Fasting for 5 days

Yes, I know, Ryan and I have tried a lot of different things with regard to our nutrition (from a regular western diet to vegetarian to vegan to paleo to fat adapted and currently settled on a more zone-ish diet with emphasis on as much fresh and unprocessed produce as possible/convenient), but his latest suggestion really was the most crazy: stop eating for 5 full days. Seriously? Yes. 

I’m expecting you to wonder why. The theory (in short and simplified) is this: don’t eat for 5 days (and don’t cheat by getting in any calories through drinking juice etc) and you body will re-use whatever it can find, recycling whatever floats around the cells unused and cleans up old, damaged cells, reusing the components - something called autophagy. This is meant to be good for you because old and damaged cells are the ones that can become cancer precursors. In addition, it does something to the immune system, somehow helping it to reset and rejuvenate - although I don’t think we quite know how or why. Some more information can be found here. Well, whatever, it’s meant to be good for you and since I finished my last race at the Track Cycling World Champs in March, I got sick one time after another (and I rarely was ever sick during my cycling career). And I thought it was an interesting challenge - could I really manage to not eat for a full 5 days (and nights - in case you were wondering)?

I chose the starting point somewhat spontaneously: I wanted to do it over a weekend, because I didn’t want to loose any time working. Thus, when on one Thursday evening I got a dinner invitation for next Wednesday, I decided to stop eating that evening, to fast until Tuesday evening. I would get through Friday OK (I’ve fasted for 24+ hrs several times before) and was hoping to have gotten through the worst by Monday and Tuesday. That was the amount of planning and preparation that went into it. The only thing that I was allowed was about a table spoonfull of MCT oil and only water and herbal teas.

Here’s my diary:

Thursday evening dinner: - this should have been my last meal, but I was sad having to give up food for the next five days, so I had a good-bye snickers and a yoghurt with blueberries as my last enjoyment after dinner.

Friday (Day 1): I started with a spoon of MCT oil for breakfast. I got hungry for about half an hour before lunch, but I was very busy in work, so once the hunger died down I barely noticed I hadn’t eaten until the evening. Ryan got me some nice mineral waters and they kept me going during work. I got hungry again in the evening when dinner was cooking, but I distracted myself from it with gardening and watched some netflix in the evening. I was tired when I went to bed, so I fell asleep easily despite the empty stomach. I slept reasonably well.

Saturday (Day 2): Again I started the day with MTC oil. Today I was hungry and started feeling weaker. Standing up too quickly made me dizzy. And I was hungry. Not hungry in a craving type of way, but actually hungry with your stomach cramping and making noises. I tried to distract myself with some gardening and watched a lot of netflix because I couldn’t concentrate very well on anything else. Ryan noted a strong ketone breath that day…..

Sunday (Day 3): MCT oil was my breakfast again. I decided to distract myself from the ever growing hunger by going on a VERY easy bike ride. It was so easy you could have walked faster. I actually didn’t feel too bad today at all, but I by body was getting weaker. I watched more netflix that day.

Monday (Day 4): I had MTC oil for starters and also ate some pink Himalayan sea salt. I never felt that I had to restrain myself from eating, I never felt tempted by food, but the hunger was now always there. And it was settling in deeper. It was starting to get annoying. My brain was also starting to get more foggy, it was hard to concentrate in work. I was starting to feel worse. I had to ration my energy this evening during gardening because I wasn’t feeling so well. It was definitely getting harder. When I went to bed my body felt so empty and my stomach felt like it was going to start to eat itself, it was almost painful. There was no way I could distract myself from that during the night and I barely slept. It was a very long night - I even got up for 2hours to do some work to distract myself. But all I could think about was the end of the fasting and I started counting down the hours. 

Tuesday (Day 5): When I got up I felt like a zombie. Half-dead. Wrecked, tired, and weak. I had barely slept. All I could think about was that I will be done by this evening. But I still had a whole day of work ahead of me and I was feeling sh*te. I had MCT oil and Ryan suggested to eat some keto-force to get me through the day. Boy, what a difference it made! It tasted nice and it gave me a boost of energy. I was still super tired and brain foggy, but I knew I could make it now with this little cheat. I didn’t want to get off it - until I had to run to the bathroom really quickly - Ryan just laughed - yeah, it becomes a laxative if you have too much of it! So I kept a fine balance of having some more ketoforce during the day and just suffering. Weird how being hungry like that takes over your life. 

