By Elmer Rietveld

Thank god for the sport food products that are developed in recent years. When it comes to nutritional value, glycemic indexes, (the number that denotes how fast a certain food raises the blood sugar level) weight and convenience, there is no match. As a 90kg male racer will easily burn over 7000 kcalories during a six hour race, he will consume about four to ten gel units. Bars are mostly useful during longer breaks or before or after the race, depending of the content of proteins. Be sure to get used to any product before you take them on the day(s) of the race you trained for. Don’t consume energy in the last forty-five minutes before a shorter race (under three hours). This will raise your blood sugar to a level at which your body thinks it has endless resources of carbohydrates, and hence will start to use too much energy.

By Elmer Rietveld

For any duration athtlete, the crucial value is the glycogen level. If it drops too low, you feel like you’re hit by the “man with the hammer”. Experienced athletes know the effects too well, although some still confuse a feeling of fatigue with a sense of hunger. They think they’re muscle soreness is due to the exercise, when in fact it’s just low blood sugar. After a few experiences you learn to recognize the feeling. It starts with a little faintness. You might feel nausea, “mental absenteeism” or a little shaky. Within minutes things can get from bad to worse. As soon as your stomach is rumbling you’re really in trouble. Especially if you start to fantasize about pies, meat roasts and fries. Depending on your sport and exertion, you can recover from the hunger knock. Just lower your heart rate below your D1 level, and start to eat and drink. You will feel better in about half an hour, although you’ll never reach your goal that day in the anticipated time.

Problems without illustrious nicknames are dehydration or hyponatremia, which can both be at least as devastating to your power output as low blood sugar. When dehydrated, you lost more than 2% of your body weight. You’re body will overheat and function less efficient, since it takes more effort to pump the thickened blood through your veins. The effects will feel more or less the same as during a hunger knock, complemented with cramps and goose pimples. Hyponatremia is the opposite of dehydration, and happens when fluid loss due to sweating is only replaced by water. The sodium level of your blood will lower severely. Since the symptoms are more or less the same as dehydration, people might respond by drinking even more water.

By Elmer Rietveld

As great as gels, bars an the like may be, after a couple of days, even after a couple of hours, racers tend to get enough of the sweet stuff. Therefore it’s commendable that you eat some “real” foods during a long race as well. This will encourage you to eat, and your digestive system to function even better. Be sure to wrap them adequately, for instance in aluminum foil to avoid messy pockets. A couple of examples:

Tropical fruits: apricots, dates, raisins, figs, banana’s. They’re soft, tasteful and nutritious. As a natural product, they contain no added synthetic ingredients. Be sure that you’re used to eat them in order to avoid an “unwanted reaction” in the belly. 

Soft sandwiches: These can be rolls, croissants, raisin donuts etc. or any soft bread. Make them tasteful by laying them with the following ingredients: cream cheese/jelly/ham, banana’s/chocolate paste, bacon/apple syrup etc.

Rice cakes: After boiling rice it’s easy to compress the rice and cut out small “cakes”. By adding ingredients you can make savory or sweet versions: with scrambled eggs/bacon/graded cheese/soy sauce or honey/walnuts/banana’s.

Boiled potatoes: Boil new (small, soft) potatoes, and roll them around in a mixture of graded cheese, salt and oil. The texture and savory taste is a nice contrast to the sweet flavors of the bars and gels.

By Elmer Rietveld

Some people don’t care about music during exercise. Poor souls. All kinds of research clearly show that music enhances your results. The neurophysiologic effects are well recorded, as are self-proclaimed effects. Most essential is that you like what you hear. Besides that, it shows that most people who want to benefit from music have to take the beat into account. A beat will ideally be equal to your cadence or tread, or just a bit higher. If you’re anticipating on a sporting experience in a beautiful natural environment, such as forests, mountains or at sea, make sure that you will at least try to create the ecstatic moment where surrounding, music and sport will create an unforgettable moment.

