Century - July 12

Here's the route for our annual no-frills, no-fee century coming up on Sunday, July 12. We leave at 7am from the shop. Come join us! All are welcome

Oswald Cycle Works Century 7/12/2009

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The Rambler, Who's in?

Who's in on the 2nd annual Ramble around Prattsburgh? Sunday April 26th, 1pm Prattsburgh,NY Oh yeah check out this video of 2008! Look for Tom and Jesse.

Ever eat just before a race? Read this!

Back to Previous Page The Pre-Race Meal [revised 02/08] By Steve Born This is one area of proper fueling and performance for which I don't have a catalog of horror stories, because for most of my athletic career I did follow the guidelines set out below. I wish I could say I did so consciously, but the truth is that I did it out of habit rather than really knowing why it was the right thing to do. Most of the athletes I've worked with have been reluctant to adopt these plans - until they actually try them. Then they're convinced by their improved performance, and they never go back to the conventional advice. How many times have you had a bite (or more) from an energy bar, taken a swig (or more) from an energy drink, or eaten a meal just an hour or two before taking your position at the starting line of a long distance race? Big mistake! Eating this soon before prolonged exercise is actually counterproductive and will hurt your performance. In the sometimes confusing world of sports supplementation and fueling, the pre-race meal generates arguably the greatest confusion, and many athletes have paid a hefty performance price for their misinformation. But really, there's no insider secret to the pre-race meal, just some effective strategies and guidelines. You need to know what to eat, how much, and most importantly, when. You also need to know a bit about glycogen storage, depletion, and re-supply, and how to use that knowledge at the practical level. This article supplies all the information you need, and I've also included some suggested meals, equally appropriate for workouts as well as competition. The pre-race meal goal Assuming that your race starts in the morning, the purpose of your pre-race meal is to top off liver glycogen stores, which your body has expended during your night of sleep. Muscle glycogen, the first fuel recruited when exercise commences, remains intact overnight. If you had a proper recovery meal after your last workout, you'll have a full load of muscle glycogen on board, which constitutes about 80% of your total glycogen stores. If you didn't re-supply with complex carbs and protein after your last workout, there's nothing you can do about it now; in fact, you'll only hurt yourself by trying. To repeat: during sleep, your liver-stored glycogen maintains proper blood glucose level; you expend nary a calorie of your muscle glycogen. You might wake up feeling hungry, and I'll discuss that issue later, but you'll have a full supply of muscle-stored glycogen, your body's first used and main energy source. Your stomach might be saying, I'm hungry, but your muscles are saying, Hey, we're good to go! With only your liver-stored glycogen to top off, you want a light pre-race nutrition meal. Sports nutrition expert Bill Misner, Ph.D., advises that a pre-race meal should be an easily digested, high complex carbohydrate meal of between 200-400 calories with a minimum of fiber, simple sugar, and fat. That's hardly what most folks would call a meal, but in terms of pre-race fueling, it's meal enough. According to Dr. Misner, fat slows digestion and has no positive influence on fuels metabolized during an event. He further states that a high fiber pre-race meal may create the call for an unscheduled and undesirable bathroom break in the middle or near the end of the event. Complex carbohydrates & protein One study found that athletes who drank a pre-race meal consisting of both carbohydrates and a small amount of protein had better performances than when they consumed only an all-carbohydrate sports drink. With that in mind, here are three pre-race meal possibilities that would not only be highly effective, they are quick and easy to prepare as well: Sustained Energy which contains both complex carbohydrates and soy protein Perpetuem, which contains complex carbohydrates, soy protein, and a small donation of healthy fats A combination of Sustained Energy + Hammer Gel or HEED If you do feel the need for solid food, choose high starch foods such as skinless potatoes, bananas, rice, pasta, plain bagels, low fat active culture yogurt, tapioca, and low fiber hot cereals. You can find a few pre-race meal recipes at the end of this article that use these products. The key - Allow three hours or more! Equally as important as what you eat is when you eat your pre-race meal. Authorities such as Dr. Misner, Dr. Michael Colgan, and Dr. David Costill all agree that the pre-race meal should be eaten 3-4 hours prior to the event. Dr. Misner suggests the athlete leave three hours minimum to digest foods eaten at breakfast. After breakfast, drink 10-12 ounces of fluid each hour up to 30 minutes prior