Tiredness, fatigue and drops in performance and usually and most likely caused but things like overtraining, poor sleep, lack of recovery and under nourishment -sufficient calories in the right ratios of carbs protein and fat to facilitate work load-. But sometimes there is a possibility it could be a micronutrient deficiency such as Iron.

Why?
Iron is required for the formation of oxygen-carrying proteins, haemoglobin and myoglobin, and for enzymes involved in energy production. Oxygen- carrying capacity is essential for endurance exercise as well as normal function of the nervous, behavioural, and immune systems.

What does it mean?
Iron depletion (low iron stores) is one of the most prevalent nutrient deficiencies observed among athletes, especially females. Iron deficiency, with or without anaemia, can impair muscle function and limit work capacity. Iron requirements for endurance athletes, especially distance runners, are increased by approximately 80%.

It would be worth noting athletes who are vegetarian, vegan or regular blood donors should aim for an iron intake greater than their respective RDA; 18 mg women and 8 mg for men – though if you’re vegan this goes up to about 33mg for women and 14mg for men.

Due to the increase in popularity in veganism providing a non-haem (non-meat sources) I thought it would be apt to provide a list of iron sources that everyone can eat.

• Spinach – 1 cup = 6.43mg
• Swiss chard – 1 cup = 3.96mg
• Cumin – 2tsp = 2.79mg
• Parsley – ½ cup = 1.88mg
• Turmeric – 2tsp = 1.82mg
• Beet Greens – 1 cup = 2.74mg
• Collard Greens – 1 cup = 2.15mg
• Bok Choy – 1 cup = 1.77mg
• Asparagus – 1 cup = 1.64mg

Before you take any kind of supplementation, I would highly recommend getting your blood tested though to make sure as supplementing without being deficient could be detrimental

Recipe:

Here’s a recipe for a simple addition to your day to add ~9mg of Iron to your day in an organic way

Saag Aloo

• 1 large onion
• 2 large potatoes
• 400g Spinach
• 1tsp – fresh grated ginger, turmeric, garam masala
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• Olive oil
• Salt

PARBOIL chopped potatoes (cubes)

HEAT oil and cumin seeds in separate pan

ADD chopped onion and cook till golden in pan

DRAIN potatoes

ADD potato and everything else except spinach to pan

HEAT till soft

ADD spinach and cook till wilts

DONE

Feeling light on the bike, and not carrying a few extra pounds can make the difference between feeling like a seal going uphill or soaring up it like an eagle.

Weight has a huge importance in cycling but also in health and finding your ideal riding weight is a sought-after goal by many avid cyclists.

Here are my top tips for helping you achieve that race weight.

Be in a calorie deficit – This might sound silly but if you’re ultimately not in a calorie deficit you will not drop the excess body fat/weight you want. Even if you cycle 20+ hours a week, if you have fast cake hands and you’re eating more than you’re burning it won’t come off.

Understand where you are – This could be one of the most crucial ones! If you don’t know what you’re having in general- let alone how much of it- how do you know what to change? Write a food diary for yourself for one week. You may be surprised as what you snack and just happened to forget about.

Be conservative – Knowing you need to be in a deficit is important and once you’ve seen how much you’re consuming you can start taking a few things out. Don’t drastically drop out all your food and have an apple a day- this might drop weight quickly but may not be all the right weight and you will find you may plateau quickly, will you then go to half an apple? Do it steadily and start with around 200 calories a day reduction and see how your weight is after one week.

Not all days are equal – Eat for the day’s activity rather than eating the same every day. If you’ve got a rest day and you’re going to have it nice and relaxed then you really don’t need to eat a huge amount and could probably have less because your energy expenditure is less. But if you’re going out for a big weekend ride with all your friends for 5 hours then you can definitely eat more calories.

Think weekly rather than daily – Carrying on from the previous point, rather than eating the same every day and focusing on daily intake think about your week and where you could do with more calories and less and plan accordingly. If you needed on average 2500Kcals a day that would be 17,500 a week. You could divide that weekly amount better in relation to your rides with less on lounging days and more on hard riding days.

