High Power Sports Nutrition Strategies

Cyclists need to think about their sports nutrition strategies. There are different ways to fuel training rides that will promote performance gains. In a world focused on “marginal gains” sport nutrition provides crucial gains that are often missed.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach here. No precise macronutrient prescription will cut across all sport training demands. Instead, there are short-term and long-term themes that will enhance training effects.

Here are sound nutrition strategies that recent sport nutrition science has been studying. [REF:1] They build your intuition about using food strategically to train and race.

General Sports Nutrition Strategies for Training and Event Prep

Fat and glycogen fuel training and racing efforts. Glycogen in your body will mostly come from carbohydrates in your diet. Fat will come from your diet too. And excess carbohydrates and fats become stored body fat as well.

Protein doesn’t fuel training, though it can through glycogenesis. But it is required to repair the tissue damage a training session can create. When your body makes a successful repair, you’ll become stronger for the next session.

The general dietary approach for athletes, then, is to eat enough carbohydrates to fuel workouts and events. Eat enough protein to rebuild damaged tissues. Eat some fat to make your meals palatable and to supply building blocks for hormone production.

High Carbohydrate Diet

The most basic diet strategy is to eat 60% to 70% of your daily calories from carbohydrate sources. Endurance cyclists have a consistently high fuel demand for their workouts. An all-round daily diet focused on carbohydrates will meet training and racing needs.

But you can do better than this. Your training volumes should be changing day-to-day, and week-to-week (see Building a Cycling Training Plan for ideas about planning your weeks). Your fueling approach should change as well. As you periodize your training, also think about periodizing your diet’s macronutrients (i.e. calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat).

High Carbohydrate Availability Diet

This is the advanced step of timing nutrition intake to specific workout commitments. Key training sessions will need carbohydrate intake before, during and sometimes between sessions.

On days with longer and/or more intense training (or racing) total daily carbohydrate intake must increase. This will ensure each training session will be high-quality.
In this approach, you’ll need to start logging what you do and what you eat. Actual fuel needs will require experimentation to learn what works best for you. Daily carbohydrates can range from as little as 3g/kg/day to 12g/kg/day, depending on your training load. That’s a broad range!

Adequate carbohydrate intake also supports proper immune system function. Serious cyclists doing serious training need to eat enough carbohydrates to keep all their body systems healthy and injury free. You must fuel your workout and your basic metabolism.

Have you gotten the message? Eating high quality carbohydrates is your ultimate key to cycling success.

Timing Carbohydrate Availability with Workouts

Some workouts benefit from either enhanced or restricted carbohydrates. Which approach depends on the training goal of the workout. You’ve got two methods to use here: train-high or train-low.

Training high means having well-stocked glycogen stores before and intense workout. You’ve eaten plenty of carbohydrates in the hours before an intense session. Your muscles will be loaded with glycogen. Hard efforts will have the fuel they need to work hard enough to elicit a training effect to build power.

Training low means liver and muscle glycogen stores are low and not ideal. Restrict the carbohydrates you’ve eaten before a low or moderate intensity workout. It forces energy pathways to rely on fat for fuel.

In the train-low body state, you aren’t expecting to build strength from a workout. Rather, you’ll be enhancing your endurance capacity. Long-duration endurance loves to burn fat for fuel. Train-low stimulates muscles cells to produce more of the enzymes needed to turn fat molecules into energy.

Long-term Carbohydrate Restriction

Don’t expect to get fast from this approach! You’ll be training for weeks to months in the train-low restricted carbohydrate state. Muscles will be stimulated to favour fat oxidation for a broader spectrum of performance. But there will still be enough carbohydrate to avoid continuous ketosis.

Muscles become stimulated to use more fat for fuel over as little as 5 days of moderate endurance training. Typically, you try eating 15-20% of your calories from carbohydrate, 15-20% from protein and 60-65% from fat. This will start stretching your patience at the dinner table though. More than 60% fat is a lot of oils, butter and nuts!

