WINTER NUTRITION FOR CYCLISTS / ULTRA CYCLISTS / TRAIL RUNNERS.

Winter Nutrition – Fuelling Your Body during the Autumn and Winter Cold Months!!!!

Winter is a stressful time for the body or at least it can be if certain steps aren’t taken to ensure optimal health. We are all individual and the concept applies to our nutritional likes, dislikes and needs.

When the seasons change, this can post the most stress on the body, especially when life is busy with work and family as well as trying to keep in shape during the harsh winter months.

When life is run at a million times per hour it’s usually nutrition that takes the big hit. Training under fuelled and therefore in a negative energy balance places a lot more stress on the body than just training does. If the food consumed is missing vital food groups or vitamins then a general feeling of tiredness and regular illness can occur.

Mario Chef
Cycling is a sport that requires endurance, even for the pure sprinters and BMX racers, some time spent doing low level endurance miles in the off season is required and endurance training takes time.

A healthy, balanced diet is a great way to help keep the body and mind fit over the winter months.

All of the Great Britain cycling squad at London 2012 ate healthy, nutrient dense foods to fuel themselves before and during the games. However, the fuel elite athletes consume does not have to be expensive and it is easily accessible.

Here are a few tips..

Plan ahead:
As with most things cycling related, it’s ideal to set a goal before planning your nutrition. The race season for most can require different quantities of energy. Also, during the winter months it is often the best time to repair and build. If a gym programme supplements your winter training then remember that in order to build muscle you must remain in a positive energy balance before, during and after sessions.

This does not mean using protein as your fuel source. During a gym session the muscles main energy requirement is the same as it is on the bike. Carbohydrates and fats!
Protein would only be used if neither sources are available.
Protein will aid your adaptation but it is only an aid and not the sole or favoured fuel to do this.

So..drinking a protein shake alone before and after a gym session isn’t the best thing to do.

I suggest a chicken on wholemeal bread (from a bakery..not supermarket pre-sliced stuff) an hour before the gym session. Then, at the end of it..(remember, there’s a 60 mins window here..) a nice milk chocolate will do just fine..(semi skimmed, of course..).

Having a large portion at a certain meal can often increase a sense of fullness reducing the amount of much needed fat and carbohydrate intake to fully recover.

Fat during the winter:
During the winter months the predominant fuel for long rides is fat. Fat is also essential in the repair process when home from rides and during the night.
It slows the digestive process down as it a complex chain that takes time to breakdown keeping you feeling fuller for longer. Some vitamins are only fat-soluble ( A, D, E and K ) therefore essential in the diet. Remember the longer the exercise the greater dependence on fat for metabolism and endurance training increases oxidative capacity ( The muscles maximal capacity to use oxygen ) and increases the body’s ability to burn fat.

Here is a shopping list of some of the best foods we eat, and you can too.

- Flaxseeds (add them to your meals on a daily basis)
- Egg pasta
- Brow rice and wholemeal pasta
- Oats
- Eggs
- Lean cuts of meat/fish
- Full-fat Probiotic Yoghurt
- Bananas
- Coconut/almond/cows and goats milk
- Seeds and nuts mix
- Lentils/Beans/Pulses provide good quality proteins
- Fresh, Brightly coloured seasonal vegetables (Butternut squash is a great soup to warm up with after a winter ride)

Meal Times:
Making a meal from scratch is time consuming but it’s so satisfying and you know exactly what’s in the food you are about to eat.
Some simple planning (like it would be done on the bike) can make dinnertime easier. Start with a recipe that uses easily bought ingredients and not many of them. Start making dishes/food you are comfortable with simply switching to healthier ingredients.
Ensure you like what you are making and try to make more than you need. If you can make enough for a few meals and just freeze the leftovers then on a day when you’re really tired it’s much easier to eat a healthy meal quickly. Adding freshly steamed vegetables to a frozen Sheperd’s Pie, for example, will ensure the vitamin content stays high.

Supplements: cost versus benefit.
Supplements are a household item now but the evidence of their benefits does not match up with the amount that are purchased. A food supplement, whether that be a multi-vitamin tablet or protein shake should not compensate for poor food choices or an inadequate diet.
The IOC in 2010 suggested that a vitamin D supplement might be of benefit when exposure to sunlight is limited but most supplements have little evidence to back up what they say they do. If a balanced diet full of real food is followed the need for a multi-vitamin is limited to potentially the vitamin D content only.
With a busy lifestyle this balance can be hard to follow and so if a supplement is used then it is always recommended to take it for short periods of times when the body is under most stress only. If an end-of-season break were occurring then this would be ideal time to take a break from all supplements and stock up of fresh seasonal vegetables.

Drinking when it’s cold:
On a hot day it seems sensible to be aware of your hydration status, during the winter months this can be overlooked because the awareness of fluid loss is reduced. Dehydration during a winter ride or a track session can occur just as much as it does on a summer ride and can stress the body and reduce performance in the same way.

Listen to your body:
Listen to your body and its cravings. If you fancy chocolate or a curry then it could be fat you need. Try to include more healthy fats throughout your meals evenly that day.
Going on a ‘diet’ often yoyo’s the nutritional intake. It’s better to have a meal you enjoy, worked hard for and deserve once a week than to go three weeks without and over eating due to cravings. If you were to get 90% of your diet balanced then having a meal or snack a week you fancy will do your body no harm and your head plenty of good.
Fuelling is so important in cycling, and has possibly the biggest effect on your performance. It affects how you train, how you recover, how you feel generally and how you perform. Keep on top of it, and keep on top of your cycling.

Eat on the go to stay healthy – Ward off a cold:
Following heavy training or competition your body suffers a mild immune depression (an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system ). During this time you’re more susceptible to infection.
Ways to prevent this happening is to keep a positive energy balance. Easier said than done, but a few simple tips can help.

A ride under an hour. No need to fuel during a ride if a good meal has been consumed in the two hours before setting off. Still take a gel and a banana/energy bar though for emergencies.

A ride under two hours. Before an hour is up start to eat something on the ride. Ideally something slow release like an oaty cereal bar/flapjack or a banana.

Longer rides lasting 2-4 hours- Rides especially reaching nearer 4 hours require a lot of energy intake because of the amount being used during and after. It’s very important to eat something within that ‘first hour’ and ideally slow release quality especially if the ride is lasting 4 hours. If the terrain allows then nibbling little an often throughout the ride (ideally every 20-30 minutes) until the end would ensure maintenance of blood sugar levels until your next meal.

Simple tips:
Here are some simple tips to keep your diet up to scratch before, during and after cycling.
Balance is key. Too much of anything is not good for you. That includes vegetables and fruit too. A diet needs to be a good balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
Eat some carbohydrates as soon as possible after a ride.
The body can only utilise a small amount of protein every two hours therefore, keep protein intake small and evenly spaced throughout all daily meals/snacks.
Keep wrapped up warm both on and off the bike through the winter.
It’s cheaper, less time consuming and healthier to arrive home from a ride and have a glass of milk (ideally semi-skimmed or full-fat) and a banana/flapjack to aid recovery until your next mealtime than buying a protein shake.
No such thing as good or bad foods. There is good and bad timing and portion size though.