Tuesday evening: Finally, at 10pm I had my first meal: I decided to start with something simple: white rice, a sous-vide egg, some wild smoked salmon and avocado - and then I followed up with some salty crackers and some chocolate. The funny thing was that the food actually didn’t taste as nice as I had hoped - it felt like I had lost all of my taste over night. What I liked most where the crackers - it could have been the salt that did it for me. I slept well that night.

Wednesday (1 day after): The next morning I skipped breakfast and had some nice meaty leftovers for lunch and chia pudding for dessert. I felt great, nearly euphoric that day and full of energy. Stomach and digestion were both fine and I really enjoyed my Korean dinner with friends that evening.

Thursday (2 days after): I felt like I never fasted - I’m back to normal and all is good :)

Post-mortem: I didn’t weigh myself before or after because this was not for a weight loss goal, but I’m pretty sure I lost some weight. My appetite has been normal since I stopped fasting, I didn’t overeat (well, except for that amazing pizza dinner in Terun’s maybe ;))

P.S. Ryan tried the same thing a few weeks later - read about his experiences on Ryan's blog.

Iliac artery repair and patch - 2 days post op and doing well

This is a quick update for my blog readers. I know it’s been very quiet here and the reason is that for the past 1.5 years I’ve been struggling with power loss in my left leg, which got worse over time. It was a hard hit for me when it was finally diagnosed as iliac artery endofibrosis, for which the only options are either stopping cycling or having a major operation. This meant I’ve not really been able to enjoy cycling any more and I’d rather write about positive things than negative things.

Well, I’ve finally got some positive news: I’m now 2 days post-operative from an iliac artery repair and patch and recovery is going really well. During the operation, some of the arterial scar tissue has been scraped out where the narrowing was and a bovine patch has been inserted all along the area of arterial thickening, to stop the narrowing from happening again. Luckily the area of damage was localised to the iliac artery and did not extend into the femoral artery, so only one cut was needed and one hole for the drain. The operation went very well, and was over in 2.5 hours. I’ve had all tubes (morphine, saline, catheter, drain) removed the next day.

I’m now adjusting to taking it very very easy for the next while, although at the moment I don’t mind it too much, because my very low blood pressure keeps me from doing too much too fast anyway. The painkillers are good enough to reduce the pain to discomfort and I’m allowed to walk increasingly day by day for the next 6 weeks, starting with a couple of min today, but nothing too strenuous (oh - and no housework allowed - Ryan, are you reading this?). Then I’ll have my check up in 6 weeks time to see if the artery is all good and hopefully I’ll be cleared to start with a bit of cycling again then. So all going well, you’ll see me back on the road in a couple of months time! :)

European XC Marathon Championships 2014

I know it's been quiet on my blog for a while, I've got excuses (mainly work eating into my free time and I prefer writing about positive things), but last weekend's European XC Marathon Championships in Ballyhoura deserves a blog post.

Some may remember that when I started out cycling in 2006 ish, it was on Ryan's old mountain bike, mainly to get myself through adventure races, but then switching to mountain biking completely. In 2008, Ryan and I raced cross country in Ireland and the UK and at the time the UK MTB series carried out the XC race on Saturdays and the XC Marathon race on the same weekend on Sundays, using laps of a lengthened version of the XC course. So every race weekend in the UK we would trash ourselves in the XC race on Saturday and then top it off with a 100km marathon race on Sunday. Thinking back I remember that I always felt like I had been run over by a truck come Monday morning when I went back to work. But the training effect was massive: I gained a huge amount of fitness doing that. So I am no stranger when it comes to long hard off road endurance racing.

Over the years however I moved more and more into road biking, learning and enjoying the extra dimension it offers on tactics - the "chess-on-wheels" element - and the team perspective that XC racing is missing. So my racing has changed, but I still love taking out my mountain bike and ripping up and down the trails in the local forests.