to the start (24-30 ounces total fluid intake). Note: other acceptable pre-race fluid intake suggestions can be found in the article Hydration - What You Need To Know. Three hours allows enough time for your body to fully process the meal. Colgan says it's the digestion time necessary to avoid intestinal distress. Costill's landmark study [Costill DL. Carbohydrates for exercise. Dietary demand for optimal performance. Int J Sports 1988;9:1-18] shows that complex carbohydrates taken 3-4 hours prior to exercise raise blood glucose and improve performance. But it's Misner's argument that has proved most compelling to me. Dr. Misner's rationale - It's all in the timing If you consume high glycemic carbohydrates such as simple sugars (or even the preferred complex carbohydrates such as starches and maltodextrins) within three hours of exercise, you can expect the following, with possible negative effects on performance: Rapidly elevated blood sugar causes excess insulin release, leading to hypoglycemia, an abnormally low level of glucose in the blood. High insulin levels inhibit lipid mobilization during aerobic exercise, which means reduced fats-to-fuels conversion. Our ability to utilize stored fatty acids as energy largely determines our performance, which is why we can continue to exercise when our caloric intake falls far below our energy expenditure. We want to enhance, not impede, our stored fat utilization pathways. A high insulin level will induce blood sugar into muscle cells, which increases the rate of carbohydrate metabolism, hence rapid carbohydrate fuel depletion. In simple terms: high insulin means faster muscle glycogen depletion. You must complete your pre-race fueling three or more hours prior to the start to allow adequate time for insulin and blood glucose to normalize. After three hours, hormonal balance is restored, and you won't be at risk for increased glycogen depletion. Eating within three hours of a race promotes faster release/depletion of both liver and muscle glycogen and inhibits fat utilization. The combination of accelerated glycogen depletion and disruption of your primary long-distance fuel availability can devastate your performance. But I'm hungry! Recall that I mentioned earlier that muscle glycogen, the main fuel recruited for the first 60-90 minutes of exercise, remains unaffected by a nightlong fast. When you awaken in the morning, you haven't lost your primary fuel supply, and can't add to it by eating within an hour or two of exercise. That's absolutely correct, and believe it or not, being hungry before an event won't inhibit performance. However, hard-training athletes often do wake up very hungry and feel they need to eat something before their workout or race. This is especially true for half and full iron-distance triathletes, who start very early in the morning in the water, swimming for up to an hour or more where consuming food is not possible. What to do? Try either of the following suggestions to help with this problem: Just start anyway, realizing that hunger is not a performance inhibitor, and begin fueling shortly after you start, when you get into a comfortable rhythm. The hunger sensation will diminish almost as soon as you begin to exercise, and you'll actually be benefiting, not hurting, your performance by following this procedure. You can safely use Sustained Energy, Perpetuem, HEED or Hammer Gel, or any combination thereof, as soon as you want after exercise commences. For details regarding appropriate amounts, please refer to the article Proper Caloric Intake During Endurance Exercise. If you feel that you absolutely must eat, consume 100-200 calories about five minutes before start time. By the time these calories are digested and blood sugar levels are elevated, you'll be well into your race, and glycogen depletion will not be negatively affected. In this regard, good choices are one or two servings of Hammer Gel or a generous drink from a premixed bottle of Sustained Energy or Perpetuem. This strategy is especially appropriate for triathletes who will hit the water first and not have a chance to eat right away. Small amounts of nutrient-dense fuels, such as those named above, go a long way to stanching hunger pangs. Sleep or eat? Should you get up during the wee morning hours just to get in a meal three hours before your race or workout? My answer is NO - rest will help you more. Much restorative physiology occurs during sleep, so don't sacrifice sleep just to eat. If you're a fit athlete, one who has been replenishing carbohydrates immediately after each exercise session, you have approximately 60-90 minutes of muscle glycogen, your premium fuel, available. As long as you begin fueling shortly after the race begins, perhaps 10-20 minutes after the start, your performance will not be affected negatively. If you start fueling shortly after your race begins, it's actually OK to start your race a little on the hungry side. Topping off liver glycogen stores is always a good idea, but not at the expense of sacrificing sleep, and certainly not at the expense of depleting muscle glycogen stores too quickly (by