, my blood ketones are normal at 1 and my blood sugar was back to 78.  All is well.

I'm now in to week 6.  I plan to track my calories again this week.  Next week I'll probably slack up on that some.  After eating the keto lifestyle for 5 weeks and doing all the various measurements, I think I can eye-ball my food an calories pretty well now AND have a pretty good idea of how they are going to effect ketosis and performance.

Enjoy the journey. -don

Day 35 - The Big Road Race

While week 5 hasn't been without it's challenges, I went all-in and opted to do a road race today.  This was my first-ever road race so I didn't really know what to expect, or if my current level of fitness was going to be enough, or if my UCAN nutrition plan was going to be sufficient.  It was going to be a good test or epic failure...  

I got up at 4am and started my normal morning routine as we were leaving at 5:20am.  Blood ketones were 1.0, blood sugar was 80, Ketonix registered 60, and weight was 224lbs.  The weight thing had me shaking my head this week but that was covered in the last few blog reports.  Breakfast was 3 eggs, a little cheese, and about 2 oz of hard salami.  I had a few cups of black coffee but that was it.  

We then loaded up in the car and made the drive, an hour and half, to the race location.  We got there with 40 minutes until the race.  While getting ready I had a 5 MAP Amino tablets, 1oz of Ketoforce, and 1 serving of UCAN.  This is the same setup that I successfully tested last week.  I figured the race would be 3 hours so in my jersey I packed another serving (premixed) of UCAN with half an ounce of MCT oil, a cap of Elete electrolytes, and 2 scoops of BCCA amino powder mixed with 8oz of water.  For emergency reserve I had two packets of almond butter with maple syrup.  I only put water in my bottles.  

We started the race about 30 minutes after taking my initial cocktail of Ketoforce, UCAN, and MAP tablets.  Pace was relatively easy for the first hour.  I felt pretty good.  No hunger, no pangs, no issue food related.  

After about an hour and 20 minutes there was a lull in the action so I drank the pre-mixed UCAN solution that was in my pocket.  This kept me "good-to-go" all the way until the end of the race and even after.  

During the 3 hour race I drank approx. 80oz of water.  Water and the UCAN solution was all I ingested during the race.  

The race was 2 hours and 50 minutes long.  I had a normalized power of around 314 watts for the day.  This is pretty high for my current level of fitness.  I probably did a little more work up front than I should have.  For the first 2 hours I felt great, after that my fitness started taking a hit.  Toward the end of the race (last 3 miles) I was still up front but my legs were starting to feel like they were about done.  

In the end I didn't finish very well, I was there, up front, but got blocked in on the last uphill sprint section  and ultimately just sat up and finished with the pack.  I should have been more aggressive or paid more attention, but this was my first road race and that was a hard lesson learned...  

This race wasn't about winning.  It was about testing keto eating on a road race (YES it can be done.)  It was about seeing where my bike fitness was (good not great.)  Despite the placing, it was a really good race that I'm extremely happy with today's performance.  I can build my fitness back (give me a couple months) but to know I can race on keto and that a keto lifestyle isn't a race inhibitor is very exciting.  

10 minutes after the race I tested my blood ketones and blood sugar.  BHB was 1.1, blood sugar was 110!  I assume this was telling me I still had a lot of UCAN in my system.  Four hours after the race my blood sugar was back to 71.  UCAN will obviously raise blood sugar but it seems once you store it or burn it your blood sugar (assuming your insulin) is back to normal.  110 isn't not too high all things considered.  I'm sure the GU folks are well above that.  

We packed up and went to eat approx. 30-45 minutes after the race.  I wasn't hungry but got .5lb of brisket.  It didn't taste good and I just didn't feel like eating so after eating 2 or 3 pieces I quit eating.  Everyone finished eating and we drove home.  An hour after we got home I started to feel hungry and eventually ate something, this was about 2pm.  Outside of the Ketoforce and UCAN, I had eaten solid foods since 4:30 this morning.  To be clear, that's over 9 hours without solid food on a race day, I've never been able to do that before!

