Grains offer a great staple to any diet. Most of you can probably agree with this knowing they provide steady release of complex carbohydrate, high in fibre and B vitamins.

Finding the perfect pre-ride meal is something of trial and error with some people not being able to manage high fibre, lactose or large amounts of fructose before sessions (this especially being apparent in Triathlon or as duration of exercise increases)

• If you have 2-4 hours before heading out grains are a carb dense option that isn’t too high in volume so you shouldn’t feel bloated– and provide a nice steady release of energy.
• If it’s a big, big day or “the” day you should have probably carb loaded for 1 day prior and have your muscles saturated with stored carbohydrate, so on the day you only need to top up your depleted liver glycogen stores.
• Grains in can be combined with other ingredients– like Maple syrup and bananas to increase the amount of carbohydrates and to further aid in the above mentioned liver glycogen replenishment – something that’s needed to help maintain blood glucose levels after an overnight fast I.e sleep.
• On a Sportive? Grains like bread, oats are available pretty much anywhere in the world (same for bananas and maple syrup), making it ideal to have in practice and on the day, helping you to keep to your usual routine and safe knowing you’re going to feel great because of it.
• Aiming for about 100-120g of carbohydrate before your ride or event should ensure you’re topped up, and will aid in performance.

RECIPE: Overnight oats

• 100g porridge oats
• 250 ml milk of your choice
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• zest of one large orange
• 50g dried cranberries

MIX together the oats with the milk

ADD the rest of the ingredients except the cranberries STIR

NOW add cranberries

LEAVE to soak

DONE

With winter training well underway you could be looking to get some extra gains from your rides and looking to different supplements of foods. One very potential one could be tart cherries or Montmorency Cherries in particular.

Tart cherries have been shown to be most effective in two main areas; Recovery and Sleep. Tart cherry juice is high in polyphenols, in particular flavonoids and anthocyanins, which have high anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and as a little boost are high in melatonin.

Recovery –It’s been found that taking tart cherry juice will actually help maintain muscle force production and reduce muscle soreness post exercise and next day when compared with not taking it.

How to take for Recovery – Take 30ml concentrate mixed with water within 30mins after exercise.

Get inventive and take it with you post workout shake blending it with some frozen bananas and berries and some whey protein to ultimately boost your recovery!

Should I use it all the time? – Currently research is quite equivocal about whether taking something like tart cherry juice regularly is a good thing as reducing the inflammatory response from training could reduce the adaptions you get from it. My opinion would not be to use it all the time and pick and choose moments.

Sleep – Due to the high amount of melatonin found in tart cherry juice it’s easy to see why it aids sleep, as melatonin is critical to the cycles of deep sleep and studies have found that there were significant increases in time in bed, total sleep time and sleep efficiency with cherry juice supplementation.

How to take for improved sleep – Take 30ml concentrate with 250ml water 30mins before sleep

Where do I get it from? Healthspan Elite are the official suppliers of Team Sky, with batch tested products and their cherry juice concentrate is just what it says on the tin, 100% cherries.

Where it really shines! – Personally, I think these cherries really shine when you’re doing a sportive or event that takes place over multiple days or after a really intense training session and recovery for the next day is paramount! If you’re at a training camp I wouldn’t take it. Try to get the most out of that week – yes you will feel tired – but the adaptions you gain will be worth it rather than potentially reducing it through large intakes of cherry juice in the name of recovery.

If you’re doing a multi-day event, I would recommend taking 30ml x2 a day for 4 days’ pre-event and on each of the race days following would be the most beneficial.

With winter well and truly being here you probably want to use every means possible to avoid that inevitable winter cold and turning into a white walker.

During the winter months we’re unable to get our usual daily in take of Vitamin D3 from sunlight due to the angle of the earth at this time of the year and the fact there is just less direct sunlight anyway.

Why?
Vitamin D is made by the body when skin is exposed to sunlight. Sunscreen, protective clothing, limited exposure to sunlight, dark skin, and age may prevent getting enough vitamin D from the sun.

It’s used for bone health and but aids your immune system with people being found deficient showing more incidence of illness across the board.

