Now I realize the benefits of properly fueling while on the bike. When you exercise, your body uses up stored fat and carbohydrates (glycogen). Even the leanest professional athlete stores enough fat for a training session, but has limited glycogen stores. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles because it is carried in the blood as glucose. We’ve all probably experienced that dreaded “bonk” when our liver’s glycogen stores were so low that our blood sugar levels dropped. Even mild glycogen depletion can lead to a significant drop in performance.
Sports scientist and coach James Sprague is one of the experts answering your questions in Cycling Weekly’s ASK A CYCLING COACH series, published every Wednesday. He has worked in both research and applied settings and now he runs Intercept Performance Consultancy.
For this reason, whenever I work with athletes, I prescribe training and refueling during and after each session. guaranteed to do so. This approach to cycling nutrients has recently become known as “refueling for the work it needs to do”.
The question is, what do you really “need” during a training session?
As a (very) rough guide, you can divide the sessions in your cycling training plan into three categories: easy rides, long endurance rides, and intensive sessions. Each of these sessions has different carbohydrate requirements.
What kind of cyclical nutrition do you need?
(Image credit: Future)
easy ride
These rides are short (<90 minutes) and very easy. As long as you're refueling before these rides, you generally don't need to consume additional carbs during the session. So there is no harm in consuming carbohydrates.
endurance ride
(Image credit: Future)
These zone 2 endurance rides are longer (>90 minutes) but still pretty easy (if you’re doing it right). However, due to its duration, you will be using a significant amount of glycogen during your ride, so it is wise to consume carbohydrates during your ride. 60g of carbs is enough.
intensive ride
These can be done anywhere from short hard HIIT workouts to long hard races. Aggressive carbohydrate intake is not recommended during these short sessions (<60-90 minutes). will enter
However, in long, hard sessions (>90 minutes), you need to eat a lot of carbohydrates if you don’t want your performance to suffer due to glycogen depletion.
In this case, you should take at least 60 g per hour. In fact, some professional athletes are currently eating 90-120g of carbs per hour.
Where should these carbs come from?
Now that you know how much to eat, the next question is where to get these carbs.
Should you use (sometimes very expensive) sports nutrition in the form of the best energy drinks, gels, or bars?
endurance ride
I would argue that it doesn’t matter where the carbs come from as long as you’re taking less than 60g per hour. is. Glucose channels (by far the most common carbohydrate) can take up to 60 g of glucose per hour from the gut into the bloodstream. In fact, scientific experience has shown that feeding cyclists potato-based products at such intensity yielded the same level of performance as professional sports nutrition. Given that, it’s a good idea to find a product you like, see how many carbs it contains, and eat enough to reach 40-60g per hour.
strenuous ride
(Image credit: Future)
Here’s where things get a little complicated. Our gut can’t handle enough of one type of sugar to meet the ~90g/hr required to fuel a session. A recent study suggests that a 1:08 glucose to fructose ratio provides optimal carbohydrate intake and the greatest performance improvement. This ratio is only found in certain sports nutrition products.
We also know that it actually takes some training before your gut can process 90g of carbs per hour. So it’s important not to suddenly swallow 90 grams per hour in your first intensive session or race and expect your stomach to handle it. Instead, he should gradually increase the amount of carbohydrates per hour from 60g/hour to he 90g/hour (sometimes more).
Likewise, every sports nutrition product contains a slightly different combination of ingredients, so don’t expect your gut to just process the old product and all will be well. It’s a recipe for… Instead, it’s much better to pick a product that you like the taste of and stick to it. Increase slowly until you can’t handle it.
verdict?
(Image credit: Future)
For easy rides, a small amount of carbs is fine and doesn’t hurt. Endurance rides require 40-60g of carbs per hour, but these carbs can come from anywhere. For intense sessions (especially longer than 60 minutes), find a flavored product containing a mixture of sugars (ideally a 1:0.8 ratio of glucose and fructose) and use it for every session. It is recommended. Not only does this mean optimizing your bike’s performance, but it also trains your gut to handle heavy carbohydrate intake. means
With food prices skyrocketing, it’s becoming increasingly expensive to satisfy a cyclist’s appetite. This is a nutritionist’s guide on how to get nutrition for less..
In this age of online training plans and workouts, have you ever faced a compelling question that you’d like to ask your cycling coach directly? Well, now’s your chance to ask! In this series, we ask our expert coaches questions. Please direct any questions to his Fitness Features Editor at Cycling Weekly at anna.abram@futurenet.com.
