Food Before and During Cycling

There are numerous theories about optimal nutrition for cycle training. If you read all the conflicting reports and theories it can leave your head spinning. However, away from all the theories, I think the best advice is to follow basic common sense.

Eating Pre Training.

Before a training ride, I try to leave a gap of about 2 hours between eating and cycling. If you have to cycle straight after a meal, it is OK, so long as you are not doing intervals. If you are doing really hard intervals it is essential to have a relatively empty stomach. There is nothing worse than doing intervals with a belly full of food. Which reminds me of a 2 stage hill climb organised by Otley CC. I thought there was a 3 hour gap between races, so after the first hill climb I ate quite a lot of food, cakes e.t.c. It was probably too much even for a 3 hour gap. But, then I learnt it was only a 2 hour gap and I had 30 minutes before my 2nd hill climb. Needless to say the hill climb was a painful experience (I came 6th after finishing 2nd in the first hill climb) Anyway, I digress somewhat.

The main thing before a ride is to consume foods which involve a good proportion of complex carbohydrates and have a relatively low glycemic number. These foods include rice, pasta, oats, brown bread apples e.t.c.

Examples of Good Breakfast for Cycling

• Muesli with fruit. Oats are an excellent, slow release energy source. Low in fat, high in carbohydrate, they are also easily digestible.  Fruit (fructose) is also an excellent slow release energy source. They are also hydrating and easily digestible.
• Porridge with a touch of honey or low fat yogurt
• Brown Bread rather than white. White bread has a very high glycemic index (close to 100). Therefore, it leads to a surge in blood sugar levels. Brown bread is generally medium GI. Therefore, it provides a longer lasting blood sugar level, and less spikes and crashes in blood sugar. See: Constant energy levels

A good pre ride lunch might involve:

• eggs on toast,
• Basmati rice and some vegetables.
• Perhaps soup and brown bread.
• Light Pasta dish with salad.

I’ve sometimes suffered from having heavy lunch and going out within an hour.

Foods During a Ride

Foods during a long ride.

During the training ride, I usually take more muesli bars. I try to get a mix, otherwise you can become fed up of eating the same variety. Generally, I think these offer better value than the more expensive specially formulated ‘energy bars’ Energy bars are optimised for best combination of carbohydrates and other food, but I think you pay quite a lot more just for the packaging. On long rides of 3 -4 hours, I will usually take one. But, complement it by the other cheaper energy bars.

How Much To eat During a Cycle Ride?

During a 1.5 hour or 2 hour ride, I may eat very little. Perhaps 1 banana and or 1 energy bar. However, for a three hour ride, I will take 3-4 bars. For a 5 hour ride, I may get through the equivalent of 9-10 energy bars.

For really long rides, you need to start eating before you get hungry – little and often is a good motto.

But, it’s hard to say how much you need to eat. It depends on your metabolism and also the speed and effort of your ride. At higher speed and effort levels, you will use correspondingly more calories – see: Calories consumed cycling
For variety, try:

• Malt loaf
• Bananas
• Figs

D0 You Advise Taking Energy Drinks?

Energy drinks provide easily absorbable energy, they are light on the stomach and provide instant energy. I tend to save these for very long and taxing rides or races. In training, I’m trying to aslo train the body to make better use of glycogen stores. By depleting carbohydrate levels, the body is forced to use glycogen. When you do long rides, it definitely helps to have a more efficient use of glycogen. But, for important rides or races, I will definitely use a simple energy drink.

Foods After Cycle Ride

Recovery drinks – protein and carbohydrate drink.

Good to have something soon after stopping to help replenish energy stores. It is not good to wait two hours for evening meal to be prepared. Good recovery is important. Also, you will need to pay attention to rehydration. I love having some cut up melon or fruit to start off with, them something more solid. Don’t worry if you haven’t prepared recovery drinks and energy bars. Nature provides excellent alternatives to the more expensive stuff. Just use common sense. Often when your body is depleted it is more sensitive to food intake. Therefore, try to really feel what type of food the body wants. Healthy combinations of veg, rice and so on, will obviously be much better than going down local McDonalds.

See also: recovering from long ride

Related

• A More detailed post on optimal food nutrition for cycling
• Cycling Food

• Energy Bars at Evans