eating too soon before exercise). Are there any exceptions to the three-hour rule? When you're competing in races in the 90-minute range or shorter (personally, I prefer an hour limit), fasting three hours prior to the start of the race is not necessary. Consuming some easily digested calories an hour or two prior to the start will not negatively affect performance, and may actually enhance it. Here's why: As we've discussed earlier, when you consume calories sooner than three hours prior to the start of a race, you accelerate the rate at which your body burns its finite amounts of muscle glycogen stores. In events lasting longer than 60-90 minutes, refraining from calorie consumption for the three-hour period prior to the start is crucial because you want to preserve your glycogen stores, not accelerate their depletion. Muscle glycogen is the first fuel that the body will use when exercise commences, and your body only has a limited supply of this premium fuel. If your workout or race goes beyond the 60-90 minute mark, you don't want to do anything that will accelerate muscle glycogen utilization. However, when you consume calories within three hours of a race, that's exactly what will happen; you'll increase the rate at which your glycogen is burned. During shorter distance races, however, accelerated rates of glycogen depletion/utilization are not problematic. You don't need the calories for energy, but the presence of carbohydrates will elevate glycogen utilization. In a short race, that's what you want. Dr. Misner explains that prior to shorter-duration races, & consuming a few easily digested carbohydrates [such as a serving or two of HEED or Hammer Gel] will advance performance, because carbohydrates consumed prior to exercise make the body super-expend its glycogen stores like a flood gate wide open." In other words, if you eat something 1-2 hours prior to the start of a short-duration race, thus causing the insulin "flood gates" to open, yes, you will be depleting your glycogen stores at maximum rates. However, at this distance it's a beneficial effect, as glycogen depletion is not an issue when the race is over within at most 90 minutes. This advice assumes that you have been effectively refueling your body after each workout, as this is the primary way to increase muscle glycogen (see the article Recovery - A Crucial Component of Athletic Success for details). Bottom line: Fast three hours prior to the start of a longer-duration event (60-90+ minutes). For shorter events, consuming a small amount of fuel an hour to two prior to the start may enhance performance. Summary & pre-race meal suggestions You work so hard throughout your training, making sure you tune your diet, supplement program, training, and recovery to exactly fit your personal needs. Following these steps regarding your pre-race meal will put the final touches on all of your hard work, giving you the best advantage for your important race. Eat a pre-race meal of 200-400 calories at least three hours before exercise. Focus on complex carbs, starches, and a little protein for your pre-race meal. Avoid high fiber, simple sugars, and high fat in your pre-race meal. If you must, consume a small amount of your supplemental fuel (Hammer Gel, etc.) about five minutes before exercise. Make sure that you re-supply your muscle glycogen by eating a good recovery meal after your workouts. Any of these pre-race meal suggestions will keep you in the preferred 200-400 calorie range: Three scoops of Sustained Energy Two scoops of Sustained Energy flavored with one serving of Hammer Gel or one scoop of HEED Two to three servings of Hammer Gel or two to three scoops of HEED fortified with one scoop of Sustained Energy Two to two and a half scoops of Perpetuem One white flour bagel and a half cup of active yogurt A banana and a cup of active yogurt Cream of Wheat or Rice, sweetened with a serving of Hammer Gel One soy protein-enhanced pancake, sweetened with a serving of Hammer Gel Half of a skinless baked potato topped with a half cup of plain active yogurt For more detailed and scientifically referenced information regarding this topic, please read Dr. Misner's article The Science Behind The Hammer Nutrition Pre-Race Meal Protocol". Steve Born is a technical advisor for Hammer Nutrition with well over a decade of involvement in the health food industry. He has worked with hundreds of athletes - ranging from the recreational athlete to world-class professional athlete - helping them to optimize their supplement/fueling program. Steve is a three-time RAAM finisher, the 1994 Furnace Creek 508 Champion, 1999 runner-up, the only cyclist in history to complete a Double Furnace Creek 508, and is the holder of two Ultra Marathon Cycling records. In February 2004 Steve was inducted into the Ultra Marathon Cycling Hall of Fame. © 2008, Endurance Marketing Group. This information is copyright protected. Please feel free to distribute this information as long as this copyright notice and EMG's phone number and/or URL are included. Content must remain unchanged and original authorship acknowledged. Back to Previous Page

