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.

Carbs don’t need to mess with your stomach on your next ride

The commonness and appearance of stomach issues while competing in endurance sport is a problematic one. It can easily turn an enjoyable brick session into an unpleasant one or put you in a sticky situation in your race. But there is light at the end of the tunnel!!

If we can understand the principles of how much and how often we can take on carbohydrate as well as the variables that can affect gastro-intestinal discomfort (GID), we can easily solve these issues.

Why?

Understanding the “why” for needing to take on carbohydrate is possibly the most important pillar the in foundation of whether you feel you “should” or “should not” eat.

Here we can easily see that by taking on carbohydrate one is able to maintain blood glucose levels and keep performing exercise for another hour over that of a non-carbohydrate placebo. The maintenance of blood glucose is what enables us to keep the intensity of exercise going especially past the 2-hour point.

So, if you’re going to be racing for while or out riding for longer than 2 hours then you eating on the bike is incredibly important and influential on your ability to perform and should be considered.

How Much?

Knowing how much we can take on board during a race or per hour will be one of the most enlightening bits of information we can get.

The amount we take on during activity is dictated by three main things;

1. Maximal Absorption rates
2. Intensity of exercise
3. Duration of exercise

Item No. 1 – comes first as it dictates the rest. There is a fixed amount of glucose and fructose we can absorb per and anything over this will start to wreak havoc for your stomach.

• Glucose – 1g/per min or 60g/per hour
• Fructose – 0.5g/per min or 30g/per hour

Individually the amount you can take of each is shown but they both use multiple transporters or trains if you will, to pass through the intestine wall, meaning we can combine the two and have up to 90g/ per hour.

Veloforte bars fit in quite nicely here being predominately fructose based as they’re made using mainly fruit and having half a bar or 1-2 bites from a bite bag an hour is ideal to fulfil your fructose quota.

Item No. 2 – The intensity of exercise determines two things; the first is the higher intensity the higher requirement for carbohydrate to be able to maintain performance output. This is because stored carbohydrate in the form of muscle glycogen is used at a faster rate. So we require a higher intake of carbohydrate to maintain blood glucose (60-90g/per hour). BUT it should be noted the higher the intensity the less blood flows to the stomach potentially increasing GID this is trainable though and

And finally, No. 3 – Duration also plays a big role with the requirement for carbohydrate being less so when exercise lasts less than an hour (like a crit race) but if looking at an Ironman ranging between the elite at 8/9 hours and the amateur at possibly around 16 hours then eating become massively more important.

How Often?

I personally performed research into the frequency of carbohydrate between one big feed and 3 smaller feeds but overall performance was equivocal– some participants performed better or the same with no detriment. But we did see the trend of lower heart rate and rate of perceived exertion.

Off the back of this smaller feedings of 20g every 20minutes or 30g every 30minutes would be both convenient/manageable frequency to hit your target amounts

Variables you possibly hadn’t considered

Other factors that influence stomach issues are listed here and aren’t within the scope of this piece to elaborate on, so I will leave you with these until next time.

• Heat
• Hydration status
• Fibre intake
• Dairy intake
• Fat intake

Often, we find ourselves out and out or finishing a hard ride and reaching for that protein bar, protein shake, protein ball item and if you are out It’s probably costing you a few pennies too! But milk is something that can be easily overlooked but is actually the ideal complete food source for you post training

Why? Milk contains all 9 of the essential amino acids you need to stimulate something called “Muscle Protein Synthesis” which is what we need to start recovery, repairing of cells, muscles and the growth of new lean tissue. It also comes with carbohydrate to replenish depleted glycogen stores meaning you’re getting pretty much what you’re paying for with those shakes and bars just cheaper.

What else is being said? Recent studies show an amazing array of benefits;

• Improved session recover – has been shown to help reduce 1 and 2-day post muscle soreness
• Rehydrates you better than water – due to the way it’s digested and the natural properties milk when compared to water hydrates you more.

Go Chocolate – Choosing a flavoured milk option with added sugar will further speed up recovery. High glycaemic index foods like chocolate milk have rapid ability to help increase blood glucose which in the post workout period is ideal for promoting recovery.

How much should we be consuming/how often?

• Have between 250ml-500ml or enough protein 0.3g/kg/bodyweight to stimulate muscle protein synthesis
• Remember the context of your current goal – 500ml may sound so much better but if it takes you over your daily needs then it might not be ideal

Which milk? All studies have been performed on skimmed or 1% milk as fat can slow down digestion and will also increase the calories quite significantly.

Chocolate Banana Shake

Ingredients:

• 300ml 1% chocolate milk
• 20g Whey
• 1 large frozen banana

Many of us have the aim and target of fat loss while riding our bike and getting ready for our events – especially those coming up in the summer –. What is interesting is that having a calorie deficit from exercise, non-exercise activity and nutrition is important, no, paramount in achieving this optimally. But are there other things that can contribute?

I present sleep!

Some great recent research looking at sleep and comparing 8.5hours to 5.5 hours of sleep on fat loss, muscle loss and metabolic markers.

Fat loss; 1.4 vs. 0.6 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep

Fat-free body mass loss; 1.5 vs. 2.4 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep

So, the low sleep group lost more muscle mass and less fat. They also saw a neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction (slowing of metabolism), increased hunger, and a shift in relative energy use towards less fat.

This was done with non-exercising individuals; they didn’t monitor protein intake only calories and they didn’t exercise.