Takeaways from today:

• It's pretty funny to see most of the folks in the field popping various gels, bananas, bars, and other "standard" bike food every 30-45 minutes.  
• I may need to dial the UCAN back.  I'll experiment with this in the coming weeks.  We'll see if 3/4's of a scoop every 1.5 hours will be enough.  Maybe the on bike serving needs to be less?  Maybe I need the same amount but need to stretch out the time from 80-90minutes to 100-120 minutes?   Seems like too much UCAN wasn't an issue today but maybe I can get away with less?
• It was a 3 hour race and with the UCAN and ketosis, I didn't have any highs and lows (I assume these highs and lows of the past were blood sugar drops and spikes?)  
• 3 hours of racing and three hours later my body felt surprisingly fine, recovered.  Typically I'm beat and just lay around.  While I layed around, I had energy to get up and move around and a desire to do something.  My legs on the other hand, they're trashed and they were just fine with laying around.
• Race nutrition/food was incredibly easy to fix, pack, and use.  This was the easiest on the bike feeding I've ever done.  Only had to eat one time over a 3 hour period.  

Day 32 - Week 5 Head Scratching Continues

Scale said 228 this morning.  F'me, I've added back 5lbs in less than a week.  I'm pretty sure it's not a bathroom thing as in week3.  Equator measurement was a hair under 39".  Looking in the mirror I'm not seeing any weight gain, actually I'm still slimming up.  Dress pants for work are still lose.  Tue and Wed of this week I was in a new belt notch on two different belts.  I'm back in ketosis, 1.1 this morning.  And I feel really good overall.  This damn scale is jacking me up.

I'm at a loss right now.  I even got up and redid my weekly spreadsheet to see how many calories I'm actually taking in.  Off to the far right you can see the averages for the week.  I averaged out the daily intake and then I averaged out the daily intake minus the averaged exercise kilojules for the week.  In doing this, I'm well below 2,000 calories a day....

I also went through and highlighted the daily carb overages through this journey and the days the fat fell below 70%.  A lot of the carb blunders were on the days I used UCAN last week.

I've upped my training the last few weeks.  I'm supplementing the up tick in training with a lot of zone 1 and 2 riding so I don't drop in to the over-training zone.  I feel great.  My legs feel great.  I feel strong on the bike.  I'm in ketosis.  I just can't understand the calorie increase.  Maybe I've got to drop my calories a lot more?  Maybe my body is responding to the training and adding mass?  That seems to be an overly optimistic view...

I do know that the training is likely causing issues I'm just can't pin point it.  I have a road race I committed to this weekend and two days of crit races the following weekend.  I'm just going to focus on them for now and worry about the weight afterwards.  With that said, staying focused on the races isn't going to stop me from wondering what's going on or trying to figure it out....

Day 30 - Still Recovering

Blood sugar was more "normal" this morning, in the mid 80's.  Blood ketones were back in the zone at .7.  Weight wise, I'm still at 226 but that could be for a number of reasons.  Waist wise I'm a hair below 39" so I'm in the 38 inch area.  Used a new belt notch today on my belt so that's positive.  All is not derailed and it appears I'm back on the wagon.

With that said, I'm still a little frustrated and disappointed.   One day I'll learn to accept these types of "setbacks" or "failures" as learning opportunities and experience but until that day comes I'll continue dealing with my "perfection" complex.  I will say I've made great strides in the last few years.

We'll see how the week goes.  There's a little road race this weekend I may opt for.

Day 29 - Week 5 Starts w/ Setback

Over the 4 day Labor Day weekend, my wife Michelle and I experimented with some tasty "keto friendly" foods.  Mostly these could be considered treats more than anything.  Long story short, they have set me back a little today.

Got on the scale and I had gained 3lbs since yesterday morning.  On top of that my BHB was down to .4, I was out of ketosis.  Equally shocking was that my blood sugar was at 98.  Apparently heavy whipping cream and cream cheese need to be carefully watched.  My carb calories were way off for yesterday because we mistakenly assumed the calories and neglected to properly add up all the actual carbs.

