Yea beers are no bueno for me either. I am pretty light/lean but I actually do better when I am not heavily training. I just tend to devour everything in sight when I train heavily. That and I tend to graze the house once I get home but I do keep it pretty healthy for the most part. I am just a few pounds heavier than my lightest weight ever. Not really sure what my race weight is err ideal race weight :)

Umm, you don't look the age, but you act 2x your age when you refuse beer :p

in any case, i'll offer beer for after All Americam RR. From rk's fav brewery, no less. It's called Hardywood

2x my age would = highball at noon every day

I stand corrected, good work. This is fascinating, I'll have to look into this more. My first guess is that the vegetarians maintain performance with lower Cr level by upregulating expression of transporter proteins / receptors. I easily found evidence that chronic supplementation downregulates the transporter in muscle, but of course you can't extrapolate that to the brain. I also found a paper that says that the transporter expression is unaffected by vegetarianism so who knows...

Elevation of creatine in red blood cells in vegetarians and nonvegetarians after creatine supplementation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15630144
There was no significant difference between vegetarians and nonvegetarians in final RBC CR content, suggesting that a ceiling had been reached. As the uptake into both muscle and RBC is moderated by creatine transporter proteins, analysis of the uptake of CR into RBC may reflect the uptake of CR into muscle, offering an alternative to biopsies.

Creatine supplementation in health and disease. Effects of chronic creatine ingestion in vivo: down-regulation of the expression of creatine transporter isoforms in skeletal muscle.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9746337
in this study, we report that chronic Cr supplementation in rats down-regulates in vivo the expression of the CreaT

Skeletal muscle total creatine content and creatine transporter gene expression in vegetarians prior to and following creatine supplementation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15673098
Basal muscle TCr content was lower (P < 0.05) in VEG compared with NVEG. Muscle TCr increased (P < 0.05) throughout the Cr trial in both groups but was greater (P < 0.05) in VEG compared with NVEG, at days 1 and 5. CreaT gene expression was not different between VEG and NVEG. The results indicate that VEG have a lower muscle TCr content and an increased capacity to load Cr into muscle following CrS. Muscle CreaT gene expression does not appear to be affected by vegetarianism.

ahhahaha tour of tucker county.

that race is more about surviving the descent than anything else.

and i mean "surviving" in a very literal sense.

All I know is that Chipotle is severely lacking in.... ****ing chipotle sauce.

I mean wtf?? I don't get that place. They should just rename themselves to "Mexi-Subway" or something.

chipotle does stock red, green, and chipotle tobasco though. Only ever go there after races, but I remember that!

I'm also not a Chipotle fan, but will use it as a last resort if I need something somewhat healthy. I do like that you can get brown rice and black beans though.

Already have a mexican spot that I'm stopping at after Saturdays race on the way home. Now I just need to win some lunch money!

I really don't care for tabasco. I just think it's just not a good taste. Tapatio is kind of my go-to. I like Pico Pica as well. Trader Joe's has a habenero sauce that's pretty hot (for me), but has a good flavor.

On the topic of creatine, I am also curious how much of my off-season weight gain can be attributed to creatine-related water retention. My "A" race in July is a hilly RR, I am tempted to stop taking creatine a few weeks before and shed a few extra lbs.

Cheap and delicious. It has a nice balance of chile and tang. Y hecho en Mexico.

http://www.spoonwiz.com/swwp/wp-cont...tina-label.jpg

I think you're extrapolating from your own experience. My ideal race weight is around 148, and going from there to 160 (8%) is nothing, it seems to happen in the blink of an eye. Ride less, eat less but not enough less, and bam, a month later I'm there. I know a lot of guys who see even bigger annual weight swings.

I'm not saying it's good, but I think it is common.

You just want to get me drunk and start taking advantage of me....

why?

The eggs or the veganism?

Im vegan, so I wouldnt question that…I should have been more clear. Why the eggs?

nah, i have too much respect for you to do anything underhanded :p

btw, Hardywood is from RVA, which i'll most def procure for the 2015 worlds. Come to think of it, would be sorta neat if i get to bike down there from DC.

+1 on the Valentina.

I'm curious how you successful vegans ensure you get enough of the key fat soluble vitamins, particularly A and K. D is a separate issue, since it's almost impossible to get enough D via food and sunlight exposure alone, regardless of your diet. I supplement with D3, as well as DHA, Resveratrol, Turmeric, and Alpha-Lipoic acid. I also use a lot of Olive Oil and Coconut oil. Those supplements are specifically targeting mental performance, as both my wife's mom and my own father suffered from some dementia as they hit their late 70's early 80's, and my reading credits diet for a lot of societies increased mental issues. Specific causes are hotly debated, but it's hard to argue that diet isn't a key factor.

Plus, I figure if my mental acuity improves, I just might stop crashing.

Veganism discussions belong in P&R. :)

As for the vitamins you mentioned it easy to get a lot of beta-carotene from veggies which can be converted to true vitamin A.

I would argue that as long as you are fair skinned and don't live at high latitudes you can get enough vitamin D from the sun to get by. During the winter levels would fall well below optimal, but they could still get a bit from food (mushrooms which have been exposed to light, fortified margarine and milk substitutes, etc.)

Vitamin K is produced by bacteria in the gut, and is found in very high levels in dark green veggies like spinach and kale. No issue there.

I try to eat a lot of spinach and kale, as well as swiss chard. and plenty of colored vegetables. And I take a multi-vitamin every day.

Almost every morning I make a smoothie with a whole orange, mixed berries, protein powder (usually just on days after a ride), almond milk, a banana, chia and/or hemp seeds, super foods blue-green algae powder, and I rotate spinach leaves, or kale.

From my reading, beta-carotene doesn't always convert sufficiently, but like much in this area, it probably differs for individuals, and I am not trying to debate it - just increase my understanding.

On the Vit D issue, actual testing of levels show (again in what I've read) generally low levels except in equatorial zones. Clothing and sunscreen are big factors. As an anecdote, my wife recently had some testing, and her D was very low. We live in Phoenix, and she is outside a LOT (gardening, riding, walking, etc.).

You are right, the beta-carotene to vitamin a conversion is far from perfect, but there is so much BC in veggies that even if a small percentage gets converted it's enough.

I agree about vitamin D, I'm Canadian so it's a big issue for us. Lets just agree that the sun is enough to prevent rickets.

Deal.

*shrug* I guess the environmental/ food security angle on veganism is/has been the most important to me. The thing is, I am coming around to seeing eggs and chickens as a part of the mix of a more sustainable and equitable food system. And also, good friends of the family have chickens and ducks which roam and forage freely on their farm (which is reasonably close), and they sometimes give us eggs, which I am cool with. Not sure I could go back to eating meat, dairy tears my system apart, but eggs I can live with. I also eat honey and <3 merino wool stuff, so I guess I should just give up the "vegan" label, even if it is still about 98% accurate.

Also, this recipe for grain-free "rye bread":

The vegan police are coming for me!