Day 1 of Ride the Rockies was not going to be a tough day( for Ride the Rockies standards). It consisted of 50 miles and 4253 feet of climbing . The route went from Carbondale to Aspen and was beautiful. Unfortunately I was staying in Aspen so I had to get bused from Aspen to the start. I have done this tour five times and have always used Alpine Cycle Connection to provide lodging. The benefit is that you get a room to stay in every night. On the years when it has been really hot having a room with AC is a huge plus. I feel sorry for those campers whose tents are 100 degrees after a ride. You just can’t recover with that. Also, at 52 years of age,  I have become a wimp and like my creature comforts. The bad side is that you miss the communal feeling that the campers get and sometimes you have an hour bus ride to the start. That can make for some really early starts.

  Woke up at 5  am and made myself a cowboy coffee. A cowboy coffee is about 200 calories of all fat. Bus left my hotel around 530 am and it was about an hour ride. I was on my bike by 7am riding back towards Aspen. The ride was gorgeous and a little harder than I had anticipated.  I only carried water in my bike bottles, though I drank a full water bottle with an electrolyte tab prior to starting.  I carried a little packet of coconut oil that I was going to use if I found coffee anywhere. 

 

Loveland Weight Loss Programs RTR(Ride the Rockies) Day 1

 

Couple of  hours into the ride I ate a Keto Bar which provided some good energy. The bar I used has 19 gm fat, 6 gm carbohydrates, and 7 gm of protein. Unfortunately for me, because I was doing this keto experiment the majority of food at the aid stations were off limits to me. The aid stations do provide an assortment of fruit, animal crackers, sometimes nuts, and water or an electrolyte drink. This years sponsor was Skratch. There also are usually vendors which sell a variety of other foodstuffs.  At the third aid station I did find a coffee vendor and added my tablespoon of coconut oil to this. That is 14 gms of pure fat . The body utilizes these medium chain triglycerides immediately as food which is a huge plus.

 

I pulled into Aspen around 1130 am and parked my bike in the bike corral. Big mistake for me. I should have followed my roommates example and rode my bike to the room. This ride was almost as long as my longest training ride for RTR. When I completed this tour I  doubled my cycling mileage for the year. I have been riding bikes my whole life, but I may have pushed the limited training a bit this year.

 The buses really did not start early enough and a lot of us waited a long time before we could get a ride to our rooms. I was back in my room by 1pm. One trick I learned years ago was to put a small backpack with the RTR trucks with a change of clothing and baby wipes in there. It really is important that you get out of your sweaty, salty clothes as soon as possible after the ride.

 

In my room  I ate a beef bar which had 12 gm of fat, 10 gm of carb, and 11 gm of protein. My concern was getting enough protein to help with muscle recovery. In previous years I used the protein shake vendor. Unfortunately their formula just had too much glucose in it for me so I had to skip that this year. I also  had a handful of macadamia nuts and a bouillon cube in a cup of hot water. This was to help keep my sodium up  during this ride  because being on a low carb diet tends to deplete your sodium when exercising heavily.

 

My   glucose after the ride was 81 and my  Ketones were  2.8. That afternoon and evening I had a cheeseburger with no bun, a half a dozen deviled eggs, and large salad, and a couple of whiskies. In my room I had a fair amount of nuts and two more cheese sticks. That was it for day one. I did drink enough water that my urine was clear. The amazing thing was that I never really had any hunger at anytime during the day.

 

Aspen is a beautiful town. Plus is that it has everything you could desire. Minus is that is costs a fortune. Lots of cyclists do this bike ride on a budget and this is definitely not a town for the cost conscious. Overall, I found this tour more expensive than previous ones due to the places we stayed at. It was beautiful though.

 

I felt pretty good and had a great night’s sleep. The next day promised to be the toughest day of the tour and I needed to get an early start.

 

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The 22dayweightlossprogram.com is extremely successful in helping people lose from 7 to 30 pounds in a 22 day period. This is also successful in taking inches off your waist in a short period of time.Your clothes will fit better and you will feel better about yourself. As a medical professional who has been working with people for over 30 years I have figured what works. I use this plan myself to keep myself at my ideal body weight.

The Ultrasound Solution runs the 22dayweightlossprogram.com that is partially based on the ketogenic diet. We have come to the conclusion that this is the most successful model that works for just about everyone. Once people have gone through our program they are able to manage their weight on there own. If you are interested in losing weight go to 22dayweightlossprogram.com.

