RTL Training Diet

Bassets jelly babies are a popular UK riding fuel and they were half
price at Sainsbury's the other day when I bought 2 packs. Unfortunately
I hid them and now can't remember where 😕

I have been trying some software recently to keep track of my food
nutrients intake and energy expenditure which has proved quite
interesting. Although I've only been using it casually it's helped me
balance my food intake better and I've lost nearly a stone in 6 weeks
(it needed to go) but today's cream cake may make a dent in that 😄

The software I'm using is from 'VidaOne' (http://www.vidaone.com/) and
they do stuff for Windows mobile and desktop.

--
unicus

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Y'know, there's a study of tastes, that found that if you eat a taste
something like 5-7 times, you will end up liking the taste. The problem
is that people are wussy and won't risk their poor ickle tastey buds
with new flavours and experiences, so they end up eating a very limited
range of foods. What they need to do is 'HTFU'
(

) (don't click the link if
you don't like swear words) and just eat stuff.

If you don't, then you end up only eating a limited range of foods just
because they're what you've always eaten.

In the last few years I've taught myself to like celeriac and celery,
tea, beer, red wine and a bunch of other things that I never used to
like, and it certainly makes life easier.

For what it's worth, I eat a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of
vegetables & fruit. A lot of it in the form of home made curries &
rice, but also pasta, stews, risottos etc. Obviously for you, you'll
want a bunch of meat in all these things, but to eat sensibly for
riding, you've gotta have some vegetables in there too.

Drinking-wise, beer is always a hassle when training, cos it's nice,
but you don't want to let it spoil your training. The easiest thing to
do is make sure that even when you've had beers the night before, push
yourself really hard. This gives you an incentive to not get too
hammered, and stops beer getting in the way of training too much, if
you make sure you get up at a sensible time and do any riding you've
committed to doing however hungover you might be. I try to ride home
from any pub visits / nights out if possible if they're in Nottingham,
because that way you tend not to get too caned either. Having said
that, right now I'm a total lightweight, seems like when I'm training I
can drink a couple of pints and feel pretty darned drunk (I sure am a
cheap date at the moment), if that isn't the case then it's probably a
sign of not training enough.

Joe

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joemarshall

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I've been thinking about the same thing recently. I usually have a
pretty good diet and I am pretty fit but I'm trying to improve myself
even more.

I think a diet full of carbohydrates and protein is most recommended.
Pastas are usually good, and sugars are good for energy. I read
recently that cyclists with pretty hardcore training schedules usually
go for a really high energy diet. This can mean they take in up to 6000
Calories per day, where the usual person takes about 2000. But a diet
like that is generally not reccomended without proper medical
supervision.

Check out some diets of bicyclists. Here is a brief summary of one:
http://tinyurl.com/23sghp

--
CoreTechs

Quoted message said:

<> UNICYCLE FOR CHRIST<><

In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti

Mikefule said:

As an alternative hypothesis of equal validity, God did not design us to
ride unicycles.

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For an ultra long distance event, eat whatever you like during the race.
Make sure there's a good variety available though. Sometimes you'll
feel like pizza, sometimes you'll feel like ice-cream, and sometimes
you feel like you're going to vomit.

For ultra long distance liquid fuel...I highly recommend Ensure. It's
the stuff we give cancer patients in hospital. The people that do Race
Across America swear by it. So do I. It's much better than some of
the sickly sweet sugar syrups you pay ridiculous amounts of money for.

Also a good supply of Coffee....I can't race without it.

--
GizmoDuck

The Uninam Tour 2008.....Hanoi to Saigon!!! www.uninam.net

The Monguni 2009....Unicycle Tour of Mongolia

Email me for details.
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Bowl of porridge in the morrning...

--
thejdw

I didn't spell it wrong, you just read it wrong!

kington99 said:

A hobnob is an oaty biscuit, the fact that they don't exist in america
just goes to show that you have no culinary heritage 🙂

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

don't follow Jesus, follow me!<<

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'Here is a book' (http://tinyurl.com/3ckmq8) that will tell you
everything you need or want to know about the connection between
nutrition and conditioning, i.e. what to eat before workout, during,
and after for recovery. While it's not a "Top 10 things to eat list", I
found it did a great job explaining how food works in your body right
down to the muscle/cellular level, and in the time since, I've been
able to experience and identify problems when I haven't eaten
correctly. So of you REALLY want answers, that's a good source to
check out.