For those who wish to travel: Shaffer Farms, MD

Recently I moved down to Maryland which despite its high population puts me in the midst of some great riding country. Not too far from the Blue Ridge Park Way and not too far from the Carlisle mountain area.

Being so completely displaced and alone I have been forced to do something I didn’t have to do before. I must go out on my own, without the help of Mr. Beals or Tom to find those great rides. Much to my surprise I have been reasonably successful. One such successful endeavored was my trip to Shaffer Farms, Germantown MD.

Shaffer Farms is and Urban oasis for MTB and Cyclocross riders alike. While mainly dominated by MTB riders this place has more, in my opinion, to offer to the avid cross’ rider looking for some heavy handling training.

Generally this trail starts flat to rolling with a few steep inclines and run ups. While allowing you to roll fast it also has plenty of man made and natural obstacles that will force your off your cross’ bike, onto your swift moving feet and back again. What will truly improve those handling skills are the many hairpin turns packed with roots and fine powders forcing control and confidence.

There are many trail choices and a combination of any can offer up to 3 hours of ride time without becoming insanely monotonous. You can also through in some local roads to extend loops or just to change it up.

I would not suggest a trip down to MD just for this trail system, but if you find yourself driving through on I 270 with a MTB or cross’ bike attached to your car it is defiantly worth a stop.

P.S. This place has everything you need!

IC VI

My weekend started Saturday morning. I got up early and headed over to the school to make sub plans. Let me tell you planning for a sub is worse then riding your bike for five hours. I went home after shooting the breeze at the shop for a while and dropping my bike off at Tom O.’s. One quick note; when I pulled up at Tom’s he was out on the deck in a lawn chair and I kid you not, Lizard Boy was basking. The boys picked me up at my pad and we were off. I worked on the way down to our hotel so the trip went fast. At the hotel we watched Man vs. Wild and I thought to myself “wow that could be me eating the poisonous snake raw tomorrow, if I get lost in the race again this year”.

Race day started with a nice breakfast of the greasiest omelet I have ever experienced. I think it is the first time I have not eaten everything on my plate since I was about ten. Well we paid our bill and off to the races we went. The start of the race is nuts. You do this thing called the death spiral. I like to think of it as the puke spiral. When you start you get funneled into a lane and the lane spirals into the center of a field and when you get to the center it switches direction and spirals you out. My thoughts as I do this are “if turds had feelings this is what it would feel like to be flushed” and “this is what I deserve for flushing those dead goldfish down the toilet when I was a kid”. Maybe my fascination with flushing was the spiral or maybe that omelet was talking.

I was feeling spunky at the beginning and was working my way through the field pretty good. I probably passed 10 guys fixing flats in the first 5 miles. I finally bridged up to the group Tom was in. Jared was nowhere in sight of course. I stuck with Tom’s group up to the single track. I was the first one into the single track. However, I got deflected by a rock and right into a branch. I put my foot down and probably lost fifteen places in the blink of an eye.

I got through the single track and rode the next portion completely by myself. Then came the “run-up”. I passed a lot of people on this (top speed here was probably.000025 miles per hour…ouch) and got to the top just as Tom was leaving. I scarfed down a banana and stole a water bottle and I was off no more then 3 minutes behind Tom. I never saw him again.