To say I was pissed would be a giant understatement.  This feeling didn't last long.  After a few minutes of kicking myself for being so careless, I remembered something I read yesterday.  Failures teach you to be successful.  Lesson learned, now it's time to get back on track.  In the grand scheme of things, this was only a temporary setback and considering the success I've had thus far, it's an acceptable failure.  It has to be acceptable, it's done and over with...

I had a easy ride scheduled with my buddy at 8am.  It was 6:00am and I had some time till we met up.  I wasn't hungry and since we were riding easy I wasn't planning on eating but figured I should eat something.  I had small piece of cheese and a piece of pepperoni (about 300 calories total.)

I still had a lot of time before I meet my buddy.   It was still dark outside so I figured I'd jump on the trainer and get some time in.  Off to the lab I went to get in an extra hour of zone2 penitence.

Prior to getting on the bike I took a shot of Ketoforce to try and jump start the ketosis.  I've read several articles/posts from people who have used ketoforce or other types of synthetic ketones to help get in to ketosis quickly.  I don't know how true this is, I simply knew I needed to get back and I had the stuff so why not.

After an hour of zone 2 riding I changed bibs, filled some water bottles, and got ready to meet my buddy.  I also did a quick blood glucose check.  I had dropped to 88 - still a little high but back in my new "normal" range.

Before leaving I took a serving of UCAN just in case our pace went up.  Looking back I don't know why I did this.  It was not necessary and it definitely didn't help my blood sugar issue I had at the moment.

After 2 more hours of easy zone 1 & 2 riding with my buddy I came home and rechecked my blood sugar and blood ketones.  It had been almost 3 hours since I took the UCAN and 4.5 hours since taking the ketoforce.  Blood sugar was 102 and the ketones were back to 1.0.   The blood sugar was a little high but I did take in a full serving of UCAN and didn't ride very hard.

Afterward I was not hungry.  I had a cup of decaf coffee with a tablespoon of butter.  That held me over till about 1pm when we had lunch.  We'll see how the numbers read in the morning, hopefully my setback was brief and temporary.

A couple of takeaways from today:

• Watch those carb grams when you start getting cute with the advance "keto-treats".  They can and will sneak up on you.  
• Listen to your body.  Yesterday afternoon through bedtime I was drinking a LOT of water.  I was thirsty but I hadn't really done anything.  Also I was drinking a lot of water but I wasn't urinating.  I thought that was funny.  I have a feeling that as the glucose started flowing (from the carbs) my body started storing it again which requires extra water.  This is the opposite process of what happens the first week when you start the keto diet.  
• If you screw up and eat crap that you shouldn't or blow out your carb count, don't dwell on it, simply get over it and get back on the wagon. 

Again we'll see what the numbers show in the morning.  

Day 28 - 20lbs lost

I was officially 223lbs at my weigh in this morning!  That puts me at the 20lb mark, 20lbs in 4 weeks  (today is the last day of week 4.)  Lost 20lbs in 4 weeks AND at the same time I'm building my bike fitness back, but more importantly, I'm having fun.  This is a tad bit lighter than I was when I went to Leadville last year.  I'll be content at 215 (hell I'm content now) but if goes lower without having to work to hard at dropping/maintaining then I'll just see where it takes me.  Truth be told, I watch my carbs and keep an eye on total calories but I don't do much outside of that.  If I'm hungry I eat (despite where I am for total calories that day,) sometimes I still overeat, but I'm not starving (ever) and I don't have to play the "you're over your calorie limit, no more" denial game.  

Day 27 - Dialing in with UCAN

Decided to have another go with the Bike Barn ride this morning.  Last week I bonked and subsequently found myself riding home solo.  This time I rode the remaining 11 miles solo again BUT it wasn't because I bonked.

This morning when I got up I did my typical morning routine.  For breakfast I had a little salmon, some cheese, and a little salami.  In total it was a little over 300 calories for my breakfast.  30 minutes before I left the house I had a shot of KetoForce, 5 MAP amino tablets, and a 1.25 servings of UCAN Superstarch.

