Optimal Size and Structure of Sports Carbohydrate

Like many amateur athletes, when I took up cycling again 3 years ago after a long hiatus, I came to the sport with a lot of poorly-informed ideas about sports nutrition, and specifically, what the characteristics of optimal sports carbohydrates were, and how they are digested and used in the human body.

While omitting oceans of details in writing this, I will attempt to illuminate the most relevant points, while avoiding overwhelming you with detail. This often-promised post has taken so long to write, because this is such a difficult balancing act to achieve.

Before we go any further, lets make this page a lot more readable and agree on an abbreviation for saccharides, or glucose units. Lets abbreviate that as GU.

Length and Branching of Carbohydrates

If you're old enough to consume carbohydrate as alcohol, then your mother probably warned you to avoid sugar, and stick to complex carbs like bread, rice, pasta, and potato. That advice is well-intentioned, but misinformed (So long as you're burning that sugar. Otherwise stay away from fructose and sucrose). All carbohydrate ultimately is digested into simple sugars, and then into the stuff that's flowing through your veins - glucose.

There is no mechanism in digestion to absorb any carbohydrate other than glucose into the bloodstream. ALL carbohydrate is reduced to glucose for digestion. Carbohydrate that cannot be reduced to glucose for absorption by the small intestine is either fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, producing heat and gas, or is excreted as waste.

The rate at which this occurs, if it occurs at all, is measured by the glycemic index (GI), and is NOT determined by the size of the glucose polymer you are ingesting, simple or complex. I say if at all, because cellulose and inulin, and for some people, lactose, is not digestible.

Glycemic Index of common sugars

 It's also important to understand that your sense of sweetness doesn't indicate anything useful about how suitable a particular kind of carb is for sports nutrition. Fructose tastes 2X as sweet as glucose, but takes over 15X as long to digest. This difference in sweetness explains high-fructose corn syrup, which until converted, is almost entirely glucose. Other carbs that taste rather sweet, like the inulin in bananas, cannot be digested by humans, and serve only to feed bacteria in your large intestine, creating gas and bloating.

So sweetness - a subjective sensory phenomenon - is NOT correlated with speed of digestion, as the GI of various sugars makes obvious, but does indicate when the GU count of starch (the shortness of the glucose polymer) is getting down into sugar's range, as starches, and high-GU maltodextrins, are not sweet. An interesting exception is Asian people have been eating rice for so long that their saliva breaks down rice starch in the mouth so fast it tastes sweet to them, and them only.

Fruit trees have maximized their inducement to animals to eat their fruit, and thereby spread their seeds, by producing the maximum amount of sweetness for the minimum investment in energy. If trees could walk, this wouldn't be necessary. A lot less energy is needed when "sweet" is 2-5X as great for the same amount of carbohydrate/energy.

The glycemic index of anything ingested is established by the simplest of tests. Healthy humans are fed the test food, and then have their blood glucose levels measured every 15 minutes, usually for 3 hours. You can easily perform you own glycemic index tests for the modest cost of a blood glucose tester. The result is a graph like this.

Venous and Capillary Blood Glucose levels after ingesting 5 different grains

The much lower peak, and longer tail of the left graph is the result of insulin's effect on skeletal muscle's rapid uptake and metabolism of blood glucose. In creating this graph pair, I took great care to insure the Y (vertical) axis were the same. By following the colored lines at 60 and 90 minutes you can get a feel for how dramatic these differences are.

Carbohydrates known as sugars are typically either mono or disaccharides, having 1, or 2 GUs  respectively.  There are also trisaccharides, with 3 GUs, which you need Bean-O to digest, oligosaccharides with 3-10 GUs, maltodextrins with 5-33 GUs, amylose with 300-3,000 GUs, glycogen with 30,000 GUs, and anylopectin with up to 2 million GUs. Plant starch is either amylose, or amylopectin. Here's a great discussion of polysaccharides from Sacramento City College.

Amalyose: a linear chain of glucose molecules

Glycogen, containing ~ 30,000 GUs branched every 8-12 units. A masterpiece.
Liver glycogen's branching is novel in that it has more branches near the core, and fewer, larger branches on the periphery, reminding us that these are physical structures that must fit neatly in 3 dimensions.  

