advice needed on endurance exercise nutrition

trumpet38

Hi I have been dieting and have lost 14 kgs over 8 months in order to get fit . i am Currently on about 1500cals a day . Have been training for a long weekends cycling in the Alps. (Next weekend) Doing some mountain stages...Alpe D'huez.Due to diet the last few weekends I have found myself struggling for energy in the latter part of my rides. I would like to ensure that I have enough reserves and appropriate nutrition to help me through the weekend... Should I try to eat more calories leading up to the ride and when should I start? A day before? PS I'm no skinny lightweight.. 5'8 and 77 KGS but in pretty good shape...don't want to "bonk" to early...!Any good advice?

dmkoenig

My brother last year conquered Alpe D'Huez at age 60. He said there were all sorts of riders on it; just a long ride that never relents...

1500kcal seems to be way low for someone doing endurance training. No doubt this has been a big contributing factor why you have been struggling in your long rides.

The best science I have found for endurance related activities is on a running site. Even though these articles talk about nutrition for marathons a lot of it is going to be applicable for being on a bike and working for extended hours. Here are a few nutrition articles I thought would be worthwhile for you to read. Basically carbs are your friend but getting them to the muscles in your legs can be a challenge. Hopefully, you've spent some time figuring out what sorts of things sit with you well during an event so that you are not trying out new nutrition on event day.

http://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/pre-race-marathon-nutrition/
http://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/energy-gels-for-runners/
http://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/cience-of-bonking-and-glycogen-depletion/

Make sure you also have a good clothing layering plan since the temp and weather can change quite a bit from the bottom to the top. I think the excitement and seeing and riding with all the other riders along the way will help you achieve your goal. Enjoy the scenery and bon chance!

rbiss

i think 1500 is way to low. In the gym for an hour I can burn around 600 calories and my calorie goal for a weight loss at 2lbs a week is 1480 before exercise. Definitely look into how much you are burning, and make sure you eat that back. You will need to eat during the ride as well. Bonking comes from using all of your energy reserves. Training helps prolong this, but you can only store so much glycogen. Also, eating a lot the night before endurance events is a bad idea. You can top off your energy stores leading up to an event.

Machka9

I'm a long distance cyclist.

For endurance riding, I like to go with a decent breakfast (approx. 500 cal) and then anywhere from 200-300 cal/hour while cycling. More if you're putting in a lot of energy, less if you're cruising along.

200-300 cal/hour might be about half of what you're burning, or slightly more.

That'll keep you going for 5 or 6 hours, and then you might find you need to stop and eat something more substantial ... anywhere from 500-1000 cal. But the more you eat, the slower you'll need to go when you set off to allow yourself time to digest.

Seigla

Great plans and good question. Let me give you some advice from my experience:

First, 1500 is very low. I am an endurance athlete as well and I just ran 16 km and burned about 1500 calories. During the day I burn an additional 2000, which brings me to a total of 3500 calories. Eating less than 2500 would make me feel very hungry, let alone eating just 1500. My point is don't underestimate how much you burn and don't forget to refuel. If you do a lot of endurance training you must burn a lot too and to continue to do so your body needs to get enough energy and materials.

With my height and weight (186 cm, 84 kg) I burn about 1000 calories per:
11 km of running
30 km of cycling (fast)
3 km of swimming

I suggest you calculate how much you burn with your exercise and make sure you eat enough to not make sure that your deficit is not too large. It is important to eat some carbs and protein within 30 minutes after exercising so that your muscles can start with the repairing and refueling, and to do the same in the evening. I tend to eat some bread after exercising and I eat quark before going to sleep (a lot of protein in it so that my body has something to (re)build my muscles during recovery).

Good luck with your training, hope this helps.

3dogsrunning

1500 is crazy low for a male, let alone an active male.

I don't have an exact answer for you but my suggestion would be to start eating at your maintanaince now. The week before a half marathon race I stop my cut. For something bigger, I would start even earlier.

After the big ride, I'd start taking a look at balancing a cut with performance.

blankiefinder

1500 is low IF it's accurate. What is your loss rate? (average loss per week over the last month?)

trumpet38

hi guys thanks for all the advice. I should clarify that i eat more than 1500 when doing exercise - and off set exercise with extra calories. So that the net result would be as if I had been eating 1500cals with no exercise.... This equates to a weight loss of about 1 kg a week but in reality some days will be not that healthy so more like .5kg a week weight loss. I think this week I will be less focused on my diet and look to maintain weight net 2000 cals as suggested and then follow advice pre ride on hearty breakfast 500 cal and the decent calorie intake during riding..... Thanks for the tip on calcing my burn rate - I can work this out from my strava cycling data from the last few rides...

EvgeniZyntx

Taper this week, no special rides, so that you are fresh for you weekend. 3/4 days before the ride you should be loading up with a good carb load and lots of water all week. You want to keep your hydration level up - dehydration before or during will significantly effect your ride.

Try to get 100/200 cals per hour of riding in either glucose electrolytes or solid (banana, bars). Drink early, eat early. You do not really need to feed your entire burn - just keep a good balance a some energy reserves going. IF you eat one of those gels or blocks make sure you drink water with it.

Enjoy the alps. Great riding, great food. Keep spinning!

Mr_Knight

trumpet38 wrote: »

Have been training for a long weekends cycling in the Alps. (Next weekend) Doing some mountain stages...Alpe D'huez.

I am so damn jealous! I've driven up that thing - you're going to have an AWESOME time! Well, it'll be absolute hell but you know what I mean.

Haven't read the other replies - listen to whoever gives you the best examples of how to eat/drink early & often, somewhere around 200 calories/hour, depending on your specifics. Gels are amazing, if your gut can handle them.

Where you're going, pretty good chance all the rides are mapped out in Strava, so you can get burn estimates ahead of time and plan your daily intake accordingly.

Damn, but you're about to have some fun! Take a pic with one of the stage winner plaques in the hairpins and post it here.

:drinker:

Jen2133

I agree with all of the folks who are encouraging you to eat at least 200 calories per hour while riding. I have done 5 Ironmans and logged many training hours - as a 5'3" woman, weighing about 120lbs (trying to get back there!), 200 calories per hour was MY goal - you could likely eat more, depending on exertion level. Also, focus on eating back lost calories within 45 minutes of getting off your bike. Also, the advice about eating a good amount of healthy calories at breakfast is excellent. Lots of good advice in the previous comments.

Machka9

I estimate my calories burned while cycling like this: 100 cal for every 5 kilometers ridden. So on Thursday, my husband and I rode a century (100 miles = 160 km), therefore I would have burned approx. 3200 cal.

I didn't track what I ate, but if I were following my own advice above, I should have had about 500 cal for breakfast (I suspect I did), and then about half what I burned while cycling, so about 1600 cal while I was cycling. Since I felt pretty good at the end, I suspect I was on track with that.


(I used to do randonnees (ultra-distance cycling ... a century was just a training ride in those days) and I'm building up to that again.)

trumpet38

Been there did it. Still alive!!!!

RodaRose

trumpet38 wrote: »

Been there did it. Still alive!!!!

Wonderful!!

trumpet38

Thanks ! X