Fueling For Everyday Training.

After a discussion with some cycling friends, I realized that not everyone knows how to fuel for everyday training. There is some confusion about how much they should eat and drink on the bike. The average rider, non-professional, trains about 4x per week. Most people think that they should not eat anything during a training ride because they are either training and want to lose weight, or because they believe that if they don’t eat during a training ride, their bodies would respond better to the fuel that it is getting on race day. The problem with these scenarios is that you just impair your recovery after training days. You might not get the adaptations from the training that you were hoping for. And by the time you do get to do that race that you were working so hard for, you feel tired, and your legs may feel heavy. Not because of a lack of training, but a lack of good recovery and fueling.

Eating the right amount during training sessions is as important for the non-professional as it is for the professional athlete. Your body uses mostly glycogen for energy. And that glycogen stores get emptied when you exercise, so it is important that you restore them for your body to recover completely after each training session.

You might not be able to stomach 100g of CHO an hour like the professional athlete. But you should aim to put back into your body as much as you possibly can. The longer you can keep your glycogen stores full, the longer it will take for you to fatigue.

See below what you should aim for during training sessions:

Up to 60 min: Not too much, up to 30g would be enough.
• Between 60 – 120 min: 30g CHO/hr.
• Between 120 – 180 min: 60g CHO/hr.
• Over 180min: 90+g CHO/hr.

Drinking electrolytes during training is also a good idea as it replaces the sodium and potassium that you lose from sweating. You should be drinking up to 750ml of fluids an hour if possible.

Liquid:
400-1000ml/h
Not less than 400ml/h
Try and drink at least 100ml every 10 minutes. Do not wait until you are thirsty to drink because then you might already be dehydrated. Dehydration also drains your glycogen stores faster. And when your glycogen is drained, you get tired more easily.

To make it simple, if you train for 1 hour and it is not a very hard session, you can only drink electrolytes and maybe a small banana. If you train for 2 hours, you should have 2 small bananas every hour. 3 hours of training = 3x small bananas every hour. This is just to give you an idea of how much you should be eating during a ride. The ideal is not to just eat bananas, but get different types of CHO in. Your body breaks down different carbohydrates in different ways. Some take longer to digest than others. When training, it is good to use different Carbohydrates so that you have carbs that are absorbed quicker and carbs that are absorbed slower for the best release of energy. The idea is to use Glucose and Fructose when training. Table sugar consists of about 50% glucose and 50% fructose, and honey is also a combination of the two. But without getting too technical, my advice to someone who is not sure what to use is to buy a sports drink that tastes good for you. Some people do complain that some sports drinks are too sweet. Ask friends what they use and have a taste. There are no bad sports drinks. Most companies invest lots of money in researching their products. Sports drinks are a personal choice, and make sure that you can stomach the number of gels or juice that you must take per hour before your event.

Always read the label on the sports drinks or gels. Make sure your sports drink contains CHO. That is the main fuel source that you will be using when training. A very small amount of fat is also used, but no protein is used during training. So a protein shake won’t do anything for you during your training. Caffeine in sports drinks can also be useful and help with energy during training.

Check the sports drink you use and look at how much you must mix into your bottle. Because sports drinks, after it has been mixed, the carbohydrate content is much lower than what you might think. Most nutrition labels give the value for 100g of product, but you might only be using 40g for every 500 ml of water. Sports drinks and gels can get expensive if you use them all the time. Everyday food that you can use for training is bananas, dates, jelly sweets, or dried fruit. Keep it simple. But do make sure that you fuel properly during every ride. And make sure that you eat enough after training so that you can fully recover before your next session.

The idea is not to overcomplicate things but to get the best out of your training. And to feel great on race day. Make sure to always train with your sports drinks and or gels before your event to test everything and to make sure that the drink or gel works well for you.