Yesterday I didn’t walk nearly as much but got completely soaked every time I went outside.  While inside shopping, I met a young man who knew all about ketogenic diets and I bought way more beauty products than I should have from him as a result!  But it was really great to talk to someone who followed a ketogenic diet and listened to a lot of the same podcasts I do.  I’ve decided it was a worthwhile investment (and I should look years younger soon as a result).

Today we started with a canal cruise:

We then visited the Jewish Historical Museum and the Holocaust Museum. No pictures allowed, but both were pretty incredible. We ended the evening with an amazing 3.5 hour dinner in a restaurant that was tucked between a strip club and a sex shop.  Only in Amsterdam….

Now off to bed – the Rijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum are up next tomorrow!

Amsterdam has a population of around 800,000 and a bike population of approximately 1 million.  I like those stats.  Unfortunately I was not on a bike yesterday.  Instead I explored the city on foot, clocking about 16000 steps between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm.

I scoped out the Rijksmuseum, that we will tour Saturday, as well as the Van Gogh museum that we will visit Sunday.  The exterior of the Rijksmuseum is incredible:

After consulting a city map for quite some time I decided to head to the Artis zoo, one of the top places to visit in the city.  I normally don’t visit zoos, as I have a hard time seeing animals in cages, but I made an exception today as the description of the zoo and the landscape sounded like something I shouldn’t miss.

Along the way I passed the Heineken brewery:

And some beautiful homes along the canal:

As expected, the zoo didn’t disappoint. Most of the animals had far more room in their enclosures than I’ve seen in the U.S. Below are a few of my favorite pictures:

Of course it rained most of the day so I headed back to the hotel to dry off around 3:30 pm.  I met up with Jonathan a little later, and the conference he is attending sponsored a dinner at the Maritime Museum which we attended by riverboat. I met more wonderful people, several from the U.K. and one from Ireland, and enjoyed learning more about their respective countries.

Although my feet are quite sore today, I’ll be back out walking and exploring soon.  And dodging bikes!

There were 68 women who rode the “Cyclosportive” category (non-racing category), and 889 total participants in that category.  I placed 30/68 in the women’s category, and 439/889 of total participants.

The race category had 812 total participants, 62 of them women.

My ride time was 12 hours, 10 minutes, and my total time from start to finish was 13 hours, according to the timing chip I wore.  This means I had 50 minutes of breaks, which seems really long looking back on it!

It is estimated that each rider will burn up to 15,000 calories during the ride.  I couldn’t eat much during the ride or after, so I’m probably still at a deficit!

My average speed was around 17.1 mph.

We climbed just under 8,500 feet.

I was nervous about following a ketogenic diet during this long of a ride, but I did it!  I hardly felt hungry during the ride, and wasn’t hungry after, either.  I was, however, starving at 5:00 am the next morning…

I packed WAY more food than we needed.

Food consumed on the bike (from what I can recall):

2 Quest protein bars (it may have been 3, but I don’t think so)

1 Super Starch bar

1 bottle of powered Super Starch mixed with water

A handful of nuts

1 beef stick

I also had a lot of water, a lot of Vega hydration drink, and 2 sugar free Red Bulls.

I did not use any of the Ketone supplements for this ride, as I hadn’t been using them for any training rides and did not want to change anything.  I did not miss them and probably won’t use them in the future.  Breakfast was the usual – eggs and bacon along with coffee mixed with butter and coconut oil.

The key to completing this race in my opinion, other than proper training of course, is proper hydration.  Jonathan and I were very careful to hydrate well the entire week, and we were diligent about drinking every 10-15 minutes whether we were thirsty or not.

My lips were so burned – they hurt almost as much as my legs!  My eyes burned for the entire next day, most likely from a combination of exertion and allergies.  I couldn’t get my contacts in and had to wear glasses all day Sunday as we explored Teton National Park and Yellowstone!  Pictures below.

My outstanding support crew – My mom and sister, Nancy.  Aren’t they beautiful?

Monday the eye pain was gone, but lips and legs still hurt.  We got to enjoy a little bit of Jackson Hole before starting the long drive back home.

And here what it looks like to pack a Subaru with 2 bikes, 4 people with luggage for 5 days, and a large cooler:

Last stat:  It took us 15 hours of driving time to get from Jackson Hole home to Huntington Beach.  And yeah, it hurt.  Still does.