Nutrition: Fueling and recovery

michaelede

Managed to give myself some spectacular stomach cramps with a home made "workout fuel" so have decided that my knowledge from weightlifting / martial arts is probably the polar opposite of what is required here.

Can anyone recommend some good books / websites / articles that cover nutrition for endurance / recovery that they have used personally? With the tour of Sufferlandria coming up I haven't the first clue what to eat before, during or after to help rather than hinder my efforts. obviously I can just google but it would be nice to try something that has worked for someone else. (Ideally someone @ 93kg and 188cm!)

Thanks,
Mike

MartinGT

I wouldnt call the Tour of Sufferflandria 'endurance'.

For that I would just drink water and make sure I have enough fluids after and a grilled cheese sandwich after which is my fave food after a turbo session.

The sessions on that are just 1-1.5h turbo sessions arent they? Intense yeh so you dont wanna really go into them on an empty stomach and not hydrated correctly.

Yesterday I did a turbo session in the evening and had the following to eat and this is pretty standard for me during the week.

Breakfast - Small bowl of porridge with a cup of tea
Snack 10:30ish - Apple
Lunch - Protein shake & Banana with some nuts
Afternoon Snack - Yogurt and some more nuts
Evening Meal - Salmon with some rice

I always drink plenty of water and have a couple of cups of tea (one being Roobios) in the morning and a coffee in the afternoon.

After my turbo last night I drink a couple of glasses of water and had a couple of slices of ham.

supermurph09

I used to do weight training so fully versed in protein shakes etc. I continued to buy the powder after quitting the weights and focussing on the bike but once they ran out I decided to just have a large glass of milk and a banana when I got home, followed by a meal within the hour, that works for me.

For before you ride, its all about being hydrated and fueled. I just make sure I dont eat anything heavy about 2 hours before, especially if its hard turbo work where the chances of puking are higher! I drink about 3-4 litres of water during the day.

michaelede

Thank you, I appreciate the pointers. It's a whole new mindset / experience for me.

When I said endurance (what would be a better / more understandable term?) I was thinking of going on the turbo for 9 days consecutively rather than the individual sessions, would that change your approach at all?

MartinGT

Also, re good books;

Food for fitness - Anita Bean

Chris Charmicheael - Food Fitness

Feed Zone

I am not one for magic home made potions really.

For long ride 3h+ without a stop I use an energy drink in my bottles. For shorter rides, just water.

I use bars & gels also, but usually leave the gels for an emergency or when I am racing. If Its cold or hot weather I will snack on a couple of jelly beans or jelly babies just to keep my sugars topped up.

Hydration for me is key. At this time of year especially, a lot of people think you dont drink as much because of the cold, but you do. Keep topped up, your body is working hard to keep your core warm and when you're breating in cold air its got to warm it up. When you see clouds as you breathe out, thats moisture! If its really cold, I head out with an apple and cinnamon tea in one of my bottles

cougie

Not done the full tour of sufferlandria yet - but I'm going to take them as I would an outdoor bike ride - so for me - I'll go with some sports drink and then maybe a bottle of plain water if its one of the long ones.

I think recovery might be a bit of a bugger here - a lot of hard sessions - so I'll take rego or milkshake depending on whats going after the ride.

If I eat before a turbo session I can see it in my results - the HR is elevated as the body is still digesting the food rather than just focussing on letting the body cope with the turbo.

jjsh

I've found both the below interseting, well explained and useful;

Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes: Running Cycling Triathlon Swimming - Monique Ryan (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sports-Nutritio ... e+athletes)

The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition - Anita Bean (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Guide- ... 604&sr=1-1)

diamonddog

madasahattersley wrote:

MartinGT wrote:

I wouldnt call the Tour of Sufferflandria 'endurance'.

For that I would just drink water and make sure I have enough fluids after and a grilled cheese sandwich after which is my fave food after a turbo session.