This is not a silver-bullet approach for endurance athletes. You might swing your metabolism a little towards more fat burning for endurance. The studies have shown no associated evidence of actual enhanced long-term endurance performance.

This could be a strategy to use during short periods of your base training, perhaps to help lose some weight. Definitely avoid it during high intensity training periods, especially in the final weeks as you tune-up to race.

Ketogenic Carbohydrate Restriction

Take carb restriction to further extremes and you enter the realm of a ketogenic diet. On this diet, you’ll eat less than 10g of carbohydrate a day. That’s no more than half a banana – and absolutely no other hidden carbohydrate sources – per day! (But it could be almost 2 cups of asparagus – fibrous veggies are keto-friendly.)

It may be a sacrifice to start eating keto. But our bodies are remarkably adapted for the change. Consider our ancestral human family. For thousands of years their hunter-gatherer lifestyles would regularly give them nutrition challenges. Short times of feast, as hunts were successful. Then long periods of famine, while your ancestors scavenged for anything to eat.

During these starvation periods, your body will switch to using fat-based fuels. Your liver will convert fats to ketones. Your brain will burn them instead of its preferred glucose. And muscle gets its supply of energy from fatty acids. Any cells that absolutely need glucose will get it from proteins converted to glucose via glucogenesis in your liver.

After several weeks of emphasizing dietary fat, moderate protein and 10g of carbohydrate a day, you will become fat-adapted. You might not look like a caveman on the outside, but you’ll be a bit like one on the inside. A 1983 study published in the journal Metabolism showed cyclists on 4 weeks of this ketogenic diet did not impair their endurance. [REF:2]

Becoming keto-adapted can give athletes in ultra-long distance events the advantage of using more fat to fuel their event. Gut problems usually arise from too much carbohydrate ingestion during your event. So, becoming adapted to using fat as your primary fuel source can be helpful if you often have race-tummy troubles. You won’t win your event if you’re sitting in the porta-potty! [REF: 3]

Workout-Specific Nutrition Strategies

There are at least four ways to eat before, during and after workouts to support targeted training effects.

Train in a High Glycogen State

If your workout will have any intensity component, you’re best to start with good levels of glycogen. That means both your liver and muscle glycogen stores should be in an optimum topped-up state.

It just takes good planning to time this right.

Keep your baseline glycogen at a reasonable level by eating a high-quality daily diet. Target 5-12g of carbohydrates per kilo body weight.

Have a full meal about 2-3 hours before your workout. Snack on easy-digesting foods and liquids before your workout if you ate more than 3 hours ago.

If your workout will be 2 hours or longer, then take easily digestible carbs along for the ride. Aim for at least 30g of carbs per hour of riding. 60g may be better for a long and high intensity training session.

If you’re getting tired during a workout, it usually means you’ve exhausted liver and muscle glycogen. But you can rescue yourself with a quick gulp of an energy gel. That’s why you’ll often see pro cyclists down gels in the last 15kms of a race. It’s quick top-up insurance to get feeling fresh for a fast finish.

The last 10 weeks of training before an event is your ideal time to “train the gut.” The more often you train by taking in 60g to 90g of mixed source carbohydrates per hour, the better your gut becomes at absorbing that much carbohydrate.

As you enter the last month or so before your primary race event, you should be training in a high glycogen state for most of your training sessions.

Target High Carbohydrate Intake After Workouts

There is a window of time post-exercise when carbohydrate uptake increases. You only need to worry about this precise window if your next exercise session will be less than 8 hours away.

Eating about 1g of carbohydrate per kilo bodyweight per hour over the next 4 hours will ensure your second workout also has optimal glycogen levels. Adding some protein may increase the glycogen storage rate a little further.

Train in a Low Glycogen State

Deliberate training with low glycogen reserves promotes muscle cell mitochondrial growth and activity. This is a good thing because your mitochondria are the power houses in your muscles. More mitochondria with better fuel efficiency will make you faster for longer time periods. [REF:4]

However, you can sabotage your training with too many train-low sessions. When your liver and muscle glycogen stores are low, your perceived exertion increases. The same power outputs will start feeling much harder. You risk reducing the quality of your workouts because you won’t be able to ride as intensely.

