It didn’t hit me then that a fruit smoothie and coffee could crush a workout like that. I thought, its crushed fruit, yogurt and juice, it has to be good for you right? Wrong. Between skyrocketing my blood sugar and amplifying that with a mocha (double shot no less + more sugar!) I annihilated my physiology to the point where I started shaking forcing me to stop the workout. Keeping in mind this was pure operator error, but it illustrates an extreme example of what can happen why you blow your blood sugar sky high.

I learned the hard way that a “healthy” smoothy is loaded with sugar, and very often can have more sugar than a 12oz can of coke (39g/can). That number has the potential to go up as high as 95g of sugar depending on if you add any  “boosts.”

Now, I’m not a registered dietician or nutritionist, but I’ve got a decent understanding of how the body works at this level, and I’ve heard Dr. Clyde Wilson talk, andI’ve read his research,  so I think I’ve got a better idea than most. I know a massive influx of sugar (regardless of its fructose or sucrose) into your body spikes your blood sugar in a manner that is nothing but bad news.

So, you’re looking for a healthy snack, and in the process you have the potential to put well over two cans of Coke’s worth of sugar in your body. Sign me up! Do it often enough, and that amount of sugar will add weight on you like nobodies business and here’s why.

“The faster sugar enters the bloodstream, the less goes to muscle, and the more goes to fat,” says Dr Wilson in his book What, When and Water: Nutrition for Weight Loss Wellness. “Eating rapidly digesting carbs will spike blood sugar and insulin levels resulting in a blood sugar crash with an increased hunger once the sugars are cleared into fat stores.”

Wilson also says when you replace a natural food with a processed food (juicing falls into this category) you “reduce the fiber and nutrient content significantly and make the resulting food one step closer to pure sugar.”

Microbiologist and NASM-CPT Lea Swenson agrees with Wilson.

“You get the most benefit by eating fruits and vegetables in their ‘raw’ state.  When you juice a fruit or a vegetable you remove all of its fiber and bulk (as well as increase oxidation, thereby destroying nutrients),” she said. “The bulk is there for satiety and keeps us from eating 7 apples at a time and the fiber acts as a ‘control valve’ for releasing
glucose into our bloodstream.”  

By ingesting foods in a juiced state, you violate the glycemic index (GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates in food on blood sugar levels) in big way. Foods with protein and fat have a much lower GI rating than those with simple sugars.

“Daisy” is a place with a fantastic trail network and with a great group of people upgrading and building/maintaining trails when required.

With a mix of fire roads and single tracks, and trails to suit the beginner to elite level of riders the car park is full on weekends. Fortunately for me I can ride a couple of days during the week whilst the workload allows me too :)

Some of the trail names are amusing with some being quite obvious and others not so!

Names like Koala, Chocolate Buddha, Wiry Panic Trail, Gillian’s, Turning Japanese, Stonehenge, 2nd coming, Tunnel of love and Ripleys to name a few :)

Here is a readout from Strava which shows the ride I did today and some pics from start to finish :)

http://app.strava.com/rides/8549632

If I look a little wonky in any pics that would be due to setting my camera to a 10sec self timer and racing back to jump on and capture haha :)

Here’s all you need to do:

1. Listen to Episode #29 of the VeloReviews.com
2. Be a member of VeloReviews.com.  Only members will be able to access the training program, and communicate with Al Painter.
3. Send an email to contests@veloreviews.com answering the question: What component manufacture does VR Mechanical Editor Shane Russell recommend as the only reasonable choice for internally routed cables?
4. Winner will be selected via random drawing of eligible contestants.

Entries must be received from a valid email address, and received on or before Midnight Pacific Time, June 2nd.  Limit one entry per individual.

Feel free to add anything else or add comments :)

Apologies to readers for the Australian spelling and to Rapunzel for my spelling of “derailler” ;)

For all the mountain bikers here I will post an identification sheet asap :)

Bicycle components

Well, actually, there may be something that turned out to be quite a head scratcher. It was something about a running workout with dips inserted in between efforts intended to be “core” strength.

If I recall correctly, running is done primarily with the legs and the body in an upright position with the arms swinging back and forth. But hey, there as many flavors of exercise as there ways to exercise.

No, just stop right there Al. That doesn’t apply here at all and it has to do with something called “specificity of training” as to the reason why. You can’t cast the widest net possible when you exercise and expect it to be effective. There is a certain science behind programming a workout that doesn’t contain any loopholes.

