Carbo Drinks Nearly Cost Me My Teeth

I've gone through my 40+ years on this planet without a cavity. None. But a couple of years back, my dentist started to notice heavy signs of wear on my teeth and some gum disease issues. It had me puzzled. I was the perfect model of dental hygiene - not only brushing at least twice a day, but flossing nightly. So what was going wrong in my mouth?

Acid Wash

My on-bike energy drinks were the likely cause. While training daily for 2 hours or more, sipping an energy drink every 10 minutes or so (picture that - a fairly continuous flow of sugar over my teeth for more than 2 hours at a time!) was creating a highly acidic environment in my mouth. Ripe for weakening tooth enamel. Fertile for plaque growth. Brushing right after a workout wasn't a solution. I could literally start brushing away my weakened tooth enamel. I had to start doing something different.

The Energy Gel Solution

For a quality workout, you still need to supply some carbohydrate to your body. I switched to gels, and plain water. I get the gel down to the back of my throat as quickly as possible, and then drink plain water to dilute it in my stomach. I don't let the the gel sit in my gut without drinking about 4 oz. of water to help dilute it. Otherwise, the digestive process draws fluid from my stomach to create the proper environment for digestion. And that can lead to an upset stomach when I'm trying to work hard. After each gel-hit I spend the next 30 minutes sipping plain water. It rinses my mouth and of course keeps me hydrated. My teeth win, and my workout wins.

Now any gel will work, but I've found Hammer Gel works best for me. You can buy it in bulk and transfer it to a handy 5 serving flask. No wrappers to deal with, and the flask really lets you squirt the gel down to the back of your mouth. This approach has a further advantage on race day; you carry your own nutrition, and you only need to worry about getting plain water from your feed helpers.

This approach has really worked for me. I don't bonk. I don't get tummy troubles. And my dental health has stopped deteriorating. A win-win all around!

Keep this in mind during your next dental appointment. If you're seeing tooth troubles, maybe it's time to change your on-bike nutrition strategy.

Photo "Brushes up the Teeth" by: greefus groinks

Knock Over Some Spinning Plates With Your Big Rocks

Huh? What's that title mean? It really does have something to do with bicycling. Let me explain.

It's almost autumn. The road season is winding down. If you've been serious about your training and racing, you've got a log book to look back at. Now is the time to do some post-season analysis. Check to see if you've met your expectations for the season. Did you place as well as you wanted? Did you peak for your A-priority races? What went wrong? Failures are only truly failures if you don't learn anything from them. If you can find a lesson in a failure, then chalk that up to a successful learning experience. You are not a failure.

Are You Spinning Too Many Plates?

Maybe you didn't get the consistent training done that you planned. Why not? Here's where the plate spinning metaphor starts. We've all got complicated lives. They are complicated because we've got a variety of priorities pulling at us from the variety of roles we play. Yes, we're athletes. But we are also: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, employees, managers, volunteers, etc., etc. I think you get the picture. Just look at that photo up there...

We are complicated people with many roles to play in our lives. And like a Chinese acrobat, we can have many plates we're trying to spin - all at the same time. And you know what? Sometimes, you'll drop a few plates. What can you do about that?

Change Your Metaphor For Life

At the risk of confusing you by mixing my metaphors, let's throw a few rocks at those plate spinners. Wow, wouldn't that cause some chaos! But maybe not if we do it right...

If you didn't execute your training plan as consistently as you wanted, you must reorganize your priorities so you can. And you can do it.

A number of years ago I read Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. It's a general personal productivity book that had some life-changing lessons for me. It finally spurred me on from thinking I'd like to be a competitive cyclist to actually being a competitive cyclist. Here's one of the key metaphors Covey presented.

A Jar, Some Rocks and Some Water

Think of an empty jar. Fill it to the top with water. Then, put some rocks in it. What happens to the water? It overflows, and you've got a mess.

Now, rethink that process. Put the rocks in the jar first. Then start filling it with water. Go ahead. You'll be able to get some water in the jar. See? It simply flows around the rocks and fills the empty spaces. You can also stop filling the jar before the damn thing overflows.

What's this mean to you? Those rocks are the big priorities in your life. They come from all the key roles you play. The water is every thing else that's not a priority, that comes along to take up your time. Put the rocks in the jar first. Schedule the really important activities in your week first. Then let the other less important activities fill in any remaining gaps. The rocks come first, no matter what. Everything else must fit around those rocks. Follow that rule, and you'll really start to go places in life.

Identify Your Big Rocks

Don't be a Chinese acrobat spinning all kinds of plates. Switch to the rock, water and jar metaphor, and you will execute your training plan next year without fail.

Get a blank sheet of paper. Here's what you should do now:

1. Write down all the roles you play in life. Think about your work. Think about your relationships. Think about your personal dreams. These are the roles that define you as a person in this world.
2. For each role, think about the activities that will really move you forward to improving your abilities to be the world's best at that role. Check my earlier post on how you can define being the world's best. These activities are the foundational rocks for your weeks ahead.
3. Each week, take those rocks, and schedule time for them. Make them priorities. Treat them as immovable rocks that everything else must fit around. Your daily cycling workouts should be some of those rocks. Treat them like that. Schedule your other activities around your workouts, and you'll soon find you're not missing nearly as many workouts as before. You'll be well on your way to becoming the world's best cyclist.

