Food choice affect Training?

[cdaleguy]

For the average cyclist, have you found that eating habits, more importantly, the types of foods/drink, have a result on training efforts and gains? If so, are there any foods/beverages that are known or thought to have a bigger negative affect than others? And NO, I'm not looking for "yeah, eating a large pizza and a 6 pack a day isn't good" answers. When I used to run (limited) I really felt that cutting out carbonated drinks helped my efforts. I'm not sure why but I could tell a difference in how I felt and how well I performed, depending on "coke" consumption.

 

[grchester]

For the average cyclist, have you found that eating habits, more importantly, the types of foods/drink, have a result on training efforts and gains? If so, are there any foods/beverages that are known or thought to have a bigger negative affect than others? And NO, I'm not looking for "yeah, eating a large pizza and a 6 pack a day isn't good" answers. When I used to run (limited) I really felt that cutting out carbonated drinks helped my efforts. I'm not sure why but I could tell a difference in how I felt and how well I performed, depending on "coke" consumption.

As an analogy, (not sarcasim), what would you put in your car to get the best performance, (speed and distance), out of it? Kerosene, gasoline etc.

For short training rides you can get away with a lot. Once you get over 2 hours the quality of your ride becomes greatly effected by your carb intake both pre and during the ride. Post ride, carb intake effects your ability to replenish glycogen stores, which will enable you to train again tommorrow, and protein intake will effect your bodies ability to successfully repair and strengthen the cells that you damaged.

As far as carbs are concerned, the harder you go the simpler the carbs that your body can deal with. But simple sugar is a weapon of last resort due to its shortcomings. This is probably why you had bad experiences with early carb drinks. look for newer ones which are Maltodextrin based. Same for gels. Hammer Gel products are very good in this area. Most energy bars are also pretty good. Natural fruit, fig bars are another on bike snack. On long rides, centuries, etc., add in some real food, a light sandwich. But don't down a steak or bratwurst and hammer up your favorite hour long climb. Thats the place for carbs.

 

[Way2Slow]

.....First of all, pizza is one of my favorite night before/after long ride meals (less the 6-pack the night before of course...).

I have found that for pre-long-ride meals, bagels and Ensure-type drinks work very well for me, as does peanut butter on a sliced apple or on toast. Oatmeal, granola and other cereals don't seem to work as well for me.

For food during a long ride, I tend to like fig newmans, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, small packs of peanuts or other nuts, and of course less-healthy oreos or other cookies. These foods just supplement my main on-bike "food" source which is Perpetuem (from Hammer Nutrition).

I would definitely stay away from your soft drinks and other simple sugar products before rides -- I will sometimes have one near the end of a ride but not before or early on.

This is not earth-shattering, but I find if I make a real effort to hydrate the night before a ride (lots of water and maybe even some Gatorade to top up glycogen stores), it typically has positive effects.

General diet, again nothing new, but I find that "healthy" foods (i.e., real foods such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, etc.) provide me with a steadier/more even energy source and they also have more nutrients to aid in better/faster recovery than do processed/fast foods.

 

[wiredued]

I think its the sugar in coke that hurts performance I try to cut down on simple sugar intake and no snacking after 7:00pm does wonders if you work out in the morning. Some people say coke is made with virtually distilled water which is not good for people that do cardio every day due to the mineral lowering effects of both.

For the average cyclist, have you found that eating habits, more importantly, the types of foods/drink, have a result on training efforts and gains? If so, are there any foods/beverages that are known or thought to have a bigger negative affect than others? And NO, I'm not looking for "yeah, eating a large pizza and a 6 pack a day isn't good" answers. When I used to run (limited) I really felt that cutting out carbonated drinks helped my efforts. I'm not sure why but I could tell a difference in how I felt and how well I performed, depending on "coke" consumption.