Got inspired

We have been away at a family reunion since Thursday and had a great time :). The family reunion was in Brummundal which is one of the towns that Norway's toughest bicycle road race goes through. The race is 540km long from Trondheim to Oslo and the riders has been on their bike for about 400km when they reach Brummundal.

We saw a lot of tired riders during our stay in Brummundal but they all seemed to glow as they all knew that they where getting close to the finish line. This inspired me tremendously and it has planted a seed of desire to finish this race myself one day :)

Congratulations to everyone finishing "Den store styrkeprøven 2011". I am impressed!

http://www.styrkeproven.no/

Back on track

So I am finally back on track after Bergen - Voss. I have been out on the bike twice the last 4 days and I am going back out tomorrow. Hopefully I will be joined by Terje and/or Beathe.

I can definitively notice that I am back on a low-carb lifestyle as I did not feel I had the same power as earlier but once the body adjusts again I will hopefully be fine. It will be interesting to see next weekend how I perform on a longer ride as I will do a 55km ride then.

Salmon salad

Here is a simple recipe for using leftover salmon in a salad for lunch.

Ingredients:

Salmon(as much as you want/have)
Iceberg lettuce
1/4 small red onion
1/2 small red pepper
5-6 walnuts
1 clove of garlic
1 ts chilli past (or to your liking)
Ground black pepper
Maldon salt


Chop lettuce, red onion and salmon and add to a bowl.

Chop the red pepper into strips and pan-fry together with a little oil (for example sunflower oil), small lump of butter, chilli past, salt, and ground pepper. When the red pepper is soft and golden mix it with the rest of the salad.

Coarsely chop 5-6 walnuts and add them to a dry frying pan and sprinkle with Maldon salt. Fry the walnuts until golden and add to the salad.

I really like this simple salad and use it for lunch the next day after we have had salmon for dinner.

Salmon with fennel

Decided to try something new today. Salmon with fennel, and it turned out great :)

Ingredients:

Salmon 400gr
1/2 Fennel
1 Red onion
1/4 Red paprika
8 Cherry tomatoes
Salt (I prefer Maldon salt)
Ground pepper
Ground dried chilli
Olive oil
Garlic (I am a big fan and used 6 cloves)

Start by slicing fennel into 1 cm slices the red onion into wedges
and the red paprika into strips and mix them into the roasting pan together with the cherry tomatoes.

Mix together olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli and chopped garlic and pour it over the vegetables. Mix well.

Place the roasting pan in preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius. Roast until golden.

Just before the vegetables are ready, pan-fry the salmon. Serve hot with a cold glass of water with a bit of lime.

Low carb at T.G.I.F Fridays

As we went to Oslo for the Bon Jovi concert from Wednesday to Thursday we at least tried to eat low carb food when going out eating. On Thursday we decided to have lunch at T.G.I.F Fridays at Karl Johan Gate in Oslo.

I decided on a hot chicken salad that was clearly marked "New - Low Carb" in the menu. You can imagine my surprise when it arrived with a BIG garlic white toast, which I found a bit ironic.

I know, I did not have to eat the garlic toast, and I did not. Still, why serve it on a dish that they had clearly marked as low-carb? The salad itself was great and it lived up to the "hot" keyword :)

P.S

Bon Jovi was fantastic :)

3.6 kg lost last week

First week in induction over and I lost 3.6kg. I am getting close to the lowest weight I had before I changed to a high carb intake 7 weeks ago. I can already feel all the good changes in particular my stomach is back on track once I got rid of all the carbs :)

I was suppose to go on a bike ride Yesterday but we took a long road trip Yesterday showing some guests we have here the beautiful Nærøyfjorden and Hardangerfjorden and we were not back until 21:45. That was a bit late for a bike ride and I was quite honestly a bit tired after 400km in the car.

I will try again this afternoon.

Back in ketosis

Today is one week after Bergen - Voss and I have done no exercise this week. No particular reason, I just did not feel like it at all this week.

Today I will finally go out on the bike again for a 35km ride.

I have used the past week to get back into ketosis and I am now eating < 20 carbs a day so it will be interesting to see how I perform this afternoon.

The plan for the next 4 weeks is to get at least three workouts every week where I try to stay at a heart rate of 140 to try an maximize fat burning. I will also make sure I vary my exercise routines to include some hiking in the mountains in the vicinity of our home.

