Coyote In Patapsco!

I like to take my GoPro Camera when I ride in the dark in Patapsco for when I come across interesting critters.

Mostly I just get a lot of spiders.

But today I got a coyote!!

Strava File

Rainy days... great for Zwift Racing

Seth G and I put together a great AFC Team race this morning.  We worked well together even though we were both tired from big efforts yesterday.

Here is our sprint finish

I went for the long sprint, leading Seth out, he finished em off with an insane 12+watts/kg

zwiftpower placed me at 3rd place.  Seth got the W!

Full race video https://www.twitch.tv/videos/315294491

Strava upload: https://www.strava.com/activities/1868499639

I always need to do the races that start between 4 and 4:30am.  Luckily Seth does not mind waking up early with me :)  If anyone else wants to join us for an early morning race just let us know.  With all of this rain lately we have been racing 2ish times a week, but to be honest I am almost always up for a race in the morning.

Vegan Update

I am not vegan now... my family and I all had low iron levels due to my 10months of being a vegan and cooking all of the meals for the family.

After going back to meat I felt MUCH better overall.  I felt weak and tired at the end of the 10months.

I am sure someone else could do it right but being vegan did not work for me.

I do still eat mostly vegetables and fruit... but now with some meat and eggs added.

I am addicted to Zwift Racing!

Raced with Seth G yesterday in a Zwift race!  I am still learning the ropes but I got a lot of things right this time.

1. I collected an Aero power up before the start of the race.  
   

   
   
2. I saved the Aero power up until the finish.
3. On the first couple laps I timed it so that I knew where I should enable the Aero power up for the sprint finish, knowing that it lasts 30seconds.

For sure, if you are in a race with a sprint finish and you don't have the Aero power up you DO NOT stand a chance.

It was awesome racing with Seth!  I had someone to chat with and someone to work with in a break away.  

We broke away for something like 2ish laps 2/5-3.5/5 or so.. Seth correct me if I am wrong.  That was the best part of the race.  Trading pulls with Seth.

There was a short/steep climb right before the finish.  The finish is a flat out sprint.  Each lap looked like this:

With 2.5miles to go, after we were caught by the pack, I attacked to try to break up the field so that maybe Seth could win the sprint.

I was caught on the last climb so my plan didn't workout so well.  I stayed with the chasing group until the sprint finish.  I used the Aero power up at the right time to finish 2nd place.  Seth was 5th.  I think that if we try again we can win one of these things!

Post race 'zwift selfie' with Seth G... and yes somefreakinhow I have the Green Sprinters jersey.  I think I need to update my avatar to look more like me.

I always figured I would get into zwift racing and now I am hooked.  This stuff is addictive.  

The effort for most of these races is close to what I would do in a cross race.  Especially if you try to break away.  Perfect training for the season!

I do have one problem though.  In the sprint finishes I end up pulling so hard on the Kickr/Bike that I move the Kickr forward like 6 inches or more.  During the sprint in this race I almost pulled it so far forward that I nearly hit my TV.

What can I do about that?  What does everyone else do?

Thanks!

1 Year

Its been 1 year of absolutely no alcohol.  I do not miss it.  That stuff is poison and trash.

Feeling freaking great!  All of those times that I had a drink after a race was really messing with recovery.  Recovery is MUCH MUCH faster and I feel much stronger.

Oh yea!

Today is the day!

Today marks exactly 6months since I stopped drinking alcohol. 

OHHH YEA!

Not going to stop this streak any time soon.

Vegan Protein Powder? Not a whole food... but...

Been doing the whole food / plant based diet for about 5 months now and I am going on almost 6 months of no alcohol.

I had a new / recent discovery.  I was starting to feel like my diet was really missing something and I thought about it and figured it might actually be a super easy / quick / digestible source of protein.  It was just a hunch.  So even though protein powders are NOT whole food they do have a ton of organic / natural / plant based options these days.  Doing some research I found this one got the best reviews for price, quality, and ingredients.

I plan to use that like I used to use whey protein.  Maybe like 1-3 scoops per day spaced throughout the day, used as a 'snack' between meals and after workouts as needed.  I already feel better after just a few days of using it.  Definitely feels like it made the difference.  

If you want to transition to a whole food / plant based diet... I recommend that you really go 100% whole food for 3 weeks... see how you feel.  After that u might want to consider protein powder or any other things that you feel like u might be missing.  

They say it takes about 30 days or so to have a life change like this really take affect.  I think 3 weeks is doable!  You can do anyth!ng!