What you need to know about nutrition on the bike

What you need to know about nutrition on the bike

Today on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, we chat about your nutrition on the bike and find out how often we should be taking in gels to sustain our energy levels.  Our cycling coach, Devlin Eyden tells us how to use those gels or energy drinks to help get the most benefit on your cycling training rides and in your race.

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Transcript

David Katz: Welcome back to the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, I’m Mr Active, David Katz, joined by Devlin Eyden and we had a question relating to nutrition in the last one and we’ve sort of carried on with that theme because our next question today is about gels and the low-down, what are they all about, how do they work Devlin, does the kick benefit all levels of riders and when would be the best time to utilize them?

What you need to know about energy gels

Devlin Eyden: So, the use of gels, I think this will, as you mentioned, go quite well with the previous podcast when we discussed riding with water alone and a lack of carbohydrates basically. If we talk about a gel sachet, a gel typically contains roughly 25g of carbohydrates. If we’re cycling at an intensity, take mountain biking for example, a stop/start, almost interval type of scenario and we’re riding with intensity, albeit on the road for an extended period of time, we need to take in, for sustained energy, we need to take in about 40-50g of carbohydrates per hour.

That’s almost going to mean you need to take in two gels per hour. Now it becomes a little bit tricky because if you’re riding a 5 hour race or you’re out for an extended period of time, one, you need to make sure that you pre-plan that and you are carrying enough gels with you, if gels are the only thing you’re going to go on, or if you’re going to start playing around and you want to go a carbohydrate drink or you want some energy bars and what have you, I think gels have their place and gels can be a really good substitute if you struggle to take in solid food over a period of time.

I, for instance, would prefer to drink my energy source rather than eat it, I struggle to eat on the bike when I am tired. As a suggestion, if carrying the gels is an issue, also the potential acid burning sensation in your mouth and an upset stomach, maybe then re-strategize and look at mixing a high carb drink, typically your energy drinks that are out on the market, so mixing a bottle of energy drinks and doing half a bottle of carb drink, again your carb is a full 750ml bottle is roughly about 80g of carbs, if you do half a bottle and a gel an hour, will probably work out a little bit better because you’re getting more fluid into your body as well, so will keep you well hydrated, but still getting the amount of carbs that is necessary to sustain that effort over a period of time.

Strategize and plan your nutrition on the bike

I think one thing that we need to touch on is if you are planning on using gels in a race for instance or on your training rides, training rides is a good example, you need to train with gels before racing with gels. Again, we all react slightly differently in terms of the kick the gel might give us, how our stomachs react, so it is important to train and practice with any of your nutrition for that matter, not just the gels, before you attempt to use them in a race. I will always say: Nothing new on race day.

You have to plan your nutrition ahead of time, you have to strategize, if you know you’re going to be out for a period of time on a training ride, how long are you going to be out, make sure you’re taking in enough, whether it’s food, gels or a carb drink you’re getting enough carbohydrates to be able to sustain that over a period of time. That’s an important thing and the same will apply for a race. If you know you’re going to be out and you know how far apart the water points are and how long it should roughly take you to get from one water point to the next, make sure that you’ve got enough gels and enough energy drinks with you to be able to sustain that period of time between water points.

DK: Devlin thanks again for an absolutely incredible answer, really covering everything there that you need to know about gels.

Remember, if you do want to get one-on-one coaching with Devlin Eyden, you can go over to the website, coachparry.com, click on ‘coaching’ and check out all the information there and who knows, we could be – or Devlin could be – I’m not going to bring myself into that, helping you meet those goals and exceeding those goals in the future.

From Devlin Eyden and myself, Mr Active, David Katz, we’ll catch up with you next time on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast.

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