How much should I lose – Your weekly weight loss should be around 1% of your bodyweight in pounds per week. This will change depending on how lean you are already. If you’re bigger you will find you have more scope to have a slightly bigger drop but if you’re on the leaner side aiming for 0.5% might be best. Why? Because the amount of muscle loss with bigger weight drops when you’re leaner can make up a larger percentage, so it’s better to go steady and lose

Keep Protein high – This is an obvious one but when in a calorie deficit and trying to drop weight it’s important to keep protein high to prevent muscle loss during this time and it’s also satiating, keeping you feeling fuller for longer! Aiming for around 1.8-2g/kg/bodyweight would be ideal in this situation.

Carbs for performance – Dropping all your carbs out when riding lots is a no-no. You will quickly lose all your energy and feel tired, lethargic and probably end up bingeing when someone brings some cake into the office. Instead of eating fewer carbs and riding worse, why not fuel for your workouts or rides so you can work as hard as you can, get the most out of that session and in turn burn more calories because you worked harder? One study suggests that ingesting carbs before working out increases the post-exercise “afterburn” effect more than the fasted state. That means more calories burned throughout the day, not just during your sweat session, though not fully conclusive, some food for thought there

Fats for weight loss? – Having a high fat, low carb diet for dropping body fat gets mentioned a lot but is it right? Fat has 9Kcal per gram whereas carbohydrate and protein are only 4Kcal per gram. So you could quite easily over consume on fat and end up not being in your calorie deficit anymore PLUS you could have twice as much protein and carbohydrate than you could fat if comparing equal amounts.

Think long term – In relation to fat for weight loss, and when comparing two identical, calorie deficit matched diets between low carb high fat and high carb low fat, the latter has been shown to work more effectively BUT – here’s the big “but” – does that work for you! If you’re riding lots and lots and training hard then realistically you’re going to struggle on the bike and in your sessions, you will underperform on your wattage and may get cravings causing you to ultimately binge two weeks down the line ruining your progress.

The best diet is the one you can stick to – The decision between eating more or less of carbohydrate or fat should be dependent on your activity and what you will actually stick to! If my special, amazing fantabulous diet here “diet special” would make you lose more weight but you absolutely hated it and felt rubbish on the bike, the likelihood is that you won’t stick to it. As long as you’re in a deficit and eating a well-balanced diet with lots of vegetables and enough protein to stop muscle loss you will lose fat.

Fasted riding – Research has demonstrated that fasted cardio does not increase fat burning over a 24-hour period. While your muscles adapt to using more fat when you exercise, you don’t actually lose more fat overall on the days that you exercise versus days that you don’t. If you’re wanting to increase your ability to utilise fat at a higher rate during exercise then it’s great but if you’re doing it just for increased fat loss you could be putting yourself through a harder session for no reason.

Tracking your food – If you’ve done a food diary and followed the tips above but are still struggling to lose the fat you want then here are some more tips. Keep another food diary for a week but actually weigh all your food or scan the barcode of the foods you’re having into a calorie tracking app which will give you an accurate measure of how much you’re exactly consuming. Then repeat the above tips of reducing your calories by about 200 a day or 1400Kcal over a week, keeping protein high and carbs adequate for training and see if you lose weight then.

Increase your non-exercise activity – What does that mean? Well if all your riding and any training your do is exercise activity we want to increase what isn’t that and our way of controlling it can quite easily be through step count. Setting yourself a step count means you will always have some level of calorie expenditure you can control and ensure you’re hitting, even on your rest days. This is a great way to increase your calorie deficit without reducing your food or adding another session in.

Use Volume – When dieting you’re going to be a in a calorie deficit and as such you can sometimes find yourself feeling pretty hungry. The best way to combat this is to have meals high in volume. Make the most of vegetables to create filling meals such as a noodle soup, tomato based curry sauce, stews and stir-fries. The number of calories in non-starchy veg, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and bell peppers is very small so why not make the most of it and eat more?

Here’s a recipe that makes a low calorie, low carb ice cream that can really fill you up and curb your sweet cravings.

Protein Frogurt

Ingredients;

• 200g Frozen raspberries – Or any berry
• 150g Fat free Greek yogurt
• 30g Whey protein

WHACK it all in a bowl

USE a hand blender to combine it all (this may take a few minutes, you can use a food processor but will need to stir frequently)

BLEND till smooth

DONE

Literally that easy and you will have made yourself a Frogurt/ ice cream style snack.

