Ever wonder what goes through one’s mind while riding 60 miles on a trainer?
Well, here’s your chance to find out. This was my longest ride as of this posting. My View

Preparation

I pulled myself out of bed at about 11:30am. I knew that I needed to go to the bike shop to get a bike computer and that I needed to eat a decent amount of food before I started riding.

For breakfast

By about 3pm, I had the new bike computer all set up and ready to go and I was ready to get started. My ketone levels tested at about 2mmol/L.

Thoughts

Following are all the notes I took while I was on the bike. I recorded myself using the voice memos app and tried to transcribe everything verbatim and uncensored.

  • 0 miles
    …Alright, here’s where I’m gonna be for the rest of my afternoon… Hope it goes well! Lets do this!
  • 5 miles
    Doing pretty good… Kinda bored… Might try to listed to Spotify or a podcast or something soon. Avg. speed 17mph, Avg. Heart rate 160bpm, Cadence 80rpm
  • 6 miles
    Little less bored now that I’m taking notes on my phone
  • 8.5miles
    Hmm… Looks like if I average 16mph, my heart rate settles at around 150bpm. At 17mph, my heart rate seems to settle at 160bpm.
  • 10 miles
    Still feeling pretty good. Legs feel worked… Not fatigued though, maybe some minor lactic acid build up… Hands are kinda sore though, which is annoying… Shoulders and traps are still ok… Thats what failed last time. Heart rate of 150 - 155 feels a lot more comfortable than 160.
  • 10.5 miles
    Feels like my right hamstring is a tiny bit tight… Probably should have done a bit more stretching before I started…
  • 13 miles
    How the fuck am I gonna raise $1450 for this thing?? (Pan Florida Challenge)
  • 13.5 miles
    Getting pretty sweaty now… Heart rate is 160, averaging 16.5mph.
  • 14 miles
    Hands are uncomfortable… Along with my butt… Legs, along with everything else feel fine though. 17mph, 160bpm.
  • 16 miles
    Only 4 miles left to the break! Interesting thing I noticed though, seems like if I get lost in thought and don’t keep track of my breath, my heart rate goes up… If I concentrate on 2 second in, 2 seconds out, my heart rate drops pretty significantly… Maybe 10 to 15 bpm. I’m able to maintain 17.5mph at 155bpm by concentrating my breath 2 counts in, 2 counts out.
  • 20 miles
    Made it though the first round!
  • Break #1 (10 mins)
    As suspected, tracking miles to completion is wayyyy more motivating than tracking time to completion. Doing it by hour sucks. Trying to make it to 20 miles sucks way less. …Mentally speaking anyway. Legs feel worked, but not tired. Hands are a little sore along with my ass… Gonna grab sustenance…

    Heart rate has dropped to about 125 which is good. Now back on the bike…

  • 23 miles
    Feeling pretty good. Keto bar and MCT oil seemed to help.
  • 26.5 miles
    Averaging 16mph… My heart rate seems to be averaging higher… Hovering around 165bpm. …Maybe because there is food in my stomach?
  • 30 miles
    Half way through the second round. Ass is annoyingly sore… Not like it’s gonna stop me or anything, just annoying… Hands too… Shoulders and traps are ok, my neck is getting a little stiff though… Trying to roll my head around a bit to keep that from getting worse… Might be a bit more lactic acid building up in my legs too, not going to lock up or anything but they feel more tired that in the first hour. Spotify is definitely helping pass the time… 10 miles to go…
  • 31.5 miles
    Breaking the 20 miles into 2 mile chunks seems to be helping too… Trying to drink some water every 2 miles… Breaks up the time.
  • 34 miles
    Hitting a bit up a slump… Just want to be at 40 miles so I can take another break. I think maybe the reason my quads are getting sore is that I don’t have cages or clips on this bike… My quads are getting no assistance from my hamstrings. Only able to use the top half of my legs…
  • 35 miles
    This is a really good test of conductivity… Can’t escape from it… Can only escape into it…
  • 36.5 miles
    Definitely more fatigued… 3rd round is going to be… Interesting…
  • 38 miles
    I don’t know if its the fact that I only have 2 miles left or if my body is finally dropping some of the resistance… But I’m feeling pretty good right now. Still looking forward to the break, but another 20 miles after this doesn’t seem so daunting.
  • 39 miles
    1 mile leftttt. I think I averaged about 16 or 17 miles an hour for this last 20, heart rate averaging at about 165. …aaaaaaaaand … 10 min break!