How much?
An RDA of 400iU or 10ug a day is suggested to be healthy but some research has shown a daily intake of 1000iU or 25ug to be beneficial in athletes and older individuals.

Where can I get it?
As mentioned in winter we’re unable to get our usual dose from sunlight, but there are a bunch of food sources we can also get it from such as;

• Salmon – per 100g – 360-685iU
• Cod liver oil – per tsp – 450iU
• Herring – per 100g – 1,600iU
• Sardines – per 100g – 270iU
• Free Range Egg Yolks – per 100g – 750iU

So why not try this recipe over this winter period and keep yourself boosted:

RECIPE

Ingredients for 4 servings;

• 4 Salmon fillets
• Thumb Size piece of ginger – shredded
• 2 garlic cloves – pressed
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 1 tbsp mirin
• Salt and pepper

PLACE ginger and garlic into a bowl and mix with the soy sauce, maple syrup, mirin and a drizzle.

WHACK the salmon fillets in a dish, season with salt and pepper

COVER with the sticky dressing. PUT with cling film and set aside in the fridge to marinate for 20mins to 2 hours

HEAT a frying pan over a medium heat and add a dash of oil.

ADD the salmon, skin side down, HOLD the marinade.

COOK for 2 minutes, then pour in the reserved marinade and cook for
1min, till colour changes hallway up the fillet

TURN and BASTE cooking for 3 or so more minutes

SERVE

Blackcurrants, in particular the variety found in New Zealand, have been gaining some traction in recent months for its performance enhancing effects. What effects are these?

They seem to be two-fold; the blackcurrants are a vasodilator which cause the blood vessels to expand and improve blood flow to the areas that need it most. Secondly, they seem to have a high level of anti-oxidants which help reduce oxidative stress from exercise thus, reduce the levels of inflammation in the muscle, aiding recovery and allowing you to train harder again sooner!

How do we get these effects though?

Taking the correct amount of blackcurrant extract supplementation of 300mg a day for 7 days saw an improvement in performance in a repeated 4km Time trial with 10mins rest in-between. The total improvement was only 1% though and other similar trials about 2% improvement.

Not ground breaking but any of you looking for an edge maybe in summer 10s series or crits it may be worth a gander. Ultimately though foundations are made in a good diet, solid body composition and dedicated training.

What’s the take home?

There are a lot of options out there that currently result in similar improvements but it’s not known if you added them together you would gain combined benefits of all of them. Opting for the well proven beetroot or tart cherry juice for performance and recovery respectively would be better or just ensuring you’re getting the carbohydrate you need to do your ride or adequate protein to recover.

How can I get it in my diet?

As mentioned before the only real way to get that amount is through supplementation but here is a beautiful high protein and fresh snack.

RECIPE:

Ingredients;

• 200g fresh or frozen Blackcurrants
• 2tbsp Maple Syrup ~30g
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 200g Low fat Greek Yogurt

HEAT berries, maple syrup and lemon juice in a pan till bubbling

POUR yogurt into a bowl

POUR hot or cool compote over yogurt

DONE

Supplements is an area discussed a lot and everyone is always looking for the next best thing to give them the edge whether that’s on the big sportives’ you’re planning next year or smashing it up the hills with your friends.

But what supplements are actually worth taking?

Well we have performance enhancing ones and then health/recovery ones and we’re going to cover the main ones.

Performance

Creatine – A topic of hot debate within cycling but one of the most proven performance supplements available. The easiest way to decide if you need/want to use this is to think about your training! Are you currently doing off-season gym work, peak power training, track cycling or maybe you’re a crit sprinter? All these would benefit from creatine and improve your 10 second power output, recovery between efforts and sessions. But if you’re doing lots of climbing the potential of added water retention may outweigh the benefits. 5g a day to get the effects.

