LCHF and "athletic" performance

[Subtle_badger]

Strava, the running/cycling app, has this concept called segments: they are arbitrary stretches of road marked out by users. Every time you ride through a segment, Strava records your time. If it's in the top 3 fastest times you've ever done it, you get a trophy 🏆. That means the second time ever you ride the same course, you get lots of trophies because every segment you will either get your fastest of second fastest time. But as you repeatedly ride the same roads over and over, the trophies become rarer and then nearly non-existent.

I've been recording my cycling for 12 years 🤓 and have nearly 60,000 km of riding on Strava, much of that between my home and central London. Trophies have long been scarce for me.

Obviously now, with clear roads is an optimal time to get cups, but I often cycle at odd times of the day, so it wouldn't be the only time I have had a clear run on those roads.

Anyway, yesterday on a 52km ride in and out of London, out of 113 segments, I got a trophy on 38 of them and a personal record for 19 of those! Including one I had done 28 times before, and definitely when it was as quiet as yesterday. And yesterday, except for a (skinny!) latte mid ride, I was fasted.

It's always stochastic, and many factors affect your speed, but that many cups tells me I am performing at least as well as I have over the last 12 years, and for all of them I was younger and most of them I wasn't menopausal.

I put athletic in quotes because on that segment I have done 28 times, more than 1000 women have done it faster. So I am not fast, but apparently I am as fast as I ever was! Going low carb has not negatively affected my performance, and it's possible it has enhanced it.

[Hidden]

Interesting and well done you. I can't do the same test as we've gone over to e-bikes! But nevertheless I am definitely fitter than I was, or to be more precise have a much better power to weight ratio. At seventy I can trot up hills with my golf clubs on my back no problem. I absolutely could not do that before.

Mind you, LCHF has not improved my golf, still hit the balls all over the place 😞.

_

[Subtle_badger in reply to Hidden]

It's probably worth me making the point that I have been quite fit in the past. I was a partially serious Audaxer back 2012-16, eg cycling from the edge of London to the edge of Wales (400km) and back in less than 27 hours and (while failing to finish London-Edinburgh-London) 1200km in 100 elapsed hours.

I am probably somewhere between 3 & 6kg lighter than I was then. I suspect less muscle.

So it's quite notable that I seem to be back to a similar level of fitness without training hard and being older. I am curious how I would go at longer distances now, but don't think that's responsible right now.

💡 Maybe do a series of 4 x 50km, so I am never more than 25km from home base 🤔

[TheAwfulToad Ambassador]

Great stuff. I found something similar with my running.

+1 point for use of the word "stochastic".

-1 point for ordering a skinny latte

[Subtle_badger in reply to TheAwfulToad]

How dare you! I did not order the latte. My friend (whom I ran into accidentally) ordered the coffees (social distancing) and handed it to me with an apology saying "I forgot and ordered 2 the same"

I drank it because it would be a waste, and - truth be told - I prefer the taste of skim. It was all I could do to choke down the tepid school yard milk that had half turned to yogurt in the sun.

[Subtle_badger]

I took a different route into central London today, and got even more impressive results.

60 trophies out of 122 segments, 31 of them personal records! I managed to find one segment I had done 26 times, so this is real.

When I finished the ride I was 20 hours into a fast. I am a better rider old and fasting than I was younger and fed. Maybe I should attempt LEL next year: if I don't need to stop and eat, I'll have more time.