When I started mountain biking, the Irish mtb community was small and close-knit. Often, I would have been the only soul out and about on the mountain, and if I met another mountainbiker on 3Rock, I usually would have known who it was. There were also a couple of walkers and horse riders, but in general you would have had the mountain to yourself. Trailcentres were still a new idea here in Ireland, with the Ballyhoura trails only being built back then. How things have changed since then.

So when I heard that the European XC Marathon Championships were going to be carried out on home soil in Ballyhoura, I had to enter it of course. In fact, I was one of the first people to ride on the new Ballyhoura trails when they were being built, before they officially opened to the public: during my time as an adventure racer I did the now famous "Beast of Ballyhoura" inaugural adventure race in 2007, a race I thoroughly enjoyed in great company. Part of their marketing was that we were to ride the new Ballyhoura trails during our night mtb leg. Even then they were already lots of fun, at night time, with ghosts jumping out in front of you :)

However, the last time I'd done a mtb marathon was the national mtb marathon champs in 2012 and my mtb was gathering dust. Ah well, I decided to take out the mtb bike a bit more often to shake off the cobwebs and remembered how much fun it is to rip through the forests, pushing the bike to the limits on the technical trails and enjoying being so close to nature. The recent good weather and grippy trails helped :)

While the Euro champs were not going to be my main focus - my main focus was always going to be the national road champs, I still thought I'd be able to ride a good race, especially since I should be getting into good form for the national road champs in 2 weeks after, or so I thought when I started out planning my season for the year. But things don't always go your way. Since the end of last year I have been struggling with loss of power especially in my left leg. When I first noticed it I was training for the road world champs 2013, and I put it down to some muscle imbalance due to the really hard training I was doing and hoped the time off the bike in the off season would see to it and sort it out.

But when I started proper hard training again in Gran Canaria in January, the problem reappeared worse than ever. I struggled through, having to change my training around the problem, hoping that maybe it was just the shock of doing intervals again after long steady sessions all winter that was the problem. But when I started racing this season in Belgium the problem persisted, although I managed to get through the races OK.

I had planned to be seen by a specialist in Belgium during one of my racing stints over there, but again, things didn't go to plan and I wasn't going to be back in Belgium any time soon after I had left my previous team. And then I joined the UK-based Wyndymilla team in May, whose main goal was the British Tour Series - a series of 5 mid-week crits over 5 weeks in May/June. Anyone who knows me knows my hate-love with crits - probably my worst on-bike discipline, but also so exciting, and I was hoping my strength would get me through. But when I started, I soon noticed the familiar symptoms: shortly into the efforts of the race my left leg would be screaming with pain, my toes would feel like they're going numb and I'd start wriggling them to help the circulation. Then, a couple of minutes more and a few more sprints out of corners later, my left leg would pack in and I would nurse myself through the race for as long as possible. I managed the first crit OK, but was dropped early in the 2nd one and had to pull out of the 3rd one altogether. Not good. There was no point in doing any more crits with my legs giving up on me like that and I needed clarity if it was all just in my head (maybe my legs just weren't used to the high efforts of crit racing) or if there was something else wrong with me.

I knew a rider who had a similar problem with power loss and had gone to Scott McDonald for a leg blood pressure measurement. So I went to him one morning to get the same measurement done, pedalling on a stationary bike until I felt the symptoms coming on, then lying down immediately to get my blood pressure in my arms and legs measured. And the result confirmed what I had felt all along, there is something restricting my blood flow to my legs at effort. What I was initially surprised at was that both legs were affected - yes, that's right, my blood pressure actually dropped significantly on BOTH legs, albeit more so on my left leg. So it's not just in my head, phew! But depending on the cause it can mean anything between an easy fix and a big operation with lengthly recovery period. Only a scan can bring clarity and I'm now waiting to get scheduled for an arteriogram to see what the issue is and how it can be fixed (although I've been told that it can take half a year with public health insurance.....).

So that was why I couldn't really expect to have a good result at the European Marathon Champs, where you want to go as close to your limit for as long as possible, with very little recovery time and no "sitting in". I still decided to enter, go my pace and try to have some fun. How often do you have the chance to ride against some of the worlds best mountain bikers on home soil in beautiful Ballyhoura?