For nutrition during the ride I took two separate servings of UCAN with 3 scoops of  BCCA powder in each.  Each of these servings were loaded in a Hydrapak SF150 soft flask.  For emergency backup I took two packs of squeezable almond butter with maple syrup.  I had 3 bottles of water.  I figured if I was in ketosis (which I was, BHB was .7 this morning) I have about 70,000 calories (maybe more) of nutrition packed just under my skin.

Today's pocket stuffers.

Much like last week my I met my buddy Todd at 6:40 and we rode up to the Bike Barn.  40 minutes later we were there.  We spent about 10 minutes in the parking lot before we gathered up and rolled out.

Pace to Wee-mart was spirited.  I felt good.  Made some pulls, pulled in some breaks, it pretty much felt like the same ride as last week.  Actually, when I compared the two rides they were really freaking close in just about every aspect.  About midway through this section I downed one of the flasks of UCAN - it had been about an hour and a half of total riding when I took this serving.

Comparison of Bike Barn to Wee-Mart (last week and this week)

Just like last week, at Wee-Mart I felt good.  I refilled my bottles  with water and got ready for round 2.  I didn't eat or consume anything here other than water.   The trip home would be the real test of the UCAN.  One of my buddy's mentioned he wasn't feeling it today so I wanted to watch him in case he bonked.  I figured I'd shut it down and just ride home with him once I got to last weeks bonk point.

After we got rolling, the speeds picked up and I eventually found myself with the front group in a break of 5 guys.  We continued to open the gap.  Eventually, I pulled out of the group.  I had made it to where I bonked last week and I was still feeling good.  My strength was fading from the work put in up to this point but this is more of a fitness issue rather than a nutrition one.

I was extremely pleased!   Not only had I ridden hard, I was still capable of going on further, I can now call the UCAN test a success.  Now I slowed down and waited for the big group behind us so I could ride with my buddy.   As I slowed up I took half of the remaining serving of UCAN, I figured I'd give the other half to my buddy if he needed it.

The numbers for this section today were MUCH better than last weeks!  

When the group caught up with me my buddy wasn't there.  I asked and someone said they think he turned off.  I pulled over and waited a few minutes but never saw him coming.  "well hell!" I thought, "I'm riding home solo, again..."  I then finished off the other half of the UCAN shot.  3.25 servings of UCAN for the day.  I remember thinking "Hope this doesn't knock me out of ketosis."  More on this in a bit.

The ride back to Bike Barn was uneventful.  I kept hoping my friend would come up on me but I never saw him.  I can honestly say the solo ride back was so much easier today compared to last week.  I was able to stay on top of the gear, I could maintain my speed, and I wasn't suffering at all.  I made the trip back faster this time (a little over 2mph faster.)

I got back to the parking lot and my wife picked me up and brought me home.  I made it back just in time to not get rained on.

I'm pretty damn happy to have the nutrition part figured out!  I'm sure I'm gong to need to fine tune it some but for now, I think I'm on the right track.

So what did 3 scoops (70 grams of carbs) do to my ketosis?  As of right now (5 hours later,) it's done nothing.

When I got home (30min after turning my last pedal stroke) I checked my blood ketones, breath ketones, and blood glucose.   Ketonix showed 47 for breath ketones.  Blood glucose was an alarming 100 (alarming to my normal 66-90).  BHB was 2.5!!! 

An hour and 50 minutes after that I retested, my blood glucose was down to 91 and the Ketonix was showing 58 (a nice red light was flashing)!

3 hours after the above measurement, blood glucose was still 91 but Ketonix was showing 65 (still blinking red and the actual number is rising!)

70 grams of UCAN may have been overkill for today but I'm still in ketosis, my blood sugar is returning to normal, and I feel pretty dang good.  I will definitely dial it down a little next time.

