It's not risky business

ORAMM is now less than three wake ups away. Am I concerned? Not so much. I've made all the right moves.

Last Saturday I bought my favorite snack, a 3lb 8.5oz bag of penaut M&M's. Last night I finished it off.

38 servings at 220 calories per. 8,360 calories at a rate of @ 1,670 calories a day. That should top off the glycogen stores for the weekend, and I also got in 152 grams of protein to boot. I was very careful to not wash them down with my favorite post peanut M&M gorging session beverage, Sierra Nevada. Too much of a good thing and all.

Will Black is posting photos from the Blue Ridge Parkway on his facebook page in an attempt to intimidate me... as if he's really up there training on his bike. I have it on good information that he was up there for leaf season. Either he has a very rare calender reading disorder or he's been using that same stupid Aztec calender I was using a few weeks ago. I think he doomed his shot at my title earlier this year when he was hanging out at the start line with Wiensy, Fawley, and Lance himself.

If you see Will please let him know Lance isn't doing so well. He doesn't know how the Tour is going since the hippy liberals in Asheville have made cable television illegal.

My timing on yesterday's mention of the Breck Epic was kismet on the highest level. When I got to work I saw 1,200 mentions on facebook regarding Lynda Wallenfels' latest "Coaches Column" on MTBRaceNews.com. This particular post was an answer to the following question:

Question: I live at a low altitude but I am racing the 6-day Breck Epic this season. How can I best prepare to race in the thin air of Breckenridge?

Just as before, Lynda's column comes at the right time in my life. Last time she wrote about the importance of recovery and had this little bit about stage racing that I am currently ignoring:

"Generally, 7 day stage races fall in the 3 week recovery time frame."

Now let's see what she has to say this time....

"endurance performance bottoms out within the first few hours of arrival at altitude"

Lucky for me I'll be in Breckenridge for at least 24 hours before the racing starts.

"Arriving 4 days before the race is good. Arriving 4 weeks before the race is better!"

Doh.

"A month out have your iron levels checked and follow a physician’s advice on iron supplementation if necessary."

Anybody who's been following along at home knows I had issues with anemia last year before I went to Breck. My bloodwork from this past February was deemed "OK", but I'm not taking any chances. Daily iron supplements? Check.

"Take 80-120 mg of Ginkgo Biloba twice per day in the 5 days leading up to arrival at altitude."

Ginkgo Bi what what? Well if Lynda says "Jump!" I say "How many milligrams?" while I'm in the air.

I ran out and picked up iron supplements and ginkgo biloba ASAP. Since I was at the CVS that sits under the Five Guys Burgers and Fries I ran upstairs after purchasing my pills and bought a bag of fries. They do absolutely nothing in terms of helping with altitude, but they do taste good and have excellent vinegar absorption properties.

She closed with this:

After arrival at altitude:

"Avoid any medications that will depress breathing rate. This includes alcohol..."

I have to admit that's where she lost me. I want to be as ignorant as possible when it comes to how alcohol affects performance. She doesn't even go on to say that perhaps skipping higher alcohol beers like Old Chub Scotch Ale (8% alcohol) and substituting it with Coor's Lite (.00001% alcohol) would be a great idea. This seems like shoddy journalism to me.

I think this is all part of Lynda's bigger plan. She wants to subconsciously affect the decisions I make from now till next February and so we can crush all comers at The Most Horrible Thing Ever... I mean the new but not improved and only renamed Pisgah 36. Women always have a darker reason behind their actions. Don't trust them and whatever you do don't look them in the eye... that's what breasts are for.