Nutrition

One other major issue I need to gain control of is nutrition. Never been any good at this, and I do know that no matter how many books I buy on the subject, I just can't figure out how to take the information and turn it into something practical.

I basically own every book Chris Carmichael has written and those are really good books and that is where I really should have started, but I decided on a side adventure first: From the few months I was training MMA, I discovered Max Muscle. They are definately more knowledgeable than anyone you'll find at GNC, and their products taste better. While one might normally consider them a weight lifter store, they do have a good array of endurance products, and at the time I really thought the "certified nutritionist" knew what he was talking about, so I decided to try out their nutrition plan.

I'm not going to get into the details of how this worked out, but within a few weeks, everything started going bad. The guy at the store blames me for bad communication, but really here's all I need to explain: Certified Nutritionist is to Max Muscle as Sandwich Artist is to Subway.

Bottom line if you want nutrition help you want a "Registered Dietition" RD = Bachelor's degree.

I backdated this post to March when I actually signed up for the Max Muscle program, It's now nearly May, and I just signed up for a CTS Nutrition Analysis and will soon be using their meal programs, stay tuned for that post, I'm still backdating posts to get caught up to the present.

Gear, It Lasts Forever Right?

So I'm reading the list of gear that I need to bring with me for the Leadville camp in June, (here's the list):

Things to Bring
Items to pack for any of our camps:
Mountain Bike Clean, tuned and ready to ride (bring the bike you plan to race)
Gearing Your bike should be equipped with a triple in the front, and a 12-32 or 12-
34 cassette. Unless you’re a singlespeeder (gear ratio of 1.8:1 or less)
Helmet
Jerseys at least 4 (2 short and or 2 long sleeve)
Shorts at least 4 pair
Leg or knee warmers 2 pair
Wind Vest
Wind Jacket
Baselayer 2 lightweight
Rain Jacket
Arm Warmers 2 pair
Socks (regular cycling and wool cycling 3 pair of each)
Cycling gloves Long finger
Cycling Shoes/pedals (carry these with you if traveling by plane)
Eyewear/sunglasses
Camelbak or other hydration system
Chamois cream
Small tote or backpack for anything you wish to keep in support vehicles.
Sunscreen Very important as most of the camp will take place above 9000 feet
Toiletries for clean up between rides.
Items to add for any Colorado camp.
Light jacket
Medium weight jacket
Long finger cold weather gloves
Beanie/helmet liner
Shoe covers/booties
Bottles/mix/food

The better part of this list I do have, but a few things caught my attention:

4 jersey's, well that's actually a problem because I sold off all my team clothes when I left Peoria, Il. So I'll need some jerseys.

Then I got to thinking about what I had for cycling shorts, going to need 4 of those also, turns out I only have 3 pair and 2 of them have holes in them... so I'll need more shorts,

What else? yep I got a helmet -it's new but wait it was a team issue back in Peoria, wrong color, tiny vents and... darn it "I hate that thing" so I need a new helmet.

Next: Wind Vest, yep, no wait nope, sold that because it was a LeMond, sold all LeMond stuff when that idiot accused Lance of doping... guess I'll need one of those too..

OK no more looking at the list today, next thing I know I'm going to need a new bike... Oh great... I'm not even going to deal with that reality today...

I've got it! I Need a Training Plan.

OK, I know what to do, I'll have CTS write me up a 6 month schedule and then I'll follow it and be on track to do the right training for the race. yeah, that's it. simple enough...

I thought this would be a good plan as I trained with CTS in 2005 and while I had a pretty expensive package back then, I really wasn't committed to spending that kind of money today, so I asked CTS if they would just make me a generalized 6 month schedule to follow. I was will to pay a consulting fee and I thought it sounded like a good idea.

Sometimes I am really just not that bright: I'm really not sure how I even got past the salesman to the Coach with this idea. Within 5 minutes of talking to the Coach I realized he wasn't going to write me a 6 month plan. He did however turn out to be a really good salesman, not because he was a salesman, but because he was telling me how it was and sometimes I recognize good advice when it's presented to me...
Even if he made me a 6 month plan (which he wouldn't do no how no way) I was setting myself up for certain failure. What I needed was a real coach, and a real coaching program, not a generic outline of a plan. Fortuneately I didn't have to pay the consulting fee, for him to sell me on signing up for a coaching program.

So now I'm an official CTS athlete again!