Amylopectin's massive 2 million GUs branched every 15-30 units.
Contrary to proponents of the Paleo Diet, humans are uniquely adapted among primates to digest starches, so starch has been part of the human diet long enough to change our genetics.

Glycogen is often referred to as "animal starch" because it has a very similar chemical structure to the huge amylopectin glucose polymer in plants. It's "shorter", having fewer GUs, but is more branched, and that branching turns out to be the 800lb gorilla in the room sports nutrition mfgs don't seem to want to discuss.

Human Metabolism of Carbohydrates

Digestion of carbohydrates takes place in the mouth, duodenum, and about the first 40cm of the small intestine. Except for alcohol, the stomach is incapable of absorbing anything, doesn't have enough surface area even if it tried, and for the most part, is a special-purpose organ for breaking down proteins - especially meats - and its polar opposite Ph balance arrests digestion begun in the mouth.



Polymers of carbohydrate present in starch and complex sugars are first attacked by salivary amylase in the mouth. Interestingly, the sweetness of certain grains, like waxy rice, is due to some of the starch being broken down into small enough polymers - nominally glucose - to be perceived as sweet.

Maltodextrin commonly used in sports nutrition have a DE of 9, where glucose is 100, so a GU of 100/9, or ~ 11. It is fairly easy to reduce that to glucose and maltose. The same is true for waxy rice's 3D "grape cluster" structure getting cleaved off the "vine" and attacked.

This brings up an important point. While many carbohydrates, such as starch, fructose, lactose, etc, have their own dedicated amylase that acts only on them, all amylase fall into 1 of 2 kinds. One kind attacks ONLY the branches of glucose polymers, and the other attacks ONLY the ends.

There isn't much for the latter to do with something long and unbranched, like amylose, which accounts for its much lower GI. Both amylases attack at random locations, but in highly branched polymers, breaking a single branch connection exposes dozens of ends. By contrast, breaking a linear polymer exposes only 2 ends.

This simple idea is why branching is much more important than polymer length in creating the high GI carbohydrates for optimal sports performance. (as a point of interest, the very best high explosives have this same, very complex branching structure, but with many oxygen atoms bound into the molecule, so that both the fuel and oxidizer are present in close proximity in explosives)

Intestinal villi's brush border has a surface area equal to a small 2 bdrm apt

Let's come at this conclusion from the other end. Since all carbohydrate digestion finally reduces glucose polymers to single glucose molecules, why not just ingest glucose. How can you beat that?

Well, first, you can beat that. Maltose, a disaccharide, has a GI of 105, higher than glucose's reference GI of 100. So do certain types of rice, potato, and dates, where certain varieties approach a GI of 140. This clearly indicates that the intestinal brush border is capable of simultaneously reducing glucose polymers, and absorbing the resulting glucose monomers.

(Dedicated amylase such as sucrase, and invertase, go unused if no sucrose is available, so adding sucrose to denser fuels, whose digestion occurs simultaneously, increases the total digestion rate, and that strategy is used by almost all commercial ride fuels, but these are supplements, not replacements for denser fuels)

For athletes, the real answer to why you can beat pure glucose is temperature. Cold, dense air increases VO2max, but minimizes electrolyte demands, so Gatorade's combined electrolyte, hydration, fuel strategy fails, and only denser fuels can provide the extra energy to fully utilize available oxygen. Heat is more insidious. It's a frontal assault on you ability to digest carbs, so optimal fuels are imperative.

Sugars are NOT very energy dense. Imagine how much straw you'd  have to burn to keep warm in a really cold climate. Straw burns very fast, but it doesn't produce much heat. You could also burn balsa wood, spruce, pine, douglas fir, fruit wood, or oak. You still might not care what you burn if there were no limits to the bulk/volume of fuel you could burn, but there are. Think of your carb digestion rate as the size of the hole in the wall you have to pull fuel through. Denser fuel is obviously better, especially since HEAT shrinks the size of the hole.