On the day of the race we were greeting with the same fine weather that we had all week leading up to it - it's rare in Ireland to have such a consistent stint of warmth and sunshine (although I've been telling all the Euros that it's always like that in Ireland in the summer ;)). The race start/finish area was buzzing with activity and looked fantastic. I first saw off Ryan who started 40min ahead of me in the star-packed men's Elite race before getting ready to start myself. A relatively small field of only 20 women had lined up in the Elite women's race.

And this is how the race went for me: the pace at the start wasn't super fast, but hard enough for my leg(s) to start suffering again. The really steep climbs up Seefin and the next mountain gave it the rest and I had to let the front group go and go my own speed. I kept on going, keeping my niggle at bay and tried to enjoy the fantastic trails and the superb view and the amazing weather. Unfortunately, about half way through, my chain and rear derailleur started acting up, with my chain jumping off the front or the rear during bumpy descents. Eventually I found the problem: the chain had been caught between the jockey wheel and the rear derailleur and worn through the rear derailleur cage, so that it had lost its rigidity and become floppy, resulting in the chain jumping around and hopping off whenever I went over technical terrain. So much for enjoying the fun descents having to nurse the bike home and riding as smooth as possible and keeping having to stop to put the chain back on, sooo frustrating! According to my moving time vs. stopping time I lost between 6-7 min for having to stop and fixing my chain - that time alone would have bumped me up a couple of places in the results. So all in all it was a bit of a disaster for me race wise and I finished in 11th place, 24 minutes down from a deserving win for Tereza Hurikova, who raced her heart out for the win.

But putting my own bad personal race experience aside, the event itself and everything around it was absolutely amazing. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces and big mtb names in my adopted home country - people I knew from years back from mtbing and training in the UK and Cyprus and Gran Canaria and other parts of the world, such a nice community of people sharing the same passion coming together to race in Ballyhoura. It was also great seeing Sally Bigham, who is recovering from some health issues to come 2nd for her umptieth time in a row. I used to race Sally in my first year mtb racing in the UK in 2008, and she would beat me in every Sunday marathon race, although she didn't have the heavy legs to deal with from the Saturday XC race. Back then in 2008 when we were both relatively new to it, I believe I would have been fairly well matched to her on the Sunday marathon if I hadn't done the XC race on Saturday, but since then Sally has become a world class mtb marathon racer and I don't think I'll ever have the chance to come close to beating her again.

It was a brilliant weekend, superbly organized by Niall Davis and his crew, down to the feed-zone distance stickers and the organized bottle handouts at the feedzones. And even the weather played ball! The atmosphere was fantastic, great crowds of mtb enthusiasts, such a warm welcome and so many encouraging "good lucks" and cheers from everyone we knew, such a relaxed and fun environment. Really really worth it and hoping for it to return some day. If Carlsberg put on mtb marathons, they would ask Niall Davis to organize it, or was it Erdinger...? ;)

I'm going Pink!

I always wanted a pink bike and pink jersey, so I was so happy when I found a new and happy home at the UK-based WyndyMilla Reynolds Cycle Racing Team. But then I found out I wasn't going to ride on the team's pink bike - no I was going to get my own custom built and custom-pained version of the WyndyMilla "Massive Attack" frame, and also my kit in Irish Champions colours! Uh, ok, I take that!!! (Although it's not ready yet, so I AM riding in pink right now :))

The team is focusing on the British Tour Series - a race series comprised of 5 city centre crits. Crits are not really where my strengths are (I only get warmed up by the time the race is over!), but nonetheless they are so much fun with all the close cornering and fast pace - never a dull moment.

So yesterday was my first experiment: Fly over to the UK in the morning, drive to race HQ, meet team, get new bike and kit, race crit, fly back home. And it all worked out well, considering how all was put together in such a short amount of time (if I told you how quickly WyndyMilla were able to custom manufacture (in Italy!), paint (in the UK!) and build up my "Massive Attack" race bike, my manager would kill me, because he'd get customers wanting it that quickly too).

My new custom made and painted Massive Attack bike!

It's also a sign of top quality equipment that I felt comfortable riding my new bike for the first time half an hour before racing it in a crit, probably the most technical of all bike races. And I can only say that the bike rides like a dream, and it's not even set up perfectly to my spec yet! I also love the Reynolds wheels and Schwalbe tires, both of which I've used before, so I knew how much I could push my bike through those corners.

