A scientific guide to race day nutrition

[V12man]

He always has a good yet tentative approach to these things. Great article.

 

I especially like: "Anxiety about the race may cause prolonged gastric emptying." - I just call it NERVOUS ***!

Fixed it for you

[KidCharlemagne]

Wow! That's a lot of consumption. Here's my situation: I don't eat sugars or much carbs at all. On training rides just water gets consumed. Long training rides can be up to six hours. On race day I might have a cereal for breakfast and I'll keep a gel in my pocket "just in case" but never use it. I have never bonked or had any fuelling issues. If our bodies store that much glycogen and our races being as short as they are, why so much sugar intake?

[HBO]

Wow! That's a lot of consumption. Here's my situation: I don't eat sugars or much carbs at all. On training rides just water gets consumed. Long training rides can be up to six hours. On race day I might have a cereal for breakfast and I'll keep a gel in my pocket "just in case" but never use it. I have never bonked or had any fuelling issues. If our bodies store that much glycogen and our races being as short as they are, why so much sugar intake?

Saturday I rode 105 km on an empty stomach with no energy drink or gels or bars. One bottle with a Zero tablet and half a bottle with water.

 

Only took 2 date balls (homemade), first one I ate at about 90mins and the other at about 2h15. At 2h50 I had half a banana and the other half at about 3h20.

 

It was the first time that I rode this long on an empty stomach and without energy drinks. Although it wasn't near race pace (I ave 27.6 km/h) I was surprised how good I felt considering the lack of training so far and the fact that I only had very little carbs. I don't know how much carbs are in the date balls, but it can't be as much as suggested in the article.

 

This weekend I will ride 112 km and see if I can push a bit harder.

 

The aim is to train low carb and race high carb for fat loss purposes. What I've heard is that by doing this your body can absorb calories more quickly and therefor deliver it to the muscles more quickly. After reading this article it sounds like bullocks or is there perhaps some truth in this?

[Davey_Jones]

In a 3 to 4 hour race when do you start drinking your first 500ml of carbs.  Must it be consumed in the first hour of racing or only start after the first hour?

[HappyMartin]

Saturday I rode 105 km on an empty stomach with no energy drink or gels or bars. One bottle with a Zero tablet and half a bottle with water.Only took 2 date balls (homemade), first one I ate at about 90mins and the other at about 2h15. At 2h50 I had half a banana and the other half at about 3h20.It was the first time that I rode this long on an empty stomach and without energy drinks. Although it wasn't near race pace (I ave 27.6 km/h) I was surprised how good I felt considering the lack of training so far and the fact that I only had very little carbs. I don't know how much carbs are in the date balls, but it can't be as much as suggested in the article.This weekend I will ride 112 km and see if I can push a bit harder.The aim is to train low carb and race high carb for fat loss purposes. What I've heard is that by doing this your body can absorb calories more quickly and therefor deliver it to the muscles more quickly. After reading this article it sounds like bullocks or is there perhaps some truth in this?

I tried the approach you say you are using. For me it doesn't work. It's fine to ride for ages at low intensity without eating. It's easy to do. But come race day what makes you think simply eating carbs will allow you to go very hard? If you haven't trained to go hard where is this ability going to come from? It's not magically going to come from the carbs. It's like putting poor quality fuel n a race car and then driving slowly around the track and hoping on race day you will be a winner by upping the fuel octane. You want to go fast you must train going fast.

 

Base training another story. I usually do that on water.

[Bikejunkie]

You cannot feed your body like a lawnmower and expect it to perform like a Jetliner...

[Fat Boab]

Wow! That's a lot of consumption. Here's my situation: I don't eat sugars or much carbs at all. On training rides just water gets consumed. Long training rides can be up to six hours. On race day I might have a cereal for breakfast and I'll keep a gel in my pocket "just in case" but never use it. I have never bonked or had any fuelling issues. If our bodies store that much glycogen and our races being as short as they are, why so much sugar intake?

 

Not taking the place of the OP, and whilst they ponder your interesting query, can I ask what is the difference between your 6-hour rides, and your breakfast cereal-fuelled races, in terms of speed, or intensity, or power, or calorie expenditure?

