Get your beets?

Among those in the cycling world, using beets for increased performance isn't exactly a new topic. Chris Baddick covered it for Training Peaks in an article over two years ago and there are plenty of scientific studies investigating the topic as well. I'll let Google guide you further in that regard and share my personal story here.

Last fall I began training for Tour Divide again and it was my second season working with a power meter. Through diligent training and great coaching I've been able to inch my power upwards over this time but I've likely reached the point where huge jumps in power development are gone. As such I started focusing on more marginal gain areas for an amatuer athlete such as better sleep, healthier eating, my Elevated Legs, and nutritional supplements. By nature I'm wary of supplements and I've been pretty cautious about what I might use. However beets being a real food seemed like a great place to start so I emailed Lynda to get her opinion. Her impressions with other athletes were positive with no drawbacks other than cost so I decided to give it a try.

Overall my impressions of beet products are very positive and my preference has evolved over time. When Red Ace Organics offered to send me a case of their products for review I was happy to give them a try. In addition to the Red Ace beet products I have also used Beet It shots, Beet Elite powder, and Sunny Green organic beetroot powder. Recently I've tried Enduro Bites Beta Red powder as well but I don't have a significant enough sample of experiences yet with it to comment. It does include things other than beetroot which is different from these other products. Red Ace sent me three types of beet products to test: Beet Performance, Beets and Greens, and Beets and Turmeric. Their Beet Performance shots are the most comparible to the other products I have used but I'll talk about the other two types briefly as well.

One thing that you'll notice is that the cost varies among all the products. I'll try to compare them using real world costs in my area so bear in mind that may be different for you. The cheapest option by far is the Sunny Green organic powder. The cost per serving is much less than the other options and if that's your biggest concern it's a winner. I have a canister at home that I still use but it's definitely less convenient than a shot. It takes quite a few tablespoons to get the right amount of beets and mixed with water or juice it's fairly gritty. My preference is to use it in smoothies for loading where I don't notice the taste and texture at all. I have made my own performance shot with it by mixing it with tart cherry concentrate and it's tolerable but not exactly enjoyable.

The other powder that I've tried is the Beet Elite black cherry. It's about $3 per serving and comes in a packet as well as a bulk container. The packets are handy in that you can throw them in your bag and mix up when you need them before a workout. The black cherry flavor is much better than the plain organic powder but it is still a powder and you have to mix it to not have any lumps.

This school year I've been in a hurry to squeeze in workouts regularly and so the shot type products have been great. I can slam one before I get dressed for a workout or on my way to a climb and it's in effect for my workout an hour later. At King Soopers I found the Beet It products and they are frequently on sale for $2-$3 a shot. Performance wise they work as well as the rest and the convenience of grabbing them at the local grocery store is great. However the taste of these shots leave something to be desired. They're better than the plain powder but worse than the black cherry Beet Elite for sure.

This brings us to the Red Ace Performance shots. I tried them once before however I have to order them or grab them from a store other than my local grocery store. They're about $3.75-$5 a shot depending on where you buy them. In a larger bulk amount you can get them cheaper. I found in heavy training where I'm doing several interval sessions a week (where beet products seem to help) the taste is definitely the best. I can throw a Red Ace Performance shot in my school bag and not hesitate to slam it down before my workout. The flavor is great and the performance is equal to the other products. They pack a lot of beets in a small shot without the off putting smell or taste I've found in some of the other products and the shot is super smooth. I'm going to order them in a larger amount now that I've been able to try them in depth and that should bring the cost down significantly. The Beets and Greens shot and Beets and Turmeric shot will likely see lesser use in my personal rotation. If cost was no object they'd be great to use daily. One great use I could see for the Beets and Turmeric is recovery from sickness, injury, or heavy training. In limited amounts ($) I'd love to take a Beets and Turmeric shot at night to maintain loading and increase my turmeric intake in an easy way.

Also the reason I'm focusing on taste and cost is that I feel it's fairly disingenuous to claim as a single data point athlete that one of these shots is head and shoulders above the rest. Power gains from using beetroot are small but when you're looking for small gains they're worth considering. For me the ease of use and great taste of the Red Ace Performance shots is a pretty awesome combination and worth the cost over the other options, especially with a larger and cheaper order.