The only mistake we really made last night as a team was that we went to the start line wayyy too late, starting at the very back, and the course was too narrow at times and quite technical with many corners, so it was bound to line out quickly and make moving up difficult. The first round of the Tour Series started off with a bang, typical crit style, high speed, sprinting out of corners, with the first lap lining out the bunch and forcing the splits that we ended up in. I think I finished in the 2nd group on the road, after being lapped by an absolutely on fire Katie Archibald (who nearly lapped the complete field I think!). So it can only get better and I'm already looking forward to jetting in for the next round next Tuesday in Peterborough!

My new team :)

My Irish Champs kit will be available on WyndyMilla for pre-orders soon - it looks absolutely amazing, so if you want one, check out the WyndyMilla facebook page for info.

New job, new team, new year

Soo, it's been quiet on my blog, but not for the lack of action, quite the opposite, I've just been too busy! Unfortunately Dublin rent is quite expensive and cycling too, so I had no option but to get a job. Luckily though my job is very flexible and can be carried out remotely. And it allows me to keep cycling. But it also requires a lot of mental energy - working concentrated on the computer for 20 hours a week is not always easy when you're tired from training. Anyhow, while my recovery may have suffered, it will pay for all the racing I will do this year (yes, I do have to pay for all of that myself). And I will get to do some really cool races in Europe this year with my new team. But first things first.

My own CX bike bought with my own money!

In October last year I was without a job, without money and without a plan. So in my off-season break Ryan and I started looking for a job that would allow us to keep training. While there were no leads for a while and I was getting fidgety, it all happened very quick in the end. Our company got a consulting stint in California with view to extension, so we flew over a week later and started setting things up. This was my 4th winter trip to California, but the first time to set up the consulting gig! We were still able to make use of the much better weather in California and get in our base miles like every year. We just had to be a lot more organized and had no time to do anything outside of work and training.

Sporting my new team kit in the CX Champs - photo credit: Toby Watson

Then another last minute offer came through - I had been hoping to get onto a team that would race mainly in Europe and give me opportunities for the next level of racing. I had already started on plan B, looking to join a local Belgian club team and race with them, when the offer from the Danish Team Rytger came through. Team Rytger is a first year UCI team full of young and promising riders and would race mainly in Europe, perfect for me! As a first year, the team are running on a shoe-string budget, but with two national road race champs (Denmark and Ireland), we already got lots of invites to races, including some of the biggest classics, like the Tour of Vlaanderen! I am really looking forward to be racing with them.

Start of last race in Bremen Six Days

Ryan and I returned from California just in time for Christmas. I spent most of my training on the turbo trainer, and a day or two in bed with a cold too. Christmas was really relaxing with family and friends, giving me a lot of mental energy. I also did a little bit of cyclo cross racing. I had picked up a second hand CX bike in the US from my first salary. Last year I raced the CX Champs on a borrowed bike and Ryan's too large bike, finishing 2nd (in what was my 2nd ever CX race). This year at least I would go into the champs a little more prepared: I had done 3 CX races on my own bike before going into the champs race and was in better form than same time last year. My biggest competitor was going to be Fran Meehan, who had beaten me into 2nd place last year. I knew Fran was in great form and had chance to improve her mud surfing skills by racing CX on the continent. I knew I was missing the high intensity training and my skills would be lacking, but I was happy to challenge her. I thought I might have a chance to win if the course wasn't too wet and it would be power over skills. Unfortunately for me the course was slippery as frig and I had trouble riding (or should I say sliding?) in a straight line. It helped a little that I got a bit of a head start when Fran got caught up in a crash at the start, but the Fran was catching up steadily every lap and I struggled more and more on the slippery ground. Eventually the inevitable happened and she passed me and kept increasing her lead. I finished behind her in 2nd, AGAIN! Ah well, there's always next year.

On top of the world in GC

After the CX Champs I took a 3 day holiday in Germany to visit a friend of mine in Bremen. Just at the same time the Bremen 6-days were on: A track cycling event with lots of entertainment, or rather lots of entertainment with some track racing. And oh the Germans know how to throw a good party, although we were there on the last and quietest day, where the people there were actually interested in watching the racing. A famous Bremen saying roughly translates as follows: "The Bremen 6-days are great craic, only the races are getting into the way!"