You can trick your body to reduce perceived fatigue with a mouth rinse of carbohydrate and ingestion of caffeine. [REF:5]

There are two common methods to using a train-low state.

The first method is starting in a low liver glycogen state. This is called a “fasted” state. Consider first thing in the morning before eating anything or at least 6 hours since last eating any carbohydrates. You’ll still have some stored muscle glycogen, which might be enough to power through any short high-intensity bursts.

Generally, you’ll need at least a 60min workout session in this fasted state to create enough training stress to spur improved fat-burning and mitochondria changes.

The second train-low method involves not just low glycogen levels in your liver, but chronically low levels in your muscles too. These are the ketogenic and long-term carbohydrate restricted states mentioned earlier. You get into these states by eating a low-carb diet all the time and avoiding carbohydrates during your workouts. It puts you into a very fragile training state. You will struggle to train with any intensity. You will become vulnerable to getting sick.

So why would you even try training like this? Because it’s yet another method of increasing your body’s ability to use stored fats as fuel for very long and slightly higher intensities. It would mainly benefit the ultra-endurance athlete. These athletes need an aerobic diesel engine driving them for many hours in events without huge spikes in power.

Carbohydrate Loading Nutrition Strategy

Research has refined the approach to carb loading. The original protocol directed a 3-day depletion phase followed by a 3-day loading phase. Training while depleting was potentially exhausting. The following 3-days of high-carb eating would lead to bloating and up to a 3% weight gain.

The better approach now takes about 2 days, without need for depletion workouts.

Over this 2-day window before your event, eat 10 to 12g of carbohydrate per kilo body weight each day. It will take some planning to hit this level, as it’s a lot of carbohydrate.

In perspective, a 70kg athlete would need to eat almost 25 bananas alone to get that much carbohydrate in a day! So obviously, you need to find some high density carb sources to reach your target load without overloading your GI tract.

To minimize your gut contents during this loading phase, avoid all high-fibre carbs if you can. This is one training period when it’s ok to eat processed foods.

Consider baked goods made from white flour, white rice and regular pasta as your go-to staples. That same 70kg athlete would need 5 cups of white rice each day to hit their full carb load. If that’s all you ate (which I hope it wouldn’t be), at least it would be easier than scarfing down 25 bananas!

Periodizing Carbohydrate for Training Adaptation

It can be helpful in off-season and early base training to target a few training sessions without enough glycogen. If done over these short periods, you can create beneficial muscle adaptations.

Usually it’s best to have plenty of glycogen available for training sessions. You need it to fuel quality high intensity training that leads to improved power.

But endurance is about more than raw power. It helps to have some increased ability to burn fat at high power outputs too. Because even the leanest athlete has enough stored fat to power hours of steady activity.

So, look to plan 30% (and up to 50%) of your off-season and early base training sessions in the low carbohydrate state.

Train High – Recover Low – Train Low

This strategy speeds changes in your body composition. And you won’t miss the training benefits of periodic high intensity training sessions.

While exercising at any intensity you’ll deplete liver and muscle glycogen stores. Go hard and/or long enough. Then avoid eating any carbohydrate after exercising to begin a multi-hour fast.

There are a couple of methods to schedule this into your training.

One way is scheduling two training sessions in one day. If you have a regular Monday to Friday job schedule, this might be easier to do on a weekend.

The first session in the day should be a high intensity interval session. You’ll make this a high quality training session. But you also use it to deplete liver and muscle glycogen levels.
Eat a breakfast with your usual load of carbohydrates. This will help make the first workout session high quality. But then don’t consume any carbohydrate during the workout and avoid all post-training carbohydrates. Fats and protein are ok. Carbs are not.

