Generally speaking...(weak stomach advisory)

Ok, I hate talking about this but it always comes up so I may as well get it over and done with. I suffer from Crohns Disease. I've had one major operation in which I had to have most of my colon; the terminal ileum and various sections of my small bowel removed.

Whats all that mean? Well, Crohns is an auto immune disorder where your body effectively rejects parts of your Gastric System. It affects everyone differently. Some people just from the colon down, others from the teeth down. How does it affect you? Well, you've all had those dodgy prawn salads before? or that bad curry? how about that bad pint?

I live with Nausea every day. I live with the other associated effects - The Scoots, Deli-belly, The runs, the green apple splatters. Whatever you wanna call them. Every day. Imagine yourself back when you had food poisoning. Imagine it for a week. Now...Imagine it for the rest of your life.

I also live with the problems caused by having so little bowel. I eat like a carnivorous horse! Yep, I strap a bag to my face and munch away on horse sandwiches all day. And if you believe that, I'm actually a world famous scientist only pretending to be into cycling. I eat to try and cope with the poor absorption I have which puts me at a disadvantage when training as my body struggles on most days to absorb what I need to get by, never mind to actually cope with the massive energy expenditure on long cycles. So how do I do it?

By balancing liquid intake with the right minerals, electrolytes and amino acids I am able to reduce the amount of liquid I put into myself. Which makes it easier for my body to absorb the nutrients as they aren't being flushed out.

In terms of food, I use a low residue diet but take it to extremes. I eat no or little insoluble fibre (soluble fibre like bananas and pears are actually a good thing for me) and massive amounts of what most people would call bad foods. Highly refined white flours, processed meats, american orange plastic squares of cheese (I know its a travesty) and chocolate. I know it sounds unhealthy but I don't fry any foods. I don't use oil (apart from Olive Oil) in my cooking and I dont eat cream or butter.

All in - on a rest day I eat around 4000 calories. On a training day I eat around 5000 to 6000 calories. Thats probably enough to keep most people going for 3 days. So where do I put it? Well I've always had a fast metabolism and this exercise makes me burn calories just sitting still.
If I have so many issues just getting myself to maintain my weight why am I still cycling? Cycling and any other long term endurance sport reduces your immune system. Thats exactly what my doctors need my body to do, so really it's just a complementary therapy to my medication. Although the more cycling I do the more efficient the leg muscles get at burning energy and mean I need to offset less and less energy. For example four weeks ago I used to need 2 sandwiches, 4 mars bars and 2 litres of still lucozade to do 20 miles. Yesterday I cycled 58 miles on 2 mars bars and 1.5 litres of water.

Oh and you get to meet loads of people while you are out cycling that you would never meet if you were at home drinking beer.