Jonathan and I participated in the Breathless Agony ride (you’ll find the link in my prior post on the subject) yesterday.  You have the option of doing 2 passes (around 50 miles), 3 passes (75 miles) or 4 passes (114 miles).  Unfortunately, Jonathan started having back spasms early in the ride so we ended up going just under 60 miles with 5500 feet of climbing.

The first pass was on a very rough road no longer open to cars.  The scenery was beautiful, but dodging potholes was not!  The second pass was pretty steep, with sustained sections ranging from 8-10%.  The third pass involved a 10 mile climb that averaged between 5-6% and was very hot!  The fourth pass was about 19 more miles on the same road, and would have been about 5-6% the entire way, but not as hot.

We were able to see a part of the third pass before we had to turn around.  And yes, it was very hot!  We agreed that we definitely want to come back and do the final two passes once we get Jonathan’s back feeling better.

I tried something new to help with cramping, as I woke up in the night Wednesday with calf cramps.  With all of the travel I’ve done recently, I wasn’t surprised.  A friend told me to try chicken broth before working out, so I made some broth Saturday morning and added coconut oil to it.  I sipped that on the hour drive to the ride.  We left the house at 5:00 am so I had to ignore the fact that I was drinking broth that early!  (I couldn’t convince Jonathan to do it, even after pointing out there are many things we do on or in preparation for a long ride that we wouldn’t normally do – I’ll save you those details!)  I felt great on the ride and had no cramping, so I’ll credit the broth and coconut oil for that and will try it again before a long ride.

I was also concerned about whether I would be in ketosis because Friday afternoon I registered low ketone levels again.  I avoided carbs for dinner and only ate good fat the rest of the evening (tea with coconut oil and heavy cream) and trusted I’d be fine for Saturday.  And I was!  I had a Super Starch bar at the beginning of the ride, a Slim Jim after the very steep climb on the second pass, and half of a Super Starch drink at the second rest stop.  I’m hoping that my low ketone readings are now over, but I’m waiting until this evening to test again.

Now we wait to hear if we were accepted into the Lotoja double century (May 13th we will hear), and continue preparing for our France trip in August!