Is a chocolate coated strawberry energy bar one of my 5 a day?

Sarah:

Robert Forstemann's quads

As I sit on my sofa at home watching the track cycling World Championships, the commentators mentioned that one of the competitors, Robert Forstemann, has quads that measure 72 cm. He makes Chris Hoy‘s quads look small! Sir Chris still kicked Forstemann’s backside though, so I guess as they say size isn’t everything. Out of curiosity I got out my tape measure to measure my own quads which turn out to be a measly 49 cm.  I suspect that all the leg presses and protein shakes in the world wouldn’t result in 72 cm quads for me.

I haven’t been bulking up on the protein shakes at all but I have been thinking hard about my food lately. On the last few training rides I have hit a major flat at about 60 km. While I have been happily munching away on some standard muesli bars and jelly snakes I decided that it was time to get a bit technical with my snacking. I tried out some of Damien’s energy gels, but with a consistency somewhat like mucous I couldn’t even get through one of them. But with my next trial I found a winner – zipvit’s chocolate coated strawberry energy bars. Now when I say ‘winner’ what I mean is that they are rather tasty. My first big test of whether they make any difference to my 60 km flat spot will be this coming Sunday on the March London to Paris training ride.

I am feeling a bit nervous about the ride on Sunday. Firstly because of my previous tendency to drop off the back of the pack at about 60 km. It’s always more embarrassing when a bigger bunch of people have to wait for you to catch up. Secondly I’m nervous because we are going to be heading towards Leith Hill and Box Hill. I have been working hard on my hills but from memory the route up Box hill is a long sustained climb and I’m really not sure how I’ll go. Finally I’m nervous as Magnus Backstedt is going to be joining the ride to fly the flag for UK Youth, which is exciting news. I just hope I don’t do anything stupid like forget to clip out and fall flat on my face in front of him. He will be riding in the super fast Group 1 (33 km/h plus) though, while I am going to be plugging away at the back of Group 5 (25 km/h) so my opportunities to look foolish will be thankfully limited.

So wish me luck for Sunday, and don’t forget to donate to UK Youth who are the reason for every minute I spend out on the road!