Tomorrow I will do my first weighing after starting ketosis. Last Sunday after Bergen - Voss I weighed in at 138.8kg and I hope I have lost quite a bit when I step on to the scale tomorrow.

Low carb

So I am now back on the low-carb diet. I had to go off it 6 weeks before the Bergen - Voss race because I felt I did not get enough energy without the carbs. There are probably people out there claiming I could have done it on a low-carb diet as well, but for me it did not feel right, and for me that is how I manage to stick with the training and diet program, it has to feel right.

Now that I am back on the diet I will exercise by taking shorter bike rides of 30-50km and I will do a lot of hiking in the mountains close to home.

I will set up a separate page on the blog to keep track of my diet and exercise as making it public for all to see helps me stay on track.

Thanks for all nice feedback I have got from everyone after the Bergen - Voss race. I appreciate it.

Bergen - Voss 2001: Pictures

See Anders and Tom Guldbrandsen's pictures from Bergen - Voss 2011 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvaRdKYCPFk

Tom and Anders followed the riders that started between 07:00 and 08:00 from Bergen and I think they have captured the race perfectly :). They also stumbled upon me on their way to Voss :)

Thanks

Bergen - Voss 2011

First of all I want to quote what everyone call this race “Vårens vakreste eventyr” which in English translates to “The springs most beautiful adventure”, and after 9 hours on the bike riding through some of Norways most beautiful scenery through the Fjord of Hardanger I fully appreciate why people refer to the race this way.

Second I want to praise all the volunteers from the start in Bergen through all the feed stations at, Gullbotn, Kvamskogen and Kvandal. Everyone was in a very good mood and cheering us on.

The race

I started out from Grieghallen downtown Bergen together with Beathe. We started in the second group of the day scheduled at 05:03 in the morning. We arrived early at 04:30 and I had time to take one last stop at the toilette before start. 5 minutes before the first group started at 05:00 it started raining quite heavily but it only lasted for a couple of minutes and then it calmed down to a light rain for when Beathe and I started.

I made it to Voss

I made it to Voss. 165km, 8:58.

I will write a detailed resume of my experience of the race tomorrow, today I am relaxing and nothing else!!!

Follow Bergen - Voss on SMS

It is now possible to follow Bergen - Voss on SMS:

The service costs 3.5NOK pr SMS and there is a total of 5 SMS's pr rider.

To activate the service, send SMS til 2201 (Only available in Norway)

BERGENVOSS SMS  <startnr>

To deactivate the service, send SMS til 2201 (Only available in Norway)

BERGENVOSS STOP <startnr>

If anyone are interested, my start number is 128 :). So to follow me on my attempt to get to Voss send the following SMS to 2201:

BERGENVOSS SMS 128

To get the start number for anyone else you know, search for them at this URL:

https://secure.onreg.com/onreg2/startlist/index.php?id=1114

Bergen - Voss 2011 Route

I found the following link using google and thought I should post it here. This shows the route we will be riding tomorrow.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/978320#lat=60.4755&lng=6.02737&zoom=10&type=2

Total length is 165km and total vertical climb is 2100m.

24 Hours left

The big day is now arriving and it is less then 24 hours left to start. I got up early today to prepare for going early to bed tonight. Tomorrow morning I need to get up around 03:30 as we start at 05:03 in the morning.

The bike and I are ready and I have tried to fill up with carbs :). The weather today is not perfect but according to the forecast we will have an good day tomorrow. As long as we do not get rain and wind I am happy :).

The plan for tomorrow is to get an as easy ride as possible until we start climbing up to Gulbotn. After that I need to get into "my own world" until I get to the top of Kvamskogen. Time will show if I can keep close to Beathe's speed. If I can not, then we will most likely not ride together once she gets away from me up the two climbs to Gulbotn and Kvamskogen.

Once at the top of Kvamskogen I hope to find a group I can ride with as riding solo through Hardanger might be very hard. Luckily I am starting in the second group in the morning so riders will catch up with me all day. Hopefully I can find a group where the speed is not to high for me but time will show :)

I will pack the bike and all the equipment into the car this afternoon to make sure I do not forget anything in the morning.

I am starting to get a bit nervous now but I guess that is a good thing. At least I know that I have prepared as well as I could have. The goal tomorrow is to get to Voss and I truly do not care that much about the time. When we arrive at Voss there will be a small group of family there cheering for us :)

Good luck to everyone else riding Bergen - Voss tomorrow.