Ian Craig Blog

Argus Nutrition

2010-02-18

Are you doing the Argus - it seems like half of the town is! Well, Michael and I are giving 3 workshops next week on the final preparations of it: Cape Town on Tues 23rd, Somerset West on Wed 24th & Stellenbosch on Thur 25th. As usual, Michael will be covering training and I will be seeing to the nutrition.

Just to whet your appetite (pardon the pun), here's a few dietary things to consider in the weeks before:

In the weeks before, you need to get the basics right - eat for optimal health to support your immune system, your energy, muscle strength etc - yes, in a way you are what you eat, so if you prepare for a race with hotdogs, don't be surprised if you perform like a bun, I mean bum!

Eat to support the amount of training that you're doing - I often find cyclists that eat nowhere near what the training should determine - are they going to have bundles of energy if the body is downregulating?

Get enough protein - the average cyclist will need 100g+ of good quality protein per day to make hormones, turn over muscle tissue, balance the immune system, make neurotransmitters to keep you focused and relaxed ....... So my previous posts that focus more on protein.

Eat your veggies - 5 portions per day where 1 portion = size of your fist. Its easy to fit these in if you start at Breakfast with a tomato or some salad with your eggs on toast.

During the Argus ride, about 50% of our energy is likely to come from fat and most of the rest from carbs (small amount from protein). In preparation for your event, fat burning will be important and if you don't stint on the fat in your diet (as many cyclist do in the false hope that it will keep them trim), you can become more proficient at burning fat. Take some meat, dairy, fish, eggs, olive oil, nut, seeds, avocado etc in the diet - they are good for you!!

You will also need a carb load and this starts about 3 days before the race (so Thurs, Frid, Sat). If you take a look at my DC prep blog, it will give you a couple of good examples of a really high proportion carb diet that you can use for this period.

I would love to go on and talk about race day nutrition but oh dear, I'm run out of time. You will just have to come along and see us talk in person to hear the rest! On a serious note, even if you think you know all there is to know, I'll bet you lots of money that you can gain some fresh knowledge. Also, I find in SA that many cyclists tend to do their own thing (compared to Europe where the club scene is bigger). I'm always a fan of collective knowledge that you can get from great discussions, like the Bike Max workshops always create.

I've put some blurb on my website about the talks www.craigcoaching.com or talk to Michael or I if you have any questions. See you next week! Ian

DC Race Day Nutrition

2009-11-19

Okay, so what do we eat on the day of the race? That is a personal choice of course - I will supply you with a few suggestions, but make sure that you do what you're comfortable with and have done before.

The Morning of the Race – the Last Meal

• The race is long and you will start steadily, so your breakfast should be decent

• Do what you usually do and if you are going to change anything, do it weeks before!

• Respect individual needs – some people will be best with a heavy B-fast and light snacks during the ride, others are the opposite!

• Include protein in B-fast!

Here are a few example B-fasts – if you have a personal race favourite, please share it with us.

• Muesli with milk and sliced banana and 1-3 tbsp natural yoghurt

• Oats (cooked or raw) in milk with sprinkle of nuts and seeds and some fruit (honey to taste)

(In both cases, put some whey protein in to increase protein content, if tolerated)

• Eggs (2-3) with 2-3 slices of bread (spread with butter) and a tomato or some berries

• Light option – 2 slices toast with a good spread of hummus, tahini or PN butter

Race Nutrition

The race is over 200km and is broken into 5 possible segments - fuel-stops points are at:

• 34km – Tradouw Pass

• 63km – Op De Tradouw

• 105km – Montagu

• 163km – Bonnievale

If you are heading for a 6hr effort, this is an average of just over 1hr per stage and if you are heading for a 10hr effort, this would be just under 2hrs per stage. So, at most you will need to fuel yourself on the bike for 2 hours, which is not an excessive time.

How much fluid?

Depending on the heat and humidity on the day, how fast you are riding and how much you personally sweat, you may lose anywhere from ½l to 2-3l per hour. So, you probably can’t keep up with fluid loses – it may be realistic to take in 0.5-1l of fluid per hour. If you are riding slowly though and taking your time at fuel stops, please don’t drink excessively (over 1-2l per hour) because diluting your body fluids too much can in rare cases need medical treatment (if intrigued, Google ‘hyponatremia’).

Have on your bike 2 x 750ml bottles per segment, which should be plenty. Most of the fluid should be a sports drink so that you can maximise your fuel intake. With such a long race, though, it is best to include a reasonable amount of solid food, so perhaps dilute one of your bottles if you are eating a lot. Plain water is not the best option because it doesn’t provide salts or sugar for the body and won’t be absorbed as efficiently as a sports drink.

Which Sports Drinks?

These are sports drinks that I would rate for such an event:

• Hammer: Sustained Energy & Prepetium

• Cytosport: Cytosport and Pre-formance

• PVM (Energy Dynamics): Octane

• Cadence: Revolution

• Reflex: The Edge

The cheap drinks like Energade, Powerade and Lucozade will make you glow in the dark with the amount of colours and flavours in them and are really just a blend of sugar and water (and good marketing).

It is very easy to do a DIY option – see my old blogs for grape and Rooibos drinks. The most important thing to say about sports drinks is, practice in training and find one you like.

Solid Snacks

• ½ Bananas

• Baby Potatoes

• Fruit Loaf

• Nougat

• Rusks

• Protein bars

• Mule Bars

• Jungle Oat Bars

• AIM FOR 1 SOLID SNACK PER HOUR

Tomorrow, I'll talk about post-race recovery ....

Loading up for the DC!

