Skip to main content

NUTRITION AND TRAINING FOR CYCLING

I've attended a seminar run by Daniel Lloyd (formerly of Garmin, now IG Sigma Sport) and Dr Robert Child (worked with Cervelo, Geox and Brajkovic).
There was a lot to take in and a lot of it. The part about power meters' parameters was a bit lost on me as were some of the nutritionist terms. These are just some points I've picked up that I wanted to remind myself. Any mistakes are solely mine.


- Change in the way I eat: huge breakfast, medium lunch, small dinner.
- Because I commute on the bike I have to split breakfast in two, starting with kipper or eggs and coffee, riding, then porridge and some fruit, possibly some toast with jam too.
- Lunch: Meat/fish, veg, rice
- Dinner: Meat/fish, salad
- Good for protein: Milk and eggs (antioxidants); Fish and meat (creatine, carnosine, carnitine)
- Not good: Most dairy, white bread, soy
- Omega: Fish and Olive oil (omega 3 can be taken with 3x1000mg tablets, it reduces HR, improves mood and ventilation)

RECOVERY
Sugar
White bread
White rice
Pasta
Boiled potatoes
Eggs
Milk
Whey protein shake (the most efficient)

PRE-EVENT
Porridge
Chickpeas
Apples

Having a bit of sugar is not a drama, also eating fatty meats like lamb is better than avoiding them as the benefits are greater, lamb is very high in iron. Fats will be used for fuel anyway.
Try a protein bar towards the last few kms of a long ride to start recovery. Pros recover by drinking shake straight away even before showering and a fruit salad for the sugars, then have a bit of pasta and later, after washing and massage, a full meal.
Keep body fat between 10% and 15% as any lower and you risk getting ill.

SHORT RACE/TT/CRIT
- 2 day taper
- High carbs, high GI meal the evening before (turkey or chicken breasts too)
- 2 hrs before event eat high carbs, high GI, low fiber (herring, chicken, beef)

SPORTIVE
- 2 day taper
- High carbs, high GI for the 2 evenings before event
- High carbs, high GI, low fiber 2hrs before event

TRAINING
Hard 2hrs ride more efficient than 5hrs low intensity ride. Especially when mixed with some interval training.
On a longer ride of 4hrs: 20mins warm up, then 45mins hard, 2hrs tempo, 45mins hard, recover.
Power meters more efficient than HR monitors, as your heart reacts to altitude, fatigue, external events and is slower in showing the efforts as they happen.
Form can be kept all year around by taking the right amount of rest between efforts but without resting too much.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REACH OUT, TALK TO PEOPLE

I wanted to share what we did at the weekend in the hope to inspire other people to try what my partner and I ended up doing. A few days ago we were walking the dogs late in the afternoon and on the way back, in this big field, we noticed an elderly woman walking slowly leaning on her stick. We asked if she was ok as she seemed tentative and a little confused. The very first thing she said, almost without realising that's what she was going to say was: "You are the first people I've spoken to all day". Neither of us expected that so we stayed with her, chatting away for about 40 minutes. We ended up walking her back to her house, exchange numbers and invite her for a Sunday roast. She was going to be 89 a few days later and it seemed a nice thing to do. She was really touched as she didn't have it in her to cook a roast for herself (and she admitted she hated cooking).
Post a Comment
Read more

A (VERY) SHORT GUIDE TO WOMEN'S CYCLING

Women cycling has grown in popularity exponentially in the last few years. There is still a long long way to go to reach equality in terms of wages, recognition and exposure in comparison to the men's: wages are way too low, with some riders getting pittance, others paying for equipment, only the very top getting a reasonable (but risible in comparison to the men's) pay packet; most organisers set a huge disparity in terms of podium money between men and women; all the races are kept shorter than the men's for absolutely no reason; even ASO (Tour de France) supremo Prudhomme has stated that a Women Tour is "impossible" to organise; misogyny is still rife and too few men's top teams sponsor a women's team counterpart. The more we follow and the more we support, especially in social media and by tuning in when the rare race is televised, the quicker we can close the gap. My favourite races last year were La Course by Le Tour de France and the World Ch...
Post a Comment
Read more

AN OLYMPIC EFFORT

When the Olympic cycling road race and TT race routes were announced I was extremely excited. I live bang in the middle of both. One of the most important races in cycling was going to be ridden near my house. Television screens would be filled with images of roads I'm familiar with, the pros will be riding my commute to work AND some of my cycling club runs' routes (Kingston Wheelers).
4 comments
Read more