If you would like to try the Red Ace products yourself you can also use coupon code singlespeed for a 15% discount.

Why Singlespeed?

I get asked directly or indirectly all the time, "why singlespeed?" Why give up modern gearing when it's so good, so wide ranging, so fast? Hell if you stick with XT level components it's not even that expensive, though XTR and XX1 are as pricey as ever.

It's a valid question in this age of Di2 capable, 10-, 11-, and 12-speed mountain bikes. I'll attempt to put some words to the issue here though they represent my feelings alone. I don't promise your satisfaction in my answers or reasoning. 

For me singlespeed all started as I got sick of breaking Trek Fuel frames and maintaining rear derailleur cables in the dusty Front Range of Colorado. I got a Redline Monocog for Christmas from my wife one year long ago and quickly grew to love it's simplicity. There was nothing to adjust and minimal maintenance besides the occasional tightening of the chain and some lube. I just got to hop on and ride. When I moved to Boulder from the flatland triathlon scene of St. Louis, MO I tried to keep the climbing at bay. I stayed to the east, getting promptly thrashed by the hills anytime I ventured west. But something unexpected happened when I started riding that heavy 26" Monocog. I got faster. I became a better climber. The better I climbed, the more I began to love mountain biking. I ventured into longer rides in more difficult terrain. Probably a year later I ditched my front suspension for a rigid fork and haven't looked back since. To be frank, the lack of front suspension is a far bigger detriment to my speed on the local XC and Endurance scene then the lack of gears ever has been.

So what logical reason is there for riding and racing a singlespeed, especially down the 2700 mile Tour Divide? Well there are a few. First it's lighter by a couple pounds. My rig was one of the lightest out there despite me carrying more weight in gear than I did on my 2009 run. Second it's weather resistant. In 2009 the weather was pretty horrendous by comparison to 2016 and the mud was out of control. The singlespeed trucks right on through most of the time without any major issue. A straight chainline and some steel drivetrain components stand up to conditions that put a pretty serious hurt on geared bikes. My drivetrain this year went from Banff to Mexico without needing anything but a few shots with a hose and chain lube. Too bad I can't say the same about PF92 bottom bracket bearings. Third a singlespeed is cheap. I'm not sponsored in any serious way and pay for the vast majority of my gear and parts. Cheap drivetrain components are nice when you put serious miles on your gear training and racing. Most of my steel cogs are a decade old, the chainrings last thousands of miles, and chains are replaced for $30 or less.

People's biggest misconception (I think) is that a singlespeed is just so much slower than a geared bike in the vast majority of terrain. With proper training I'm not sure that's actually true and looking at Strava segments of quite a few pieces of the Divide seems to at least support my theory. I turned in the 3rd fastest all time segment (that's uploaded to Strava...) for the final 105 miles of Tour Divide in terrain that should punish a spun out single speeder pretty severely. While most geared riders train to optimize power in a preferred cadence range and then gear their bikes to keep themselves there, I chose a gear and trained my body to produce power over a wider range of cadences. I can make reasonable power for long time periods from 25 rpms all the way up to 110 rpms. Would I be faster I could stay at 85 rpms all the time? Maybe but I'm not totally convinced of that. My Tour Divide moving average speed was 11 mph, not a whole lot different than Mike Hall's. He still kicked my butt but probably not because I was on a singlespeed. 

At the end of the day though, none of these what-ifs, how-comes, or whys even matter. 

I just flat out love riding my singlespeed. It excites me. I'm passionate about it. Every time I throw my leg over my singlespeed and mash down on the pedals, the direct drivetrain connection feels so good. 

Long ago I gave up any hope of being a "professional" athlete. Giving up that fantasy gave me the freedom to do what I want, ride what I want, and race what I want. (Again) this year singlespeeders in the Tour Divide have shown that they're more than capable of being competitive, no matter what the conventional wisdom might say. And with that maybe the why doesn't matter. Or maybe those who ride one gear are just so passionate about riding their chosen bike that it overcomes any obstacles the single gear brings. Either way I'm not likely to give up my singlespeed any time soon.