Beta-Alanine – Shown to improve your performance in the 1-4min effort range perfect for hill climb season and those punchier efforts you might be putting out. Takes a while to load the system (4-6) weeks but once in will be there for 10 weeks or so. Can make you feel a bit tingly after taking though. 3-6g a day best divided into 1.5-3g servings with a meal to avoid those tingles

Caffeine – Massively proven to improve endurance performance and reduce perceived effort and pain. But your average cup of joe probably isn’t enough. An amount of at least 3mg/kg/bw is needed to improve performance and takes ~60mins to peak in the blood. 1 espresso shot = ~75mg so you may be needing a bit more than usual. Be aware of any conditions you may have or steadily increase your intake. If you go from no caffeine to 3mg you may know about it.

Health

Omega-3 – An essential fatty acid we can only get from outside sources and is needed for everyday health! Proven to reduce inflammation and potentially aid in recovery. Getting a supplement to help with your daily needs at around 500mg of EPA and DHA a day or having some oily fish like Salmon with pesto crust is ideal for your daily intake.

Vitamin D3 – shown to help with bone density and formation. But also aids in immunity over the winter period or if you get minimal sunlight exposure. A recommendation of 1000iU a day or 25ug has been suggested if your blood test results come back lower than <75 nmol/L

Hydration for a Marathon

How much water do I need? This depends on quite a few factors if we look on a general daily basis there can be some debate on how much water to have but looking at around 0.033/ml/kg for an everyday sedentary individual should keep you in a fluid balance. For example, weight 70kg*0.033 = 2.31L water a day at a normal temperature and no activity.

How can you determine how much water you need to take on per hour during a marathon? Water requirements are very individualised and based off of each person’s individual sweat rate. This will also be affected by such things as heat, humidity and intensity of exercise. Though a general rule of thumb of 400-800ml an hour should suffice. But saying that there is a better way to work this out as mentioned.

Is there an equation or rough guide people can use to work this out, in relation to their height, weight and running intensity? How much will I be losing in sweat?  You can in fact perform your own sweat test which is easily done:

1. Take a standard session you might do – ideally at race pace- for this let’s say 1 hour. Weigh yourself before (naked).
2. Drink a controlled amount of water with you – for example let’s say 1 bottle of 500ml, ensure you drink all of this over the session.
3. After the hour session before consuming anything else, undress, wipe yourself down with a towel and weigh yourself again.

This number at the end will let us know your average sweat rate per 1Hr at race pace at that outside humidity and temperature.

Pre-race hydration – how much extra water should you be taking on each day in the week before your race to ensure you’re adequately hydrated? Over hydration protocols have been shown to not be an effective form of hydrating in the lead up to an event. You’re best off making sure you meet your daily needs and then on the morning of just ensuring you’re adequately hydrated as I describe below.

How much water should you consume in the hours before your race? Start sipping about 600ml of water with an electrolyte in 3 hours before the race until your urine is clear if it still isn’t clear have another 400ml on top of this.

How can you tell if you’re adequately hydrated? Urine colour is the easiest way to check with the darker it being the more dehydrated you are and the lighter/clearer it is being more hydrated. You can if you want though

Should you avoid ‘dehydrating’ tea and coffee? Tea or coffee does not dehydrate you in itself – it would be illogical to think taking on more fluid will dehydrate you. But caffeine is a diuretic meaning it will cause you to pass urine more frequently. So, every time you go the bathroom you should be topping up. If anything, caffeine is proven for its performance enhancing abilities and I would recommend it at 3mg/kg/bodyweight 30-60mins prior to the event. Though this should be practiced and/or consulted with your GP if you have any reason to be wary of high caffeine intakes

How will the weather on the day impact your hydration? Will be there be enough water stations on course, or should you carry some water with you? How can you plan for this? It takes 2 weeks to acclimatise to a certain temperature. Running regularly and sessions at “race pace” will ensure you’re acclimatised but if it’s hotter on the day understand that your fluid requirement with alter with an increased sweat rate.

What are the signs of dehydration and overhydration – how do you know if you’ve had too little or too much water? Is the risk of overhydration (hyponatremia) worse than the risk of dehydration? There are quite a few signs of dehydration and overhydration with hyponatremia being a place that can be caused both by having too much fluid or not enough as the main issue is electrolyte balance, symptoms of this can be causes fluid movement into the brain, causing swelling with symptoms that can progress from feeling strange, to mental confusion, general weakness, collapse, seizure, coma and death.

