OT: sport is healthy? wrong!

[Ray]

Originally Posted by jimp1234

Another +1.....

I've been reading Mark Sisson's blog for a while now, and he has very persuasive arguments against what he calls "chronic cardio". I've pretty much reached the conclusion that cycling a lot at high intensity (not sure what the magic number is..) is not "healthy" (i.e. promoting good health, disease resistance, long life,etc.) and if you ride a lot, particularly at >85% max HR, you do it on the basis that you enjoy doing it, not on the basis of the possibly erroneous belief that you're going to be healthier for it.

Yeah, I find his stuff fascinating. I've been riding sort of like he recommends for a couple of years - I haven't done a lot of long hard rides since 2006. I've been trying to follow his eating guidelines as well, cutting my carbs down to very infrequent very small portions. I don't find I crave or miss the carbs, but trying to figure out what ELSE to eat three meals a day has been a bit of a challenge. I didn't realize how apt I was to have a bowl of cereal, or some sort of toast, or sandwich, or pasta, or something else with noodles in it, and beans or potatoes/rice/etc with dinner. Or grab a pretzel or cracker or something for a snack. I've been mowing down the salads lately and eating more chicken/fish/meat as well. I've never been real creative in the kitchen and knocking out carbs really cuts down on the options. And I'm curious to see how I'll feel if I do try to start ramping the mileage up a bit later this spring and summer.

-Ray