Sugar, like salt, increases osmotic pressure (as much as 300 psi) as more of it is added to liquids like Gatorade. Increase the strength to get more fuel, and the osmotic pressure becomes so great your small intestine can no longer pull salt and glucose into your blood, so it passes undigested into your colon, where bacteria are eagerly awaiting their next meal. The by-product of that bacterial digestion is gas, and its attendant bloating. This limits the amount of sugar to about a 6% solution - exactly what Gatorade has.

When it gets hot, things go from bad to worse fast, because your body has to keep your core cool, and to do that it has to open your capillaries and start devoting a lot of small intestinal surface area to absorbing water to support sweating. This has 3 negative impacts.

First, it starves your digestive tract for blood, so even if your intestine hasn't completely shut down, there isn't enough blood to properly absorb all available glucose from the intestine.

Second, at some point, your small intestine can no longer absorb enough water to support sweating. Not to worry, your large intestine (colon) is not only ready to absorb more water, it's actually more efficient at it, BUT, when processing so much water, there isn't much time for carbohydrate digestion and absorption while transitioning through the small intestine. Any carbs that get past your small intestine, feed bacteria in your colon, which will ferment them, but are downstream of the point where they are of any use to you.

Third, you need sodium, usually from salt (sodium chloride) or sodium citrate, to unlock any and all transport sites in your small intestine so glucose can be transported into your blood. While this does not consume sodium, sweating does, and in large quantities on hot days. Glucose, wrested from long-chain polysaccharides by the action of amylase,  ends up useless without adequate sodium, and ends up downstream in the colon, supporting fermentation with its attendant gas and bloating.

Initially, you can dilute your Gatorade mix, which is what I do, but in doing so, you have to add back electrolytes and carbs to make up for the dilution. There are lots of good electrolyte solutions out there, but that doesn't help make up for the lost carbs.

(With intense sweating, only salt and pure water will prevent gas and bloating, as carb digestion is completely shut down. The body's water absorption rate is the limiting factor for sports performance in intense heat, and that is very dependent on maintaining adequate sodium levels)

What's needed to prevent glycogen depletion is a denser fuel with a much lower osmotic pressure than sugar. Say hello to starch, or some derivative of it, like maltodextrin, with a GI of 105. While salt greatly enhances the rate of water absorption, with intense heat, carbs have to be consumed at 75% of max HR or less to reduce sweating. Salt, water, then food.

Now knowing what you do about the structure of carbohydrates, you'll be looking for a carbohydrate with a structure like liver or muscle glycogen. Highly branched, and very densely packed. Obviously, amylopectin meets this criteria, and accounts for the large difference in GIs amongst rice varieties with high and low percentages of amylose.

Maltodextrin squeaks by because it has ~ 11GUs, and a much lower osmotic pressure than sugar. It doesn't leave much for the branch-breaking amylase to do though, relying solely on linear polymer reduction by end-breaking amylase. I'm guessing, but I think all that type-specific, unemployed amylase becomes part of the problem.

High amylose starch is necessarily low amylopectin. All starch is one or the other. The former has GIs in the 60s, and the latter in the high 80s. In fact, short-grain waxy rice has zero, or very near zero amylose, and certain varieties have a GI of over 130. (item #293)

Relatively small amounts of fuels this dense, supplemented with small amounts of sucrose and fructose to make max use of all types of amylose, will produce as much glucose as a balanced attack by all varieties of human amylase can sustain, and the intestinal brush border can absorb. It can do so with NO osmotic pressure problems. This is like burning 400 yr old English Oak, with straw and pine sawdust blown into a fire mixed with compressed air. WOOSH!!!
 

Glycemic Index and Insulin Index of Selected Rices

We're not quite done with our story though. Until now this discussion has been entirely about how to maximize the sustained rate at which we can get glucose into the bloodstream, but this is only half of the problem. We still need to get that glucose moved through muscle cells' outer membrane, and into the cell's mitochondria. Without the action of the hormone insulin, all that glucose is locked out of the muscle, and essentially worthless, so how can we maximize an insulin response to use a maximized glucose delivery? Choose foods that solve both halves of this problem.

