PROduct Giveaway!! PROBAR: Review of The Best Bar Out There

First off. PROBARs rock. Comment on the post with your name if you would like to be in the drawing for a giveaway of a full sleeve (12) of PROBARS! At the end of the post I'll list the types of bars that I chose for my special mixed sleeve. I promise, they're all awesome (and I haven't even tried them all yet).

From PROBAR's homepage:  "PROBAR creates delicious, convenient, healthy plant based food products.  We strive to become the leading provider of REAL FOOD choices while maintaining our commitment to quality, sustainability, and fantastic taste." Trust me, they mean what they say.

PROBARs galore. Will they be all yours?

Just a few weeks ago I became an Ambassador for PROBAR, a whole food bar. The cool thing is that I didn't seek out PROBAR because I wanted free food. My first exposure to the brand was when I was riding with a friend and he bought a PROBAR. The first thought I had was "woah these things are calorie dense" (at 350-400kcal per bar). I checked it out, doing the classic ingredient review I do with most new foods I come across. It was just a bunch of stuff you could get at your local natural foods store. None of the extra junk that is unnecessary for a bar. So I bought one the next time I saw one, then I bought some more. Soon enough I would have 2-3 on long rides and avoid eaten them out of the cabinet as a snack so I could save them for cycling! I liked the bars so much I shared pictures on facebook, and that's when PROBAR asked if I would like to be a social ambassador. Where do I can I please sign?!

I'd like to say that the only reason I'm set up with PROBAR now is because I honestly love their stuff so much that they saw my excitement for the product. What I discovered was very well put by a friend who hates eating while riding (she was also just in Vegas for 70.3 Worlds). She said that they fill you up pretty well and sit very comfortably, not like how a CLIF bar sits like a complete brick in your stomach. (Also note that a PROBAR is 1.5 times the calories of a Clif bar.) Another friend pointed out that it's just like eating good natural food, and you don't get the awkward texture or weird acidic taste when you eat something that is more processed.

PROBAR calls itself the "whole food meal bar". This name is very fitting, as it is far separated from the 'energy' bars, protein bars, and meal replacement bars that are so strongly pushed in both the worlds of athletics and everyday use. The problem with almost every option (and many of the high volume/advertised brands) are that they really aren't made of stuff that is all around great for you. Many of them use processed carbohydrates, sugar substitutes, and other less than natural or unnecessary components.

"simply real"

On the other hand there are a few that truly stand out. Vega, Larabar, and PROBAR are the only three that I can recall and give full "approval". Vega comes from a line of mostly raw, extremely health-focused foods and supplements. Larabar is very simply made of dates, nuts, and a couple other basic add-ins. PROBAR has a lot more ingredients than Larabar and thus has a brilliant variety of flavors. The ingredients are of the same nature - almost entirely organic or raw - and are things you can pronounce and know from day to day food encounters. However, the flavors are amazing and widespread and never get old (I can tell you it takes 1 or 2 Powerbars and I'll call it a year, plus they don't even feel like food when you eat them).

Take your pick. I know mine!

Now you might not get why I feel these bars are not created equal...if you look at the ingredients on a PowerBar you'll see the ol' "Contains 2% or less" that can include more than 50% of the ingredients. What's the deal with that? Why do you need less than 2% of Nonfat Milk Powder and "Partially Defatted Peanut Butter"? Clif bars, which are definitely more natural than PowerBars, have mostly organic ingredients but uses soy protein isolate, which is highly refined and often treated with extreme levels of heat (275F to kill bacterias), to increase protein without adding fat. Most fat is not bad, it is actually very good for both athletes and non-athletes alike. Especially when it comes from high quality nuts! However, PROBAR uses the natural protein in nuts to provide nutrition. Most things you come across in this world of nutrition and sports energy are things that have been refined and refined (not to be confused with optimized or perfected), making them increasingly processed and more difficult for the body to use as energy. All the while they are being advertised as better than any of the competition because they have "proprietary" components, when those are the parts that put them below the more natural and complete options.

No need to enlarge to show the amazing natural texture on these bad boys.

The lucky winner's sampler pack will include the following:

• 2 Superfruit Slam
• 2 Superfood Slam
• 2 Whole Berry Blast
• 1 Koka Moka
• 1 Double Chocolate
• 1 Apple Cinnamon
• 1 Nutty Banana Boom
• 1 Cran-Lemon Twister
• 1 Cocoa Pistachio (Sweet/Savory)

Comment on this post with your name for your chance to win some Mighty PROBARs! And get out there and try it, whether it is during activity or a delectable snack/mini-meal, your body will thank you graciously. A big thanks to PROBAR for supplying me with the extra case so I could do a giveaway.

Lobsterman 40K TT Race Report

Warning: I'm actually throwing around power numbers today (a rarity for me)! I may revisit and do a strictly power-based analysis, but we shall see.