“New year, new you!”; “A fresh start!”, “My New year resolution!” and “Got to lose that Christmas weight” are all things that are said frequently this month and whether that’s the case for yourself or you’re still trying to carry on your goal of dropping a little body fat then this is just for you!

Understanding how to create a deficit and then the importance of carbohydrate, fat and protein and their role in fat loss is important.

Deficit

First of all, we need to be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat – if it isn’t dropping then you’re still eating too much compared to the activity you’re doing. Try tracking your food in a calorie counter and doing so accurately while monitoring these things;

• Your weight (preferably as a weekly average)
• Step count – all your non exercise-based activity
• Monitoring the calorie or Kj expended on your chosen bike computer

Protein

In a calorie deficit protein is integral to success and helps us to keep fresh and powerful on the bike. It is the foundation of recovery; it aids us in maintaining our lean tissue; it’s filling and may help us still gain some muscle despite being in a deficit.

How much?

Aim for 2g/kg/bodyweight per day and have a portion with every meal which is every 3 to 4 hours in addition to after our training session.

Fat

Fat plays an important role in hormone, nervous system and cell health and provides fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids.

How much?

As cycling is mainly endurance based, we only need a daily requirement of about 0.6-0.8g/kg/bodyweight to keep a healthy system with higher intakes only really being needed on specific protocols, strength-based sports or very high calorie intake days. On rest days- which could be a couple of days a week- we can quite easily a drop this amount a lot lower to help with a calorie deficit.

Carbs

Lastly, we have carbohydrate – this fills out the remainder of our daily calories.  These become the most heavily manipulated macronutrient on training days fuel for the work required.  Have a larger daily serving on intense/ long duration bike days or if you’re just at work all day and not training then sack them off a bit, eating smaller portions at each meal as you don’t need the energy.

Focus on having some carbohydrate before hard sessions, fast releasing before morning sessions (like a 1 slice of bread, banana and a bit of honey) or slow releasing 2-4 hours before an evening session or a later start on the weekend.

What tricks can you do to help prevent you from getting ill this winter? Well a lot of them may be simpler than you may have thought, and they’re all backed by science – no old wives’ tales here.

Vitamin D3 – Vitamin D3 and its usage to improve our 25(OH)D blood serum levels has been directly linked to our ability to prevent illness.

As the angle of the earth changes for winter here in the UK even if we get direct sunlight, we won’t be getting the specific UV rays we need to create this! Believe it or not it’s also recommended by “Public Health England” to supplement at least 400iU or 10Ug a day over winter to help with immunity.

This number in increased for exercising individuals and is always recommended to get a blood test to see where your levels are and if they’re <75nmol/L supplementing with 2000-4000iU a day can be recommended.

Citrus juice – Within our saliva there is something called IgA which helps defend against bacteria and viruses that enter our mouths. When the winter months draw in, we can often find ourselves out and about riding with a dry mouth, meaning we’re without saliva and that protective IgA.

Adding citrus juice to your water or zest to homemade carb bars can increase saliva production and help aid against dry mouth and potentially combat infection

Calories – An obvious one but if our calories are too low and we’re dieting too hard over the winter months we’re going to see reductions in recovery, increase in inflammation and cortisol which in turns opens us up to infection. Be smart with your deficit and only make it small or make sure you’re achieving maintenance calories to support a healthy immune system

Zinc Lozenges – Probably my favourite and least known aid! There is a huge wealth of information out now with 3 meta-analysis papers confirming the efficacy of using zinc lozenges to reduce the incidence and/or duration of the common cold and upper respiratory tract infections when taken at the first sign.

These should be sucked on for 20-30mins every 2-3 hours with the lozenge containing 10-18mg ionised zinc.

NEAT or Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis is essentially all the activity we do outside of exercise… so step count or your job if it is a manual labour one. This accounts for the biggest contribution to calories expended after our resting metabolic rate – unless we’ve done 5+ hour ride.

Why is this important you might ask?

Well, when trying to drop body fat and get stronger on the bike we may be tracking our calories/food and ensuring we’re training lots but if we aren’t taking not of the other biggest variable we may be losing out on a trick!

1000 steps = ~50kcal – depending on how big you are and how fast it’s done.