Look back up to the two GI graphs. One for venous, and one for capillary glucose. Remember the huge difference in those levels is due entirely to the effect of insulin on large skeletal muscles. Now look at the insulin index of Waxy rice above. Even though the GI of waxy rice is lower than Pelde white rice, the insulin index is a staggering 32 points higher! (we might also suspect that such a high level of insulin is lowering the observed GI by increasing the rate at which measurable glucose is being absorbed by either adipose tissues, or large skeletal muscles)

Have you ever had a 15-20 minute interval where your strength was super-human? We've all seen these displays by professional athletes. They're the stuff of legend. I'm speculating here, but I think those incredible moments of strength are due to a convergence of high blood glucose and high insulin levels. The pancreas does not release insulin on a continuous basis, but at approximately 6 minute intervals, or as short as 3 minute intervals in highly trained athletes. After this flood of insulin is released into the blood, it's monitored for depletion. For athletes, carbs that induce a larger release of insulin are better carbs.

In summary, looking at the GI of many foods, it seems clear to me that the gains made by sports nutrition companies in "predigesting" starch carbohydrate into shorter, linear glucose polymers (maltodextrin and brown rice syrup), has reached a plateau. It looks like the way forward is to find varieties of rice, or perhaps other starchy grains, which naturally have very high GIs, investigate their branching structures, and cross breed or genetically engineer "super fuels" - which may have GIs close to 150, and provoke intense insulin responses. Such a break-through is more likely to come from Monsanto than Hammer, as the research effort will surely be large and expensive.

Ironically, this investigation has already begun, but it's focused in the opposite direction - to find or create lower GI grains to address the obesity epidemic. The table above was taken from such a study. It may seem a frivolous endeavor to find a "super fuel", but imagine the benefit for infantry to have a fuel that will stave off glycogen depletion from sunrise to sunset on the longest day. It, of course, is also of great interest to those of us who compete against time and reason to find satisfaction and glory. 

Techie Tuesday - SWF Hydration

I found this incredible product. You just add water, and **poof**, instant single, white, female. Sadly, NOT true!

We have been having a heat wave here though - 103 in the shade. Kind of late, but otherwise the expected heat after months of cool, rainy weather that characterized the Amgen Tour of California. So now I am on the prowl for SWF - but not the kind you'd expect. In this case S.W.F is an acronym for

1. Salt
2. Water
3. Food

... which is the sequence, and priority of consumption to keep hydrated, fed, and prevent cramping, and nausea.

Salt, or more specifically, sodium, is needed to transport water (study the animation and read the remarks) into your blood, generate thirst, and is necessary in the small intestine to enable transport of glucose from the intestinal brush border into the bloodstream.

In addition, salt must be added to digested water to maintain the isotonic salinity of the blood, which just happens to be identical to seawater. Supporting glucose transfer doesn't use up sodium, but maintaining isotonic electrolyte levels in your blood does. Africans, and their descendants, are genetically predisposed to hang onto sodium tenaciously. It leads to might higher rates of hypertension, but on hot days, the brothers have an advantage!

As such, sodium, typically as sodium chloride (table salt), or sodium citrate (typical source in sports concoctions), is the foundation for proper hydration, which in turn is the foundation for proper nutrition. You will need between 400 and 1,200mg per hour, and maybe more, to keep up with losses on hot days. That's between 1/6th and 1/2 of a teaspoon. Easy numbers to remember, as you will burn 400-1,200 calories per hour to fuel your ride. Happy coincidence, and nothing more.

Sodium and water, as well as all the high GI ride fuels you eat during cycling events, are processed in about the first 40cm of the small intestine - at least if all goes well. When things don't go well, food and water are swept past the absorption/diffusion zone in the small intestine and into the large intestine where bacteria await their next meal, which they will ferment, causing nausea, gas, bloating and cramping. Worse, you'll be feeling weak at the same time because you don't have enough sodium to get water and glucose into your bloodstream.

The good news is - with one caveat - that your large intestine will absorb almost any water it is presented with, and it's more efficient at absorbing water than the small intestine. The caveat is, while the large intestine can absorb water, and some sodium at the same time, it is also tasked with ridding your body of a lot of toxic substances, some of which are minerals, and lack of water and some fresh fiber makes simultaneously absorbing sodium and dumping toxic minerals very difficult.