As many (most?) of you know, my racing in cycling has either been non-existent or rough since the end of June. I lost a lot of fitness. But I had finally gotten back to the form I feel that I had wayyy back in May this spring. Luckily, I was going to have a true test of that form with a 40K time trial in the Lobsterman Olympic Tri Relay. I was excited to do a real man's TT (I had done shorter ones, the most recent of which was when I had a sore hamstring in a stage race so I was focused on keeping myself in good form rather than burying myself as deep as I possibly could). This 40K was a real chance to test my fitness and, more importantly, my ability to dig deep - something I hadn't really done any of since I was doing actual workouts in June.

The relay was a guys vs gals throwdown, the teams were quite evenly matched. We had calculated out the expected times and it was looking like we would be within one minute of each other by the finish! I was excited for the race as I was expected to make up some noticeable time, as the female swimmer and runner were exceptionally strong (Amanda - runner - was fastest woman runner of the day!).

Right after mounting. Not wasting a moment to fire up to speed!

My warm up wasn't as extensive as planned. I wanted 15min easy, then some brief moderate efforts, easy, build to threshold, then back down. Follow it with a couple hard surges and I would be primed to go full throttle from transition. I only got 20 minutes with a couple efforts, easily enough but not perfect. Given that it was a 1 hour TT I'd be okay...as long as I didn't go too hard to start!

My plan was to go 63 minutes or less, I had tempo'd the course a couple weeks before and figured at my planned wattage I could be 62min + mount/dismount for around 63. My guess from riding and some short intervals was that my FTP was sitting somewhere above 320W, so my goal was 325W. I figured at this effort I would be sustaining a Heart Rate of 177bpm, which equates to a lot of pain. If I got above 325 I'd be very happy, and if I was above 330 I would have my Quarq checked for accuracy! I started the bike 4+ minutes behind and wanted to bridge the gap early, then put time in the bank for my runner (Amanda's Dad).

My two days of CX last week paid off :p, my mount onto the bike was super smooth and there was no delay in flooring the gas down the hard-packed 200m dirt road that started off the bike. I climbed out of the park, focusing on an even but strong effort. Little did I know, I was pushing over 360W for over 5 minutes to start the TT...well above my hopeful 325W average. I figured out I was going too hard when I finally looked down at my computer and was averaging 341W 10 minutes into the TT. As relays started in the final wave, it made the TT excessively mentally taxing - as if the physical aspect wasn't sufficient effort. I was passing people by the 10's, hitting the brakes, accelerating, and so on. This was obviously less than optimal, but it kept me from putting my head down and blowing myself up, although the accelerations really crush you in a TT. I hit the 20min mark just slower than a 60min 40K - 13.18km (39.55km/h). I knew the climb out of the park slowed the first part's average, but the second half had some noticeable climbing, especially for a TT. Things started to hurt right around 20-25mins, and at first I worried that this whole time trial thing was a bad idea. Luckily, I remembered TT's past and my lackluster running career: "If you're not hurting by halfway in, you're not doing it right!" I was coming up on 20K and kept rolling along hoping I'd be under 30mins, at this point I knew I could toss 62mins out the window...I was shooting for a sub-1 hour 40K on a darn hilly course & on a road bike without aerobars. I thought this was well beyond my abilities, especially given that a good TT setup could definitely benefit me over 90 seconds and at best over 1mph (3mins). I think my setup on my road bike is pretty optimal, so I'd take the 90 seconds before the 3 minutes (Thanks Dave!).

At 20K I was barely under 30:00 and was averaging 323W (NP = 329W). I had used a little of minutes 20-30 as recovery and my power had dropped off a fair amount. I told myself a little mantra I have developed "If you can get 50% there, you can make it all the way". I was hurting, but knew I could make the push to hold tight for another half hour. It was now time to focus on staying steady and in the 320's. For the next 10 minutes I felt like I had to grind to get up over 320W, I didn't know if I was going to be able to hold my goal average but I knew if I did it was going to require a lot of digging deep. 40 minutes came along and I was climbing up to the highest point of the course, there was a little cross/headwind but the elevation drop would help, as my avg speed was now down to 39.3kph. I focused on smoothness and cadence, and hit the next 6 minutes at over 45kph (28mph). I was back on track to be sub-60min. But alas I was back at the elevation of the finish, meaning it was up to me to keep the pace and pacing uphill and keeping the throttle high on the downhills, there was no more resting to be done unless I fully spun out (120rpm) in the 53-11 or it was a turn I couldn't pedal through.

