The following is how my 24 hours went…

I arrived on-site (Bootyville) a little after 2pm to setup a pop-up tent for my group. Keeping in mind the camp group did NOT open until 2pm, I was somewhat surprised how many people were already there. Good real estate was going fast so I was glad I showed up when I did. Afterward, I went to check in at the “host” hotel, Marriott Courtyard Charlotte SouthPark. The hotel is around 3 miles away so in theory you can rde your bike to Bootyville. But I decided against the idea simply because I was not prepared to travel light…I had too much crap to transport.

I returned to Bootyville around 4 and found the place to be absolutely ALIVE with activities. There was music blasting over the loud speakers, a film and photo crew were walking around taking in the scenes and the campground was nearing capacity. Around 6pm, Spencer Lueders, founder of 24HoB, got on stage to do the event kick-off. Shortly after, the annoucer asked everyone to begin “staging” to the start/finishline. Being new to the event, I thought his watch must have been set to a different timezone; The event schedule said 7pm start, but it’s only 6pm. Needless to say, when we saundered over to the start/finish at 6:50pm, we found ourselves at the back of the bus — there were ~1200 other cyclist there hence the early staging. Not a huge issue, just meant the first few laps will be slooooow.

Before the event, I had some reservations about riding in a 3 miles loop. How many can I ride before I’m bored?! The answer, not enough. I rode 100 miles (or 33 laps) if that tells you anything.  The route is a nonstop roller coaster (see elevation) ….huge suprise, it is NOT FLAT! The inclines are not steep nor long, but will wear on you over time. Also, you will not get the same look of the course twice because of the crowds lining the streets like a giant block party (which it was the first few hours) and the different cyclists around you might require a different line each time. In addition, light condition is ever changing as the 24 hours progresses — a corner you took at speed an hour ago might be too dark to see the exit an hour later. To make things even more interesting, the organizer used social media, specifically Twitter to perfection. They continuously tweet via the #24HoB hashtag with photos, vidoes of the course and vidoes of interviews you might not see even if on-site. Excellent way to keep the momentum through the 24 hours.

Last but not the least, the support staff were incredible. Detail oriented, super friendly, always accessible and I honestly think some of them worked all 24 hours.   They had food and beverages out throughout the 24+ hours. Oh! They even had a stash of ice cream sandwiches in a hidden cooler. Definitely hit the spot at 1am! However, nothing can ever be perfect. My biggest complaint is the lack of COLD water. There were plenty of cold beverages — various flavors of powerade, flavored vitamin water, NOS (think redbull) — but all I wanted was cold water. All that sugary drinks gave me a head buzz that “crashing” was ineviatable. Crashed I did at around 2pm Saturday. The sugar crash left me completely useless.  It was somewhat appropriate since I got to Bootyville at 2pm the day before…so that was my 24 hours.  Time to go home.

Speaking of going home, on a completely unrelated topic, during my 5 hours drive home I stopped for gas in Oxford, NC off of I-85. During my brief visit at their BP gas station, I learned that a) I did not belong in that town because I was too courteous (I will leave it at that) b) Oxford, NC or may be that specific gas station is the only place I know that sells individual cigarettes individually. As in, why buy a pack when you can buy one “stick” at a time. Any who….

All in all the event was a BLAST. It was probably the most fun I’ve had at any bike event in a long long time. So much fun that my friends are talking about doing the Columbia, MD edition later in the year.

[Show as slideshow]

Many of us who fancy ourselves competitive cyclist/athletics would set goals at the beginning of every season to have something to shoot for.  Most goals are obtainable while some are simply beyond stretch limits.   For example, for my first race season a few years ago, I wrote down “Top 10 in the BAR” as a goal.  In reality I should have aimed for 10 points instead – for your information, I got 3 points that season.  Another goal I set every year but yet to achieve is to loss 10 pounds to increase that good old power to weight ratio.  Another trait of most competitive (aka geeky) cyclist is we are always on the lookout to “buy” advantages such as carbon aero wheels, aero bikes, recovery nutrition, compression sucks, etc.  So why should weight lost be any different?

Since I am a big fan of Hammer Nutrition, I decided to give Appestat a try.  According to Hammer, Appestat has the following benefits:

• Appestat can suppress appetite without stimulants.
• Appestat helps increase fat metabolism.
• Appestat can reduce potential for carbohydrate-to-fat conversion.
• Gluten Free

The first bullet point was easy to prove while the rest might just have to take their words for it. 

I am not going to lie to you, the first few days on the stuff was a bit rough.  I didn’t feel like eating much despite the fact my stomach hurt constantly presumably from hunger.  It was quite strange.  At first I thought it was a placebo effect – I spent $30 on a bottle so it must work right?  (Read on for the answer)

The first week (out of the three weeks cycle) I just felt weak on and off the bike.  It made sense because through logging my caloric intake using thedailyplate.com, on average, I was only consuming < 1600 calories per day when I normally would take in 2100 – 2600 calories. 

By the second week, I was mentally and physically prepared to eat less.  It was around that time I started seeing weight lost.   Very exiting!  I wanted to experiment a bit with taking 1 vs. 2 capsules per meal to see what it might do. To me (your mileage might vary) the effect with 1 capsule was very subtle while 2 capsules along with a small meal kept me full for hours.  With that knowledge in hand along with a recommendation by Hammer, I started taking 1 cap at lunch to get a bit more calories for the day and 2 caps for dinner.  With that protocol, I had absolutely no desire to snack a night which has always been a weakness of mine.

By the end of the third week, I had lost a total of 6lbs.  A little faster than I prefer but I will take it.   However, towards the end of the 3 weeks cycle, I felt like my body was becoming “immune” to the pills.  I wanted to eat more and more.  In addition, the first few days I was off the pills (sounded like something a woman would say) all I wanted to do was stuff my face no matter with sweets.  So I surmised the pills were indeed able to suppress my appetite. 

Having said all of the above, your results might vary but I think it’s definitely worth a try.  I will begin a 2^nd round shortly to hopefully reach my “fighting” weight in time for my first race of the season. 

Please feel free to drop me a comment if you have any questions or would like to share your own experiences with Hammer Appestat.

If you are planning on going to the Cabo San Lucas area, I highly recommend that you STAY AWAY from a restaurant called “Los Ajos“. Why you asked? While the service was good and the food tasted pretty good, the “aftermath” from the place can be a danger to your health.

My wife and I, along with two other friends, visited Los Ajos in early September. After our dining experience, which consisted of the smell of sewage from the open windows and an overly-friendly-borderline-creepy-waiter whom almost held a napkin to my wife’s nose so she can blow her nose friendly service, we were all sick to our stomach that night. While three of us survived the experience with a short visit to the bathroom, my wife was not so fortunate; She was sick with E. Coli symptoms for 7 days straight.

1 out of 4 or 25% of getting sick is not good especially while on vacation. You’ve been forewarned.