Wait 3 to 8 hours before jumping into a simple stead-state endurance session. Then have an end-of-day dinner with a focus on quality high carbohydrates. Studies have shown that you’ll improve the use of both intramuscular and body fat for fuel. This will expand your endurance capacity. [REF:6]

A second approach takes advantage of your natural overnight fast (and sleep) between two workouts.

Train with high intensity in the well-fed state after supper. Then don’t consume any post-exercise nutrition. Some protein and healthy fats are ok. Just don’t eat any carbs. Sleep in this low-glycogen state.

The next morning ride a steady-state endurance session of 1 to 3 hours before eating anything. Water is of course fine, as is some pre-ride black coffee or espresso. The caffeine may be just what you need to get going in the morning. Get home, clean up and have a regular breakfast.

Conclusion

Generally, you need enough calories to fuel your training and racing. Beyond raw calories, you need all the right nutrients to create lean body mass and growth. Not enough calories leads to low energy disorders. Your metabolic, immune and hormonal functions will not work right.

Cycling has traditionally focused on carb intake to fuel daily training and recovery needs. Now there is a growing depth of research looking beyond carbs. You can decrease body fat and increase lean body mass by manipulating all three macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat).

We need our calories to come in the correct food formats to give us energy and then help rebuild any damage we’ve done. Generally, eat to train to get fit and use fork control to get lean.
The sports nutrition strategies above produce results. But you will need a healthy dose of trial and error to discover what works in your unique gut. Monitor hunger pains, and any other clues your body gives you. Adjust and learn.

The ideal cycling physique is a long-term goal taking years. You need a good deal of off-season and pre-season strategies. If you’d like some personal help coaching you along the way, go see what Coach Kevin can do for you. Learn More at Epic Season Coaching

References

1: Burke, L. M., Hawley, J. A., Jeukendrup, A., Morton, J. P., Stellingwerff, T., & Maughan, R. J. (2018). Toward a Common Understanding of Diet–Exercise Strategies to Manipulate Fuel Availability for Training and Competition Preparation in Endurance Sport, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 28(5), 451-463. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/28/5/article-p451.xml

2: S.D. Phinney, B.R. Bistrian, W.J. Evans, E. Gervino, G.L. Blackburn, (1983). The human metabolic response to chronic ketosis without caloric restriction: Preservation of submaximal exercise capability with reduced carbohydrate oxidation, Metabolism, 32(8), 769-776. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0026049583901063

3: Jeff S. Volek, Daniel J. Freidenreich, Catherine Saenz, Laura J. Kunces, Brent C. Creighton, Jenna M. Bartley, Patrick M. Davitt, Colleen X. Munoz, Jeffrey M. Anderson, Carl M. Maresh, Elaine C. Lee, Mark D. Schuenke, Giselle Aerni, William J. Kraemer, Stephen D. Phinney, (2016). Metabolic characteristics of keto-adapted ultra-endurance runners, Metabolism, 65(3), 100-110. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026049515003340

4: Jonathan D. Bartlett, John A. Hawley & James P. Morton (2015). Carbohydrate availability and exercise training adaptation: Too much of a good thing?, European Journal of Sport Science, 15(1), 3-12. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17461391.2014.920926?src=recsys

5: Andreas M. Kasper, Scott Cocking, Molly Cockayne, Marcus Barnard, Jake Tench, Liam Parker, John McAndrew, Carl Langan-Evans, Graeme L. Close & James P. Morton (2016) Carbohydrate mouth rinse and caffeine improves high-intensity interval running capacity when carbohydrate restricted, European Journal of Sport Science, 16(5), 560-568. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17461391.2015.1041063?journalCode=tejs20

6: Stephen C. Lane, Donny M. Camera, David Gray Lassiter, José L. Areta, Stephen R. Bird, Wee Kian Yeo, Nikki A. Jeacocke, Anna Krook, Juleen R. Zierath, Louise M. Burke, and John A. Hawley (2015). Effects of sleeping with reduced carbohydrate availability on acute training responses, Journal of Applied Physiology, 119(6), 643-655. Retrieved Jan 6, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00857.2014