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Noob Mistake: Not Replenishing Protein

11.18.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

There’s a plethora of material out there, both online and in print, about nutrition and exercise. For the most part, I have ignored it. That’s because I’m a procrastinator. I just don’t get around to reading up on stuff I know I should be up on.

Take tiredness after long rides. It’s a particular problem for me, one I’ve written about before. I just could never figure out why, after a couple of hours in the saddle, I would crash on my bed for a long nap. Those naps were more trouble than they were worth, because they threw off my sleep schedule for the next 24 hours, and I had a lot of trouble readjusting my internal clock.

My routine after a long ride is to settle in at a coffee shop or restaurant or even the living room at home, and have a large drink of something. Usually, it’s iced tea. That takes care of the liquids I lose on a ride through sweating, but doesn’t do much to refuel my body.

I remember riding once with an acquaintance — an experienced cyclist — who couldn’t wait to get some food after we’d finished the ride. “I have to have some protein within a half hour of the ride,” he said. I chalked it up to his personal idiosyncrasy.

Turns out, he was right on the money.

When you take a long bike ride, you’re using up branched chain amino acids. When these essential nutrients are depleted, that leads to the doubling of tryptophan, another amino acid. Once it’s in the brain, tryptophan converts to serotonin, which makes us drowsy.

That drowsiness can set in during the ride itself, as fatigue. If you overtrain, you’ve probably experienced it. But if you maintain adequate levels of branched chain amino acids, you should be able to ward off fatigue. So as my friend does, try to get some quality protein into your system immediately after a ride.

Where do you find quality proteins? Meat, dairy products, and legumes. That might be why cyclists are adopting chocolate milk as a recovery drink.

Today, after two and a half hours riding over rolling hills, I whipped up a ham sandwich right after getting out of the shower. Sure enough, although I felt my eyes get a little heavy while sitting in my chair watching football, I soon snapped out of it. Any other day, minus the sandwich, I would have been crashed on my bed.

It’s a simple solution, but one I’ve bypassed for far too long. I guess I’m still a noob.

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Categories // food, training Tags // food, noob mistake, recovery

The Return

08.15.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

You might recall that regular guest poster Don Blount has been out of action for awhile, after a bad fall.  Well, Don’s back. How he handled his recovery could be instructive if any of us find ourselves in a similar predicament.

It has been three weeks since I was cleared by my doctor to begin riding without restrictions.

It’s good to be back.

I was cleared for activity on July 22. On July 23 I was back on the bike. The first full week back I rode a total of 101 miles, the second week it was 103 miles. I expect to be back in that range again this week. I even started doing intervals and plan on heading up to the hills soon.

I think the reason I transitioned back to the outdoor bike world so well was because of what I did during my recovery.

In quick review: On May 15 I took a nasty tumble from my bike, fracturing my left wrist and breaking my left arm. About a week later I had surgery and then spent another nine weeks on restricted duty.

Restriction meant to not do anything that put any pressure on my arm. Of course riding my bike was out. I was allowed to ride a stationary bike but only provided that I didn’t violate that restriction.

I became good friends with a bike at my gym. I think I had about six hours on it during the first week.

Later, a member of my bike club loaned me his Cateye CS-1000 cycle simulator. This trainer had adjustable settings that allowed the resistance to be increased to get a harder bike workout.

I found this time incredibly boring, even if I was watching videos or the Tour de France or listening to music. Particularly when the weather is good, bike riding is most enjoyed when done outdoors. I gained additional appreciation for living in California where I can pretty much ride outdoors year round.

But the time on the trainer helped. I focused on making sure I got saddle time and trying to keep my cardio level up so I wouldn’t suffer from saddle soreness or too much fatigue when I returned to riding outdoors.

And it worked for the most part. My wrist was a little tender initially but the discomfort was tolerable. I have stretches and exercises to help strengthen my wrist and arm. More importantly I gained a greater appreciation for an act as simple as riding a bike and its value to my quality of life.

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Categories // crash, guest post, Injury Tags // Injury, recovery

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