Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi,

I need help, I'm struggling to stay awake at work!!

Up until last week I was riding either an 18 or 23K route to work and 6K route home. Still struggling to get fit, but I want to do long distances in time so on Monday I increased the morning ride to 30K's. Oh, and I did Loop The Lake (85K's) on Sunday.
Monday afternoon I could hardly keep my eyes open at the office, went to bed early but Tuesday morning I felt like a train had hit me and just walked to work (<1Km). Wednesday I did 30Ks again and 6K's home and this morning I again felt like the same friggen train visited me during the night.
During the 30K ride I don't feel terribly tired, it's later in the afternoon that it hits me.
I'm trying to lose weight and pretty good with what I eat during the week - not mentioning weekends:(
So during the week I generally eat some steamed veggies with steamed or battered/fried fish or tuna with the veggies for lunch, bowel of oats and cup of protein powder for breakfast and generally leftover veggies for supper.

My question is what can I do to stay awake. I want to get fit so that I can cycle from here (Newcastle) to Brisbane so I was hoping to do 30Ks in the mornings and 20K's in the afternoons 3 days per week + longer rides over the weekend. However, I obviously have to be able to do my work - which generally implies being able to keep your eyes open.

Broke for the next 2 days, but I'm planning to add some fruit to my diet from next week. Will that help? Anything else? I have to assume it must be diet related as I often read about people doing 25K x 2 commutes every day.
Is it just my fitness level? Keep in mind that in October i honestly struggled with a 5K cycle and every week I've tried to do a little more than before.


Thanks

Dirk

i used to have a sedentary desk job, and arvo's went a lot easier if i took a quick walk at lunch. are you drinking enough water during the day? fresh fruit certainly helps. also avoid coffee, as you're adding calories for not much benefit, especially if you have white with 2 sugars. redbull and v are sugary too

i'll leave the nutrition details to the pro's

I use these with a glass of water.
http://www.theedgefitness.com.au/prod16.htm
Gets me through the morning.

and more carbs during the day.

I am cutting and have same brekky as you, same lunch but with some rice but then I also have:
Protein shake and an egg for morning tea
Protein shake and peanut butter and banana sandwhich for afternoon tea
steak and sweet potato for dinner.

Plus I keep trail mix bars around in case I get empty.

I do lots of exercise and my advice for cutting and getting fit is:
Work out your maintenance cals - INCLUDING WITH YOUR LEVEL OF EXERCISE
cut 1000 cals off maximum

you will be surprised how much food you can eat if you are doing that level of exercise. (My diet above follows that advice and without the trail mix bars I am 1,000 under. The occasional bar still leaves me 600 or 700 under and sometimes you just need more food.)

Then set up an eating plan that hits whatever macro profile you are aiming for.

Guaranteed you will have fuel for exercise, fuel to stay awake at work, keep getting fit and keep losing weight.

The only thing is (and this is my weekness) is you have to have patience.

And get the doc to check your iron. I was feeling sluggish, doc checked me out and said I need more iron. Apparently sudden increases in exercise can do that to anyone. Iron deficiency makes you feel sluggish.

justD wrote:So during the week I generally eat some steamed veggies with steamed or battered/fried fish or tuna with the veggies for lunch, bowel of oats and cup of protein powder for breakfast and generally leftover veggies for supper

i'd add some more carbs (pasta or brown rice with your fish) and iron (lean red meat 2-3 tims a week)

Not trying to be funny....but are you getting enough sleep???

Sounds like you have cranked up the exercise, so yes all the nutritional advice re carbs etc is important but sleep is really important to recovery from exercise.

(Preferably referring to sleep in bed at night not on desk in day)

Pax wrote:Not trying to be funny....but are you getting enough sleep???

Sounds like you have cranked up the exercise, so yes all the nutritional advice re carbs etc is important but sleep is really important to recovery from exercise.

(Preferably referring to sleep in bed at night not on desk in day)

+1 for more sleep. When I don't get enough I am a walking zombie. Exercising and losing fat at the same time takes a toll on your body.

Also suggest a rest day every now and then to help you recover. I find the day after a rest day my legs feel really powerful!

I think you're spot on with the sleep. It's friggen 4:50am and I've been sitting here for at least 30 mins??

I started thinking about this same thing yesterday as I had not cycled for 2 days and still felt tired the whole day (both days), so I wondered whether it had anything to do with cycling.

I use to be a terrible insomniac, but I seemed to sleep pretty well since I stopped smoking (and left coffee for a while). Last 2-3 weeks I've been restless, waking up twice during the night and getting on the Internet for 20-30mins each time while still waking at 5am whether I go cycling or not.
This one I have a plan for... I need music in my bedroom.

I'll get myself a boombox and some fruit and give that a go. White carbs (pasta etc) I'm not too keen on as I like it too much and not good for the diet if I can't stop eating (outta sight, outta mind).

Thanks for the input people.

Dirk