This was an incredibly productive day and I'm very excited with what I've found.  I don't know if UCAN is the "end-all beat-all" but it works for me and now I got a solution for longer rides.  Did I mention I rode for 3.5 hours, expended 2,500 kilojules of energy, and only consumed a mere 650 calories before and during the ride.  I didn't eat for another hour after we got home and even then I wasn't hungry but knew I should probably eat.

This keto "thing" looks like it will work for the bike!

Day 26 - Progress!

Progress - couple of little bathroom stops yesterday, one this morning when I woke. Weight is down to 225. I still think there's a mutha-load waiting to vacate the bowels.  Stomach is a lot less protruding today.  Yesterday I wore a pair of 36 dress pants (i've been wearing 38's) to work.  I grabbed them by accident and while they were't tight, they were more snug than the pants the day before.  This almost caused a panic until I realized they were 36's not 38's.  That felt good when I realized what was going on.  

Did a 2 hour 15 minute group ride last night. Felt pretty good, stayed at the front. Two different sessions now with UCAN SuperStarch and I think I'm ready to re-do the bike barn ride from last weekend.  I'm thinking about rolling out with them again this Saturday to see if I can make it all the way through. Hoping this UCAN is the fix for last weekends bonk/implosion.

Since I haven't been on the group ride in a few weeks (since the 18th.) I was 10lbs heavier on that day. Last night the overpass climbs felt a little easier. Could be the training, could be the weight difference, or maybe a combo of both? None the less I went up them more smoothly, if that's a description.  My accelerations seem a lot more "smooth" than before.  I don't know how else to describe it.  

Two days of back to back intervals on Tuesday and Wednesday followed up with this group ride on Thursday and i'm happy to report that my legs felt "normal". Typically they'd feel pretty heavy with that much load. Keto is supposed to be great for fast recoveries, maybe that's the case? I did wonder if I'd be able to hang up front of the group especially when I saw several of the faster guys showed up on TT bikes. In the end when the pedal smashing was over there was only 3 of us including one on a tt bike - me and two cat2 roadies.  

I'm getting really comfortable and quite optimistic about being in ketosis and racing or riding at a level that I did in the past. If I can make Saturday's ride, it'll be a great re-test to see if I got the bike-nutrition part fixed.

For the above mentioned ride I mixed and took 1 packet of UCAN Orange, 1 tbsp of MCT oil, a cap of elete electrolytes 30 minutes prior to the ride.  I also consumed 5 MAP amino pills at the same time.    During the ride I had two 25oz bottles of plain H2O.  I did not consume any food between the start of the ride and lunch earlier in the day.  

Week4 Intervals

Two interval sessions completed this week.  That's probably all I'll do for the week as this is only week two of training and it's a 4-day weekend coming up for me.  I plan to get in some outdoor "fun" riding and hopefully hit some trails.


Week 4 Interval Session 1 - Tuesday
Tuesday I rode with my buddy Todd in the computrainer lab at home.  I rode an easy zone2 for 20 minutes to warm-up before Todd got there.  Once he arrived we started the workout with the intentions of doing the ERGVideos Intervals for Max Aerobic Power.  We were going to do 3x6x1min efforts.  Rest between each interval was 1.5-2min.  When we got through to the 5th interval of the 1 set the dang computer locked up.  This happens about once every 6 months and it's quite frustrating especially while doing intervals.  All the data for this session up to that point (31min) was lost.  GRRRRRRRR!!

I quickly rebooted the computer and loaded a different program.  This time we used PerfPro and went with the Sufferfest Revolver program.  These are 1 min on 1min off for a set of 15 or so.  Our goal was to finish 8.  We did 9.   Keep in mind we had already finished 5 intervals on the other program...

After we finished Todd went home and I rode another 30 minutes in zone2.  I felt pretty good during and after this workout.  Likely could have done more 1 minute efforts but there's no sense in digging a huge recovery hole and I wanted to do another set of intervals the following day.  I ended up with an hour and fifty minutes of saddle time.  Not a bad session at all!