Our one and only beach trip in GC

Straight after returning from Bremen Ryan and I made off to our yearly warm weather winter training camp in Gran Canaria. We've come to the same place for 6 years now. People think we're going on a holiday, but in reality we just live a very simple life working and training hard like in Ireland, just with good weather and less distractions. Train, work, eat, sleep, repeat sums it up mostly. Our stay is usually punctuated by friends or family visiting when we are there, but for most of it it's a quiet life. Perfect for working and training and getting some Vitamin D in the winter :)

Time there has flown by as every year and while I'm writing this we're on our insanely early flight back to bad weather in Ireland. Thank goodness it's an easy week this week! And after this little breather in Ireland, I'm off to my first racing stint in Belgium and the Netherlands, then a training camp in Italy and then some more racing in Belgium. Have a look at www.team-rytger.com and follow us on Facebook to see what's in store for me!

Update part 10 - Off season and start into the new training season

After the hill climb champs my season was well and truly over and I took great advantage of that. With racing as far off as March I stuffed my face with all the comfort food that I had given up during the season, just to make sure I put on those lost kg again... In fact, the 6 weeks before the Worlds, when I was loosing weight, I passed by this bakery with the most delicious looking cakes on my way to my grocery shop and all that I could do to not break off my diet was to dream that I would try every cake on display in the month of off-season. I didn't get through them all, but I got close ;)

In the off-season, Ryan and I spent our first real non-biking, non-working and non-PhDing holiday in Berlin for 6 days, exploring the city and enjoying the culinary scene (that includes kebabs). It was just what we both needed.

Enjoying the last of the good weather with friends

But after Berlin I became a little lost and restless. I had no training to do, no job to work, no PhD to study, nowhere to go and nothing to do. Yes, of course there was always something to do, like cleaning the house and tidying the bikeroom and all those things that are on the long-finger list, but eventually I ran out of any of the more obvious and pertinent tasks. I wasn't happy. I've realized I'm not good with nothing to do. In fact, when I have nothing to do I get nothing done. I also had no idea of what my options would be for next year team-wise, and I still don't know now. Ideally I would like to race lots in European big-bunch-small-roads races, to learn the craft of effortlessly surfing the peloton. So I thought that if I don't get to race with a team, or if I get to race with a small club team, then I'll have to fund myself, and rent also doesn't pay itself anyway, so I had to get a job and earn some money. A little perk up was the CI Awards Ceremoney, where Ryan and I received our National Champs medals.

Receiving my medals at the CI Awards night from Stephen Roche (photo: Black Umbrella)

After some time a suitable option that allows me to keep training finally came through, so that I will work part-time this winter to earn money for me to travel next year for races. This year has been such a massive learning curve, and taking the option with TIBCO was like jumping into the deep end with sharks. Maybe with TIBCO I was biting more than I could chew, but the experience I gained can only help me next year. Stay tuned for my plans for next year!

Update part 9 - Irish Hill Climb Champs

After the World Champs my off-season more or less started. I still had one race, the Irish National Hill Climb Champs in Tralee, but it wasn't actually an official championship for women, so competition would be expected to be few for me - I was mainly going along to support Ryan who was hoping to defend his title. So all I had to do was try and not over indulge in all the nice foods that I had abstained from in order to loose weight and keep my legs moving. As predicted, there were very few women at the hill climb champs (3) and I decided to use my power tap in the race (I don't usually because of the weight penalty, and because it's on a wheel built for sturdyness and not aerodynamics) to get some measurements. I won the women's race with a time of 14min 18sec and an average power of 343W. The courses 3.9km long and climbed 295m with an average gradient of 8%, levelling off in the middle for a bit, but then ramping up with about 1km to go. In contrast to the sunshine and beautiful views when we recce'd the course the day before we now had misty fog and a massive headwind to battle. It was interesting to see the power - I included the file below, again I went out too hard at the start, dropping power towards the end. Ryan came 2nd with only 0.7 of a second behind the winner, Mark Dowling, who had beaten him already 2 years ago (Ryan blames me for having taken him a bag of delicious Cantucci home from Florence - ooops!).