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Fuel for Thought Series: Fueling For Maximum Performance with Nick Kleban
104 Plays5 months ago
You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled “Fuel for Thought”. Any guesses?
I mean if you know me, you know I love a good old play on words, hence the name of this new series that I’ve produced with Xact Nutrition.
Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups and sign up for big challenges but one of the things we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical, is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform.
So we’ve put together a multi episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that,
in hopes that you come away with more in depth knowledge and a better understanding of nutrition.
On this episode of Just In Stride, Fuel for Thought Edition, we digest high fuel consumption for better performance with Elite Cyclist, Nick Kleban.
Nick is notoriously known for how many carbs he can consume per hour, leaving little doubt that he has enough fuel to support his max effort.
We go in depth into hourly carb intake, different ways to consume fuel, time between feeding, signs you might be low on energy, how to recover from bonking and so much more. I have a gut feeling this will be the perfect crash course to high fueling and that it will leave you more energized than before.
Some topics we cover:
-Min and Max fueling consumption
-Fueling schedule
-Different ways to consume fuel
-Ideal to mix and match different types of fuel
-Troubleshooting due to lack of fuel?
-Signs your are low on fuel
-How to reset when our body is rejecting fuel?
-Lessons learnt from poor fueling?
-Fuel consumption 101
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Offer from Xact Nutrition: This episode is presented by our friends at Xact Nutrition and they are offering you 15% OFF your order when you use the code JUSTINSTRIDE. So head to xactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today! Now shipping in Canada and the U.S.
Thanks for tuning in to the Just In Stride Podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback we’ll be able to make the show even better and it’ll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram @justinstridepod and YouTube @justinstridepod for all the latest episodes and updates. Glad you came along for the ride with Just In Stride!
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Transcript
Introduction to Stride Pod and Endurance Discussion
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Justin's Drive podcast. I'm your host, Justin Puyese. If you love endurance sports, you've definitely come to the right place. On this show, we'll talk to athletes, coaches, and professionals who can help us reach our true potential. Being a student of distance running for over 10 years and interviewing people in the sport for the last five, I've learned a ton, but there's always more to discover. Everyone has a story, and I know you'll resonate with each of our guests as we embark on this new journey together. Join us at home, on the road, or while you run. Together, we'll have some fun. So follow along on Instagram at justinstridepod and your favorite podcast platform and prepare to be inspired. Come along for the ride with Justin Stride.
Sponsorship and Nutrition Series Launch
00:00:51
Speaker
This episode is presented by our friends at Exact Nutrition, a tasty and healthy way for you to fuel your body before, during, and after a solid training session. I can't leave the house without a few fruit bars in my pocket and they never make it back home. Exact is offering you 50% off your order when you use the code justinstride. So head to exactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today. You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled Fuel for Thought. Any guesses? I mean, if you know me, you know I love a good old play on words. Hence the name of this new series that I've produced with Exact Nutrition. Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups, and sign up for big challenges. But one of the things we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform.
00:01:42
Speaker
So we've put together a multi-episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that, in hopes that you come away with more in-depth knowledge and a better understanding of nutrition. On this episode of Justin Stride Fuel for Thought Edition, we digest high fuel consumption for better performance with elite cyclist Nick Clavin. Nick is notoriously known for how many carbs he can consume per hour, leaving little doubt that he has enough fuel to support his max effort. We go in-depth into hourly carbon take, different ways to consume fuel, time between feeding, signs you might be low in energy, how to recover from bonking, and so much more. I have a gut feeling this will be the perfect crash course to high fueling and that it will leave you more energized than before. Nick, welcome to the Justin Strive podcast. um Thanks for having me, Justin.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, i I wanted to have you on. um I'm working on this series. this is the and This is one of the episodes for Fuel for Thought, a series that we're executing with exact nutrition. And they thought you'd be a great person to speak about the topic of fuel consumption and how it affects performance. I just want to maybe give you a chance to introduce yourself briefly and why you have interest in the topic.
Nick Clavin on Carb Consumption in Sports
00:03:06
Speaker
Okay, cool. Well, a little about myself. I have a background in physiology. That's what I did my degree in at McGill here in Montreal. And I'm a semi-pro rider myself on the bike. And I'm guessing that Alistair recommended me for this because I'm known for like slamming a lot of carbs in my race. And he like really latches onto that fact about myself. So I have a little bit of experience with.
00:03:30
Speaker
high carbohydrate consumption as a racer, but I think I can speak a bit to the science, I guess, as well. But like, no, I'm not a nutritionist by any means. It's just a little bit of info I have. And so just to kick it off, because you mentioned it, what value do you find in high carb consumption? Well, I think in one sentence, it's more energy, like more fuel, more energy. You can do more work on the bike or running. Like it's just giving you the energy that you need to do to do the work that you have to. So we'll get into that more, but I think the main difference between like high carb versus low carb training is just how much work you're able to do in your training sessions.
