Harvieu25

Actually rode to the bike shop today, needed to go anyway and decided to burn fat instead of oil. 27 total miles and 117 minutes. Many redlights so that slowed my progress somewhat. Since getting into cycling 3 months ago (my first real exercise of any kind in 25 yrs) I had just been riding a route in my area and had seen good progress so I thought it would be easy. Since I would be refueling and resting at the bike shop I thought everything would be fine. Turns out the last few hills on the way there had me mashing hard. While there I had a liter of water and 8 oz of dates. I had a liter and 10 bananas for breakfast, so at that point my calories should have been fine. On the return trip I struggled hard with every climb.

My breathing and heartrate were fine but my legs were on fire half way up each hill, so much so I was in 39/25 and doing 6 mph, then had to walk up the last two.
Is this lactic acid, general muscle fatigue, lack of endurance or a combination thereof? I get the last two, but with lactate are there any dietary choices to help it or will it just require time to adjust?

Dan333SP

Wait... you ate 10 bananas for breakfast?

Also, your legs were burning because your body isn't used to rides of this distance. It's not a question of calories consumed before and during the ride. I can ride 35 miles before work with nothing in my stomach except coffee and water and feel fine, but I've put in probably 35,000 miles in the 5 years I've been into cycling. You just need to ride a lot more, and even then your legs will burn on hills, it just gets easier to push through it.

patrickgm60

Thank you for typing "117 minutes," rather than 1:17, thereby limiting this thread's potential to 1 page.

mcours2006

"I had a liter and 10 bananas for breakfast"

Is this correct? Ten bananas for breakfast with a liter of water? That's probably not the cause of you bonking on the hill, but wow! that's like 1200+ of sugar calories.

If you haven't had any sort of consistent exercise for 25 years, and then are just three months back into it, it's obvious that your lack of endurance is why you had to walk the hill. The build up of lactate is natural when you are working hard aerobically. Your body metabolizes that naturally. When you increase the intensity, like say on the hill, the muscles are producing more lactate than you can metabolize. The result is what you were feeling on the hill.

Keep riding longer and farther. You'll conquer that hill eventually.

Xherion

117 minutes is 1:57

69chevy

bananas

SloButWide 

"lactic acid, general muscle fatigue, lack of endurance" are all pretty much the same thing. The burning is most likely lactic acid buildup. There are two types of muscle fatigue - either the nerves can't signal the muscle fibers, or the fibers can't contract as strongly. While diet can have some effect, the best cure for lack of endurance is training.

69chevy

1:17 is one hour, 17 minutes, or 77 minutes...

inspclouseau

And 177 minutes = 1:57. Either way 117 minutes doesn't equal 1:17

inspclouseau

10 bananas for breakfast is the highway to insulin shots.

patrickgm60

Yes, I'm aware of the difference - hence my post to OP.

The 41 somewhat routinely receives a newbie OP along the lines of "Yeah, I was commuting to work on my hybrid today - 20 miles, each way, with hills and traffic lights. My ride home took over an hour, which seemed weird. Should I wear shoes, to increase my speed?"

Harvieu25

Standard fruit, veggie, dairy and meat diet as of 8-14 had my blood glucose at 87 and A1C at 5.0
Pure Vegan diet with the majority of calories coming from fruit as of 8-15 had my blood glucose at 78 and my A1C was 4.5

Now, guess again!

inspclouseau

Do you take your blood tests right after you eat those 10 bananas r next morning before you eat?

CdaleNike21

Nope. 177 minutes = 2 hours and 57 minutes.

inspclouseau

Touche

datlas 

Durianrider?!?

Harvieu25

After 10 bananas, my blood sugar gets up to 115 at it's highest point.

I get a blood test minimum of once a year. But when your fasting blood sugar runs lower after a year of much fruit, it counters the overwhelming false belief that diabetes is a sugar disorder.
Diabetes is a lipid disorder. Educate yourself on this. Fructose from fruit requires ZERO insulin to get injected into the cells, the remaining half of sugar, glucose/sucrose, is regulated by the fiber content of the fruit. With a very low fat diet your body becomes insulin sensitive, which means very little is needed to get the sugar to the cells. When you are insulin resistant, that is when you need shots because your body can't produce enough to get the sugar past the fat in your blood to your cells. Fat keeps sugar trapped in your blood.

Harvieu25

Not even if the only word I said was f$$$.

PepeM

This thread is bananas.

bigdo13

Lol @ the newbs in here that are in shock of a guy eating 10 bananas for brekky.... I usually have 20...the main difference is i don't have em until AFTER i do my daily training...

Op sounds like he may be a fellow high carb, low fat vegan, if so, yeah you are wild for riding 30 miles immediately following a big 10 banana smoothie... Generally b4 the ride you wanna just have a few dates and a liter of water... Later on you'll be able to smash the smoothie before the ride, but it'll only be like 5-7 of em....

As for why you're bonking on hills, i mean.. Being properly fueled is only half the battle... Don't think that you won't have to work on your fitness.... You sound like a new cyclist, so be patient... And NEVER mash a big gear up the hills..throw it in a small gear that you can spin in at a cadence of no less than 80 rpm and spin your way up the climbs buddy....

So in review...

-save the bananas for after the ride

-eat a few dates b4 hand with the water and eat several every hour you're out there.

-spin up hills until you develop the cardiovascular fitness to push a bigger gear.

Harvieu25

Was hoping it would stay on topic but... I should've known that everyone would get a wadded up when mentioning my breakfast. Won't happen again.

PepeM

39/25 is a pretty tall low gear tbf. Plenty of hills out there where I would hate to be stuck with that one as my last resort.

Harvieu25

Thanks.

Yes, HCLF vegan for a year now.
Drank the water at 0600, ate bananas at 0700, left on the ride at 0930. Got to the shop at 1020, drank another liter soon after arriving. Ate dates at 1130, return trip from 1230-1327.

I was in low gear and was looking down to see if I had anymore low gears... yes, a new rider as well.
Love the fact that we can inflict massive pain on ourselves and love it, don't understand it though.

Thanks again.

bigdo13

Not if you're vegan...

The real highway route to diabetes is a ton of meat and dairy and eating a SAD diet like most Americans do...

But go ahead, tell us how fruit is gonna give us diabetes... Lol

Dan333SP

@PepeM makes a good point.