One noted sign is to see your heart rate raise 5-8bpm for every 1% of dehydration.

Using the sweat test making sure you don’t lose more than 2% of your bodyweight is important as past this point you will start to struggle and start to get issues.

How to work this out:

70kg * 0.02 = 1.4kg or 1.4L of water

If in your 1 hour sweat test while consuming 500ml of water at the end weight 69.5kg we know you lose 1L/1kg of water an hour at the race pace, at the temperature/humidity.

If you carried on drinking at that rate for 3 hours you would now be 1.5L dehydrated which is over the 2% which we want to avoid.

Is the ‘drink when you’re thirsty rule’ reliable while running? Typically, if you’re drinking when you are thirsty rule probably means you’re already a bit dehydrated – but as explained over hydration isn’t good either. Steady consumption of water that is matched with your hydration testing and making sure you’re not losing more than 2% bodyweight should be the focus.

What’s the best method for alternating water with energy drinks (London usually has Lucozade Sport stations every 4-5 miles) and why should you be drinking Lucozade Sport/energy drinks as well as water? Muscle glycogen stores (stored carbohydrate) typically will only provide enough energy for ~90mins of exercise so taking on carbohydrate each hour will enable you to maintain blood glucose levels and keep performing. Carbohydrate solutions of 3-5g per 100ml also improve your uptake of water hydrating you better and typically sports drinks contain electrolytes too.

How important is it to take on electrolytes both during and before the race? Incredibly important – water on its own doesn’t hydrate you as well as if it contains electrolytes as mentioned but things like hyponatremia only happen with excessive water intake and no electrolyte intake upsetting the balance and essentially diluting yourself. You can get your sodium loss rate tested but if you’re leaving salt lines on your face or clothes you are probably a salty sweater.

Recommendations of 0.5 to 0.7 g/L of sodium for exercise lasting <3hours with longer durations going up higher per hour. Your typical electrolyte tab is around 0.4g.

Can you explain how energy drinks can contribute towards grams of carbs you need to fuel yourself per hour, and how many they can supply? Well it depends on the drink used, but performance improvements have been seen from as little as 20g an hour. I would suggest aiming for 40-60g an hour at least and more if you’re running intensely. Getting this from a glucose:fructose mix at a 2:1 ratio with improve your ability to digest it and reduce incidence of gastro-intestinal distress. The reason for carbohydrate-based drinks is simple the maintenance of blood glucose enables you to keep performing the exercise you’re doing. The amount we need will vary depending on exercise intensity, duration and also how well trained an individual you are.

Post-race hydration – how much water should you take on after your race? Ensuring you’ve replaced what you’ve lost should be the main goal so continuing to drink water with electrolyte for a while after the event should be expected – ensuring you’re getting the right mixture as described above to help.

Getting on track and heading towards your fitness/health/fat loss goals can be daunting especially when you have no idea where to start, so making this journey as easy as possible is paramount to your success but also your enjoyment of the process.

Here are 6 simple things that you can do;