By Mark Volkmann

I understand that shaving your legs for the first time as a grown man may make you feel some anxiety. What will others say? What will my wife/girlfriend think? Will it hurt? Will I feel like a girl? Will I become gay? What will it feel like?

The first thing to realize is that, in most circumstances, your hair will grow back. There’s nothing permanent about this experiment. I’ve been shaving my legs for twenty years (off and on) and through the years I’ve learned a few things that might help you hairless virgins get through the initial act without physical or emotional scarring.

Let’s handle the physical part first, definitely the easier of the two to cover. Here’s a list of what you’ll need for your first shave:

1) Single-blade disposable razor blade – The Bic disposable shown above is a two blade razor which may work, but I recommend a single blade the first time. Why? All that hair you’re chopping off gets stuck in between the blades on multi-blade razors and makes the act impossibly slow and tedious as you’ll be pulling hair out of the razor between each tiny stroke. Use a single blade razor. Easier and faster.
2) Shaving cream – DO NOT shave dry, unless you like pain. My personal favorite is Gillette’s Sensitive Gel with Aloe. Smells nice. Shaving cream lubricates things and results in a more enjoyable experience. For those of you who have reached puberty and shave your faces, you already understand.
3) Bathtub – All that hair is going to ball up by the drain for easy removal. Best to keep a garbage pail close by or, better yet, your toilet is close to the tub and you can drop the hairball and say your good-bye’s to your hair as you watch it spin on down into oblivion.

So start off showering and get everything good and wet. Leave the water running. Aim the shower head to the side of the tub so it doesn’t hit you directly and wash all the shaving cream off that you’re putting on one of your legs. Now gently hold the razor and, moving up your leg, against the direction of your hair growth, shave. Do a small section at a time, and don’t press down, just let the razor glide across your leg and chop off as much hair as it can before it clogs up. After each stroke, hold the razor under the running shower to rinse it (you may have to carefully push some hair back out of the razor to clear it, or tap it against the tub). Repeat, repeat, repeat. Then do the other leg.

You can go up as high as you like, but for the first time I would suggest stopping six inches or so before you reach your crotch. Reason being that there tends to be more friction in that area and things can get irritated more easily in this region. Take it easy the first time and experiment in the future with going higher until you find your optimal comfort line. Mine is about 4 inches below my crotch. Oh, and don’t shave your balls. It won’t make you any faster and things can get pretty itchy as that hair grows back and you’re riding, riding, riding.

Care and Maintenance:

1) Do moisturize your legs with lotion right after you shave them and the first few days afterwards. This reduces any itchiness you may have as hair starts growing back.
2) Future shaves should be done with a sharp, multi-blade razor and shaving cream. Multi blade razors (I like the Schick Quattro) are gentler as they cut and will give you a smooth, close shave with little or no irritation.

There you have it. It really is that easy. Just do it already and call yourself a cyclist.

Now for the Emotional part: If you ever feel the need to defend your decision to shave your legs, here are some legitimate reasons you can offer others to defend your manliness:

1) Shaving results in less wind resistance and more speed.
2) When you crash and get road rash, things heal more quickly and cleanly if you’re not picking hair out of your wound.
3) Massage therapists have an easier time working on hairless legs. Feels better for you too.
4) It turns on your girlfriend/wife.
5) You feel sexy in your jeans without hair. (Laugh now, but tell me you don’t the first time you try this.) OK, so maybe you’ll keep this one to yourself.

Will it feel strange the first time? Sure. But not freaky weird. As long as you don’t go crazy and start shaving your under arms too, you’ll find the novelty wears off pretty quickly.  When you look down at your legs initially you’ll be surprised at how different they look. Small, white. (unless you’re black) Good motivation to ride more and make them big, strong and tanned.

Do girls dig it? My experience is that most think they won’t like it but end up preferring it (as long as you keep the stubble under control).

Summary: Just shave your damn legs already. I don’t care you you’re a cyclist or not, it’s something everyone should try at least once anyway. As a cyclist doing the Tour de France course, you should be ashamed of yourself if you ride it with hair on your legs. Just don’t shave each other’s legs. That’s not cool.