But for quick recommends, I'd say it's important to maintain a solid
mix of protein and carb. Don't load on one and exclude the other. More
protein in advance of hard workouts, easily digestible carbs with less
protein during the workout (i.e. a multi-hour ride), and a mix of about
25% protein 75% carb -within a half hour of stopping -to help with your
recovery.

Beyond those rough rules of thumb, it's whatever you like. When I'm
seriously exercising, I tend to eat the same things day after day
because I have experimented on what works best for me. Most of my
protein comes from soy, although lately I've been on a pho kick which
provides meat for protein and rice noodle for carbs, plus a ton of beef
broth for hydration. Mmmm...pho. On days of big rides, I tend to
crack a Boost energy drink upon waking, just to get protein/carb mix
going immediately in my system. Then the aforementioned bowl of
porridge, ideally with bananas and a wee bit o brown sugar.

--
tomblackwood

Tailgate at your own risk...
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This probably won't help much... but I eat cereal, and hamburgers. :p

During the race, I like to down Gu gels (those... things. I really do
think they help me out) for quick energy, powerbars as a midrange, and,
well, sub sandwiches and burritos and burgers and yucky greasy stuff
for long distance fuel 🙂 If I'm out for longer than 6 hours, I just
eat whatever the heck I want (as long as I know it won't make my
stomach feel full), because I know that in 2 hours, whatever I'll eat
will be long gone.

--
chuckaeronut

Cycling: It doesn't get easier; you just get faster.
Unicycling: It doesn't get easier; you just do tougher stuff.
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Thanks for the info guys.

I like Chuckaeronuts hamburger advice best 😄 But if I'm going to go
through all the effort of learning to like something new, then I may as
well make sure it's the right thing. (fwiw I've already learned to
like tea, beer and red wine so they can't be on my list of new things).
Oh, and I never let a hangover get in the way of a good ride. I
actually like a hard ride to work off a hard nights drinking.

I already eat a lot of meat & pasta or meat & rice dishes, so it sounds
like that's going in the right direction.

Toms book suggestion looks good. I'll see if I can track down a copy
of that here somewhere.

But keep the suggestions coming.

STM

--
semach.the.monkey
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I drink home brewed kefir daily.

--
Doug

Ride like you stole it!
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Lots of good advice above. A big part of training is knowing how to
eat. Mostly what I try to do is eat plenty of nutritionally dense
foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and sometimes meat, and
avoid the opposite, like highly processed foods with lots of corn syrup
and bizarre preservatives.

--
phlegm
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Before a big race whether running or biking I got kind of technical with
how I ate and trained the week before but I always drank a big cup of
really strong coffee before starting out. Somewhere I read how it may
work to change how you metabolize your energy stores, but however it
worked, it works.

--
Nimbusnut
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Alcohol - I read in a cycling magazine a while ago of a pro cyclist who
disided to quit to see if it gave him a slight edge. It did.

Up to that point he'd have one or two drinks on most nights and about
every other week about twice that. Six months after he completely cut
out alcohol he had lost 15 lbs, had more endurance and was mentally
more sharp (didn't have as much difficulty remembering names and
numbers, slept better, and had more consistently good results with his
attacks in his races).

phlegm said:

Lots of good advice above. A big part of training is knowing how to
eat. Mostly what I try to do is eat plenty of nutritionally dense
foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and sometimes meat, and
avoid the opposite, like highly processed foods with lots of corn syrup
and bizarre preservatives.

... also anything with white flour.

I'm alergic to gluten a large amount of it is in wheat, and practically
anything packaged or from a restaurant. I use long grain brown rice,
and bread and pasta made from brown rice flour. Also I'm alergic to a
lot of nuts and seeds, sunflower seeds will send me to the E.R. I can
have a limited amount of peanuts, more cashews, and as much sessemee
and flax seeds as I want. So I have to be carefull about the granola
bars and trail mixes I get (but generally good and easy to carry - I
can ocationally have wheat if I gernerally avoid it).

Many people are alergic to foods and don't know it (especially gluten).
To test this take your resting heart rate 20 min. before and after
eating something you think you might be alergic to. If your hear rate
goes up by 10% or more there's a decent chance you are alergic to that
food and should be tested by a doctor.

