Rain and Dietary Supplements

I do believe that wintertime in Paris is just around the bend. Perhaps 5 months lie ahead of me that will be nothing but cold and wet. I hear that it doesn't snow in Paris, nor is there much ice, but as far as I can tell, it rains a lot. Although sub-zero temperatures (Fahrenheit) have never been my favorite aspects of wintertime in the Midwestern United States, 40 degrees and raining doesn't sound terribly pleasant either.

I ventured out into the rain today to meet Phillipe for what I thought was going to be a ride of some sort. We had talked on the phone briefly in the day and he told me to bring a backpack with another pair of shoes in it. I asked him what kind of clothes to wear, such as if blue jeans would suffice, but he told me that cycling clothes would do, since wearing wet blue jeans can cause one to catch a cold. I met him around 3 o clock with no idea of what kind of adventure we were about to debark on, and upon his arrival to our meeting place, he revealed to me the contents of the backpack he was carrying.

On previous rides, he told me that he was going to try to help me lighten up my bike. He said that by changing out a few parts here and there, we might be able to reduce my bike's weight by 2 or even 3 kilograms. I was skeptical since I knew that people can end up spending a lot of money to lighten their bicycles but he told me that we would find ways to do it inexpensively, by finding used parts or borrowing things that he had lying around his house. The first thing he commented on was my saddle, a Terry Gellissimo Butterfly, telling me that not only was it quite heavy, it also had padding more suited to long-distance riding. When using a padded saddle such as the Terry in racing situations, you lose energy into the cushion of the saddle instead of the energy going into the pedals. Which were the next point of correction. He told me that he had an extra pair of pedals that were similar to mine but were much lighter.

From his backpack he presented to me a new saddle (noticeably lighter than the Terry, but also much more firm) and a new set of pedals (that were also noticeably lighter). He also pulled out a raincoat, despite the fact that I was already wearing one, and told me that this one was too big for him and I was welcome to use it. Cleat covers, a yellow Trek baseball cap, a pair of tights (also too big for him), and other things he took out of his backpack and I stood in front of him not sure what to say other than "thank you mille fois" for his generosity.

(I forgot to mention a few posts ago that I was without a cycling jersey for about a week and a half since I was expecting a Hub Bike Co-op jersey in the mail from Minneapolis... I was on the look out for a respectable jersey at bike shops I went to and mentioned this search to Phillipe. The next time we met for a ride, he gave me a jersey to wear- one that he told me was also too big for him. It was a little big for me too but was much better than wearing a tee shirt- my primary cycling apparel up until that point. I think he told me that it was the jersey of Lance Armstrong's team in 1999 and features Trek, Volkswagon, and various other sponsors. This is the reason why he gave me the Trek hat today.)

After the presentation of gifts from his backpack, we left to go on our ride. He told me that we would be riding to a nearby sporting goods store, Decathlon, that was a bit north of our current location. It was raining a little and was kind of chilly- I was glad to be wearing leg warmers and my raincoat. It took us roughly 15 minutes to get to Decathlon and when we arrived, we haggled with the security guards to let us leave our bikes, supervised, at the front of the store. I changed my shoes and shed some wet layers and set off after Phillipe into the mega-store of sports. Decathlon had a department for everything it seemed- camping, cycling, jogging, karate, ballet, as well as an expansive apparel and nutrition section.

The nutrition section is what interested Phillipe the most. We arrived in the nutrition section and I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of bottles and jars and packets of supplements but Phillipe knew exactly what he was looking for. He showed me a container of recovery-aid powder, similar to something like Hammer Nutrition's Recoverite I imagine. 5 dollars a jug. Also, he showed me another container of something to use during the ride, probably something like Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem. Also 5 dollars a jug. Amongst other things he showed me were dextrose tablets (mint flavored, and I haven't quite grasped the concept of what they accomplish... I just read on the Hammer Gel website that "glucose, sucrose, fructose, and dextrose are garbage" so I hope Phillipe has reasoning behind his faith in dextrose...), energy gels whose labels I don't quite understand, and a sport-cake mixture that you can supposedly mix with water to bake a cake to eat before going on a long ride. According to Phillipe, a piece of this sport-cake and a glass of fruit juice for breakfast before a long ride is good preparation for the day.

To be honest, I was quite skeptical of Phillipe's necessity for so many supplemental products. Perhaps my criticism stems from growing up in a family of cyclists whose primary source of nutrition was bagels, fruit, and Gatorade. It wasn't until recently that PAC Tour started carrying supplemental products like electrolyte tablets and recovery powders. Although I, myself have tried products and powders like Perpetuem and Recoverite and found them to be sufficient, I never really considered them necessary components to my cycling. And perhaps this is simply because I have not been completely dedicated to serious cycling. Also, maybe there is a difference between the diet of a long-distance endurance cyclist and the diet of a short-distance competitive cyclist. Not that long-distance cyclists aren't competitive, but based on my experiences with PAC Tour, already Phillipe's philosophies and those of my parents seem to have some opposing arguments. Or perhaps my parents haven't shared with me the details of competitive cycling nutrition because I've never needed to know about them.

My anxiety and uncertainty grew as Phillipe continued to add things to his basket in Decathlon and after nutrition, he headed toward the Cardio-meter department. I had previously talked with my dad about sending me a heart rate monitor so I was very hesitant to purchase one, knowing that one would be in the mail soon, but Phillipe firmly told me that 2 weeks was too long to wait for a heart rate monitor. He found one that cost only 20 euro and added it to the cart. We passed by the tennis shoe department and had he tried to outfit me with a new pair of tennis shoes I would have outright refused, since I am positive that my shoes from home will suffice, but luckily he must have just been browsing and we carried on our way.

As we approached the check out counter I grew nervous about how much this outing was going to set me back and I asked him if it would be possible to wait a day for the heart rate monitor to see if I could contact my dad about canceling the order of the one from home. He said it wasn't necessary, that it was only 20 euro and if I got a new one from home that I liked more, I could give him the 20 euro one to use. I suppose that's a French way of not taking no for an answer. I asked him if there was a cash machine around and he simply shook his head no. I reluctantly told him that I didn't think I had enough money for everything and he told me not to worry about it. 66 euros later, I had three containers of nutritional supplements, two packets of energy gel, a box of dextrose tablets, a heart rate monitor, and a bottle of vitamin water, all thanks to Phillipe's checkbook.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about having such a benefactor, but I guess if he's willing to ride with me and train me and feed me, there's not much to object to. It's very nice to have such an encouraging person to ride with and learn from, but it is still a little unsettling not knowing he expects in return for his generosity. Once springtime comes around, does he expect me to start winning races? I can see that he has sees a lot of potential in me and my cycling future; I just hope I don't let him down.

While we were still in Decathlon we could hear the rain pounding on the building's tin roof and I was glad we weren't out on a ride somewhere, but the rain hadn't stopped by the time we left. The ride home was a lot quicker than it took us to get there, but my hands and legs were very cold by the time I got back to my apartment. Like normal, Phillipe wanted to review and analyze what he had told me today and as he transfered the contents of his backpack into a smaller bag for me, he did a short inventory and explanation of each item. He could tell I was cold so didn't elaborate as much as he might have liked and shortly after we established a time and place to meet tomorrow for another ride. 9:30 if the weather's good, 10:00 if the weather's bad. I don't quite understand his justification, but that's the plan.

That's certainly enough for now... perhaps more later.