  • Break #2 (10 mins)
    ohhh man my ass…

    • Refill bottle of water (1L)
    • 2 Electrolyte pills
    • Keto bar
    • MCT Oil (1tbsp)
    • Stretching

    Back on the bike… Heart rate dropped to 135. Didn’t take a bathroom break this time… Hope that doesn’t bite me in that ass… I did grab speakers though, so I can actually hear the music over the trainer.

  • 47 miles
    Tired… But doing ok… 2 seconds in, 2 seconds out breathing helps a lot… if I can get in the zone it’s not nearly as bad. Butt isn’t any more sore than it was at 40 miles, so I guess thats good. Heart rate is at 170 now though… averaging about 16mph.
  • 49 miles
    Fuck… I’m hitting a fucking wall… I don’t want to do this anymore. My attitude has changed significantly since I started this round. …I’m supposed to go 30 more miles today to make 80… Hopefully I can break through this wall… I dunno… my legs are getting pretty tired…
  • 50 miles
    Took a break… the wall… It’s too big… Strongly considering quitting right now… I don’t think I’m going to, but… wow… I need more calories. This thing says I’ve burned 3200 calories… Jesus fuck. Ive probably only consumed… Can’t be much more than 1000… maybe 1500. So…… I think I just need more calories. My legs are tired… my shoulders are starting to get uncomfortable… I would love to just take a shower and nap right now… thats what I did last time…

I took a pretty long break here… maybe 15 or 20 minutes? I didn’t time it. I ended up trying one of the carbohydrate supplements, XrCel, I got in the mail from the Pan Florida Challenge people in an attempt to get more calories in and push past the wall. It was so utterly disgusting. Ive been on a pure ketogenic diet for about 2 weeks now trying to eat as little sugar as I possibly can. This thing had 26g of sugars… I wanted to puke… I could barely keep it down. Tried eating some corn chips and a bite of a burger to help keep the XrCel down, along with trying to get more calories in.

  • 50 miles
    Back on the bike… God damn that thing was gross… We’ll see if I can make it the other 30 miles now…
  • 55 miles
    Average heart rate is 170, average speed is around 15 or 16 mph. Just trying to stay in the zone… 25 more miles… 5 miles until the break.
  • 56 miles
    Getting a slight headache… Not sure if its from the energy depletion or my neck getting tight… Or both.
  • 58 miles
    I think I’m going to stop after 60… Fuck… I’ll do 80 next weekend… 2 more miles… 2 more miles…
  • 60 miles
    Yep I’m done… My legs are really tired… I’m really tired… I might be able to go more but I would hate everything… I need a shower… I need food…

Recovery

At that point, I got off the bike and headed upstairs to shower. Oh my god did that feel good. Once I got out of the shower, I got dressed again and laid down on my bed. I knew I needed to eat a massive amount of calories, but getting up was so hard. If I was alone, I might have just passed out there, but luckily Stephanie was there and she managed to motivate me enough to get up and make myself some food. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make up the 4200 calories I expended on the bike, but I was going to try. I proceeded to eat corn chips, salsa, cream cheese, and a zucchini thingy while making myself a 4 egg Mexican style omelet with taco seasoned ground beef, cheddar cheese, onions, tomatoes, and pickled jalapeño peppers. Recovery Omelet

After eating all that, I was pleasantly surprised that most of my energy was restored. Enough energy to write the majority of this story anyway.