Week4 Interval Session 2 - Wednesday
For these I was solo and wanted to go a little longer.  This too was done in the computrainer lab and the workout selected was ERGVideo AllenPT Over Unders I also wanted to try out some UCAN Super Starch which I had ordered the previous week.    After my bonk on Saturday I figured I need to find something to get the carbs in me on these longer efforts.  In response to taking the UCAN I also did a separate test, I collected blood sugar/glucose levels before, during and after the workout so I could see how the UCAN effected my blood sugar.  This will be a separate blog entry in the next day or two as I'm trying to get some understanding from the folks at UCAN - hint it did NOT spike my blood sugar at all.  

For this workout I decided to do 3x20min over under efforts.  5 minutes in I could tell the intensity was going to be unsustainable for this long of a workout, I just wasn't ready for this. Remember this is week 2 and I haven't trained at this level of intensity or with any structure since last year.  I backed the intensity down so the unders were done in tempo rather than sweet spot (low threshold.)  I still wanted to get a workout and I still wanted to put the UCAN to work.  Even though the intensity was taken down, this workout was no walk in the park.

I completed the workout and I felt pretty good afterward.   I could definitely tell I got a workout and I was pleased with the efforts.  I was also pleased that I didn't have an upset stomach or any issues as a result of taking the UCAN.  Did the UCAN make a difference?  I don't know.  The ride wasn't long enough to draw a conclusion.  However, the big question about UCAN was answered - my stomach can indeed handle it so I'll be using it next time I go out for a longer ride.

Summary
Being the 2nd week back from training, this was a good solid week of work.  I'm really pleased at where I am and how I'm adapting to training/riding while being in ketosis.  This gives me a lot of optimism about being able to race again and be on the ketones.  It also gives me motivation to start training again.

One thing I want to keep watching is my heartrate.  It seems high.  I don't feel bad when it's up in the 170's or higher.  Obviously I'm working hard when that happens (and my bike fitness is not where it used to be) but I don't feel bad at all.  Breathing is still 45-55 breaths a  minute while in the upper limits of my heart rate.  I'm not sure how to read in to this or if there's anything to read in to.  I'll keep watching it though.

Day 23 - Stupid Scale!

A little frustration this morning, damn scale says 229lbs, up a pound from yesterday. It's not to big of an issue but it is frustrating after seeing nearly a lb a day tick away over the last few weeks. It's been since Friday that I've seen the scale show any weight reductions.  

My thoughts on this are probably not something most want to talk about but since I'm tracking the journey and you've opted to read it, here goes...

I think it's because I haven't had a good bowel movement in a few days now. I had a few little ones, but nothing to account for how much I've eaten the last few days since my last "good" movement on Saturday morning. I know I'm still losing fat as I am seeing the muscle and bone outlines of my ribs, obliques, arms, and shoulders, as well as my calves and legs so visually it would appear I'm still heading in the right direction. With that said, what I'm seeing in the mirror doesn't jive with what the scale says. 

I got the tape measure out to measure my equator at the belly and I was 1/4" bigger this morning over yesterday.  I did this because my mid section is slightly protruding today. The interesting thing with this 1/4" increase over yesterday, my dress pants are just about to slide off of me this morning. A few weeks ago I was starting to contemplate buying the next size up in pants (40's), I was literally there and now I'm starting to slide out of my 38's. I reclaimed a belt loop hole sometime in the last few days and am now back in the belt loop holes that I was at early this year.  Frankly I could take another belt loop (uncharted territory) but that would be a little snug right now, I'll give it another week.  :)

I'm pretty sure I need to take a big ole dump but for whatever reason, the bowels aren't ready to let it go, at least not all at once.

Everything else checks out fine. I'm still at 1 on the blood ketones so I'm still making and running off of fat. Not sure what the weight stall is, but it highlights why the scale should never be your main indicator of success when you are working to lose weight.  I'll just stay the course but this is now 3 days since a good dump and 3 days since the scale has moved, actually it went up a pound today - there's got to be some correlation?

Poop or no poop, there will be an interval session tonight.