I was ok to check point three where I was blown away to see Jared. We started the climb from three together. He left me in the dust, apparently having the plague doesn’t even slow the guy down for long. I suffered on that hill, it just sucked. The rest of the race was just putting up with misery and self-pity until the end. The only exception to feeling lousy was this stretch of super smooth single track. Now mind you I am not that good on single track. When I hit this stuff I was absolutely rocking and dropped the group I had been riding with like they were a greasy omelet.

Jared ended up catching me a little later. Yeah I was confused too. It appears that in his lactic haze he misread a sign and zigged when he should have zagged. Once we hit pavement it was drag race to the finish where Tom was waiting for the rest of the O train. He only had to wait about fourteen minutes for the young bucks of the squad. We cooled down and grabbed a bite to eat as we waited for Jimmy an Eric to finish and they came in together. I thought that was totally cool. I can’t wait until next year!!!

Iron Cross VI

Sunday oct. 12 I started my day at 3:30 AM headed to Mansfield to get Jimmy G. and head to Pine Grove Furnace to race the Iron Cross (ride) . We arrived at the race site about 8:00 AM the morning was chilly and Jimmy and I talked about what to wear for the day knowing that it was going to get up into the seventies. We picked up our numbers, talked with Tom O. Josh B. and Jarad S. and headed back to the truck to get ready. The race started at 9:00. Jimmy and I started near the back. Faster riders were up front. The start was the craziest thing you will ever see, as you ride around in in a circle in a 1 acre field for a couple of minutes. The race lasted for 6 hours and 17 minutes for Jimmy and me, covering some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. The single-track was some of best I've ever ridden and to do it on a cross bike totally amazed me. There was 60 miles of roads and trails with 6000 FT of climbing and a few hundred yards of hike-a-bike. I have to say this race is the most fun I've had on a bike in a very long time. If you like to be challenged and have a really good time you need to do this race.

Mountain Biking Matters

Cloudy skies greeted me as I walked to the garage to grab my mountain bike. I was headed for the Laurel Classic, though, truth be known, I didn’t feel at all like racing. Tioga Tom’s crash had occurred four days prior, and he’d never be racing the Classic again. His death made the race seem pointless to me. Who cares about racing when a friend can no longer ride?

Tom O picked me up a few minutes after 8:00 a.m., lateness unusual for him. Even more unusual, he couldn’t find the front wheel for his bike. We backed out of the driveway to head back to his house, and I saw the wheel lying there in Sherwood Street. I jumped out, grabbed it, and hopped back in the truck for the trip to Asaph. We drove over under cloudy skies and subdued talk, though I did get a bit riled about politics and dropped a few F-bombs along the way. Tom was his usual unflappable self.

Once we arrived, I was heartened to see a good turn-out and many guys I ride with but don’t see on a regular basis. I sat around, bullshitting, while the Race Promoters Supreme, Jim and Jared, marshaled their volunteers and passed out orders. The Beginners pedaled off a few minutes later, and things got quiet around the staging area.

Tioga Tom’s family weighed heavily on my mind. I puttered around before the start, fiddling with my race bib and equipment before finally embarking on a warm-up with Eric twenty-five minutes before the race. That’s usually a bad approach for me—unlike Lizard-Boy, it takes me a while to get the muscles firing—but I didn’t give a shit. After twenty minutes or so, Eric took his spot at the start with the experts while I rummaged through my cooler looking for another water bottle. I heard the horn blast and cleats clicking into pedals as the group turned right in a cloud of dust and headed up Straight Run Road. I sucked down a GU, chugged some water, and rolled to the start. I wished Ted and Heckler luck. Heckler looked at me and said: “Why are we doing this?” “I don’t know,” I replied. “I’m not really psyched for it.” Then the horn blared, and we were off.

I’ve raced my bike a lot, so I don’t get sucked into start antics too often, especially when the race begins with a long climb. Sure enough, a group of guys blasted away. I tried to keep them in sight but not very hard, preferring to let my back and legs loosen up before ramping up my effort. (Of course, I’m also not in shape for those kinds of starts either, but I prefer to make myself sound old and wise rather than old and slow.) Eventually, the main pack pulled away, while those who went out too hard started drifting back, puffing like overworked steam engines. After what seemed like forever—that damn hill has got to be longer than Ole Bull’s opener—I hit the singletrack. My strategy? Ride easy and in control until I felt my singletrack groove. This was only the second time I had ridden these trails, and I wanted to enjoy them a bit, circumstances notwithstanding.

