Cycling

Cycling and nutrition

Fit with the right nutrition for all kinds of training.

Whatever your cycling goal - a tour with friends, a race or participation in a randonee - if you haven’t built a foundation with the right training and nutrition you will find it more difficult to achieve your aims.

Here you´ll find all information regarding training and nutrition for cycling.

Fit with the right nutrition

(Source: Kletz, Zeitschrift für Ernährungsforschung)

Training will be much easier if you have a balanced diet and ensure you have filled up your glycogen stores with carbohydrate rich food prior to riding your bike.

Hydration has an important effect upon performance for all active people. The minimum daily requirement for the body is 1.5 l, but when taking part in any kind of sport, the needs can be much greater. On average you will lose about 1 litre per hour, compensating for this loss is important if you want to maintain your training intensity.

For each ride, the glycogen stores (glycogen is the form carbohydrate takes when stored in the muscle) need to be filled up to provide energy, delay fatigue and prevent exhaustion. To build up your stores in the first place, a diet focussed on carbohydrates rather than fat is preferable. Pasta, bread, potatoes and rice are all examples of carbohydrate-rich food.

Muscular fatigue, characterised by aching legs is a feature of cycling at all levels, especially when riding over rolling terrain. For this reason it is important to ensure sufficient protein within your diet. Highly nutritious protein sources include milk products, lean meat or legumes.

Vitamins and minerals are also important in maintaining and repairing the body; fresh fruit and vegetables offer a rich source of these essential nutrients for your body.

The right nutrition for casual cyclists

During your bike tour, there is not always a possibility to stop and eat. On those occasions where you do, starting again after a heavy meal can be difficult! So what is the ideal meal on the move and what are the nutritional requirements?

Carrying additional weight on the bike slows you down and makes cycling less fun, especially where that weight is unnecessary. Specialist energy bars and drinks hardly take up any space and are specially packaged for the rigours of cycling. Because of this they still taste good after hours of cycling, unlike that banana you’ve been carrying since the start of your ride! As well as being high in energy the Harvest Bar hardly contains any fat, as such it compares favourably to chocolate and cereal bars as a source of energy for sports activities. As well as eating the right food, hydration is a crucial factor in sporting performance. During your tours you should always ensure you drink enough. Isotonic sports drinks are ideal, providing the necessary supply of fluids, as well as minerals and carbohydrates.

Nutritional tip:

Powdered drinks like the PowerBar Performance Sports Drink are easy to prepare on tour.
Every 35g sachet is sized exactly to make a half litre bottle of isotonic sports drink.

The right nutrition to meet your training needs

Geschwindigkeit macht süchtig.

The feeling of riding at speed is addictive.

The kick you will get when you achieve a certain speed on your bike awakens feelings of exhilaration and achievement - and the ambition to reach out for more.
But how can you get even faster without significantly adding to your suffering?

Achieving improvements in basic fitness comes from a combination of the correct training and nutrition for your individual needs.

Endurance and power is required for cycling

The basis for succesful cycling training is known as Base Endurance training. Training at a low intensity means that your body uses oxygen and carbohydrate during the process of producing energy (aerobic training). During this process, the body uses up carbohydrates first, but when supplies of carbohydrate run low, the body switches to using mainly fat.
->The effect of this training is improved fat metabolism and an increased aerobic capacity.

In very intensive training periods with faster speeds and frequent changes in tempo, your body uses short-term energy. In this situation, when there is not enough oxygen in your system to maintain aerobic activity, your body switches to producing energy without oxygen (anaerobic). The energy produced this way comes from carbohydrates. A by-product of this process is lactic acid production, which is painful and tiring for your muscles.
->Anaerobic training makes this system of energy production more efficient, increasing lactic acid tolerance and reducing the painful sensations that are associated with the most intense efforts.

Interval training (cycling with structured periods at a fixed intensity) is another important part of many training programmes. By imitating the changes of tempo that happen in a race or in any ride over rolling terrain the body is better prepared to meet the challenges you set. Strength-endurance training is specifically intended to prepare your muscles for repeated efforts such as those made when climbing and sprinting.

The right nutrition during competition

Even if you are not competing on a level of professional cyclists like the T-Mobile Team, who need as much as 5000-6000 kilocalories per day on a Tour de France stage, the energy need during a competition can be very high. It is important to ensure you plan your nutrition during the competition and prepare properly beforehand to have the best chance of achieving success.

Before the race:
2 to 3 hours before the event, an easily digestible, carbohydrate-rich meal should be consumed. One hour before the start, an easily digestible sports bar will supply the body with the necessary energy for the first few miles, e.g. Performance Bar.

During the race:
Even during short distances it is important to drink enough. Ideally an isotonic sports drink, which provides the necessary supply of fluids, as well as minerals and carbohydrates. For longer rides (more than 45minutes) you should take up more concentrated energy, eg. PowerGel or Performance Bar.

After the race:
This is the time when your carbohydrate stores need to be refilled, your muscles need to recover and the immune system needs support.