I carry a small old vitamin bottle w/ vitamins E, C, B 1 (I'm alergic
to most others), Ginsing (G), Ginko Biloba (GB), and 200 mg. caffine
tabs. They all help w/ mental stamina for me. Generally I try to stay
away from caffine so when studying I take one each of the vitamins and
two each of the G and GB pills. If I've done this twice and still
can't think streight, I take 1/2 a caffine tab. The G & GB haven't
been terribly effective for me on long rides, so I sometimes I go
streight to the caffine, if I need it.

--
skilewis74

Ride everywhere and never just ride anywhere. If you can ride where you
are going within a hour, do it, and if you can do a trick 50-75% of the
time do it along the way.
Bob Burnquist on how to improve significantly.
'Trials Building'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64235)
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I would steer clear of the chocolate if lasting energy is what your
after... a mate of mine goes bushwalking and reckons the energy you get
from chocolate burns up WAY quicker than say a banana.

--
mill_mobile
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What you eat/drink after a ride is very important for training, because
that's when your body starts repairing damage done to muscles during
training, which is what makes them stronger for next time. The basic
advice is to take something with a bit of protein in it within 20
minutes of finishing training. You can get sports recovery drinks like
re-go etc, or you can try my personal favourite of chocolate nesquick
drink, which is nicer and considerably cheaper, although you do need to
mix it with milk (which has the benefit of making it cold, so nicer
than the sports-specific stuff).

Other than that it's just about having a vaguely sensible diet, maybe
with a bit more carbohydrate. The idea of 'things that are bad for you'
is a bit less strict, because calories are not the enemy here. Ideally
you'd still stay off most of the conventionally unhealthy stuff, but if
your training diet is boring you're less likely to stick to it.

Oh, and tea is good, because it removes free-radicals or something that
are produced by muscle damage during training, and are apparently
generally bad for you. So woo for tea and cake, basically.

--
johnhimsworth

Never argue with an idiot; they drag you down to their level and then
beat you with experience.
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if you eat lots of carbs within 30 min of finishing, you will have a
much better chance of recovering fast. There is an actually study
behind this that my dad was telling me about (he is a road bike GEEK).
Usually when I get home from a long ride or after a long run, I eat a
very large bowl of noodles or Cous-cous and then go shower. I find
that I recover faster if I eat before I shower instead of after.

--
scotthue
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NOT lobster !!

STL

--
savethelobster
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When running marathons, always carbs the night before. Whole wheat
toast with LOTS of honey and bananas in the morning. An ultramarathon
I know of suggests cashews as having lots of energy during a race.

Cytomax has been great before, during and after MTB races.

Replacing electrolytes can't be overlooked. This is why so many elite
cyclists have osteoporosis and probably contributed to my breaking my
back. So bananas, beer and sports drinks.

--
Munivision

Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!
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From what i know as a XC runner. Load up on carbs the night before your
race. Think PASTA. Drink as much water as possible. After the race or
workout if you cant eat right away drink some 'endurox'
(http://www.accelsport.com/product-info/EnduroxR4.html)
this will help recovery

--
XCcrev
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Carb loading should ideally start earlier than the night before. You
barely have time to stash any muscle glycogen away in that time. Think
more like 3 days. Hearty complex carbohydrates early on, increasingly
simple carbohydrates as the event approaches. The afternoon/evening
before an event I'm taking down as much plain sugar (candy, soda,
sports drink) as I feel like, and go to bed with a bottle of sports
drink handy to keep hydrated and continue the carb loading. Keeping
hydrated is very important because your body stores those carbs away
with a lot of water.

I generaly gain about 5 pounds over the course of carb loading, as my
body stashes away glycogen along with water. Within a few hours of
endurance effort all of that has come out of my muscles and I'm
dependent upon the simple carbohydrates that I'm consuming on the run
(or on the wheel).

In general, a good diet is one that chucks the processed food and
focuses on real food in calorie proportions of something like 60%
carbs, 25% fat, 15% protein. There's a fair bit of wiggle room there.
I use software to log and keep track of those percentages (I like the
software offered by CalorieKing.com), although I've done pretty well in
the past by just noting "servings" on an index card I carry in my
pocket. But I'm a geek on this stuff.

--
boisei
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