Next summer I am going to France to ride my bike in the Pyrenees on some famous mountains that are featured in the Tour de France from time to time. Also on the agenda is a race. It has been a long time since I have been out of the country; my passport was expired so it had to be renewed. I decided to do it by mail.
The government was pretty efficient! I sent my old one in on October 21 with the required forms (and $110!) and received my new passport yesterday, November 5. Exactly 15 days door to door. I think that is pretty damned good for a government agency. If you need to renew a passport, perhaps this is not a busy time of year for them. On a sad note, the dollar is getting killed right now and this vacation is getting more expensive by the day – I bought some euros a few months ago, but apparently not enough. But currency markets are funny, we will see how it goes.
On another note, I have jacked up my workout regimen (more) so I can be competitive in the race (165 km with a finish atop the Plateau de Beille) and I have been looking into post workout recovery supplements/drinks. I have read conflicting information that says I should take these drinks immediately after working out and also that I should wait until the next day. Any info you have on this subject would be appreciated as to what and when I should be doing after my workouts to supplement my muscle development.
Cross posted at LITGM.
Re your passport: Maybe it’s due to a difference in regional offices, but in the NYC area renewing a passport is a horror show. Many people, myself included, pay to have someone else deal with the Government. A few years ago I used a passport “expediting” service, http://www.itseasy.com, and it worked well. Not cheap, but when you really need that little blue book it’s not a time to get frugal.
John Foster – it didn’t have anything to do with my area. All of the renewals by mail are sent to the same place in Philadelphia.
I should add you can pay an extra $60 for expedited services.
Last year, I had to quickly renew and used the expedited service. It took a total of 5 working days. That was worth the $60.
Dan,
For post-workout nutrition, the simplest thing you can do is just have some chocolate milk (if you’re lactose tolerant) soon after completing your workout (15-45 minutes).
If you want to get more complicated (and expensive), get some type of protein shake. I’ve not personally noticed any difference in efficacy, but your mileage may vary. From what I understand, it’s good to have whey and casein protein and a simple carbohydrate in your protein shake.
You’ll see ratios thrown around like 4:1 carbs:protein. That comes from research done with bike racers, so that might be a good ratio to shoot for if the workout that you’re recovering from is a long, steady distance workout. I seem to remember you doing things like Muay Thai though too. A higher intensity, more interval like workout like boxing, or the track, or heavy weights might require more protein. There hasn’t been, to my knowledge, much high quality research done on optimal recovery for those types of workouts.
Anyway, there’s lots of stuff out there on this issue, but I’d guess chocolate milk will get you 95% of the benefit without going insane putting eye of newt and wing of bat in a blender because Men’s Fitness said so.
Chris: “For post-workout nutrition, the simplest thing you can do is just have some chocolate milk (if you’re lactose tolerant) soon after completing your workout (15-45 minutes).” – do you have a link or is there any science you can direct me to that proves this? I was considering doing something like it – Costco has some Myoplex products at around $2 a bottle that would work for me.
yes, I do Muay Thai kickboxing for my anaerobic piece along with boot camp style strength training twice a week – I supplement for that with whey in my yogurt every morning.
Tx for the info.
If you are doing anaerobic exercise (weightlifting) then a ‘power shake’ is useful. That should contain mostly whey protein and an accessible sugar, dextrose. Useful for muscle building and power.
If you are doing aerobic exercise then the power shake does little. Just riding your bike should be accompanied with power bars and a useful sports drink. Pasta and available carbohydrate meals are energy producers and should be used to supply the means to exercise. Sprints for VO max and mucho riding is what you need.
Mucho riding on the trainer is on the agenda for this winter and lots of road work next spring – for sure. But I also still will do my boot camp strength training and Muay Thai for my anaerobic pieces – they also help my riding and my overall fitness.