Thursday 21 January 2010

food, drink, sleep

When you do 90 minutes of reasonably intense exercise per day, your thoughts very quickly turn to food. I have not had time to watch any of the Tour Down Under this year, but I bet the riders spend their 3-4 hours per day in the saddle thinking about what they are going to have for dinner that night. When you are burning lots of calories, replacing them is the top item on the agenda.

When I started riding to work 5 years ago, I wasn't blogging, so I had nothing to distract me in the morning. I'd get up, do the usual ablutions, dress and leave. It was sometimes 10 minutes from eyes opening to front door opening.

Blogging killed all that. When I get up now, my first stop is the computer to see if Paco has updated overnight. He usually has, and I am then stuck there for half an hour whilst I catch up on the latest stuff. Once that became a habit, I started having a few slices of toast and a coffee at my desk.

After a while, the reasoning behind that was turned on its head. Suddenly, I had to have toast and coffee before a ride (lining the stomach etc etc), and if I was going to eat toast, I might as well eat it in front of a few blogs.

That all changed last week when I had to do a fasting blood test. That meant no toast and coffee before riding down to the medical clinic for a jab and a bit of bleeding into a tube. I thought the lack of a few carbs in the morning was going to kill me, but to my astonishment, not only did I feel great on the ride, but due to the detour for the blood draining experience, it was significantly longer than my usual route.

I've now ditched the pre-ride coffee, and have only one slice of toast before shooting out the door. That bit of toast has nothing to do with the ride - it's in case I arrive at the office and find a disaster has happened overnight and I don't get a chance to eat until lunchtime.

Several days went past this week with no coffee at all for the entire day, and I didn't miss it at all.

Then came today. Broken night's sleep (kids - explains everything). Feeling a bit shagged towards the end of the week after some mildly competitive commuting. It was time for coffee. Aaaaaah. I can live without it at the start of the week, but it's a must by the time the week is coming to an end.

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