Stay Tuned...

Tour Divide updates coming soon...

Another space

The blog is certainly not something I have time for at the moment. Find me on Facebook or message me for Twitter/Instagram info as it's semi-private.

Finally Official!

My job for next school year is finally settled and official! I'm teaching 6th grade math and science at Henry. Woohoo!

12 more weeks of DTR to go!

Progress

Marni and I had a date night on the home wall tonight. It was 60 degrees out and almost too warm for anything slopey but much nicer to hang out in between burns without wearing a down jacket. And it was beautiful out during my lunch time run at work. After JJ was in bed I warmed up on a handful of problems and then got to work. I finally made the second ascent of Pink Tiger V4 (FA Chad) after my 2nd night of projecting it. To celebrate, cake!

Marni did a great job cruising the green traverse several times and sending the leopard traverse for the first time. Now to link them into the circuit ;)

Next up is getting these guys into a regular rotation to get some endurance back...

Sore all over

Climbing, running and more climbing over the past few days. So awesome. My road bike is almost ready for commuter duty as well. Hopefully I will know about my job for next school year this week and things will finally assume some positive stability.

Fatty can't wait to train more and get back to the alpine! More to come...

The light gets brighter

As my semester ramped up (and my blogging vanished) I was given a chance to get my final long stint of student teaching done early due to some unforeseen issues for another resident in my program. What that meant was a full throttle month of teaching and graduate school throughout February with less than a week to prepare by the time my "plan" was approved by the powers that be. Nevertheless I jumped on the opportunity to tackle the "known" ahead of time rather than wait and deal with an unknown load of spring classes.

The last month has not been easy. Burning the candle at both ends with limited exercise (just enough to stay sane) is trying on a person and a family. Marni has been fantastic as always, supporting a stressed out and tired spouse. I'm grateful JJ is so young. He won't remember that I had to lock myself downstairs to work instead of play with him. With the month almost over and very successful, everyone is looking forward to respite. My winter evaluation at school was very good. For the first time in a long time we have a family vacation planned to Moab for spring break and our sweet lodging should be finalized this week. With "only" grad school to look forward to for the next month and a half, I feel like a big weight is lifted off my shoulders and another chapter of these crazy 13 months is finished.

There is more to go. The paper writing will not be finished until June 30th and June itself promises to be a whirlwind month of hard work with both of us teaching summer school, a final mini-semester of classes, plus two endorsement tests. The battle for the job I want is just beginning though so far prospects look promising for me. But Marni and I have Friday off to spend with JJ and the light at the end of the tunnel seems a whole lot brighter.

And damn I can't wait to climb, ride, and run outside a whole lot more in March and April!

Here goes nothing...

Winter break has been fantastic even though I didn't get to do everything I wanted. I packed all my bags for Zion but had to bail last minute. I'm tentatively rescheduled to try again in another couple weeks. Our plumbing backed up and the guy took forever to show up and things just didn't feel right to go on the trip. Then JJ got sick and I was glad I was home to help. A sniffley baby doesn't sleep well and while Marni is a great mom, it's hard to care for a sick baby alone and tired.

Tomorrow Marni and I go back to work and that means back to my program full time. This will be the real test of sticking to my workouts. At least break catapulted me off to a good start. I ran two days in a row for the first time since either broken ankle and today Marni and I took JJ to the gym. Climbing with a toddler is difficult but he actually did really well. We both bouldered for about an hour and a half, trading off watching JJ and working problems. I managed to flash my hardest indoor boulder problem yet, who knew? I'm even planning to ride home from work on Wednesday and Friday so anyone still reading, feel free to poke me on this blog or Facebook and hold me to it. Hopefully I can start riding at least one direction (20 miles) 3 days a week plus keep up my running and climbing. It's going to be a challenge for sure but at least now it's January and I've got less than 6 months to go to finish my program.

Alright now time to organize my stuff for another semester while Marni is at yoga!

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday was too busy for a blog post but I'll try to keep up the every other day thing at least. JJ loved his new kitchen and Marni and I had a great time opening our budget presents to each other :) Marni's parents surprised me with a few DMM offset nuts at dinner too which is pretty rad!

Hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas, Marni and I sure did. We found out JJ was coming 2 years ago on Christmas morning so it's a little extra special now. Tomorrow my sister and her boyfriend roll into town and we're very excited to have them come stay with us. She's a third year law student so she is busier with studying than me and doing fantastically at it. One more week off work for me but I've got some homework to do. Lots of training and climbing going down too. It feels really good to be getting regular workouts in and I'm slowly starting to sleep better.

This morning I took a friend from my teaching program out for her first ever ice climbing. She was psyched to go out and it was fun to pay it forward in teaching a new climber. So many people have taken me out climbing and taught me key skills I like to return the favor for new climbers. Now JJ and Marni and napping, then more fun of some kind.

Day 7: Rest

Day 8: Ice 420 ft

Weight 164lbs (too much holiday candy!) I think I need a run or a ski later today...

Day 6

Yesterday I got out to TR solo some ice and mixed in Boulder Canyon (2 laps mixed, 3 ice). To be honest, the ice there is pretty lame this year and the top out is sketch since everyone has blasted all the ice away. Clear Creek isn't in at all yet which means it's an hour drive at least for any decent ice and 2 hours to fun stuff. Bah. I was going to play on the hard mixed lines anyway but the bolts were buried under 14 inches of powder and I already had to clear a bunch of snow off the first mixed lines I did. I should have put my crappy picks on before I left home too, oops. Lesson learned, I'll be filing today.

I debated going to Vail this morning with Chad and Erik but with lots of Christmas stuff to finalize and a dinner to cook I nixed it. Instead I'll do some 4x4's at the BRC and a quick run. Probably a better workout than I could have gotten in a short trip anyway. Now to finish cleaning and wrapping Marni's presents while she and JJ are at the kiddo museum. Marni and I are a budget so tomorrow will be really fun to see what she came up with this year. Luckily we've got JJ and he's the best present ever :)

Day 5 - 250ft ice/mixed

Weight: 163lbs

Day 6 - Run ~35min, Gym Climb 4x4's (routes)

Weight: 163 lbs

Day 4

Yesterday was a rest day which is always difficult for me unless I've done a lot of big workouts recently. Nevertheless it was planned and needed and I managed to stick to the plan. Today I skipped my run and instead went xc skiing for an hour with Turbo since it snowed a foot overnight. Between that and shoveling I was tired by the time I hit the gym this evening but I still had a pretty good bouldering session. Working on power is not my favorite (meaning I suck and have no power) but at least I get to cruise my favorite type of terrain during the warmup. If I'm ever going to climb the Flatirons 13a I have in mind then I need plenty of V6 power before I get to the fun vertical crimping part.

Day 4:

~1:00 XC ski

~1:30 steep bouldering

1:00 Ikea assembly (haha)

Weight 162lbs

Tomorrow I'm planning to swing some tools locally and maybe take a walk to check on Flatirons ice conditions after this big storm. Hopefully this new snow will settle out and I can get on a few big routes during my holiday off of work and school.

Day 2

Quick post, trying to get in the habit.

Ski and climb today, mostly working on technique and getting comfortable on ice again. Felt pretty good by the end of the day and home in time to put JJ in bed. It appears I fixed the oil leak in the Civic too. Marni had burritos ready for dinner, yum. She's still the best.

1:30 xc ski

~750 ft ice/mixed climbing (WI3/4 and M5)

Weight 162.5lbs

Day 1

I feel fat, out of shape, lazy. It's been over a year since I last blogged. No time or rather, time spent somewhere more important. So much has changed since I last wrote regularly, almost all good except for a pair of broken ankles. My cycling is non-existent, replaced with climbing and my new career in teaching. I love to teach but my program is extremely taxing. Luckily for me it's only 13 months long, leaving me exceptionally prepared and with a job and master's degree to boot. I'm halfway done now, finishing at the end of June 2012. 7 months in and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things. JJ is getting so big and he's a joy to raise. Watching him learn new things every day is so cool and I love being a father. Hopefully he'll grace these blog pages as he gets older with stories of his own adventures or if I'm really lucky, our adventures together.