A little pre-ride planning can be very helpful in this regard, as squeaky clean bowels, with a little fresh fiber thrown in from say, fruit, will make your event ride go well, while stale poo will be full of toxins that will tend to get reabsorbed. In essence, fiber in your bowels will act as a sponge saturated with toxins that will poison you each time you hydrate.

I have endured this condition on several occasions and it absolutely saps your strength and makes you feel sick, weak, and lethargic, just when you expect you should be feeling strong. The RX is to eat enough healthy fiber on the ride to get clean FAST. Your energy will improve almost immediately.

A great practical remedy is to drink 8-16 oz of premium prune/plum juice after your evening meal the night before the ride. Not only will you start the day clean, but prune juice is packed with good minerals and a whopping 41mg of quality carbs per serving. During the ride things like watermelon, strawberries, and grapes, will keep things moving in a good direction. Citrucel and FiberCon also work, and will NOT ferment, but have no antioxidants. Still, a good thing to have in your arsenal.

Cliff Bars are a  god-awful synthetic concoction masquerading as something 'natural'.  They contain lots of brown rice syrup, a completely man-made substance that breaks down brown rice flour with heat, and enzymes from bacteria, to 'predigest' the rice for you in much the same way corn flour is turned into maltodextrin.  More to the point, it is spiked with inulin to provide fiber.

Inulin is a creamy substance food mfgs love because the tongue perceives it as sweet and creamy, but it has no oil. It's fiber that's made from chicory, is IMPOSSIBLE for human beings to digest, but ferments very quickly in the large intestine. In short, it is the perfect recipe for massive doses of gas and bloating. Fruit fiber is the best, and mother nature has provided huge amounts in yummy packages, usually attendant with lots of antioxidants, so stick to fruit.

While we are slaying sacred cows, Hammer Endurolytes have so little sodium in them (40mg) that you'd have to ingest 59 of them just to meet your normal daily requirement of  2,360mg. Given that they have 330% of your RDA of vitamin B6 per casual, you'd be ingesting toxic amounts of of B6 in doing so. 

I'm going to list the sodium content of some common sports concoctions below, but before I do I want to hit the SWF order again. A nice, even, steady, constant flow of sodium into your system lays a very solid foundation for the same in your hydration and nutrition.

For this reason I highly recommend time-released salt tablets. My favorite is ThermoTabs, and I have been using them for over 30 years. 1-2 an hour will keep you on a nice even keel. As always, your kidneys will filter out any excess.

On that note, there's a very practical way to determine how much sodium to ingest, increase the rate of ingestion until your kidneys start to hurt (low-mid back pain), and then back off a bit. The entire surface of your skin acts like a 3rd kidney, so excess salt is very quickly (15-30 minutes) removed.

Be aware that things like Gatorade have sodium, sugar and water together, which is fine until you have to ingest so much Gatorade to satisfy your water and sodium requirements that your small intestine can't digest the sugar fast enough to keep it out of your large intestine. The usual remedy, watering it down, deprives you of the sodium you need, so either add something like PowerBar Electrolytes to your mix, or take 1-3 ThermoTabs per hour.



Don't try to increase the strength of your Gatorade mix to get more sodium. It's not just salt that increases osmotic pressure. Sugar is used in canning fruit for exactly the same reason salt is used to cure meat - they both create high osmotic pressures to extract water. Your GI tract cannot work against this kind of pressure, and when osmotic pressures get high enough, water will actually be drawn out of your blood and into your gut. Very, very bad.

The remedy for avoiding high osmotic pressure due to excessive sugar, is to substitute starch, or it's chemically altered cousin, maltodextrin. (GU, Perpetuem, 50lb bags of the stuff from GPC in Iowa)  In my experience short-grain, waxy Sushi rice will best any of these, and contains only small amounts of sugar if made as usual.

You should always monitor the color of your urine, but know that simply being able to urinate is not a reliable indicator that you're properly hydrated. If you're very low on sodium, your body will be forced to excrete water to keep you from going into a state of hyponatremia (low sodium). Thus, it's possible to be dehydrated, but still be urinating.

With intense heat, it's not VO2max, or muscular endurance, or glycogen depletion that limits athletic performance, its your body's ability to digest water fast enough to prevent dehydration causing the body to hoard the last of its water to maintain blood volume by arresting sweating, and closing capillaries, which leads to very high core temps, internal organ failure,  brain damage, heart attack, and death.