00:04:15
Speaker
And so do you practice both forms of carb intake, low and high, or is it always high for you? And what does it mean exactly? Like are you eating two plates of pasta before you go train? What does that look like? So basically I think there's this idea in cycling, it's called fuel for the work required. And it was kind of a, uh, an interesting paper that came out like years ago, but it's basically you're trying to tailor your carbohydrate requirement for what you're doing in your training. So I kind of like to think about how you are fueling your efforts, I guess, in a couple of different ways. So when you're doing like.
00:04:53
Speaker
a really low intensity session. The bulk of your energy is going to be derived from fats. So about one pound of fat, it stores 3,500 calories. So even like a really lean cyclist who's like 10% body fat, you'd have a huge store of fat that you can use for energy. And I like to call that like the dirty diesel. Okay. But the dirty diesel is like the tank is always full because you can think you have this huge store of it. But it just takes a while to extract that energy. It's like a big clunky process to get to those fats. But when you start to exercise a little bit harder, your muscles, it can't wait to like go into that dirty diesel, into that big tank. You need to like go get i what I call the gas, which is carbohydrate.
00:05:43
Speaker
And the problem here is though, unlike the diesel, which I like to call it the fats, you can't store as much. So you only can store like 300, 500 grams as glycogen and burning one gram of glycogen is just four calories. So your storage capacity is much, much, much less than the fats. So when you're talking about fueling, it's all about fueling with carbohydrates is basically the way to preface that. So you have to think about it in a way where. Okay, if you're going to start to do an intense bit of exercise, you need to start using carbohydrate. so
00:06:19
Speaker
When you're talking about fuel for the work required, it's going to come down to a couple of factors. Like how long is your event or training and how hard is it? And then using those two kind of parameters, you can tailor how many carbs you would need to like have adequate fuel for what you're trying to do. If that makes sense. And when do these carbohydrates need to be consumed?
Carbohydrate Timing and Methods for Athletes
00:06:46
Speaker
Like I know for shorter stuff, you're not going to be. having as much or depending how short will even need to fuel during the session or the race. Yeah, so like when when's the best time to get these carbohydrates in in order to get the benefits? So what I'm talking about here, this is all like exogenous carbs while you're exercising. So there's other things around like cargo loading and carbs for recovery too, but this is just like as you're doing your exercise.
00:07:18
Speaker
m Again, it's going to depend on how long you're your, your session is. Like you said, like if you're doing a 30 minute recovery ride or run, you don't need to be slamming carbs to do that. You're probably going to have adequate fuel from your meals around it. And that's fine. You can just do your run, but say I'm doing like a four hour. Pretty hard session on the bike. You know, I'm going to try to up my carbohydrates to like 90 grams an hour, let's say. And you want to disperse that throughout the four hour ride. Like you don't want to have.
00:07:49
Speaker
like all of your carbohydrate, like in the midpoint of the ride, you're trying to like disperse that. So in, again, going back to that analogy, like the gas tank for the carbs is really, really small. So you don't really want to like do part of your workout, deplete that gas tank, and then start feeling because then it's too late. Okay. So I'm thinking like. For when you want to take your carbs, it's best case, you're just doing it right from the start. Like, and you can break it up into little pieces. So if you want to get to that 90 grams an hour, you can break it up into like every 20 minutes, you're having a little bit of carbs and you're just adding it up as you go along. And that way you're not just taking on like 90 grams so all at once straight to the to the dome. You know, it's, that's quite a bit to do. So best case, you're breaking that over the ride and you're not tapping into that, that kind of smaller gas tank.
00:08:41
Speaker
the So you do you find it's better to spread it out over like the 90 grams over an hour, whereas how I see it is, okay, I'm going to take that gel. I'm going to take, you know, whatever it is. And we can talk about too, like the different types of ways to consume ah fuel or carbohydrates. um So you think it's better spread over over time, let's say an hour rather than have it all in one shot. So I think it's completely circumstantial. Like, first of all, like when I race, like a lot of the time having that every 20 minutes is into reality. Cause like you're, you have your hands on the bars.
00:09:18
Speaker
lots of stuff's happening in the race. Like he can't just like say, okay, sorry guys, slow down. I need to have my, my gel right now. Like you're going to have to pick and choose your moments a little bit more. So a lot of the time practically I end up going to like once every hour or 45 minutes, because it's when you can have your moments in the race to to take on those cards. But I still think it's just that idea of like, um, doing it pretty consistently. Like I still wouldn't wait two hours into my race to have the first hit of carbohydrate, like one hour maximum, let's say. But I think both strategies are effective. Um, I still think as long as you're getting the carbohydrate that's priority one. And then the timing is a little bit more, uh, it's more like the the icing on the cake. And how do you consume these carbohydrates? What are the different ways that you can consume?
00:10:09
Speaker
Well, like in the world of cycling, you but I would say you have two main ways in the race. You can have it in your water or out of your water. And, um, from what I've read into in the literature, it's that whether you do it in gels or in ah the bottles. like your, your glucose and like the sugar you're absorbing, it's oxidized the same way. So there's no like advantage to having it like in the water versus the gels. It's really like personal preference. So, and honestly I changed it a little bit too. Um, granted that I'm used to both because some races, like I said, it's really hard to take your hands off the bars, reach into your pocket and like have something.