I'm posting now in order to try and document a new adventure the same way I did before. June 2013 I wish to head off to Alaska again, this time without a bike. Undoubtedly I'm shooting high but I was when I decided to do Leadville with no training and ended up racing the Tour Divide on a singlespeed. Go big, fail big, succeed big. I'm giving myself plenty of time to learn along the way and get back to a high level of fitness.

I have a lot of stories to tell. Maybe some will make it here. Maybe they won't. Either way, it's hard to imagine what life was like before I believed I could do anything. 6 more months of school and an 18 month countdown.

Weight 163 lbs

Run 4 miles 34:41

Climbed ice/mixed yesterday in Vail (Day 0?)

More pictures

I don't have a clever title for this one but I've got more pictures. Selma and I have been hitting up all the local trails lately and running laps.Jersey, shorts and a water bottle is all you need to rage for a couple hours.
At home JJ and I are practicing being similar.
And he's found some short track socks like Looney and Cyn.
He likes to chill on his blankets sometimes.
And get baths.
Turbo approves.
Warm and squishy baby.
Momma love.
Sleepy.
Pacifier and pants, quite a big day.
I like to go in the car, not so much getting strapped in.
Dueling bottles!
That's all for now!

Three weeks in

They say you don't get a lot of sleep as a new parent but I don't necessarily agree. Maybe I just have a good baby and a rockstar wife. Sure you don't get to crash out for 8 straight hours but we've been generally getting to bed at a reasonable hour and JJ will sleep until at least 7am. Subtract a little time for feeding and diaper changes and you still get a decent amount of rest. Plus it's easy to justify naps though I usually dedicate those to Momma as I don't have to feed JJ every night and get extra breaks. Of course I could have just jinxed the whole thing and it will all go south tonight...

In other news JJ likes his bath time. We've been giving him a little bath every other night now and he seems pretty pleased about it. Mom is the washer and I'm the holder. Little babies are slippery but no incidents yet ;)
Turbo is once again very interested in what's going on at bath time despite the fact that he doesn't like baths.
We're slowly learning which things are nice to have lots of and which aren't as critical. Laundry is a necessity every other day so certain items you only need a few while others it's nice to have a stash. Little onesies, even just the plain white ones, are one of the things I'm glad we have a lot of.
JJ likes to sleep in funny positions :) We generally just swaddle his body and legs now but he'll break out of that if he wants to.
I love getting to spend time with him. I had some training for the new job today and it was strange to be away from Marni and JJ all day. I'll be working at least part time after we get back from an upcoming trip to St.Louis to see more family and slowly getting towards working most days. The flexibility of subbing will really help on those days when JJ isn't feeling well and when Marni is sick I can probably even cover her classroom now!
I don't think JJ is smiling on purpose yet but the accidental ones are pretty cute!
He also likes to see if he can eat Turbo's fur. Good thing since it will be all over him for a long time to come.
Training is still going well. Monday I got in a good ride on the Selma for a while in the afternoon that was mostly dirt and some good rolling climbs. Tuesday I got into the BRC for a good session and last night I got out to the flatirons for the first time since JJ's arrival. I took a new climber for his first multipitch trad route and he seemed pretty psyched to get out. I ran into Stefan soloing the face, or he caught us rather and it was fun to catch up about each other's newborns for the first time. Tonight I cranked out about 75 minutes of good mountain biking on the Selma again with a small set of technical intervals in the middle and a bunch of 30 second hill sprints. Almost every ride I'm getting more psyched about 2011 and plenty of ideas are running through my head about training events as well as the yet to be unveiled "big ride". I've got about another week to ramp up the training in September before taking it easier while on our road trip. Perhaps while I'm gone I'll start putting together a bit of a plan for October. The desert is starting to beckon and fatty wants to see White Rim...

I grow!