But the information we can take from this is huge! It shows that poor sleep habits in relation to a calorie deficit negatively impacts us in a magnitude of ways; less fat lost, more muscle lost, increase hunger and slowing of metabolism.

All the things you don’t want!

My advice would be prioritising that sleep more! Eat higher protein, keep active on your bike will all aid fat loss and reduce muscle loss!

Achieving an optimal weight is ideal for many aspects of life health foremost but it will really be felt in your runs too. That pounding on the road becoming substantially easier with every pound lost and every stride feeling easier.

That’s not to say it’s the be all and end all as health is always at the forefront – you won’t run quicker if you’re sick, injured or getting stress fractures from continually trying to diet.

So, here are a bunch of tips and habits you can do to aid you in your body composition goal, achieving it the right way!

1. 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 run/train 10, 15, 20+ hours a week, if you have fast cake hands and you’re eating more than you’re burning it won’t come off.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 run with friends or without for 2+ hours then you can definitely eat more calories.
5. 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 runs with less on lounging days and more on hard riding days.
6. 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 smaller amounts than that hard-earned muscle.
7. 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 2g-2.4/kg/bodyweight would be ideal in this situation.
8. 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 runs 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
9. 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.
10. 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 in your sessions, you will underperform in the intensity sessions and may get cravings causing you to ultimately binge two weeks down the line ruining your progress.
11. 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 your run, 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.
12. Fasted training – 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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 Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

• 200g Frozen raspberries – Or any berry
• 30g Whey protein

RECIPE:

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 an ice cream style snack.

The word protein is thrown about a lot in sport, fat loss and most nutritional topics to be honest, there Is a wide array of foods that can fulfil your daily quota of protein. BUT sometimes it’s nice to get a snapshot of why we need it and an easy recipe that will enable you increase your daily intake!

How much do we need?

If looking at daily amounts as active individuals we should be having anything between 1.6-2.2g/kg/bodyweight per day. The more active you are the higher I would go on that scale and likewise if you’re on the journey of fat loss.

This is because protein aids in the recovery of muscle and cells within our body and in the preservation of lean muscle mass when in a calorie deficit (which is needed in fat loss)

How often do we need it?

We should be aiming to have protein every 3-4 hours. This is because we have something called a net protein balance. Eating protein makes it positive, not having any for a while makes it negative and will impair our recovery.

How much per serving?

We should aim for at least 0.3g/kg/bodyweight per serving to sufficiently stimulate muscle protein synthesis (the driving force behind making a positive protein balance, leading to that recovery process).

It should be noted the older you are the harder this can be to stimulate and it has been seen amounts of 40g protein per sitting is a lot more beneficial to those over 50 years of age.

Smoky Turkey Mince Chilli

Ingredients (serves 4);

• 500g 2% Turkey Mince
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin Kidney beans in water
• 1 Onion
• 1tbsp Olive oil & tomato puree
• 2tbsp Worchester Sauce
• 1tsp chilli & smoked paprika and dried basil
• Salt & Pepper

HEAT oil

CRUSH garlic and chuck in oil

CHOP onion and add to oil and garlic

HEAT till golden

ADD turkey mince heat till mostly cooked through

ADD remaining ingredients

BRING to a simmer and leave to reduce ~20mins

DONE

SERVE with rice – use cauliflower rice if you need a low carb option

It’s been a year and a half now since I bought my “Giant TCX 3” to train and tour Spain and France. Now I’ve really been able to see what it can do I thought I’d give it a review, so you can make a more informed decision on buying this bike or maybe inspire you to get one like it!!

“Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.” ~ Grant Petersen

Now, Autumn is actually the PERFECT time to go looking for a bike whether you need a new one, or just want to get started! This is down to the fact that all of the next season’s (2015) bikes will be coming in at the new year, so you can get yourself a nice 2014 one at a cheaper and more affordable price without losing out on quality!!

When picking any bike you obviously need to think about what you’re going to be using it for!! Do you want to commute? Leisure ride, tour, race etc…? The options are endless!

The Giant TCX series is a great on-road bike but first and foremost it’s a “cyclo-cross” bike. This is the oldest form of off-road cycling where people cycle across muddy fields and parks but then often have to carry the bike up steep slopes or hop over obstacles so it’s super-light too! Now, I’m not suggesting this is what you’re doing but this shows the versatility of the bike!

There’s more clearance between its frame and wheels which means mud isn’t an issue, and the fact it comes with threaded eyelets to fit mudguards and pannier racks means making the transition from off-road racer to, say, commuter or even tourer that much easier! This bike can pretty much GO ANYWHERE!

“The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.” ~ John Howard

There are other useful things too! Cyclo-cross bikes’ cassettes also have a wider range so you can get lower gears to make hill ascents that bit easier.

The cyclo-cross bike’s riding position is slightly more upright than a racer, making casual road riding a lot more comfortable. The bike has higher ground clearance which is great when going over fields or dirt tracks but with starts and stops it means you have a little further to go to reach the floor.

This bike in particular, the “TCX 3” is Giant’s introductory bike to this range and provides a great workhorse bike and the Tektro CR720 cantilevers (brakes) provide more leverage and thus better braking than most other cantilever brakes for bikes.

Final Thoughts! I would recommend this bike for a first-time, affordable purchase, commuter or possibly even a winter training bike for more seasoned cyclists, especially given you’re now able to pick one up on eBay for only about £300!

So maybe think about getting a bike, having some adventure, being your own engine, burning some energy and earning an epic meal!! There ain’t no burnin’ without some earnin’!!

Will, that guy who rides in short-shorts!

Get primal, be happy.