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.

We see nitrates and beetroot talked about to improve performance and it really does – even the pros take it when having the edge can be the difference between winning and losing. But how can you use it to help you when your sportive comes around

What are nitrates though and how does it help us?

Nitrate consumption helps to reduce the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise so in turn makes a given work load easier to perform. But what this all really comes down to is fatigue resistance, exercise efficiency and performance.

How much do you need?

You can get it naturally through your diet and just increasing your daily consumption of around 2-4 beets a day to get your required amount of nitrates.

If you wanted to drink it you would need 800ml of standard beetroot juice to get those sought-after performance enhancing effects which is quite a considerable amount of beetroot to neck!

Luckily Beetroot concentrate is now available and sold in 70ml shots by “Beet it” so you don’t need to be downing pints of beets.

When and how much to take it?

The best way to get these effects would be to increase your dietary intake of beetroot over a period of 2-6 days prior. Acute (<1day) consumption of beetroot sees an increased improvement in the more untrained individual so the longer you’ve been riding or the better rider you are I would suggest taking it for longer.

If you’re not the biggest fan of having beetroot everyday for 6 days then supplementing with 2 x 140ml a day (4 shots total) will help you achieve your target amount.

On the day of the event you want to take 140ml (2 shots) 2.5 hrs pre-event should suffice.

RECIPE

Beetroot Crisps – This won’t provide you with all the nitrates you need but will definitely help toward a loading phase

• 2-4 Large Beetroots
• Sprigs of Thyme
• 1-2tbsp olive oil
• Salt

HEAT the oven to 200ºC

PEEL and thinly slice the beetroot,

TOSS sliced beetroot in a bowl with thyme leaves, olive oil and salt

SPACE out on a lined baking tray

ROAST for 15 minutes, or until crisp

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!