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 One very common complaint I hear from people on a low carbohydrate diet is that it affects their sports performance. Ride the Rockies is a bike tour that happens yearly in Colorado. This year’s ride covered 399 miles and 29,311 feet of climbing in 6 days. What an opportunity to test and really see if someone can do a strenuous event like this on a low-carb diet. These next couple posts will be about my Ride the Rockies adventure.

 

 

 

Loveland Weight Loss Programs My Ride the Rockies story

Ride the Rockies 2016 was an experiment in low carbohydrate high fat eating in the Colorado high country while riding a tough bicycle tour. I don’t actually consider low carbohydrate high fat eating a diet. I consider eating low carb a way of life that is healthy and will have you living at your ideal lean weight. This is me on top of the last pass of  Ride the Rockies 2016 at the Alpine Visitor Center. My last prep ride for RTR was three days before the start and  I rode from the  Estes Park visitor center to the top of Trail Ridge( 4000 ft of climbing at altitude).. The weekend prior to that I did a 67 mile ride with 4000 feet of climbing in it. My ketones after the ride were 3.0 and my blood sugar was 82. I felt pretty darn good and was ready to go for Ride the Rockies(RTR) Keto experiment.

 

Now I am not new to cycling. I have done RTR  5 times. I have been riding a bike my entire life and my body is pretty well  adapted to this sport. I get the typical sore ass syndrome the first couple rides of the year , but I adapt pretty quick. I got in about 300 miles of training from the beginning of the year  for this ride. Most of the rides were shorter in the 20-30 mile range. I have a great bike that I have used for years . It is a Specialized Paris Roubiax with Ultegra components. I have aero bars for those windy days and to help me get and sustain those 40-50 mph mountain pass descents. I use a compact front chainring with a bail out gear in the back of 32.  I am not as strong at age  52 as I used to be and I used that gear a lot during this tour.

 

I have been keto adapted for several months now. My goal for RTR was to drink my cowboy coffee every morning and get on the bike. I wanted to be able to  ride and  eat only  fat and protein during the ride. No power gels, no Cytomax, no Gatorade, no carbohydrates. If I had tried this a year ago I guarantee I would’ve bonked within an hour of starting riding. At the end of every day I would check my blood ketones and my blood sugar before eating my main meal. I have no current medical conditions and take no medications. I am a 52 year old male in average shape. I have been prediabetic in the past prior to adopting a low carbohydrate diet. As a nurse practitioner I found this experience very revealing about the true nature of carbohydrates, proteins, and eating fat. Believe it or not , my weight was 162 at the start of the ride and 162 at the end of the ride.

 

Another name for low carbohydrate high fat eating is nutritional ketosis. I’m tried to keep my diet at 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbohydrate. I currently weigh 74 kg. So I will tried to eat on a daily basis at least 74 g of protein to aid me in muscle recovery. I’m  did not count calories or macro-nutrients. I just sort of watched the protein and stuffed myself with fat. We shall see how this works. One reason I’m just had a cowboy coffee in the morning was to try and keep my body in ketosis during the start of every ride. The cowboy coffee does have approximately 200 calories of fat in it. A cowboy coffee consists of a cup of coffee, a tablespoon of coconut oil, and a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream. I ate a very large dinner every night to resupply my body with the necessary protein and fats. The body converts the excess protein into the carbohydrates that my body will need. The only supplements I took was coenzyme Q 10 and magnesium. To help replace my sodium I also drank a cup of bouillon soup every day after my ride.

The following 6 posts are about what my adventures doing Ride the Rockies on a keto diet was like. It worked and I am stoked to show everyone how I did it. Stay tuned here for the daily reports on how my experiment worked.

 

22 Day Weight Loss Program Loveland CO 970-541-0903

The 22dayweightlossprogram.com is extremely successful in helping people lose from 7 to 30 pounds in a 22 day period. This is also successful in taking inches off your waist in a short period of time.Your clothes will fit better and you will feel better about yourself. As a medical professional who has been working with people for over 30 years I have figured what works. I use this plan myself to keep myself at my ideal body weight.

The Ultrasound Solution runs the 22dayweightlossprogram.com that is partially based on the ketogenic diet. We have come to the conclusion that this is the most successful model that works for just about everyone. Once people have gone through our program they are able to manage their weight on there own. If you are interested in losing weight go to 22dayweightlossprogram.com.

#22dayweightlossprogram #losebellyfat #LovelandWeightloss #Fortcollinsweightloss #Greeleyweightloss