PRE RIDE NUTRITION: WHAT, WHEN AND HOW MUCH TO EAT
Over the years, regardless of how many educational pieces I do, how many seminars/webinars I conduct, or how many one on one conversations I have with athletes the same three question continue to pop up:
What, When and How Much Do I Eat Before I Workout
What and How Much Do I Eat/Drink During a Workout
What, When and How Much Do I Eat After I Workout
Over the next three posts, we will go over each of these questions in great detail and offer some options to help give the confounding concept of nutrition a little more clarity.
A quick note to keep in mind before we jump in. The answer to all 3 of these questions is that nutrition is very individualistic. It depends on multiple factors including things like intensity and duration of your training; how much you are able eat during that training; how well you can tolerate food in the hours leading up to your workout; environmental concerns; and the list goes on. This is why it is never too early to start to experiment with what works best for you across multiple workout sessions and in varying situations so you are well prepared come race day.
Despite the current trend of the low carb bandwagon, I can promise you that no races will be won, nor will be peak performance be attained, while following a low carb diet. Sure, sedentary individuals or those participating in more explosive short duration activities can get by eating a low carb diet, but as an endurance athlete you aren’t looking to just get by. You need to perform, recover and be ready to train again the next day. And for that, carbs reign supreme!
In athletes, there are significant consequences of going low carb including: 1) suboptimal performance 2) poor recovery 3) reduced immune function 4) muscle loss and in one of the worst case scenarios 4)REDS (Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome).
So with all that out of the way, let’s begin.
The first question is WHAT should endurance athletes eat before training?
You are right to assume that I am going to tell you that the primary focus of your pre-ride meal should be carbohydrates. Think oats, rice, fruits, some vegetables, maple syrup, pancakes, etc.. These are all great sources of carbohydrates, but not all carbs are created equal and the type of carbohydrate you eat depends on many factors that we will now explore.
Some carbs contain fiber, and some contain more carbs than others. Carbs that are high in fiber are things like whole grain oats, broccoli, sweet potatoes, etc. that should be eaten further out from training because they contain more fiber (from the vegetables) and fiber slows down digestion. If you do not fully digest your pre- ride meal, you risk getting “gut rot” which most of you probably know… is NOT fun, so we want to avoid that. So for example, 4 hours out from a workout, a mix of low fiber and high fiber carbs may be a good choice. But if you are an hour out, you should have something that is easily digestable like an english with peanut butter and honey and a banana.
Additionally, if you are in the 3-4 hour pre-workout window feel free to include a little fat and protein which will help with satiety and will offer a nice ‘trickle effect’ of calories for those longer sessions. However the closer you get to your workout, the smaller amounts of these you should have as they take longer to digest.
The next question is WHEN should cyclists eat before training?
For long or hard efforts, such as a long endurance session, race or a group ride, athletes should aim to eat 3-4 hours out from training. For shorter intense sessions, like a 90 min sweet spot ride or tempo ride/run, athletes can eat 2 hours out. Finally, for short sessions or early morning workouts athletes can eat an hour out or even skip the pre-ride meal and rely on glycogen and fat stores or in-session carb intake to fuel their workout.
Now for the final, and arguably the most complicated, question which is: HOW MUCH should you eat?
As noted earlier, pre-ride nutrition is highly dependent on personal tolerance and you, the athlete, should practice the timing and composition of your meal to find what works best for you.
With that said, the recommendations for carbs intake before exercise range from 1 g per kg of body weight when eating 1 hour before training, up to 4g per kg of body weight if eating 4 hours out.
Note: If you are not using metric system, you can easily convert your weight from pounds (lb) to kilograms (kg) by dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2.
In the chart below I have given a range to shoot for. You should aim for the lower end of these recommendations if you are doing easier efforts and or if you are female. Females tend to rely slightly less on carbs than their male counterparts of the same fitness level. Also, women tend to need less calories overall.
Another recent trend in GI training is when you start on the low end of the recommended carbs and gradually increase your intake as your system grows accustomed to absorbing and utilizing the carbs. This becomes more important for the ‘during workouts’ intake but can also be practiced in your pre-workout meals.
About now I’m sure many of you are saying what the heck coach, I hate math and isn’t it your job to figure all this out for me! Yes, that is a lot of data and yes, you may be confused on how to apply all of this to help you train longer and hard so you ultimately perform better but don’t worry I am not going to leave you hanging. Let’s look at some real life examples to help give you a better understanding of how this works. The good thing is, once done, you only have to tweak things a little to get things dialed in specifically for your own personal needs. For all of these I will be using a 160lb or 72.5kg athlete (see goal ranges below).
Here’s the Formula:
#hours before workout X Grams of Carbs X Body Weight(in KG)= Total Carbs Needed
Example #1:
4 hours out: 70.3 or 140.6 Mile Triathlon, Marathon/Half Marathon Ultra-endurance Race, or a Multi Day Event (e.g stage race or bikebacking trip)
For this, the athlete should be aiming for ~4g per kg of body weight and they could accomplish with the following pre ride meal:
Example #2:
3 hours out: Long Training Ride or Run, Olympic Distance Race
For this, the athlete should be aiming for ~3g per kg of body weight and they could accomplish with the following pre ride meal:
Example #3:
2 hours out: Hard Tempo Ride/Run, Sprint Distance Tri, 5/10K Race
For this the athlete should be aiming for ~2g per kg of body weight and they could accomplish with the following pre ride meal:
Example #4:
1 hour or less: Weekday Ride, Most Training Sessions under 1 hour, all Swim Training Session
The final example is an athlete training at the crack of dawn, doing a 1-2 hour interval session or endurance ride. This is where athletes really need to rely on listening to their body. Some athletes do fine with a bit to eat and others find it negatively impacts their performance. Typically, a negative impact on performance is caused by choosing the wrong foods or eating too much. This results in a spike in insulin that leaves them feeling bonky during the first hour of the ride, but again I digress as this is a really detailed topic that I will cover in a later post .
Basically an hour out, athletes can either aim for a small snack of ~30g of easily digestible carbs or skip eating and rely solely on eating carbs on the bike to fuel their training.
An example for those eating in the hour before could be a small 6 oz smoothie or even something as simple as a banana with their coffee. In either situation here, and for all rides longer than an hour, athletes should be fueling during their ride with about 30-90g of carbs per hour, more on this in the next installment.
I actually prefer doing these workouts fasted if they are done first thing in the morning and they are not overly intense VO2max or Billet type interval sessions. This allows the body to focus more on fat burning for energy and helps with body composition but the key with fasted workouts in nailing the post workout meal, because without that you will not recover completely and your future workouts will suffer.
So gang, that’s it for today, use the formula and figure out your pre-workout feedings. This will help you in performing your workout but also set you up for success in your workouts.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 in our nutrition series: What, When and How Much do I Eat and Drink During my Workouts, dropping soon.
As always if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at:
CoachTed@Catalystmultisport.life
CoachAmy@CatalystMultisport.life