The best way to recover from impending heat stroke is to cool the body without requiring sweating. This means pouring water down your back, over your head, or immersing yourself in water. Ice packs can help, as can cold drinks. Packing your thighs with ice is very good. Fans won't help. You've stopped sweating, so they won't help unless you have external water sources to power evaporative cooling.

The bottom line for sodium, is it's almost impossible to get too much, and very easy to get too little. More is almost always better. Salt, Water, Food.

• Morton's Salt: 590 mg per 1/4 tsp serving. 491 servings per $0.99 box
• 1 sausage link: 500-600mg
• 1 serving spaghetti sauce: 400-500mg  
• Nuun 1 tablet serving 360mg (with an awkward 16oz of water)
• Succeed S-Caps: 341mg per capsule
• Gatorade powdered mix: 338 mg per 24oz cycling waterbottle or 450mg per 32oz quart
• Powerbar Electrolytes: 260mg per foil stick
• ThermoTabs: 180mg per time-released tablet
• 2 tsp salsa: 110mg
• 2 tsp peanut butter: 90mg
• Hammer Endurolytes: 40mg per capsule (lick your finger and poke a salted tray. Just as effective)

Here Comes the Sun

Gloriously, the sun finally reappeared today, so I saddled up and rode up to Beal's Pt at Folsom Lake. After eating a PowerBar I started sluggish. Not sure why this carbo-loading kicker slows me down like this, but it does. I made up for it on the return leg.

Highlights were:

1. Beautiful sunny day and deep blue water in the lakes and river
2. Sun isn't setting till after 5:00 again
   
3. Met a couple of friends up there
4. Averaged 18.2 mph for the 12 miles from Beal's Pt back to Sunrise
5. Got in about 2,300 ft of climbing using a slightly flatter return from Bannister Pk
   
6. I could feel the lower density of the warm air today, but just pushed hard and wracked up 21 minutes in Zone 5
   
7. My calf wasn't hurting today, perhaps because of a snowboarding sock with lots of thickness over the calf
8. I "starved" myself again, eating nothing during the ride except 1 bottle of Gatorade. Working on getting my body to burn more fat to stave off liver glycogen exhaustion
9. Friends chained to their desks were crazy jealous that I got to go ride in the middle of a warm, sunny day

I found myself looking through Colorado Cyclist's wheel building site again last night. Thinking of going with a Mavic CXP-33 aero rim instead of the Open Pro. The Ultegra 6700 hub is only available in 32 spokes up front, and since that is more than I need for strength and durability, I am thinking of taking on 65 grams of weight to get  a more slippery wheel up front where the airflow is ahead of the frame, and therefore, still clean. I love the strength of the Open Pro's double eyelets in back, but not needed up front. Whew. What a great ride!

Post-ride Recovery

I have a new favorite post-ride recovery meal - Gatorade!

I often get home with extra Gatorade, mixed from my concentrate bottle and my last hydration stop/s. It usually ends up going to waste. After pouring still another 30oz or so down the drain last month I occurred to me that Gatorade has everything needed for a great post-ride recovery "meal"

1. It's already made, so can be consumed immediately
2. It's sugars are fast carbs, high on the glycemic index
3. It has lots of fluids to remedy dehydration ASAP
4. It has lots of electrolytes to replenish some of what is lost
5. It's free, since I'm just going to end up pouring it down the drain anyway
6. It's great to wash down some Advil with, and prompts me to do so (I tend to forget)
7. It gets me going in the liquid direction, with follow-on fruit juices and milk

I have found that this one, simple change has virtually eliminated my issues with Big-D. Sometimes the solutions we need are ready at hand if our minds are open enough to accept them.

Bartender, Set Me Up!

Rowing team on Lake Natoma viewed from the "hitching post" off south side bike trail

After banishing the flu bug with a nice high fever, I took a ride to Beal's Pt again, and found something very unusual - water! Folsom Lake is blue again! It hasn't been this full since last spring, so the prisoners at Folsom Prison are enjoying a much "bluer" view while paying their debt to society. I had used the last recovery day putting new cleats on my shoes, adjusting the pedal tension, and raising the seatpost 4mm. I also took a few more links out of my chain and broke out my very favorite shorts, the Novara gel shorts.