The sessions on that are just 1-1.5h turbo sessions arent they? Intense yeh so you dont wanna really go into them on an empty stomach and not hydrated correctly.

Yesterday I did a turbo session in the evening and had the following to eat and this is pretty standard for me during the week.

Breakfast - Small bowl of porridge with a cup of tea
Snack 10:30ish - Apple
Lunch - Protein shake & Banana with some nuts
Afternoon Snack - Yogurt and some more nuts
Evening Meal - Salmon with some rice

I always drink plenty of water and have a couple of cups of tea (one being Roobios) in the morning and a coffee in the afternoon.

After my turbo last night I drink a couple of glasses of water and had a couple of slices of ham.

Sorry to be a cynic but the food diary you've just described is unlikely to be more than 1100 calories. If I was eating that little I'd have to start biting my own flesh for sustenance, and if you eat that every day then you'd look like a prisoner of war and have deficiencies of iron, vitamin A/C, Fibre etc etc... are you sure there's nothing you're not telling us?

^^This, I am 51kg and eat more than that. :shock:

dw300

At that size you could be chewing through 1000-3000kcals per workout depending on length, so just make sure you're not in a deficit. And with the intensity, you'll be burning lots of glycogen, so you will need a lot of that extra energy you're burning to be replaced by eating carbs.

DO NOT USE THIS AS A CHANCE TO LOOSE WEIGHT! You'll be fooked if you ride 9 days at intensity in a deficit - well, you simply won't finish. Ride it like a stage race and just get as much good quality food and rest as you can. But if you need to, just eat lots of sugary shit to make up the difference .. it's only for 9 days and you're certainly not going to balloon in that time.

simon_e

Fuelling Fitness for Sports Performance by Dr Samantha Stear. Written in a straightforward style that's easy to understand and apply and uses real food, not a load of powdered stuff*.

http://optimumnutrition4sport.co.uk/articles/

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/

* Supplements are unnecessary for most of us most of the time but the one time I'd suggest powdered energy drinks can be beneficial is during a hard workout like a turbo session.

sloppyschleckonds

What most people do on the 'tour of Sufferlandria' is take the intensity down a few notches.

I suggest vegetable smoothies for nutrition, like Lance drinks.

MartinGT

madasahattersley wrote:

MartinGT wrote:

I wouldnt call the Tour of Sufferflandria 'endurance'.

For that I would just drink water and make sure I have enough fluids after and a grilled cheese sandwich after which is my fave food after a turbo session.

The sessions on that are just 1-1.5h turbo sessions arent they? Intense yeh so you dont wanna really go into them on an empty stomach and not hydrated correctly.

Yesterday I did a turbo session in the evening and had the following to eat and this is pretty standard for me during the week.

Breakfast - Small bowl of porridge with a cup of tea
Snack 10:30ish - Apple
Lunch - Protein shake & Banana with some nuts
Afternoon Snack - Yogurt and some more nuts
Evening Meal - Salmon with some rice

I always drink plenty of water and have a couple of cups of tea (one being Roobios) in the morning and a coffee in the afternoon.

After my turbo last night I drink a couple of glasses of water and had a couple of slices of ham.

Sorry to be a cynic but the food diary you've just described is unlikely to be more than 1100 calories. If I was eating that little I'd have to start biting my own flesh for sustenance, and if you eat that every day then you'd look like a prisoner of war and have deficiencies of iron, vitamin A/C, Fibre etc etc... are you sure there's nothing you're not telling us?

ok, I shall add that me evening meal is a decent sized portion and I usually have some salad with it or a warp / bread.

However I shall quote;

pretty standard for me during the week.

On a weekend I usually eat what I want, if I want cake, Ill have cake. If I want a bacon sarnie, I will. I am usually riding on a weekend so normally keep to a decent breakfast and keep away from fried stuff like.

MartinGT

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

What most people do on the 'tour of Sufferlandria' is take the intensity down a few notches.

I suggest vegetable smoothies for nutrition, like Team Sky drink

FYP