Barry Roubaix - A Lesson In Nutrition
When the curtain drops, the show is over. Translated into performance nutrition terms, if your glycogen stores are depleted, you are done racing. That was a hard lesson to learn at a race as important to me as Barry Roubaix. The first two thirds of the race went really well. I was able to match pace with the stronger riders, and I had really good legs. My plan was to follow the lead groups moves, ride in the shadows, and try to conserve energy for when it would really matter. This plan was working brilliantly, and paid off early when we hit Sager Road. The attack on that decisive section of two track was beautiful. We turned onto Sager with a group of over a hundred, and came out the other side with less than a dozen. Though the explosion of the attack was beautiful, the experience of it was brutal. Looking back on the activity file is painful. For the one-mile section of road I averaged a heart rate of 189, as we rocketed up the hills faster than cars can. It was a true test,...