The wonders of the EU continue apace - this time they have declared that water does not prevent dehydration, and banned items that make that claim. In a correct riposte, the wonders of this being studied, meanwhile the EMU stands on a knifeedge ready to spin into chaos at any momemt.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration.html
However, with my most recent diet, and my learnings from long distance sport I can sort of see where they're going. Water on it's own does nothing, water needs to come in either with food, with salts but on it's own it doesn't do so much, apart from giving a workout to the kidneys - that they really do not need.
Meanwhile, in the usually safe place of Siena there are some rumblings, even I noticed them on the rare occasions that I listen to (and hear! the two are very different) Italian news.
http://www.giornalettismo.com/archives/292234/monte-dei-paschi-di-siena-il-disastro-a-report/
Today I really wanted to talk about sports drinks - I mentioned them in the Giro di cuore di leone blogpost where I mentioned that we were drinking carbo sports drinks on top of excellent nutrition and put on some weight. So, now I want to talk about my current favourite sports drink - High Five Zero. This is a sports drink with zero calories, and for an athlete such as me who has a propensity to gain weight easily, this stuff is great. If I am going for a longer ride I will add in a little honey, but overall I LOVE this stuff and it has really helped. There are other versions out there, such as nuun, but I like this one.
http://www.highfive.co.uk/zero_INT.php
Meanwhile, whilst we're talking about nutrition I have to talk about this - look at this crazy pizza, with a burger crust, served on a cushion - made somewhere in the middle east. Bonkers cajonkers.
Could lead to some lovely stuff such as this, now that's sports nutrition!
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-pizza-hut-cheeseburger-20120424,0,5324643.story
The sun shines on here, and I ride my bike and run on my old lake.
All over Italy the ANAS (society that looks after the roads) has a number of buildings, which range from the sublime to the quasi-ridiculous. Some of them are little more than huts, and some of them are grand, well you could almost call them villas. They attract a good amount of graffiti which I am always amused to read, here is today's selection. Of course, just like in the UK there is a constant battle between the graffittiers/graffittistas (taggers?) and the feds repainting all the buildings, so you have to be quick to catch the good stuff!
A couple of nice touches here. Firstly we have "Non puo nevicare (x sempre)" meaning "no more snow" - we certianly had a lot of snow this year and this one is in a hilly area where it must have been very difficult to drive. At this moment in time we have poplar trees that are constantly shedding their, well, I would say their spume, but then again, I am like that. But it really does look like it is snowing the whole time again with all the poplar spume! Next we have the ever popular english expressions - this time it is "f@ck cops" and actually on the other side it has "ACAB" the anti-establishment phrase meaning "all coppers are bastids" that I really only first saw in Biffa Bacon from Viz, but I am seeing more and more of over here - I read in the paper recently about how it has become to mean anti-establishment around the world. Then we have "lasciare ogni speranza voi ch'entrate" - "leave every experience you have" - I like this one.
The final picture shows the rather cute castellations that there are on this one - all these buildings seem to have one quirky touch or another, rather than just an empty box.
Tomorrow I am hoping to do the Randonnee Val Di Merse - a cheeky little gran fondo before doing a cheeky run, oh and then a drive to Rome and back. I am supposed to have a medical certificate, or a certificate of "health and robustness" or a membership of a cycle club and I have none - so let's see if this works out!