1. Walk – One of the biggest factors on our energy expenditure is our “non-exercise activity”. This is everything you do that isn’t specific exercise, so walking to the bus or train, walking around at the office or at lunch etc. If 1000 steps equate to around 50Kcals then if you increased your daily step count by 2000 steps at the end of the week you would have burnt an extra 700Kcals. And all you had to do was to walk a bit more.
2. Track your food – This is a big one! If you want to lose body fat having an idea of where you are calorie-wise is important. Without getting too technical about the ratios of what you’re having, if you start tracking your food and realise your weight/ measurements aren’t dropping then look at your average intake over a week and reduce it by 100-200kcals per day and you should see further loss – that is If you exercise stays consistent 🙂
3. Do exercise you enjoy – Too often people believe running or other various forms of exercise are the best for “fat loss” but honestly the best is the one you’re going to enjoy and consistently keep doing
4. Eat protein – Protein at every meal helps with the retention of muscle when in a calorie deficit – something you must be in to lose fat – as nobody wants to lose the muscle they have! It is also highly satiating meaning when you’re in that calorie deficit you feel less hungry, the hungrier you are the harder it is to adhere to you diet and stay on track.
5. Drink Water – The principal of all life and performance and fat loss. The process of breaking fat down is done through something called hydrolysis, and as you may guess that process requires water, and is performed much more efficiently in a hydrated state. You want to perform well in the exercise you’ve chosen, whether it’s faster or stronger and hydration has a massive impact on that with being dehydrated as little 2% seeing a significant decrease in performance.
6. 6. De-stress – Sometimes we set our goals and we’re smashing our workouts, eating well and for some reason you’re not dropping weight, or your stomach has reduced in circumference and in the end, you feel like giving up! Well it can be so easy to forget but being stressed can cause us to retain huge amounts of water thus feeling like you’re not making progress! Think about your week; think about how much sleep you’ve had; how’s work? The best way to de-stress is to ensure you’re getting those 7-8 hours of sleep; meditate; take time for yourself; organise your diary. All of these can help you de-stress and you may find a bunch of that water-weight coming off.

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Veganism and opting for less meat in our diets is becoming more popular and there added benefits to having more items like pulses and lentils in our diets with more micronutrient density.

Pulses and lentils are a great way to add protein and slow releasing carbohydrate to your diet that help aid in recovery and provide slow releasing energy for training, particularly great if you’re having a training session 2-4 hours after eating them.

Why 2-4 hours?
They are low GI carbohydrates so they’re digested a lot slower and so need time allow for that release of energy which is important if you’re wanting to focus on performance.

100g of cooked chick peas will provide you with;
164Kcals
9g protein
27g carbohydrates (8g fibre)
3g fat
16% your RDA of Iron

The quality of protein is dictated by the amount of amino acids that food contains and the bio-availability (how we digest them). Very few vegetable sources contain a complete amino acid profile meaning sometimes we need to combine foods together to make them complete.

Why is this important?
All nine of the essential amino acids are needed to promote “muscle protein synthesis” or the creation and stimulation of recovery and growth in muscle.

The protein of pulses is high in certain amino acids and low in others whereas grains are the opposite being high in what pulses are low in. Combining them provides all the essential amino acids needed to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

This is really important to know if you’re a vegetarian/vegan.

Here is an awesome recipe of mine that you may enjoy

RECIPE: Roasted vegetable and lentil soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tin mixed beans (can be in a sauce)
• 1 tin mixed pulses or chick peas
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion & bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves – minced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/2 tsp chilli,
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• Salt & Pepper
• 1tbsp Worcester sauce
• Fresh Coriander to garnish

CHOP onion and bell pepper and fry in pan till golden

ADD rest of ingredients and bring to a simmer

LEAVE to cook for 15-20mins and reduce

DONE

SERVE in a big tortilla wrap with some fresh coriander and some sour cream

Hydration testing is something you can do throughout the year at different points as the weather changes. It’s a great way to stay on top of how much you should be drinking to avoid dehydration and hyponatraemia.

It’s recommended that we avoid water loss exceeding 2% of our bodyweight. So, if you weigh 70kg that would be the loss of 1.4kg of water.

Here’s the test:

1. Take a standard session you might do a 1-hour turbo is ideal. Weigh yourself before (naked).
2. Drink a controlled amount of water over the turbo – let’s say 1 sports bottle (500ml). Ensure you drink all of this over the session, oh and that you’ve dressed yourself again haha.
3. After the hour session before consuming anything else, undress, wipe yourself down with a towel and weigh yourself again.

This number at the end will let us know your average sweat rate per 1Hr in those conditions. It’s important to remember this number relates to the intensity of that session and the ambient temperature. You will always sweat more indoors as there is no wind cooling.

With that loss add the 0.5kg from the bottle you drank. This now tells you your sweat loss per hour. So, if you lost 0.5kg you’ve lost in total 1kg over 1 hour.

You can use an outdoor ride to test this too BUT ensure it’s still only an hour if you go for longer then you will start eating food or gels, you will also be expending large amounts of glycogen that will also affect the results.

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