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Carbs – the good, the bad and the ugly

When is sugar okay

Different kinds of sugar

Sugar metabolism and absorption

 Bonk

 

Carbohydrates have gotten a pretty bad reputation in the last few years – a not entirely undeserved reputation – for the bad effects that it can have on you. What is often not appreciated is that role of carbohydrates in exercise. So, I thought I’d write a little something that (with any luck) will make the whole subject less confusing.

I’m also going to simplify a bunch of information. Let me know if I went too far.

Carbohydrates and blood sugar 

Your body has regulation mechanisms to keep your blood sugar level constant. When it gets low, you get hungry.

And then, presumably, you eat. Through a wonderful and intricate process, the food gets digested, and your blood sugar goes up. And now, the important part:

The way in which your blood sugar changes depends on what carbs you eat.

This is described in a very simplistic way by a measure known as the Glycemic Index. You determine this by giving a group of volunteers a small portion of different foods and measure how much their blood sugar goes up over a specific time.

And then you end up with a chart that gives a value for each food (well, actually, two values. There is one scale where glucose=100 and another where white bread=100).

Why does this matter? Well, if you eat high glycemic foods, you get a spike in your blood sugar, which your body tries to regulate down with the release of insulin which pulls the sugar out of your blood and stores it as fat. Unfortunately, the insulin response is too much, which causes your blood sugar to drop, which makes you hungry, so you eat again.

Over time, this is believed to lead to insulin resistance, where the body stops responding to the insulin and the blood sugar stays high. At that point, you have type 2 diabetes, or are close to it.

This effect has been immortalized in the “I ate chinese food, but an hour later I’m hungry again”. Chinese food is often eaten with a lot of white rice, which has a fairly high glycemic index.

But, it’s not as simple as all that. First of all, it’s not just the glycemic index that is important but the amount of carbs in the food you eat. Carrots have a very high glycemic index but don’t contain much carbohydrate so they have little effect. The glycemic index is also a function of the whole meal, not just one component, and fats and protein both have a moderating impact on the glycemic index of carbs.

Sugar in your diet

effects of all sugars, including fructose

Sugar Absorption & Conversion

The ultimate destination of carbs is glucose, which is either used directly in the brain (and muscles), or stored in the liver and muscles and glycogen.

But first, the carbohydrate needs to be converted to glucose.

 glycemic index drawbacks.

 

 

 

 

insulin response

 

sweetness

Bonk

 




Older cycling posts…

The posts that I referenced in my comparative insanity all came from my work(ish) blog. You can find all the cycling posts listed here.


Progressive insanity…

Cycling is an exercise in progressive insanity. No matter where you’re at, there’s always somebody who’s just that little bit crazier than you are, no, not the total whackos that do things that are ridiculous, but just that next little step…

It all starts with riding an hour on the flattest roads that you have around, and finding that pretty challenging. And maybe one day, you ride for two hours, and it wipes you out, but you’re happy you did it.

And then meet somebody who is doing a charity ride, and you think “maybe I can ride 50 miles” at once – it’s pretty intimidating, but you ride some more, and then you finish it, and you’re happy, but dead.

The next year, you decide that you’ll do a century. This is a real milestone, and you can tell its a real milestone by the reaction of the people you mention it to. “In a day?” they say. And you do the century, but you’re slow, and while you finish, you don’t have a lot of fun.

The next year, you do a bit better in the century, and then you do a multi-day ride.

And then you start riding with a group – not a hardcore group, but a group that just likes to ride. You get a new bike – a fast one – and suddenly that century isn’t a goal event but a training ride on the way to a double. That two-hour ride that used to be a goal event is now the minimum – you don’t leave the house for less than two hours. And you start adding hills to your rides *on purpose*. You even start up a website devoted to hills.

You start looking for the hilly organized rides. You do one, two, three, four, and in there you throw in a double century.

And then you decide that RAMROD looks like fun. It’s 143 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing.

A long time ago at my job, I met a co-worker who was into cycling, and he told me about RAMROD. I had driven the route that he rode, and I thought that he was absolutely bonkers.

And now, in three weeks, I will also be officially bonkers.

The scary part is that as I’ve progressed, I still know people who are just marginally more crazy than I am, and that makes me seriously worried.


Helpful tips for travelling athletes…

Since I tried out the CTS Classic Training last year, I’m still on their email list.

Today, I got some helpful advice for athletes who travel to events.

  1. First, create a checklist of what you will need before, during, and after your event
  2. Second, do not wait to pack your bags
  3. Finallky, set aside a few important items for your carry-on, such as shoes, helmet, and pedals

Wow, what insightful tips those are. I never would have thought of creating a list, or packing my bags ahead of time.

I can add a few that I think might be more helpful:

  1. Go online and find your accomodations ahead of time. Print out a map, and if you have time, the location of grocery/convenience stores.
  2. Pre-pack items into gallon-sized ziploc bags so they’re already grouped. If you have stuff to put in your jersey pocket, put in all in one place so you don’t have to go searching.
  3. Don’t assume you can locate decent food and refreshements. Plan ahead

Climb4Cancer

Climb4Cancer ’07 will be on August 4, 2007 benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

This goes up infamous Zoo Hill. Last time I rode the Zoo, I think I did it in about 27 minutes all the way to the top. The time trial will be “Zoo Light”, which is only about 1000′ of elevation gain in 2 miles. If I was in equivalent shape, I’d be expect around 20 minutes, but I’m hoping to do it in less time than that.

Last year’s winner did it in 11:34.

 


Four down..

I ride Tuesday and Thursday night on a ride sponsored by Cascade Bicycle club.

This time of year, the weather gets nice and we get a lot of new riders, which makes things a bit more… exciting… than usual.

There are a few of us in the group who try to watch out for everybody – including the new riders. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn’t.

So, last night, we were in the parking lot getting ready to go, and one of our new riders fell over. Now, we’ve all fallen over when we’ve been stopping (I once did in front of approximately a zillion riders at a century rest stop), so that wasn’t any big deal. That was one.

Then, we’re pulling out onto our main street (W. Lake Sammamish, if you know the Redmond area), and one of the front riders slows down to stay at the corner (we use corner people so the group knows where to go), and a new rider runs into her, falls over, and another rider runs into her and falls over. So, we’re like 3 minutes from the start, and we’ve had three riders go down. A few bumps and scrapes, but no real problems.

We then headed down south, where we did a few climbs, including the very painful Somerset Drive.

On the way back home, one of our regular riders had a car turn out in front of him, and he got to play stuntman. Also no injuries, but enough to call police and the aid car, and for me to take the group back so our ride leader could deal with the situation.

I rode all last year without being near any crashes. This year I’ve had two people crash right in front of me, one crash a couple riders ahead, and another crash in my group.


Who is RiderX?

RiderX is a serious recreational cyclist.

And by that, I mean that, in an average week during the season, RiderX will ride anywhere from about 40 miles to perhaps 150 miles.

RiderX likes talking about himself in the third person, but he’s already tired of this overly pretentious post, and is going to start writing like a normal person.

So, what’s the deal, and why am I here?

Well, I’ve written a work-related blog for a few years, and have sometimes written cycling-related posts. But recently, I’ve wanted to write more about cycling, and I don’t want to do that on my work blog. So, here we are…

 

 


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