2009-11-18

In preparation for the DC, today is when you should start thinking about Carb Loading and Water Loading:

During the actual DC ride, depending on your own metabolism, about 50% of your energy will come from fat burning and most of the rest from carbs (5-10% will be muscle breakdown). So, in preparation for the race, fat burning will be important, but without sufficient carb supplies, you won’t hit your higher paces. Therefore, it would be sensible to spend a few days Carb Loading before the event – Wed, Thurs and Frid should be enough. Here are a couple of example diets (2500Cal is about right for a lightly exercising woman or sedentary man and 3000Cal for a heavily exercising woman or lightly exercising man):

	2500Cal	3000Cal
B-fast	1 cup oats; 125ml 2% milk; 10g whey powder; 4 dried figs; 1 medium banana	4 thin slices rye/wholegrain bread; thin smear butter; 2 boiled eggs; 1 cup strawberries; 1 cup blueberries
Snack	2 apples	300ml fruit juice plus 10g whey protein mixed in
Lunch	4 thin slices rye/wholegrain bread; thin smear butter; 50g cooked ham; 1 tomato, ½ cup red bell pepper; ½ cup red onion; 2 tbsp hummus; mustard	80g salmon; ½ cup (dry) brown rice; 1 portabella mushroom; ½ cup red bell pepper; 1 cup broccoli; 1 cup lettuce; 1 cup spinach; 100g sw. potato; ½ tbsp pine nuts; lemon juice/balsamic to taste
Snack	4 rice cakes plus thick spread of hummus	10 small dried apricots plus 20g mixed nuts
Exercise	500ml sports drink or fruit juice (diluted 50% with water)	500ml sports drink or fruit juice (diluted 50% with water) plus 20g whey protein
Dinner	50g Spaghetti (dry); 1 serve Dolmio sauce; 1 tbsp Parmesan; 1 cup lettuce; 1 tomato; ½ cup cucumber; 5 olives	100g risotto rice; 10ml olive oil; 1 clove garlic; I cup onion; 2 sticks celery; 0.25l veg stock

You can choose from any of the meal options and reduce it or decrease according to your needs. Aim to eat evenly through the day and not a small b-fast and lunch plus large dinner as many people do. This is a high carb/low fat/low protein diet, so if it reminds you of what you eat already, then eat more protein and ‘good’ fats on a daily basis!

Hydration is extremely important for such a long ride. There are 3 ways of ‘water loading’:

• Salt – ½ tsp sea salt per litre water drunk in the day to two before the race

• Glycerol – drags water into body cells. Take 1ml/kg body mass 150mins before event along with adequate water

• Creatine – 5g per day taken for 2 weeks + before the event

(Warning - if you want to try the last 2 options, please talk to somebody who knows about sports nutrition – you can have some nasty side effects if you get it wrong)!

I will talk about Race Day Nutrition tomorrow. Any questions or personal observations, please say ....

DC Strategies + caffeine

2009-10-23

Michael and I have just had great fun doing our first DC Strategies workshop in Somerset West. Michael talked about training up to the day plus team strategies on the day, depending whether you're racing for a place or out to enjoy the view! I dealt with the nutrition and talked about carb loading vs. fat loading, water loading, the pre-race meal, the hour before, liquid and solid foods during the race and speeding up recovery after.

You will be very pleased to know that we are repeating the workshop at Cycle lab, Northgate Mall on Mon 2nd Nov. I don't want to give too much away because it would be lovely to share with you in person, however, one area of discussion was around ergogenic aids (performance-enhancing supplements).

I think there are a lot of supplements that can support the body and help it to function better and therefore improve performance. However, I wouldn't call them ergogenic - ie. make a very measurable difference to performance. There are two supplements that I would truly call ergogenic and one of them is caffeine.

Caffeine stimulates fat mobilisation which would increase the amount of fuel coming from fat and spare carbohydrate stores a bit. It is not going to be too effective if you are a big coffee drinker because your receptor sites will be down ergulated. However, if you are caffeine-clean, you can potentially gain a lot. Up to 500mg caffeine (3-4 cups of very strong coffee or equivalent in pills) within an hour of the race would be the dose, although everyone is individual and may require a lot less. Be careful though because caffeine is diuretic and potentially a gut stimulant, so can cause you to need a Number 1 and/or Number 2! Its one to practice in training.

I would be very interested to hear experiences from anyone who has used caffeine as an ergogenic aid - a good one to discuss.

I mentioned two performance-enhancing supplements - well, you'll need to come on the 2nd to learn about the other one!

Anyone for Grapes?

2009-10-08

Last time I told you about the virtues of Rooibos tea. Well, something else that South Africa has a lot of is grapes. I've just read a piece of research that examined the effect of grape extracts on oxidative stress in elite athletes. The research found that oxidative stress was decreased in athletes taking an extract of grapes and performance was even increased in some. If you want to read more, follow the link: http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Naturex-builds-sports-case-for-Powergrape

Essentially, oxidative stress happens when we inhale oxygen (as we tend to do quite often)! About 5-10% of the oxygen will turn into free radicals, so this could be particularly relevant to cyclists doing lots of miles. The free radicals then bounce around in our body causing damage to cell membranes, blood vessels and even our genes. Oxidative stress is considered one of the main contributors to age and degenerative disease. In order to combat it (or at least try and neutralise it a bit), we need antioxidants. Commonly understood antioxidants are Vits A, C and E (ACE), Beta-carotene in orange and red veg, lycopene in tomatoes, catecins in green tea and rooibos and resveratrol in red wine (or grapes).

Stay tune for when I discuss a DIY sports drink that incorporates grapes.