Often, we start seeing that fat loss we want but then randomly is plateaus, the reason for this may be a reduction in our NEAT levels which our body does sub-consciously as calories are restricted. You may also see those levels drop as you do a super tough turbo, chat laps in the morning or out for your weekend ride but after working really hard physically, you’re tired, legs ache and in turn you walk less. So, if your turbo session burnt 1000Kcal but you normally burn let’s day 600kcal from walking all day but now you just sit and only burn 200kcal, that turbo session net is actually only 600kcal.

Our 3 main variables in the goal of fat loss are:

Calories eaten

Exercise performed

NEAT

These provide the main factors that determine if you’re in a calorie deficit and thus losing fat or if you’re at maintenance/surplus.

My suggestion would be to track your food, monitor your step count on a free pedometer app or wearable device and ensure your training volume and intensity relatively similar each week or is accounted for in your food.

As we come to the end of the season many people start thinking about getting “fat adapted” and start thinking about getting those long miles in and doing a bunch fasted so fat can be the main energy source and hypothetically become more efficient.

This is a really interesting topic and possibly one we could talk and debate for a few more pages but let’s talk about some main points on utilising a train low (training in a low carbohydrate state) protocol.

How fit are you/how long have you been riding consistently for?

If you’re a new rider the chances are, you’re going to be unfit and your body may not be very efficient at cycling. Which most likely means riding on the road and sticking to Z2 HR or power is going to be very difficult, because as soon as you hit any long drag or hill you’re going to be struggling. Carbohydrate restricted rides require that the intensity stays at Z2 or lower. If the ride has intensity, the potential of you getting through 3+hours without food and maintaining power will greatly diminish.

What is your main objective – what race/event do you plan to do?

Think about what you’re training for, if the event, race, sportive means you will need to eat on it then probably a good idea to train what you’re eating too.

Why? Well it’s obvious really. If you eat fewer carbs and use more fat, as you upregulate your ability to do one, you down regulate your efficiency at the other which will make you worse at using carbohydrate. Not great if you’re going to be eating during your ride.

Doing it to lose more body fat.

First things first. Whether you’re in a calorie deficit fasted ride or not you will not be dropping body fat. If you had two days which were identical in every way; food, activity, calories burn in the ride and type of session and the only difference was one was a fasted the other was fed is it possible to lose more in one than the other? The likelihood is no. Maybe you could lose a little more in the fasted but not significantly so.

There are benefits though.

We do see benefits from carbohydrate restricted training, like increased amounts of mitochondria (aerobic cell) created from these sessions so hypothetically getting more out of those Z2 rides, changes in insulin sensitivity, you will get better at using fat at lower intensities (but it should be done in combination with fed rides).

How would I use it?

I would do one maybe two rides a week carbohydrate restricted. I would make them 2-3 hours (maybe longer if you’re an experienced rider) to ensure you become glycogen depleted, a quick 30-45mins in the morning won’t cut it! This will carry over more to your events as you want to be able to use more fat 3 hours down the line.

Ultimately think about your overall goal, mix them into your sessions but don’t make them all depleted, fuel for hard rides, restrict for easier.

POWER! That ever sought after entity- legs like tree trunks and fast like Hermes god of speed, the desire of many a cyclist! Ha!! but seriously- when wanting to increase power in your cycling, carbohydrates are KING!

I work with top level athletes and it is imperative that they know the aims of each session so you know how to eat before, during and after that session. How you eat for it will change depending on the training session intensity and goal but when looking at power, high-intensity intervals and high watt sessions you need to be fuelled ready for that session.

Why? Going into a HARD session on low muscle glycogen (stored carbohydrate) will impair your performance and reduce the potential gains and adaptions you would get, as remember you want to do your best and work your hardest for this session and not flounder early on.

This begs the question, “So, how should I eat for it?”

Well this is split into three categories; Timing, Type and Total.

Timing – As you can imagine this is massively important because if you’re eating your brown rice 1 hour before the session that precious rice won’t have fully broken down and be ready to use as energy in time for the planned session.

I recommend eating your pre-training carbohydrates 3-4 hours before, giving plenty of time for it to digest and be ready for use.

Sometimes this isn’t possible with busy schedules. If you have a morning session I’m sure you won’t want to wake up for a midnight feast! I would suggest for you to have your carb meal 30-45mins before your morning training though you would have a different type as mentioned below.

