Jonathan and I have been following a ketogenic diet since February of this year.   I am the more neurotic one – first using urine strips to check my ketosis levels, then switching to blood testing when I heard it was more accurate, then buying a breath tester from Sweden to test a different way.  I am also the one who had the tougher time getting my body to adapt to ketosis.  About  6 weeks in I went through a day of the “keto flu” where my stomach waged war against me and would not keep anything down.

As I reflect back on the last 6 months, there is a lot I’ve learned about ketosis and my body.  While every person reacts differently to a ketogenic diet, I decided to share what I’ve learned so far.  Perhaps others who read this have had a similar experience, or it will help others who are trying to adapt to this type of lifetstyle.  This is part 1 of what I suspect will be a multi-part series!

1.  I still eat more than I need to.    I am still not fully confident in the whole idea that I don’t “need” to eat in order to have energy.  I feel hungry a lot.  What I’ve read suggests that it may be thirst rather than hunger, but I also drink a lot of fluids during the day.  It may also be that I burn a lot of calories riding my bike, especially over the weekend when we do 6+ hour rides.
2. The less I eat, the better my ketone levels.  If I don’t eat breakfast, and wait until 1:00 pm or later to have lunch, my ketone levels are usually pretty good – 1.0 mmol or higher.  When I eat, my levels drop, even though I try to greatly minimize my carb intake.  This leads me to believe 2 things:  I am very sensitive to carbs, and I’m taking in more carbs than I realize.
3. Once I became keto-adapted, it is fairly easy to get back into ketosis if I drop out of it.  I’ve only done it on purpose once (which I will never do again – see #4 below) but thankfully my body re-adapted pretty quickly – within 2 days.
4. I won’t intentionally go out of ketosis again. I had 1 instance where I intentionally ate what I wanted for a weekend.  In my defense, it was in France and I wanted to enjoy the breads and pastries…and ice cream!  I paid for it for 5 straight days.  Not doing that again.  Ever.
5. I don’t need to worry if my ketone levels are low when I start a ride.  My body still prefers to burn ketones and will once I start exerting myself.

In 5 days I’ll be doing a 207 mile ride in one day and I’m sure I’ll have many more lessons learned to add after that experience!

Our last two “major” training rides were last Saturday, and yesterday.  Last Saturday we rode 107 miles, and at mile 85 we added  a climb that we do frequently, but never with 85 miles in our legs.  The results were astonishing:  We both set PRs going up the climb! I’m not sure how we were able to do that, but we were certainly pleased with the results.

Our total ride time was 6:44 (6 hours, 44 minutes), and we averaged 16 mph.  We had our regular breakfast of bacon and eggs plus coco butter coffee, and on the ride we had 2 Quest protein bars, and some peanuts.  I also had a SuperStarch drink about halfway in, but Jonathan opted for a third protein bar instead.

Sunday’s ride was 121 miles with just  under 4,000 feet of climbing.  Our total ride time was 7:20, and our average speed was 16.5 mph. We were very happy with that as it was faster with more miles than the previous ride, and we faced a cross/headwind most of the way out, and half the way back.  Same breakfast as the previous weekend, and on the bike we had 2 protein bars, some nuts, and we both had SuperStarch about 80 miles in.  The SuperStarch really helped us through the last part of the ride.  We did not feel as hungry as we had the prior week.  We’ll definitely plan to take it at least once, if not more, during Lotoja.

We’ve also started sharing a small RedBull during the ride to get a shot of caffeine and other vitamins.  The ketone supplement was upsetting Jonathan’s stomach so we haven’t been using it, and honestly, I haven’t really missed it.

We will now taper off our riding pretty significantly before Lotoja so we go into it with fresh legs.  We will do a recovery ride in the next day or so, and over the weekend we’ll do some shorter rides.  We both feel very good about our training and look forward to the challenging ride on September 12th!

Today we climbed 18 switchbacks (called “lacets” in French) in just under 3 km for total altitude gain of just under 1500 feet.  Lacets de Mont Vernier was featured for the first time this year in the Tour de France, so when we realized how close it was to where we were staying, we had to climb it.

It was very warm, but the views were spectacular.  Unfortunately it was tough to take pictures going up (too steep) or coming down (too steep!) so I had to settle for pictures from the bottom looking up at this incredible road cut into the hillside.   For more great aerial views and more information about this road, click here.

Thursday we rode 2 “off category” climbs that the Tour de France riders race on – Col de Telegraphe and Col de Galibier.  On the day we had over 70 miles and approximately 8600 feet of climbing.  Below is a picture of Jonathan and me at the top of Galibier.  Our for another ride, will post more later!

We did a very slow, easy ride around the area today to give our legs a break.  Tomorrow will be another epic day of riding, so we needed to have an easy day.  We took some pictures along the ride, then finished with a fantastic dinner in Venosc.

From today’s ride:

And from the village of Venosc where we had a wonderful ketogenic dinner of meat and cheese fondue!

And the church cat!

Tuesday was our greatest challenge yet – Mont Ventoux, “The Giant of Provence.”  What makes it tough are 2 things:  It is long, and it is steep.  The best way to describe it is relentless.  The Tour de France riders have claimed it is the toughest ride in the Tour.

To add to the fun, Monday night Jonathan and I were up all night with stomach aches.  We got up at  5:45 as we wanted to ride early to escape the heat.  Instead we  were greeted with rain.  After checking the forecast we decided to wait a few hours to see if the showers would clear, as the forecast indicated.  We weren’t able to eat our usual breakfast, so instead we had a low carb protein bar, some KetoCaNa and coffee at 5:45 am, and we did not eat again until we were on the bike, and even then I couldn’t eat because my stomach was still doing flip flops!

The ride itself was as described – relentless.  To add to it, we were greeted with thunderstorms near the top and rode the last few miles in pouring rain.  My husband had done this ride several times before but I hadn’t, and come rain or shine, I was going to finish it!  I did, and below is a picture from the summit, and an “after” picture when we were back down in the town of Borg d’Oisans.

For the day we climbed about 6000 feet in just under 40 miles.  Doing it under such adverse conditions really made the sense of accomplishment seem much deeper!  I believe we truly are going to have an easy ride today, 20 miles of mostly flat rode, and I hear talk of another “epic” ride tomorrow.  Yikes.

We woke up with sore muscles after Sunday’s ride, but were soon back at it again climbing up to a charming hilltop village named La Berarde.  To get there we had to pass through another charming hilltop village named St.  Christophe – both are discussed in the link above.

I was here in a car years ago and was blown away by the scenery.  Seeing it by bike is beyond words.  There was some pain along the way, as we climbed 3800 feet and covered just over 50 miles from our gite to La Berarde with sustained parts at over 10%.  But the views and the crepes we had at the top were worth it!!

The pictures don’t begin to do this area justice, but the ones below are from the creperie in La Berarde. (No, crepes are not low carb, but these were worth making an exception for!)