Will it work for you?

Photo "Spinning plates" by: ericaflynn

High-Protein Could Be Key To Your Short Term Weight Maintenance

As I discussed in an earlier post, us athletes should periodize our eating to match our training. Of particular concern, during those times of reduced volume training (like now, as we enter autumn and what is a Transition period for most of us), we need to be mindful that we don't pack on some extra pounds. They could be doubly difficult to lose when we get back to training (again, see the earlier post).

A Low-Carb Strategy For Weight Management

Now, I've read about a study by the Rowett Research Institute in Britain that compared the results of a "low-carbohydrate" diet with a "moderate-carbohydrate" diet. Both diets had 30% of calories coming from protein; each diet was really a so-called "high-protein" diet. The difference for each, then, was the blend of carbohydrates and fats making up the remaining 70% of calories. In the low-carb diet, 4% of calories came from carbohydrates. In the moderate-carb diet, 35% came from carbohydrate.

The four-week study showed participants on the low-carb diet had lower hunger levels, less binge eating, and ultimately more weight loss.

Focus Your Diet On Quality Proteins

I think even if your aim is simply short-term weight maintenance (say, over the course of 1 week during a recovery period, or up to a 1 month period of transition from one training season to the next), pay attention to eating more proteins and much fewer carbohydrates in your diet. Aiming for the 4% level of carbohydrates may not be entirely feasible for us athletes, but don't be afraid to go that low for short periods.

You can manage your hunger cravings, and get by on fewer total calories by focusing on eating quality proteins. What kinds of proteins are these? Look to fresh and preferably wild fish, free-range chicken and eggs, and finally grass-fed meats - in that order too. Minimize the use of processed deli meats - though they are convenient, they usually contain high levels of nitrates. I also use whey protein shakes mixed in water (not as tasty as using milk for the base, but basically no-carb as a result).

Athletes Do Need Carbs

Ultimately, we need body stores of carbohydrate to fuel our quality workouts. Eat high-carb while you're actively training. But when you're not stacking up those workouts, don't get caught stacking up the pounds. High-protein will help short-term weight maintenance.

Happy Eating!

2 Reasons To Put Park Tools In Your Bicycling Toolbox

In any cycling discipline, tire pressure is a critical component to a fast bike set up. Generally, the rougher the surface, the lower the pressure. The smoother, the higher.

Now I've had many floor pumps over the years. An accurate pressure gauge is an important feature. Thankfully they're pretty much standard on models from all companies these days. What isn't standard is pump longevity.

I've found many of the cheaper (no-name?) models don't last. The O-rings in the air chamber fail after a year or two of use. And usually the rubber seals on the valve stem attachment start leaking within the first year.

So last year, I had it with the cheapies. I decided to splurge on my next floor pump. I bought a Park Tool PFP-4. Everything was great, until...

Even Fine Tools Can Fail

This year, the key component to the pump failed. The pressure gauge no longer returned to zero when not in use. It sat at about 40lbs. It meant I had to subtract 40lbs from any pressure I tried to pump my tires to. I wanted 120lbs? I had to pump to 160lbs on the gauge. The pump became virtually useless, or at least inconvenient for a gear geek like me.

That's when I discovered 2 key features to my Park Tool PFP-4 pump.

First, I found that the pump can be easily broken down into a number of replaceable components. Go look at the exploded view on their website: Park Tool PFP-4. They even have detailed instructions for replacing the key components, including the pressure gauge.

Okay, so now the engineer in me was getting excited. Replaceable components. Detailed instructions. But how easy would it be to get the components, and in my case the gauge? Like any decent company, I found Park Tool extends a limited lifetime warranty on their products. But were they all talk and no action? This led me to the second key feature about the Park Tool Co. and the main reason why you should be putting Park Tools in your bicycling toolbox: they indeed stand completely behind their products.

Let me explain what happened next.

Simple, Efficient Customer Service

I fired off a brief e-mail to the company. I explained the problem, and asked how I could get a replacement gauge. Within hours, I received a short, but pleasant reply: "Sorry about the problem, we will send a new gauge." In just over a week, the replacement gauge arrived in my mailbox. No charge to me.

It was a simple solution to the problem. It cost Park Tool Co. $2.50 in postage, and maybe $2.00 for the gauge itself. A small investment from their company bought them a lifetime customer in me, and this invaluable, unsolicited, word-of-mouth promotion.

Start Putting Park Tools In Your Bicycling Toolbox

If they don't indeed last a lifetime, know that Park will stand behind their products and you should be able to get any replacement component you might need. Begin filling your toolbox right now, with:
Fantastic Prices on Park Tools @ probikekit.com

At probikekit.com you'll find a convenient section dedicated to Park Tools.


Do you have a Park Tool story to share? Post it in the comments.

Photo by: Kevin Rokosh