Full Beal's, With the Point

Just back from a nice ride up to Beal`s Point at Folsom Lake. I took the camera and left the Garmin at home, so I have some nice pics, but no telemetry to fret over. It was a nice change to just go have fun and endulge in some speed, damned the HR and fatigue. Although I think I was just using a strong moment in the ride, I don't really know, don't really cared, and enjoyed the freedom to not worry about it, but just enjoy the cold dense air in my lungs, wind in my face and pavement flashing by.

A note on that. Your pancreas doesn't make insulin at the same rate all the time, even when you are going flat out. It makes insulin on a 6-minute cycle. My take on this is your body pings, somewhat like a submarine. It pumps out a lot of insulin, floods your blood with the stuff, and then monitors how fast it gets used up, and/or how much blood glucose is left at the end of 6 minutes. It then adjusts the quantity in the next 6-minute dose accordingly.

Since insulin is a hormone which dramatically increases the rate at which your muscles (and adipose tissue if at rest) can absorb glucose, you get little spurts and sags when you ride. One of the very real advantages of riding in groups is you can make good use of individual rider's surges to pull others in sag mode.

Time to fetch my baked potato out of the microwave, mash it up with canola oil and sour cream, and get some glucose into those hungry muscles so they don't start chewing on themselves. With a glycemic index of 105 potatoes are the bees knees for recovery carbs. I like mine with 32 oz of skim milk. Really hits the spot!

I hope you enjoy the pics. They almost do the scenery justice. The snow in the Sierras in the background will be water in the lake by May or June.