With a 5-hour ride coming up the next day, I like to increase my potato consumption just a bit to top off those glycogen stores. In this case, sweet potato and butter, topped by a whole lot of pacific salmon.
August 17, 2010
Paleo Riding Fuel
Posted by Paleo Velo under Paleo Diet & Fitness | Tags: Brevet, caveman diet, cooking, food, hiking, Long Distance Cycling, low-carb, organic food, Paleo diet, primal diet, recipes |Leave a Comment
May 16, 2010
Cross Training
Posted by Paleo Velo under Bike Geek Stuff, Paleo Diet & Fitness | Tags: fitness, hawaii, hiking, maui, paleo exercise |Leave a Comment
After completing my first ever double century last fall in Death Valley, I set a goal this year to complete at least three of them. This seemed like a good challenge, and would allow me to earn the California Triple Crown jersey.
Hardcore Paleo enthusiasts would frown upon such behavior, as they believe that the “chronic cardio” associated with training for and completing ultra-distance events is hard on your body. In addition to the danger of overuse injuries, you have the oxidative stress associated with running your body in the glucose burning aerobic zone for extended periods of time. Our bodies are very well adapted to moving over long distances at a sub-aerobic, fat-burning pace. They do less well when you ask them to perform high-octane cardio work for twelve or more hours.
I think most ultra distance runners and cyclists sense the danger (especially the day after an ultra event), but it’s hard to give up the challenge that longer distances provide. It’s also hard for many of us to believe that exercise could somehow be bad for you.
In any event, after ramping up my training for a double this February way too fast, I managed to tweak my knee and create a few other soft tissue issues. After completing the Camino Real Double, I had to drop out of the spring version of the Death Valley Double.
Since then, I’ve dropped my cycling mileage way back, and I’ve been trying to do a lot more cross training: hiking, kettlebell, pilates, etc. The hope is that eventually I’ll be able to increase the mileage again (slowly) and the cross-training that I’ve been doing will leave me less prone to overuse injuries. Or it may be that I’m just not cut out for the ultra stuff. Maybe the hardcore Paleo guys are right after all . . .
The good news is that cross-training is actually a lot of fun, and I’ve rediscovered the joy of hiking. My dog Zayzay is especially psyched about this new trend.
After the desolate splendor of Haleakalā, here are a few pics from some of the rain forest hikes I’ve been doing on Maui:
May 15, 2010
Haleakalā Hiking
Posted by Paleo Velo under Paleo Diet & Fitness | Tags: fitness, haleakala, hawaii, hiking, maui, paleo, primal, volcano |1 Comment
Sunrise on Haleakalā was stunning, but since we had to leave immediately afterward as part of the bike tour we were on, we had no time to do any hiking down into the Haleakalā “crater.” (Technically, it’s not a crater, but that’s the easiest way to describe it).
I’m glad we spent another morning driving up there to explore a bit more as it’s a fantastic area. The only downside is that you start the hike with a descent down into the crater and then have a long trudge uphill breathing thin 10,000 foot air on the way back.
There are three cabins down in the crater, and if you are lucky with the reservation lottery, you could plan a fantastic hike from the summit to one of the cabins, spend the night, and then spend the next day hiking a trail all the way down to the east coast of Maui, where you would need a car pickup. That, along with actually riding up to the summit of Haleakalā by bike are on my list for next time I come here.
You can see why NASA once had astronauts in training practice moonwalks in this same area:
May 14, 2010
Haleakalā Sunrise
Posted by Paleo Velo under Paleo Diet & Fitness, Ride Reports | Tags: cycling, hawaii, hiking, maui, sunrise, volcano |[7] Comments
In general, the islands of Hawaii are anything but a road biking paradise. The roads are narrow, shoulders small if they exist at all, and traffic can be surprisingly bad. Given the spectacular scenery and year-round perfect weather, this is unfortunate.
Because of this, I rarely think to bring a bike with me when I visit, even though I do have an S&S coupled travel bike. Between snorkeling, hiking, and swimming, there are just too many other amazing outdoor adventures in Hawaii for me to bother trying to road bike during the brief time I have here.
But if you are going to do some riding here, why not ride down a volcano? Paleo Velo in action.
Haleakalā is a massive shield volcano on Maui. The road to the Haleakala summit holds the world record for climbing to the highest elevation in the shortest distance (38 miles). I would love to have a road bike here one day and actually ride up the 25+ hairpin turns from sea level to its 10,023 foot summit. But you’d have to get up pretty early if you wanted to ride up to the top in time to see the sunrise, which is one of the most spectacular things I’ve witnessed.
Fortunately, there are tour companies that specialize in taking people to the top for the sunrise, and giving them a bike for the ride back down. The two AM wake-up call necessary to get to the bike shop and then up top in time for the sunrise was brutal, but the payoff was worth it.
You’ll find below a few pics of the sunrise, and the ride back down aboard a craptastic Gary Fisher singlespeed mountain bike. (If you are listening bike tour companies of the world, the bike you give someone for a 2 hr ride down a paved road should not have big honking knobbies!).
If you are ever on Maui and are thinking about doing this, do not hesitate! It’s worth the 2AM wake-up call.
