Periodise your Fuel Back in the 1990s sports dietitians used to go on about carbohydrate as being the important exercise fuel. If you did a lot of training you were told to eat lots of carbs. But things were a bit more primitive back then, and athletes were encouraged to eat lots of carbs everyday, regardless of the training schedule. Since then both training and nutrition has come a long way, and with it the concept of periodised nutrition. That is, matching your carbs to your training schedule. Big ride tomorrow morning? Then make sure you get plenty of carbs the night before. Rest day or an easy social ride? Then no need for it. Afternoon ride? Then it’s extra carbs for breakfast and lunch. Carbohydrate is essentially starch and sugar, so foods like breakfast cereals, bread, rice, pasta, bananas, flavoured milk and yoghurt and foods made with flour and/or sugar will provide you with fuel for your high intensity
Wednesday 22 January 2014
efforts. Use these when you need them but reduce them when you don’t. You’ll have energy for training but eat less total energy over the week (helpful if weight loss is a goal).
Get maximum benefit from your training It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that the more you ride, the fitter you get. But have you ever thought about what goes on in the body to make that happen? Research in the last ten years has been able to directly measure what’s going on inside the muscle. Following exercise, our muscles build proteins that result in the beneficial changes that occur in the body. With different types of exercise, different proteins are produced. But nutrition also has a role to play. The protein building effect is enhanced by eating foods that contain protein shortly after a ride. Even when not exercising there is a role for regular serves of protein across the day to maintain your muscle size and strength.