I kept thinking that I updated the blog but today I realized I only updated the Facebook pictures. A lot happens in a few days of baby time! Little guy likes his mini baths and today we'll give him a real one for the first time.
Turbo makes sure to keep a close eye on him.
He's been a lot more awake now that he's growing. A few days of a little less sleep during his growth spurt but the last two nights he's back to doing pretty well. Plus he's sleeping in his crib for some of his day time naps.
He makes lot of cute faces.
And Turbo is getting more used to him. He still checks on all crying activity.
Marni is doing great and starting to feel better. She's taken Turbo and JJ for a couple walks when I've been out of the house.
On Thursday JJ had his first doctor's appointment. Mostly he liked it except for the whole getting naked and weighed part. Burrr!
He's growing great though, from his low point of 7lbs 2oz to 8lbs 9.5oz in a week! Other than his height he's a pretty average sized baby at this point. The doc said he looked perfect and there were no concerns. He doesn't have to go back until his 8 week appointment where he definitely won't like getting a bunch of shots.
Lucky for me he likes to nap a lot.
And since he's doing so well growing I'm going to get to start feeding him a bottle once a day, that way mom can be a little more free. He ate 3.5 oz today no problem and got the hang of the low flow bottle pretty fast.
He really checks you out while you feed him.
He's quickly out growing his smallest outfits and he got upgraded to the next size diaper pretty fast. Soon we'll start to transition him to his cloth diaper system so we can stop throwing away so many diapers every day.
We're slowly learning how to get him back to sleep at night as quickly as possible after eating and when he likes to nap during the day. Right now the naps are great for Marni to get her grad school homework done (yay online classes) and I'm usually trying to get the latest pictures posted. I'll be substitute teaching for Marni's school district this year so very soon I'll be gone at least some of the week days. We're darn lucky to have had all this wonderful time together to transition from pregnancy to birth to having the little guy be part of our daily lives without too much else to worry about. We're even planning a road trip to St.Louis in a couple weeks to attend a friend's wedding and show off JJ to his Aunt Jessie, great grandparents and other family. At the very least driving to St.Louis with a newborn will be interesting. ;)

The reintroduction to regular training for me is going well. I'm taking September as a month to build consistency and not worry much about anything else. I've been riding almost every day and even had to take an easy recovery ride day yesterday. Thursday night I hit up Buff Creek with Brett and a friend of his and it was awesome night riding on the Selma. I have a feeling that will become quite a bit more common now. Friday I spent my first longer day away from Marni and JJ and went to Vedauwoo with Chad. We came home in the early afternoon but not before getting spanked by some sweet offwidths (Right Parallel Space, Handjacker and Lower Progressive were the highlights) and also getting to meet Scarpelli himself. Things are going well, more to come I"m sure.

The swing

A week or so at home now and we're getting into a routine. Little JJ is a pretty good sleeper for a newborn and most nights we get at least one ~4 hr stretch. Of course he always wakes up when I try to get pictures of him in his bassinet. He says he does his best thinking in there. Once he's sleeping a little longer we'll move him into his crib.
During the day we've enjoyed hanging out. JJ likes to practice his baby shark imitation.
I've been getting back into riding more regularly with Marni's help. My summer 2011 project is slowly becoming a reality and I want to be in top form when the time comes. Being a dad does help with motivation for sure. I love being out on the bike or out climbing but it's been a little more focused time wise so I can get back to my little boy.
Today I spent a couple hours out on the Selma working on the hills and pushing in the wind. From the high points you could see the fire that is just to the west of Boulder. It's pretty massive and I hope they can get it under control soon.
The Selma is such a sweet bike. I have to say it's the nicest mountain bike I've ever owned. Mine weighs in right around ~20lbs at the moment and with my impending return to work, maybe I can lighten it up this year. I'm positive 16lbs is doable though I'll probably be shooting more for 18.5 lbs with a completely bomber endurance build.
I'm starting to hear rumblings about Fall and it's got to be true. The shadows are coming earlier now and the light is beginning to find that late day warmth. Something about the angle of the sun makes for such pretty light in fall and winter.
Happy to be out pedaling and starting to feel stronger. I've got a way to go to get my volume in the right place but the speed is there lurking just below the surface.
I'm lucky to have such an exceptional training ground near my house. I've got several dirt and road loops right out my front door with rolling hills and great scenery that aren't too effected by the weather. And with a little more time there are multiple 3k+ foot climbs just a few more miles away. I'll be that much more grateful to get my workouts done and get home to JJ this year.
It feels good to get back into a routine and back to blogging too. Lots more exciting stuff to come.