A couple of general questions
Hey everyone,
I moved to Toronto just a year or so ago, and I've been loving having a cycling forum dedicated specifically to TO. I was just wondering if you fine folk could help me out with a couple of questions that've been bugging me lately.
I've been cycling a fair bit on a daily basis for months now: On most days, I bike at least 10km, and when I have the time (on a day off or whatever) I tend to bike much more: I live around Scarlett & Eglinton and tend to bike into the downtown core and spend the day moving around the whole city. When I started biking, I was eating a pretty light, vegetarian diet, so I started downing protein drinks, one a day, about 25g each, after my rides.
I definitely eat a more balanced diet now, though: more meat, more protein, more fat, etc. So I was wondering if you think I need to keep supplementing the protein, given how much I ride. The last thing I want to do is lose muscle mass and make my rides harder, though I'm not even sure if that's an issue.
The other, completely unrelated question, is about bike chains. I started riding a singlespeed bike (not fixed gear) a while back, and recently noticed that the chain seemed loose: it definitely has give to it, and wobbles if the bike goes over a bump or something. I took it to a bike shop, and the mechanic adjusted the wheel, but it's only been a month or so and the slack seems to have come back.
I was just wondering what causes that to happen, and what the effects of a lose bike chain would be? Does it make you have to work harder to maintain the same speed as you'd have to on a tighter chain? Could it slip off and cause an accident?
Any help would definitely be appreciated :)
If you're concerned about your nutrition, the best thing to do would be to create a food journal for a few days or a week - track everything you eat (and quantity!), and then work out how many calories/grams of protein/carbs/fat/other nutrients you are getting. That will give you the best answer as to whether you are getting enough protein (and other stuff). No one here can guess what your diet currently looks like well enough to know otherwise.
That said, it's hard to conceive that you'd need protein supplements for 10km/day (20-40 min?) - unless your protein intake is super low, in which case your general diet and nutrition probably needs work.
Welcome to Toronto.
Go see a nutritionist at your local community health centre, or pop down to University of Toronto's Nutritional Sciences Department or Department of Physical Education, and see if they'll take you on as a research subject.
Department of Nutritional Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
FitzGerald Building, 150 College Street
Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3E2
Telephone: (416) 978-2747
Inigo is right, tracking what you eat will be an important measurement tool. The other suggestion I would have is purchasing a bike computer that measures wattage output at your hub versus your heart rate - that will be anthother good set of data to analyze.
In my own experience, I find that i'm leaner in summer, because i carry less weight in gear and accessories; versus winter, when i ride with full on winter gear and heavier clothes that sometimes slow me down. I would also guess that summer riding weather is generally more condusive to cycling than winter, because cold temps create obstacles and hazards that don't happen in summer. A known fact is that tire rubber becomes less grippy as the temperature drops, thus the need for snow tires, which are made from a different rubber compound than ordinary tires.
Happy riding!
Brian