Novara is REI's house brand, and for the first time in years, decades even, REI's house brand products are on par with anyone else's. The chamois is quite thin, about 4mm or so, vs the 7-11mm of Pearl Izumi, but that is some amazing gel. I sometimes get sore after a long, 4hr + ride wearing them, but it's at worst a dull achey sensation, not a sharp, chaffy burn-through. It also stays planted very well, not having the tendency of the PI shorts to want to squirm off to one side of the saddle or the other. I had to stop wearing them in Nov because when the temps drop below 40 degrees the gel gets too hard and stiff to be comfortable. The gel also absorbs a lot of cold and your privates are then pretty much sitting on an ice pack. I was happy to be getting reacquainted again with an old friend.

I had resolved to take it easy - at least for the first 5 miles or so, to give my body a chance to warm up and get reacquainted with the bike and adapt to the new seat position. With the thinner chamois and higher seat I expected the forward aerobar position to be a lot more comfortable, but was a little worried about possible pain in the back of the knees - the sure sign of a seat that's too high. I had also moved the cleats a bit to try to adapt the cleat better to my left foot's outward wander, and wanted to make sure I had it set right before I started hammering down the power.

The first part of the ride was slow, and even a bit weak. In spite of stepping up the effort level after 10 miles, I didn't set any new records to the split behind Bicycles Plus where the bike trail ends at the back of their parking lot. I used the stop at a couple of lights in old town Folsom to take long pulls off my Gatorade bottle, and hoped that would put me in good stead for the climb up to Beal's.

I used myself as a Guinea pig, spiking my Gatorade with Zola Acai berry drink. My goal was to see if I could reduce inflammation and increase performance by adding at least some anti-oxidant to the glucose produced from fat, liver glycogen, energy bars and Gatorade. It's somewhat insidious that the very process of oxidizing glucose to produce ATP in the muscles also produces free-radicals that can lead to a cascade of cell oxidation. One of the downsides of consuming the highly targeted foods we need for high output over extended periods of time, is many of the natural compounds that normally are attendant with our foods are omitted - fiber and antioxidants especially.

I used 2 scoops of Gatorade instead of the normal 3 for a quart (which is not at all helpful for filling a 24oz bottle, as a quart is 32oz) - which would have been perfect for 21oz bottles - and then dumped about 10oz of the Zola juice in the top of the Polar bottle before heading out the door. If I had worked out the strength of the mix I would have known better, but doing some algebra here it's obvious why the mix was too strong and gave me the mild cotton-mouth that too much sugar in a sports drink always brings on.

Fortunately, I had also brought a 16oz bottle of pure water, well, OK, tap water. Pure water would be distilled water, and that is of interest too, as it's lack of minerals or anything else in solution would lower the osmotic pressure of a Gatorade mix and may allow for more optimal fueling. Another experiment for a future post.

Alas, coasting down onto the replica of the old train bridge, with it's wood floor throbbing out a dull clatter, and making the turn uphill towards Folsom Dam, I just didn't feel as strong as on that amazing ride a month ago when instead of going up a 7% grade at 9.5mph, I somehow managed it at 16.5mph. After 10 days off with the flu and more, I was reasonable in my expectations and focused on finding a good rhythm and settling into a good form.

The asphalt is still pretty broken up at the start of the bottom steep but when a guy on a cyclocross bike with disk brakes passed me I decided to take up the challenge. I closed up a 25 meter gap in 90 seconds, and then stayed in the aerobars spinning up to 112 rpms to keep from having to move my hands down to the shifters while going through rollers and tight turns. I was on his wheel tight all the way to the construction zone where I passed him. It put a smile on my face, but it was far from my best performance.

Downing more of the spiked Gatorade I stayed in the aerobars, opened my diaphragm and focused on getting my wind back. By the time I made the right turn and headed for the swamped section of the trail where I soaked my feet, I was ready to hammer again. After gingerly trying to forge the flooded bottom of an underpass without hitting anything nasty that might be submerged and hidden, I got out of the saddle and launched up out of the dip and kept the power down until making the final right turn that starts the final climb.