This a long one people, so you better grab a tall cold glass of cow juice and some “Oreos,” sit back and enjoy.

For the record, dips are an upper body exercise for the triceps, shoulders and chest. Imagine putting your arms on a couch you may be sitting against, and pushing yourself up away from the floor. If you can do this motion, you’ve just dipped.

While this is a good exercise to develop the upper body pushing muscles, there is very little (essentially zero) functional carry over to running. Let alone programming this in as a “core” strength exercise for a running workout. If you want to know what muscles actually make up the core, click here for a previous literary litany.

See, this is why I hate “core strength.” Too many people using it without enough knowledge of how to actually apply it in a productive way.

How difficult is it to pick up something from the “New Rules of Lifting” book series and program a workout session in a safe effective manner? I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t. I know this first hand because I’ve ordered each book from the internet in a surprisingly simple fashion with every attempt.

Another approach that might actually make sense is to do something for the lower body to prepare it for the next effort. Maybe even recover to allow the required energy system used to recharge so it can be stressed to make it stronger. To continually pound the body with no discernible plan or periodized strategy only gets you the sport of fitness, which unfortunately has arrived.

Perhaps some ankle mobility drills might help. Maybe some lunges to loosen up the hip flexors and quads. Possibly some single bowler squats to loosen up the glutes as they get some work. But, I guess pushing the arms down to activate muscles that don’t really work in that fashion when you run is a much better idea.

“Lord, you gave them eyes, but they cannot see.” Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in the first “Superman” movie in case you didn’t know. I feel it applies very well here.

So, let’s actually break down what the body actually does when you run. Or more importantly, what it doesn’t do:

• leg press
• hamstring curl in a prone position
• extend the knees out in front of you
• dip
• crunch
• flex the spine bent over
• jump up and down on bleacher steps

So, long story short, here’s what’s actually happening when you run, broken down into it’s four phases:

• initial contact with the ground
• midstance (stabilization of body weight)
• propulsion (moving forward off of one foot)
• swing (the back foot leaving the ground to start the cycle again).

Unless I’m mistaken, there isn’t a “dip phase” in this process.

Your arms are supposed to be at 90 degrees (distance running) moving back and forth at chest height. The hands stay in front of the shoulders so you don’t cross the midline of the body and get excess rotation in your trunk as you run.

So, with that being lamented, let’s take a look at the “dip phase,” and see how closely it mimics running. The images may shock you….

Hmmm, ok, interesting. Now, let’s take a look at the “running” phase of, well, running…

So, as you can see, there is a little bit of a difference in what the upper body is doing. Now, I get that dips can help with shoulder mobility in turn helping the arm swing portion of running if they are done RIGHT. BUT, you work on that in the gym so that when you do run, your body is moving more fluidly before you lace up your shoes.

The other issue I have with this is if you are going to do strenuous intervals, a certain amount of fatigue will set in. If you are “super setting” intense running with body weight strength training, the chances of quality movements go down as your fatigue levels go up.

This is training to the laws of diminishing returns. Believe it or not, the goal of a workout is not be pounded into oblivion.

Meaning, if someone has forward rounded shoulders and poor thoracic mobility, dips will trash their shoulders due to the position of the shoulder girdle as they press.

RANDOM RANT INTERMISSION

If you are going to do “core” strength after a run, it needs to be hip stabilization work, thoracic spine mobility (NO CRUNCHES BTW), lunges, lateral lunges, cross over lunges, prone spinal erector activation, single leg bridging if the hams don’t cramp essentially hip dominated/mobility based activities. Doing all of this will “reset” the glutes, help you recover faster and aid in fighting the uniplanar repetitive stress nature of running on the lower body.

As you can also plainly see, there aren’t any arm specific motions in the post run cool down because very rarely (meaning never) do you have to “reset” the shoulders after a run. Unless you’ve been tackled by a 400lb human being and just broken your collarbone.

Then, I’d imaging there’s a certain amount of “resetting” taking place. Probably under Oxycontin (made famous by Rush Limbaugh and Brett Favre, but I digress) is my guess as to how that process would work.

Plus, most runners have not been taught how to do dips correctly. Not too mention posses mastery over the proper joint stabilization needed to do them correctly. These are difficult exercises for professional body builders to do the right way, let alone a general fitness population.

