Thursday, May 21, 2009

Eat to Ride or Ride to Eat?



It seems that for me, lately, I've been falling more and more into the latter category. And while I certainly enjoy my time on the bike, I oftentimes find myself thinking of food while I ride.

For example, this Monday I commuted to and from work on my road bike. Each way I'm looking at just under 21 miles. Given that I've only been on the bike consistently for a month now, 42 miles feels like a big ride. However, I didn't do the full commute because of the miles. Rather, I did it because I wanted the calories. Specifically, I wanted a blank check to eat as much as I could at Mark's house where we had been invited to eat dinner that night. In fact, I distinctly recall thinking, while I took a long pull on 700 E, that because I was riding hard I'd be able to have a second piece of chocolate cream pie for dessert (I dare you to click that link). Which I did, guilt free, thanks to the ride home.

Another example would be the chocolate cake with olive oil gellato I had at The Wild Grape yesterday afternoon. I remember thinking that it was ok to eat such an indulgent mid-afternoon snack since I would be riding up Millcreek in just a few hours and would need the extra calories.

Or today, while I enjoyed a Five Guys burger, fries and coke, I felt good about it because of the ride I have planned at 6 PM to ride the Draper ICUP race course with a friend from the team.

And so it goes. Ice cream before bed? No worries since I'll be riding in the morning. A grilled brat for lunch on Saturday? Not a big deal since I rode earlier and need the calories for proper recover. Brownies and milk at 1:30 AM? It's just fuel for a ride later in the day.

Could I ride faster if I ate less? Probably. But at what cost? Currently I find the journey tastes too good to go without!

5 comments:

KanyonKris said...

It does seem troubling, but on the other hand how cool is it to enjoy good food AND keep the weight down by doing something you enjoy?

Anonymous said...

How much would one of those chocolate pies cost me?

Blackdog said...

I bet I would have made up Clarks faster if you would have just promised me one of those pies.

IamMatt said...

ooooh Home made pies. Yummy

Anonymous said...

Food is good.

I almost licked my computer screen.