Body composition

Lonnie Utah

Just a comparison, for what it's worth. I'm just about the same height as you 5'7.5" and "in season", my weight is around 136-138 (depending on hydration.) I don't have to do anything special to get there, that's just were everything balances out. In the off season, I'm up to about 142-143. I'm pretty comfortable with that (I'm not a racer). Personally, I'd say add a few more calories and make you mind happier. It's 1/2 the equation and the weight will most likely come back off in the spring with mileage starts to go back up....

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Cheap, Strong and Light.
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kmavm

The San Bruno Mountain Hill Climb. Northern California's race season starts very early; in this case, a little bit after dawn on New Year's Day .

kmavm

That hasn't been my experience previously. I've been in the 153-155 range, in-season and out-, for the last ten years or so, the last three of which have included some real volume (by my standards, at least; 7500-8000 miles / year). Once I started paying closer attention to my diet, I rapidly and painlessly went down to around 140 or so, and saw some dramatic improvements in performance.

At the time I started this thread, I had just pushed things even further, at one point into the low 130's. That's just the kind of stupid idiot I am:
"Oh! I climb better when I'm light! Maybe when I'm WAY WAY TOO LIGHT and I can't think or talk because of low blood sugar for hours a day, I'll win the freaking Tour!"

Too much of a good thing, I think. My body and mind seem MUCH happier around 140-ish. Trying to hold on to my lowest possible weight for too long has definitely compromised my training, and that's letting the tail wag the dog. It's funny: I can't be my lightest AND my strongest at the same time. I guess the bodybuilders are onto something...

Lonnie Utah

That's been my experience too. I felt just fine at 138, but I don't have a lot of muscle mass either. So, this thread piqued my interest in my own situation. The previous summer (my first on a bike) I was about where I am now weight wise. I slowly dropped (without too much change in my eating routine) to the 137 lbs I was at when I started tracking it Last Jan. It went up to about 140 in May (I took about 3 weeks off) and back down to the mid 130's in June/July/August and back up in Sept/Oct/Nov. Those numbers correlate well with mileage values for those months as well. I also ski a fair amount in the winter so that makes the numbers from winter a bit fuzzy (I burn a lot of calories trying to keep warm). So I also looked at my "overall feeling" numbers as well. Those peaked in late April when I was in the high 130's/low 140's. Based on the workout I was doing then, I'm sure there was some muscle building during that time. Bottom line, I felt the strongest at high 130's/low 140's.

Edit: All of my weights are post ride and include the effects of hydration loss....

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Cheap, Strong and Light.
Pick any Two.

mises

I think with some dietary modification you could be just as comfortable at a somewhat lower weight. From what was posted you weren't getting enough fat in your diet and that will cause you to be hungry all the time, nutritional problems with fat soluble vitamins, and some hormonal disturbances that could cause a number of the other effects you mentioned.

Also think most people eat too much during exercise while training and impair improvement in fat metabolism. I think it's better to eat more off the bike and less on the bike. Calculate calories in and out on a weekly basis and eat pretty much the same amount every day whether training or not - recovery is better on the off days and you can feel like you are pigging out those days even though overall you are in balance.

If you have a good estimate of your fat free mass in kg this formula works well for estimating resting caloric requirements: 370+ 21.6*(fat free mass kg). I recently got an indirect calorimeter than uses O2 consumption to calculate RCR and was within 10 kcal a day with the formula.

Unless you ate an extra 15,000 calories in 3 days your rapid weight gain following easing up on your diet was all water from increased carbs. Every gram of carbs puts on about 2g of fluid (that's why people think Atkins is so great when they start it).

Be thankful you don't have strong spare tire genes too! I have looked like Rasmussen before but still had a small spare tire around my middle (at 174cm tall and 58kg). I finally decided I would have to be six feet under to get rid of it. Thanks Dad!

morganfletcher

How did you do?

Morgan

kmavm

Being honest with myself, I performed very badly. I reconn'ed the course on the 14th and did 19:54. My time yesterday was 21:45.

frenchyge

Oh man, 2 minutes off from a practice run? What happened? Was the wind/weather dramatically different, or did you just not feel strong. Hey, bad days happen.

kmavm

I can't quite explain it. It didn't feel like a bad day. I got a good night's sleep, good warm-up, etc. My RPE felt considerably better (i.e., harder) than the training session. The holidays have definitely interfered a bit with my training, but I haven't slacked so much that I could have lost 10% performance in three weeks.

In fairness, the race was very windy, and somewhat cold and rainy, while the practice session happened in ideal weather. Still, the wind was predominately a tailwind, and course times were fast by historical standards.

Right now, my best guess is that it is some sort of mental block I have when performing in a race context. I've had some similar experiences in the past. Oh well. Now I have some power data to work with for next year, but that's another thread...