[DuPs]

Fantastic article.  Thanks.

[Eldron]

Tue pop quiz:

 

Who said: "If you want to go fast you need sugar"?

 

It's all about intensity - at low intensity your body has time to turn all sorts of fun things into energy - at high intensity it doesn't so you need pretty simple molecules like fructose.

 

It really is that simple - there is no "I ate 3 mothballs and cycled 50 hours at 99% pace" type magic bullet.

 

All you need is the right fuel for the right intensity.

[Fat Boab]

Saturday I rode 105 km on an empty stomach with no energy drink or gels or bars. One bottle with a Zero tablet and half a bottle with water.

 

Only took 2 date balls (homemade), first one I ate at about 90mins and the other at about 2h15. At 2h50 I had half a banana and the other half at about 3h20.

 

It was the first time that I rode this long on an empty stomach and without energy drinks. Although it wasn't near race pace (I ave 27.6 km/h) I was surprised how good I felt considering the lack of training so far and the fact that I only had very little carbs. I don't know how much carbs are in the date balls, but it can't be as much as suggested in the article.

 

This weekend I will ride 112 km and see if I can push a bit harder.

 

The aim is to train low carb and race high carb for fat loss purposes. What I've heard is that by doing this your body can absorb calories more quickly and therefor deliver it to the muscles more quickly. After reading this article it sounds like bullocks or is there perhaps some truth in this?

 

 

I tried the approach you say you are using. For me it doesn't work. It's fine to ride for ages at low intensity without eating. It's easy to do. But come race day what makes you think simply eating carbs will allow you to go very hard? If you haven't trained to go hard where is this ability going to come from? It's not magically going to come from the carbs. It's like putting poor quality fuel n a race car and then driving slowly around the track and hoping on race day you will be a winner by upping the fuel octane. You want to go fast you must train going fast.

 

Base training another story. I usually do that on water.

 

Doesn't the missing part of a go-faster training strategy, not discussed here, come from the high intensity end of a polarised training program? ie whether it's little to no calorie intake whilst doing base, or slightly higher intensity sessions, they're focused on building the aerobic engine. The ability to go-faster, rather than go-longer, would more readily come from training using tempos/high intensity intervals, where it's more likely that it's your bodies inability to remove waste products, or operate in such a swamped environment, rather than supply or break down fuel? 

[Andrew Steer]

Following with interest... I'm not a 'racers' backside, but find this quite interesting.

Biggest concern for me in following this would actually be getting down all these carbs, but I've got a lot of miles to do before it's even something I would consider. 

[Bosbrommer]

Wow. Great article. I found it very insightful. Thank you.

[KidCharlemagne]

Not taking the place of the OP, and whilst they ponder your interesting query, can I ask what is the difference between your 6-hour rides, and your breakfast cereal-fuelled races, in terms of speed, or intensity, or power, or calorie expenditure?

Long rides will average anywhere from 26kph - 29kph while race speed is typically 38kph - 40kph.  TSS for the long training rides could come in at 300 and for a race like the CTCT maybe around 200.  Races are obviously high intensity from start to finish while the training ride is at an easy aerobic pace  An interesting test would be to see where my crossover point is (the point at which you start burning more carbs than fat as fuel) but until then I'll just judge it on my personal experience.

[Grey Hubs]

You cannot feed your body like a lawnmower and expect it to perform like a Jetliner...

I think we often do the reverse...feed 95 octane fuel to a Fiat Uno expecting V8 performance...

 

Only as good as the Human engine you have created! No shortcuts... 

[BDF]

Thing is the article refers to a scientific guide. This is is how a "normal" athlete would fuel for optimum performance. Anecdotal "evidence" is influenced my many things like weather, general feeling of wellbeing, mental state during and after a ride, terrain, relative effort/intensity, physical conditioning etc. This is why anecdotal "evidence" is more individual perception than evidence.

 

I would follow as close as possible to the guide they produced, with the exception of the white bread. yuk!

[dave303e]

I think we often do the reverse...feed 95 octane fuel to a Fiat Uno expecting V8 performance...

 

Only as good as the Human engine you have created! No shortcuts... 

 

no shortcuts?

https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/162559-bodytec-short-cut-training/?source=lfp