Plantation Trail began well. I followed a young woman on a singlespeed into the woods and passed her when the trail climbed a bit. The previous night’s rain had the soil in that perfect state of stickiness, when tires bite into the dirt, leaving crisp, clean tracks. The air was clear, and the birches, oaks, maples, and other trees stood out starkly. Slick black roots bisected the trail at odd angles, cutting through the occasional moss patch. There were trees all around, and they muted what little light drifted down from the gray skies. As I rode, I noticed pressure building in my bladder—good in the sense that it meant I was hydrated, bad in the sense that, once I have to piss, I can’t think of anything else. Not a good state of mind to carry into Stinger. So, I steered my bike to the left edge of the trail, hopped off, and ran into the woods—not my usual race behavior. Once I start a race, I don’t like to stop. But then again I didn’t really feel like racing. With an uncluttered mind, I ran back to my bike, appreciating all the kind mountain bikers who asked if I was ok. That concern is one of the reasons I like to race.

I caught the young singlespeeder just in time to watch her go over the bars. It was an impressive face plant—slow and precise, like a dance move. She told me she was ok as I rode by. That was the last I saw of her.

Stinger was uneventful. I pointed my bike down the right side of the trail, surfing the scree with my belly on the saddle. I didn’t see a thing except the trail in front of me—no trees, no spectators. (I think I heard my name once.) Smiling as I dropped through the ditch that ends Stinger and onto the gravel road, I thought about Tom O’s guess that he rides Stinger successfully about 50% of the time. Having ridden it a grand total of twice now, that’s where I stand myself.

The next section was uneventful as well—just me and my bike rolling through the trees. I was riding singletrack efficiently and well, enjoying the climbing (easy to do when I’m not gutting myself), and marveling at how damn good this race course is. I’ve ridden my mountain bike in a lot of places—North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, California, Utah—and the Asaph trails rival any of them.

My second stop came at the bottom of Deer Trail, a tricky descent that I don’t remember all that well. Francis handed me a water bottle while Todd Rudy shooed me out of the middle of the road. I saw Fletch, said hello, and nodded as he told me to blast down Left Straight Run. I blasted all right—both hands gripping the brakes while I listened to another racer behind me yelp every time a jolt on the trail shook his broken toe. (His name was Greg, and he had broken his toe the night before. Tough guy.) Anyway, I let him pass, only to catch him a few miles further on when we climbed up some lovely singletrack splitting knee-deep grass growing in an old road bed. At the top, we rode together for a few minutes until I pulled away, not to see him again until the next water stop.

Brian and Gail know how to run a water stop. AC/DC on the boombox, cold water in cups, and cheers of encouragement. I asked Brian if he had a beer. “Yeah,” he replied, “you want one?” We cracked open a couple—Brian’s too polite to let a thirsty mountain biker drink alone—and chatted for a couple of minutes, the time it took me to swallow the Rugged Trail Ale. Then I was off for the final eight miles of lovely singletrack. By this time, I was really grooving—my bike and body working as one as we cruised through the trails, reading the singletrack like a book. It was fun, plain and simple, and I was amazed that I rode that well, considering I’ve only been on my mountain bike three times this year.

Bombing down Darling Road Trail was like plunging down a roller coaster through a tube of trees. And plunging. And plunging. That descent is so long, it almost gets tedious. I started looking left for a glimpse of Straight Run Road, wishing I had the nerve to let go of the brakes and really blast down the trail. Finally, houses marking the end of the trail came into view, and I knew my long-suffering forearms were going to get a break. I popped out of the woods, heard Dan say “Way to go, Jimmy,” waved, and pedaled to the finish line. My time was . . .well, who cares. I was in the mood for my friends, beer, and hearing and telling stories of our rides—precisely why mountain biking matters.

Rest in peace, Tioga Tom.