By now, we are all aware of the benefits of refueling correctly when riding a motorcycle. When we exercise we use the fat and carbohydrates (glycogen) stored in our body. While even the leanest professional athlete has more than enough fat stores for a training session, we all have limited glycogen stores. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles as it is transported in the blood as glucose. While we’ve all likely experienced the dreaded ‘bonk’ when our liver glycogen stores are so low that blood sugar drops; even mild glycogen depletion can lead to a significant reduction in performance.
Sports scientist and trainer James Spragg is one of the experts who will answer your questions in Cycling Weekly’s ASK A CYCLING COACH series, which comes out every Wednesday. Working in both research and applied settings, he currently leads Intercept Performance Consulting.
That is why whenever I work with an athlete I will prescribe their training and nutrition during and after each session. This ensures that macronutrient intake matches the demands of that particular training session. This approach to cycling nutrition has recently become known as ‘fuel for the work required‘.
So the question is: what is actually “required” during the training sessions?
As a (very) rough guide, we can break down the sessions into cycling training plans into three categories: easy rides, long rides and intensive sessions. Each of these sessions has a different carbohydrate requirement.
What cycling nutrition is required?
(Image credit: Future)
easy walks
These walks are short (<90 minutes) and very easy. Generally, as long as you are fed before these rides, they do not require additional carbohydrate intake during the session. However, if you're doing them the day after a run where you might still be a bit depleted of glycogen, it certainly won't hurt to have some carbs.
endurance rides
(Image credit: Future)
These Zone 2 Endurance Walks they’re longer (>90 minutes) but still pretty easy (if you’re doing them correctly). However, due to its duration, you will still be using a significant amount of glycogen during a ride and therefore it is sensible to consume some carbohydrates while cycling. At typical resistance intensities, 40-60g of carbohydrates per hour is sufficient.
intensive walks
These can be from short hard HIIT workouts to long and hard races. In those shorter sessions (<60-90 minutes) aggressive carb intake is not recommended as the body will not be able to process the carbs fast enough to burn them. By the time they have passed through the digestive system, into the blood and then into the muscle or liver, they are likely to have cooled down.
However, in long hard sessions (>90 minutes) you will need to eat plenty of carbs if you don’t want to run out of glycogen and see a drop in performance.
In this case, you must be drinking more than 60 g/h. In fact, some professional athletes now eat 90-120 g/h of carbohydrates.
Where should these carbs come from?
Now that we know how much to eat, the next question is, where should those carbs come from?
In case you are only using sports nutrition (sometimes very expensive) in the form of best energy drinks, gels either barsor does any old carb?
endurance rides
Below 60g/hr intake, I’d say it doesn’t really matter where the carbs are coming from. The reason for this is that different types of sugars are absorbed through different channels in the intestine. The glucose channel (by far the most common carbohydrate) can move ~60 g of glucose out of the intestine and into the bloodstream per hour. In fact, in scientific experiences, at this type of intensities, feeding cyclists with potato-based products resulted in the same level of performance as specialized sports nutrition. Considering this is where most of your training will take place, I would recommend finding a product you like, checking how many carbs it contains, and then eating enough to hit your 40-60g/hr.
intense walks
(Image credit: Future)
This is where things get a bit complex. Our gut cannot process enough of one type of sugar to meet the ~90 g/h needed to fuel the session. Therefore, we need a combination of sugars. The latest research suggests that a 1:08 glucose to fructose ratio results in the best carbohydrate absorption and the greatest performance improvements. This ratio is only really found in specific sports nutrition products. Therefore, for these sessions, I would certainly recommend specific products.
We also know that before the intestine can process 90 g/h of carbohydrates, it actually needs some training. Therefore, it is important that you do not suddenly gobble up 90 g/h in the first intensive session or race and hope your stomach will take it. Instead, you should progressively increase the amount of carbs per hour, starting at ~60g/hr and working your way up to 90g/hr (or even higher in some cases).
Likewise, since all sports nutrition products contain a slightly different combination of ingredients, you can’t expect your gut to be able to process any old product and everything will turn out just fine. Doing so is a recipe for ‘upset stomach’… Instead, it’s much better to choose a product you like and stick with it. Slowly increase your carb intake in crash sessions until it’s at ~90g/h or your stomach can’t take any more.
The verdict?
(Image credit: Future)
On easy rides, a little carb is fine and won’t do any harm. In endurance runs, you should be eating 40-60g of carbs per hour, but you can get those carbs from wherever you want. For intense sessions (especially those > 60 minutes), I would recommend finding a product that you like the taste of, that contains a mix of sugars (ideally glucose to fructose in a 1:0.8 ratio), and using it for all sessions. This will not only mean that you are optimizing the performance of the bike, but that you will also be training his gut to manage high carbohydrate intake. This means there are no nasty surprises on race day.
With food prices on the rise, it is becoming more expensive to satisfy a cyclist’s appetite. Here’s a nutritionist’s guide on how to get your nutrition for less.
In this age of training plans and online workouts, do you ever come across a burning question that you’d like to ask a cycling coach directly? Well, now is your chance to ask! In this series, we’ll be directing your questions to expert trainers – send them to Cycling Weekly’s Fitness Feature Editor at [email protected].
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