I made one last check behind me to see if cyclocross guy had taken the ad-hoc gravel bypass to avoid getting wet feet, and found myself alone. I had noticed that I could safely slide my elbows as much as 2" forward to get more power in a climb by pulling my hands up until they are half off the bars. Settling in I saw a rider about 500 yards ahead near the top, and made a challenge of catching him before he finished the climb. Not very likely, but I liked the audacity of that hope.

Things went a little better here, and I managed to hold 12.5 until the final 100 yards when I dropped back to 10.5mph - and more importantly - caught the other rider just as he was making the turn for the parking lot. I had hit my legs a lot harder than I intended to, but at least I had something to show for it. It was also mid-afternoon, so no need to hurry home for a change.

Rolling up to the concessions building, long closed now, I was almost blinded by the brilliant blue coming off the nearly full lake. Ok, it's still 20-30 feet below maximum, but at least it's looking like a lake and not like a rutted jeep trail in early May. I drained my water bottle and then walked to the drinking fountain and refilled it and topped off my Gatorade mix. I laid down on the seat of a picnic table and stared up at the sky while I straightened out my back and stretched my neck.

The warmth of the sun on my face was a welcome change from cold, windswept winter days. I closed my eyes for a few minutes and caught my breath. When I opened them I was looking at tan-yellow trees with tiny, bright green buds just coming out against a robin-blue sky. Just then a red-tailed hawk glided expertly along the water's edge 1,200 feet above, skirting the shoreline where the dense, cold air over the water met the shoreline, warmed, thinned and rose in a constant updraft. The hawk was very still in flight, barely a dip or twist as he glided silently across the twig-laced foreground and brilliant blue background. No camera. My bad. This time of year is just gorgeous in California, I have to get a skinny camera for these occasions as they are not to be missed, and my A640 is a bit bulky to safely travel in my jersey pocket.

After a long 30 minute rest I broke open the Energizer Powerbar and chewed it slowly, waiting for it to dissolve in my mouth before swallowing. After reading up on maltodextrin last month I have resolved to use the salivary amylase in my saliva to help break down this starch, instead of spitting out what can be a rather ropey wad. (Gross! I know! ... in my best Craig Ferguson) Taking a few long draws off the water bottle to wash down last of the Powerbar, and dilute it a bit in my stomach, I rolled across the parking lot, powered up the driveway and headed downhill.

After some sparing going down the descent, I hit the flats past Nego Bar and settled into the aerobars for the backstretch of the ride home. I could feel the Powerbar's snap in my legs, and a quick glance at my computer confirmed my subjective impressions. I was holding 19-23mph into a bit of a headwind and passing bike after bike. In fact, from Negro Bar home nobody passed me - a trend I am growing fond of!

At Bannister Park one of the local girl's X-country teams was competing. There was a crowd of about 250 screaming "Girl Power" as I came up that little stretch of 12% grade and as I was about to pass the last of the crowd, noting the girls were turned and already halfway across the soccer field, I raised an arm and shouted "Grey Power". I laughed at what was actually a pretty good cheer, waved, and tried to hide my gasping breath.

The final stretch home from Bannister Park to my front door has a half-dozen long rollers, which I was able to attack and roll right over. I had no idea how the ride had gone in terms of my race against the clock, but hit the stats button as soon as my foot came out of the pedals as it keeps recording zeros for 30 seconds after I stop. I was pretty happy when I saw the numbers, and scaled the stairs, bike in hand, tap-dancing around my neighbor's black cat, anxious to check my ride sheet. I was pretty surprised to find I had just recorded my best time ever to Beal's and back. It wasn't my strongest day, but the aerobars still made it my fastest because I had cheated the headwinds on the return leg so effectively.

It's been about 30 hours now since I finished my ride, and I am quite intrigued that my legs are in pretty good shape. I hit them a lot harder coming home than I really should have, much harder than I usually do, but have had no discomfort and so will continue with my experiment putting Acai juice - about 2 double shots per 24 oz bottle - in my Gatorade made with 2 level scoops of powder. This could be big!