Pre-ride and especially pre-race or sportive is a time that’s filled with old tales of what is best to eat-the “Miracle Breakfast” that will have you riding faster than ever! Most of the time these tales are just fads or gimmicks getting you to purchase odd foods or supplements that often aren’t warranted.
Something I stand by when working with One Pro and any of my riders is the anagram “KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid”, especially before a big day out on the bike whether that’s training or sportive alike.
So why Oats?
- When you have at least a couple of hours before heading out Oats are quite carb dense and not too high in volume – so you don’t end up overfeeding and getting bloated – and provide a nice steady release of energy.
- If it’s a big day you should have probably carb loaded for 1-2 days prior and have your muscles saturated with stored carbohydrate, so on the day you only need to top up your depleted liver glycogen stores.
- Oats can be combined with other ingredients– like honey and bananas to increase the number of carbohydrates and to further aid in liver glycogen replenishment, because they are comprised of fructose.
- Porridge is available pretty much anywhere in the world (same for bananas and honey), 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 before should ensure you’re topped up, and will aid in performance – this looks like 80g of uncooked oats, 1 medium banana and 1 heaped tbsp. of honey.
Recipe: FLAPJACK
Here are my flapjack energy bars that I make for One Pro on race day. The riders absolutely love these!
I recommend making 8-12 per batch (no less than 4 per batch though as they will be too much to digest at once on the bike)
150g Oats (I used Quaker Oats)
180g Banana
50g Raisins
160g Golden Syrup
Orange zest
1tbsp of squeezed orange juice
1 or 1/2 tsp cinnamon
MASH bananas
ADD golden syrup, zest, juice
STIR
ADD oats and raisins
STIR
DIVIDE
BAKE @ 180C fan assisted for 10-15mins
LEAVE to cool
DONE
Macros for 1 of 8 – 168Kcal – 36.75g Carbs – 2.5g Protein – 0.3g Fat – 26.75g Glucose – 10.3g Fructose