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.