They can be horrible for your joints if your elbows get higher than your shoulders, your hands are in the wrong position, your chin gets out in front of your collar bone or you don’t move with a neutral spine.

You also shouldn’t have your low back more than a few inches away from whatever it is your pushing against. The picture to the right illustrates just about every contraindicated thing you can do when performing dips:

• spinal flexion
• flexed necks
• forward rounded shoulders
• bodies too far away from the surface used
• no straight lines from shoulders to hips

END OF RANT

Depending on if the person is using straight legs or bent knees, you get even more implications. Most runners have a difficult time  properly extending their hips without some sort of lumbopelvic movement dysfunction. I’ve seen enough runners in the last 12 years to know this is pretty accurate statement.

So, if you are fatigued from a hard interval, and can’t properly support your hips, guess where that support will come from? Your lumbar spine. If you need an explanation as to why this is bad, please go to another blog immediately. If you’ve got common sense, and the ability to exhibit it, please continue.

So, the take away of all of this you ask? Exercise safely, please. If it hurts, don’t do it.

If the exercises you are doing look nothing like the movement they are intended to improve, the chances are they aren’t helping you get better. Well, maybe “better at sucking” as Brett Contreras says, but that’s about it.

Remember, this is an op-ed piece, and in this ed’s op, I would never insert a high skill movement (which dips are) into a workout when there is potential for poor form.

I will leave you with strength and conditioning expert Mike Boyle’s explanation of programming exercise that doesn’t make sense in a workout:

“Programming is an art. You can’t just mix a steak, eggs, vegetables and fruit together and expect it to taste good. That’s called shit soup.”

Enjoy!!

3.5 cups rolled outs/granola

3/4 cup light syrup (I also use honey)

2 scoops protein powder

1.5 cups dry milk

1 Tbs cinnamon

2 egg whites

1/4 cup of juice

1/2 tsp of  vanilla

1 cup dried fruit (although I use more)

1 cup of applesauce (I use more to make them more moist)

Mix dry/wet ingredients in seperate bowls, then mix together

Spread out on a cookie sheet on parchment paper

I also sprinkle brown sugar on top for a little extra oomph

Bake at 325 degrees for 15 mins

Take out, pour some milk and enjoy!

I had missed the sounds of cycling, like when your cleat “clacks” into the pedal, the snick as you shift gears and your derailleur’s work their magic (hopefully), the sound of wind passing you by and the sound of vehicles keeping their distance :)

I had missed the feeling of wearing knicks and a cycle jersey, gloves and a helmet, drinking water from a bidon whilst riding along and looking ahead at the path my bicycle should follow.

I hadn’t missed the feeling of turning after 15km to find a VERY strong headwind for my journey home, the legs having NO strength from not training in over a year and those little rises seem like mountains now :) I haven’t missed THAT!

Overall though the ride was fantastic and I am back riding. In saying that I have organised a mountain bike ride for tomorrow afternoon and now I know how much that is going to HURT! :) All in good fun though.

For those that care about stat’s the numbers for todays ride were;

Distance 30.46km/18.93mi

Ave speed 23.7kph/14.73mph

Ride time 1hr 16.54mins

In a few weeks I may look for an event or something for me to aim for once the fitness improves, probably offroad :)

Hope you enjoy!

Europe 2012 An excellent adventure.

I have written about second breakfast before, but today the stars aligned. I had my usual banana and water before I rode, then I had my fastest morning commute of the year. When I got into the office the Friday Morning Goodie was Krispy Kreme donuts. I added some chocolate milk and called it a well earned recovery breakfast. I can’t afford to eat like that every morning. Well I can afford to buy the food, but not to replace all my cycling clothes if I outgrow them.

Some of you might be asking, what is Friday Morning Goodie. Well it is a tradition/benefit where I work. These days it is usually bread or muffins from Great Harvest Bread Company and sometimes it is bagels. But on the last Friday of the month it is Krispy Kreme donuts. I am not sure how many donuts are provided., but it seems to be about 1 per person and there are a little over 5,000 people working here. That is the kind of thing you get working at one of Fortune’s Best Places To Work.

By the way, if you have never had a Krispy Kreme donut, plan a trip to North Carolina. Ride the Blue Ridge Parkway and then get you some Krispy Kreme donuts. You will have earned them.