Type –  Now you know when to have your carbohydrates you need to know what type you should be having!

If you have 3-4 hours before the session, then go for Low Glycaemic Index (GI) foods such as brown rice, wholemeal tortilla, oats, new potatoes, legumes and sweet potatoes.

But if you’re one of the early morning people then you need to go for moderate to high GI foods like, wholemeal bread, muesli, puffed rice, and fruit.

Total – Having sufficient carbohydrates will ultimately decide the effectiveness of the session as ingestion of too small an amount the effect won’t be significant. Whether you are training early or later on and have time for a low GI meal I would suggest consuming 1-1.2g carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight beforehand.

This figure isn’t gospel though. Think about the duration of your session- is it just 20mins of power training or is it longer? Are you doing a run after- for example if you’re training for a triathlon?  In either of these cases the amount might need to be adjusted and you certainly don’t want to over consume on calories or their might be another muffin man down Drury Lane!

*depending on the length of the power session having a gel during might be worth it but I would possibly only use this over 25min intense sessions*

Here are four amazing carbohydrate foods that are perfect to have pre-workout and some suggestions as to how to incorporate them into your day with ease! Depending on your carbohydrate demands the amounts may need to vary.

Chilaquiles – Mexican style – Quick and something special

Ingredients;

• 2 Tortilla – I used whole-wheat
• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 red onion
• Fresh coriander
• 30g crème fraiche
• 1 pot fresh salsa – I bought mine to save time
• 1 chicken breast -pre cooked

CHOP tortilla into small triangles 10ths or 14ths

FRY in a pan with olive oil till crispy

DRY off oil and put back in the pan

ADD all the salsa and cook through

FINELY chop red onion and coriander

TEAR your chicken breast into pieces

SERVE the salsa tortilla mix

TOP with red onion, coriander, chicken and crème fraiche

DONE

10min Beef Stir fry – Makes batch cooking a dream

Ingredients;

• 150-250g 5% beef mince
• 4/5 cherry tomatoes
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 3 spring onions
• Fresh coriander
• 250g pre-cooked brown rice or microwaveable brown rice
• Salt & Pepper
• 1tsp Olive oil
• 1tsp butter

ADD olive oil and heat

FRY spring onions till soft

ADD mince and season fry till nearly done

STIR in puree & tomatoes

FRY till golden and tomatoes soften

ADD butter and rice just before end enough to heat through

GARNISH with freshly chopped coriander

SERVE hot or cold

Sun-dried tomato salad – Perfect side to any meal and meal

Send that Iceberg lettuce home!

Ingredients;
• New potatoes about 300g
• Pack of green beans
• Feta cheese
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Fresh Basil

CUT green beans and new potatoes in half

COOK and then leave to cool

MIX the two together in a bowl

ADD chopped sun-dried tomatoes

CRUMBLE feta cheese in

GARNISH with fresh chopped basil and a glug of olive oil

DONE

Breakfast Power Smoothie – That one for the early risers

• 1-2 large frozen banana/s
• 20g Whey protein
• 100g Total 0%
• Almond milk – add to make the consistency you like, I prefer mine thick
• Muesli

BOSH all ingredients except muesli in the blender

BLEND till smooth

POUR into a bowl or drinks container

ADD muesli

DONE

Time away can be daunting when training is important to you-whether it’s because you’re racing, taking part in a sportive or just wanting to keep up your bike fitness.

It’s not the end of the world though, as there are plenty of chances to keep yourself progressing even when away from your beloved bike:

• Local gyms –check out a local gym as most have a bike or spin class you can use and they offer a reasonable rate.

• Cross–training –This is a great chance to make the most of this and incorporate some running or swimming and use them to push yourself aerobically and anaerobically without the need of equipment.

• Peaking – This is the principal of reaching the highest point in your training of maximal performance and then to taper off. This would normally include rest days which you could incorporate into your time off. Hit that peak before going away and then use that time off to fully relax.

• Core & Flexibility – Easy to neglect these in favour of bike work but can be a huge factor in your riding. Core/trunk work is the basis of stability and posture on the bike and mobility enabling muscles to stay supple; enhance recovery and reduce risk of injury. Doing some pilates/body pump classes can be a great chance to work on these.