With 10K to go, things started to become a blur. Scott cheered for me around 8K but I swore I heard him with 3K to go. Luckily the passing became less dense and I had sections where I had no one withing 50-100m of me, which meant no dodging people and I could focus on the road and throwing everything into Slice of Life motoring along at a clean 25mph. My back was absolutely killing me. I was thankful for every little climb where I didn't care about staying low/aero so I could sit up and let it release. I was out of the saddle going up the South Freeport Rd climb. Hitting the last little dip before entering Winslow (after the church/French school) with 4 miles to go absolutely did me in. At 54 minutes my power dropped below 320. My displeasure with this is shown that from that moment until the finish my heart rate escalated from 177 to the finish at 189. Entering Winslow Park I blew through the turn far faster than I otherwise should have, but I couldn't sacrifice losing a single second. Out of the turn and I was sprinting to regain speed for the downhill. I absolutely floored it, in the drops and out of the saddle on everything more than 3%. The final 4 minutes I put down almost 340W and it nearly killed me. I barely managed to dismount my bike on the dirt transition, and probably had the most horrifying display of running form of the day as I ran to rack my bike, hand off the chip, and keel over.

My final time was 59:40, power of 322W (NP of 325W), HR avg was 179, cadence was 95, and speed was dead on 25mph (40.2kph) - not including the runs for transition. The TT was the hardest thing I've done on the bike. I knew it would be, but actually going through with it was excessively difficult and even more exhilarating. By the end of it I couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears dripping down my face, but either way it was a blast. I wouldn't do one tomorrow, but it's definitely not something I'm 'afraid' of anymore. TTing isn't my strongest discipline but this was a huge step in getting mentally and physically prepared for being able to hit strong time trials.

Last, but not least, by outperforming even what I could put down for a time (and I am very realistic with my estimations - although I did nail the power part of it!) the guys ended up taking the girls by over 4 minutes. However, we were 7th place Male Relay and the ladies won by 5 minutes! So, in essence, everyone came out winners...but the guys will get dinner taken care of by the ladies :).

(More pictures to come when they're out)

Suck It Up, Buttercup.

After a hiatus from the normalcy of training, nutrition, life, and work that started off the summer of 2012 as a truly amazing experience for me, it is time to get back to the basics that made me feel stronger than I ever have in my life, physically and emotionally. I'm going back to my normal diet state, which pretty much makes me a super-powered herbivore :D. I'm going back to my (essentially vegan, with some outside experimentation - I never stop experimenting) optimal dieting simply so everyone who wants to spend time or meals with me does not forget how much of a huge pain in the ass I am to be around. Or maybe it's because I'm now officially a social ambassador for PROBAR and I get amazinggg vegan whole food bars that make me so happy I want to eat nothing else (except for massive salads. And cookies. And other delicious healthy things that are so good my non-vegan friends think I'm an evil magician).

The real reason is a combination of things that leads to a singular cause: to be as fit and strong as I humanly can be when the world ends on December 21, 2012. Although if I could be as strong as a cockroach by then I'd likely outlive all humans...I'll ponder that one later. My 2012 season was going as great as I could have imagined - I'll do a season wrap up sometime soon, as it's pretty much over. Then 6 weeks of losing fitness (3 of which I didn't even touch the comforting saddle and bars of Slice of Life) kinda got in the way. Crashing in a really good position in the final lap of my last two races of the season didn't help build things back up either, so it's back to the drawing board.

Don't get me wrong when I say this (but I'm sure most people will get me wrong aside from a few who really really know me), I'm not satisfied finishing this season in category 2. It was my bare minimum goal for 2012 back in the spring when I was category 4. I finished it within 6 weeks of racing and was looking (and, more importantly, feeling) great to be hitting the upper goal of 2012. Race Mayor's Cup in the Pro/1 field, if not that then put in my upgrade request (from what I hear it sounds like it's more complicated than going pro) after a podium in the 2/3. But alas none of that is happening, I won't even racing Mayor's Cup. Now I know most people think I should be off the wall pumped that I'm cat 2...and I was amped......back in June. I have no reason to believe I should be category 1 at this point given that shortly after my upgrade everything fell apart except for my (invincible) bike itself - she held on nice and tight. I joked to my teammates/friends that TCR stands for Travis Crash Resistant. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself stay away from me because you're no fun!

I got caught in a vicious cycle of:
1. Something problematic or interfering happens (crash, injury, travel, etc).
2. Subsequent loss in fitness due to lack of access to training or inability to train.
3. Struggle emotionally with losing fitness...fight the urge to believe hope is lost.
4. Remember that I *am* strong and it WILL come back, it just takes time.
5. Step 1 comes back along, manifesting itself in a new form...before the fitness had time to return.

This happened about 5 times over. It included 3 crashes, which were literally the best (not worst) of the problems. After June this year has absolutely sucked, and I've let my fitness and health fall off far more than it needed to given the difficulties. I believe external things can only effect an individual so much. Because no matter the negative external source, a strong and mentally tough individual will be able to find a way to either overcome said difficulties or use those difficulties as motivation. Regardless of what happened this summer, I'm not pleased that I faltered in my motivation and performance. Looks like it's time for yet another "Return to Glory", but on a whole different level.

On that note, I shall take the very wise advice from probably the most influential person in my life. It's time to stop deflecting and complaining and to "Suck It Up, Buttercup": the famous, never out of place nor uncalled for, always 'well played' words of Deb Kroot.