What you need to know

This month what you need to know is about fueling for a long ride. With the RBC GranFondo fast approaching the focus is on what you need to remember to be ready.

There are three key points to remember when fueling for long distance cycling. They are hydration, providing fuel for your muscles and recovery after the event or after a training ride. Making the most of these three principles helps you get more from your training and allows you to do your best at the event.

1. Hydration. Being dehydrated contributes to fatigue and muscle weakness. Sweating is important for keeping the body cool, but causes you to become dehydrated. Your performance will diminish with as little as 3% water loss. A 5% loss will result in a 20-30% decrease in endurance capacity. This leads to cramps, nausea and elevated heart rate. Dehydration slows your abilities to perform and makes your heart work harder. Water is the optimal fluid replacement for events (or training) that are less than 90 minutes. After 90 minutes you will also need to replace fuel and electrolytes. Sports drinks that contain 4-8% glucose will maintain endurance and improve performance. Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink, it is too late, thirst mechanisms don’t kick in until you are already dehydrated. Plan to drink consistently and you can alternate with a bottle of water and a bottle with your favourite sports drink to keep hydrated, fueled and maintain electrolyte balance.

2. Fueling your muscles. Your muscle’s primary fuel is a combination of fat and carbohydrates. Even the leanest endurance athletes have fat stores to use as fuel, but we can’t use our fat stores without access to carbohydrates. You have limited stores of carbohydrates in the form of glucose in your blood, as glycogen in your muscles and in your liver. On average you may have 1500-2000 calories of stored carbohydrates ready to use. One long training session, or back to back days of shorter training, can use all of your stored carbohydrates. You begin to deplete muscle glycogen and if the stores aren’t replenished then you access glycogen in your liver to maintain levels of glucose in your blood. But, once your blood glucose drops you will feel fatigued and hit the wall. You may ride for 40 km at a great pace and feeling strong when suddenly it is all you can do to make it home the last 10 km. Or you could be averaging 25-30 km/hour and then feel it is all you can do to ride 15km/hour, you have run out of carbohydrates. When this happens it is all you can do to finish your ride. It is crucial to remember that without carbohydrates you will not have the access to  fuel sources. Start your workouts with a full tank and refuel with carbs while you are riding. A proper diet and a pre – workout meal, 2 hours before riding, with familiar, carbohydrate rich foods is a good start to your training ride. Eat regularly during long training rides and practice eating the same foods you will be consuming on the day of the event.

3. Recovery. Recovery is more than fuel. Recovery means proper nutrition and rest. As soon as you finish an event or a training ride you should be thinking about recovering properly. Not only does this mean you will be ready to ride the next day, but you will feel good too. Many times after a big event you may head to the beer tent…fun, but not proper recovery. Take a few minutes to replenish water, carbohydrates, have a snack and then celebrate. You will feel so much better the next day. Recovery starts with carbohydrates that are easily digestible to replenish muscle stores. Fruit juice, bananas, cereal, chocolate milk, energy bars, smoothies are all great choices. Think about promoting recovery to repair muscle tissue and rebuild glycogen stores.

Rest is another form of recovery. Rest should include getting enough sleep, taking scheduled breaks in your training, not over training or doing too much training and not pushing too hard every time you go for a ride. Resting and active recovery (having easy training days) is critical to getting the benefit of all your training.

Happy Cycling,

Shayla

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