00:10:49
Speaker
Like on a really cold race, it's hard to like reach in and you're going to like play with a wrapper and stuff. Like you just don't have the dexterity in your fingers. So so maybe in a race like that, I'd opt more for more like a higher carbohydrate content in my water bottles. And I'm drinking there, which is also like in a cold race like that, it would help me make sure I'm still drinking. Cause otherwise I don't really have like a sensation for thirst. So I know like, okay, I have to drink this because this is my energy. but it may be a hot race, I like to have like more of like the hydrating effect because if you've ever done it like with like sugar water, like if you're gonna put a hundred grams of sugar in a water bottle, it's not the most like thirst quenching beverage, let's say, like it's gonna be really thick and hard to drink. So on a hot day, that's almost like the last thing you want. So I try to keep it a little more separate where I'd have the food in my pockets and it's more mostly just like potter and electrolytes um in the bottles.
00:11:45
Speaker
And is it advised to mix the different methods or mix flavors or you know is there an ideal way to to do this? like I think you you certainly can mix it. like um Just for the reason that like I look at it more from the stance of like if you're having different carbohydrates, they probably have slightly different like oxidation rates. You're going to be getting the energy at different times. so The main one that comes to my mind is like a slow carb versus like a faster carb.
00:12:15
Speaker
so In a race, you're probably going towards more like fast cards. And those are things like multidextrin, cyclic dextrin, hydrogels. Those are like kind of new fancy ones, but the idea is those things are absorbed quicker in the body, which is obviously what you want when you're racing. And in my like gas analogy, those are like the premium octane. So you have. those faster ones but then you also have like slower ones so sometimes in a race you'll have something in like tinfoil which is like a little sandwich or a rice cake or an energy bar something like that it's still carbohydrate it's a little high in carbs but the release is much slower um
00:12:56
Speaker
which is not a bad thing. You just can't use that in like a pivotal moment of your race. So I'd say if the first part of the race or your training is relatively easy, you could look to consume some of those more slower sources like the rice cake, et cetera. Um, and then progress towards the more faster burning carbohydrate as the race maybe picks up or as you know, you get a little more fatigued and it might be harder to take on the tool of like digesting that bigger piece of food. Hmm. So as you fatigue, is it does it become harder to receive the
Training the Gut for Endurance Performance
00:13:30
Speaker
carbohydrates? Is that is that accurate? Because I never thought of it that way. Yeah. It's like an energy expenditure thing too. like Think about like it's like rest and digest fight or flight a little bit. like if you're like
00:13:44
Speaker
on the gas in the race, your body's not going to want to like sit there and digest a fig bar. you know you're going to like it's It's focused on pushing pressure pressure to the pedals, like so it needs like the easiest thing possible to like um to take in and use for energy. so If it's really, really hard, you need really quick sugars, basically. Um, you can curve this a bit, like where it's, you're like training your gut. If you've heard that like slang before, where basically with that, you're trying to basically improve your absorption in your intestine. Like you're, um, there's basically, I don't need to get into like crazy physiology, but there's a couple like transporters in your intestine that that take up the sugar. And when you're training your gut.
00:14:29
Speaker
you basically, you create more of those transporters and they work a little bit better. So if you're like a highly trained athlete with a trained gut, you probably could get away with digesting that like bigger piece of food, even while you're riding hard or running hard, but I wouldn't still recommend it um just because you you have a higher risk for like gastrointestinal distress, which like, if you've ever had a race, it's like, it can be like debilitating, honestly, like, where it's like an avoidable issue, I find, where if you can just like kind of tailor, like again, go back to the first point, like just tailor your nutrition to like what you're doing, you're usually a bit better off. who I think back to a time when I was doing, I did, it was my second Ironman that I did a few years back now, but where I was fueling, I think on the bike, I abandoned my nutrition plan, which was in my bottle.
00:15:27
Speaker
And then on the run, my stomach started shutting down. And I always think about this moment because I felt so helpless and I, you know, ran the slowest marathon of my life to complete the the race. but I didn't know how to troubleshoot that or reset my my my stomach. Do you have any tips or tricks for that? Or maybe you've heard that before where where you where that makes sense that that happened. You know, it was a hot day. There was so many factors, but do you think, is there anything that could contribute to that specifically? Well, I think like
00:16:05
Speaker
If you have a day like that where you're just not absorbing anything, it's kind of cracked up. There could be so many reasons behind that. Like the one that I always think of is, is today at the tour last year, like he was like on stage 17. I don't know if you watch cycling, but like it was like the stage where he like cracked and like lost seven minutes on like the biggest climb. And then he calls on his radio, like I'm gone. I'm dead. You know, like he, like he has nothing. And in that case, like. It is not much you can do. Like if your body's not responding to the carbs, you basically, I think the only thing you can do is like slow down and let your body like catch up and give a chance for your digestive system to kick in. It's really difficult to like just like tough it out if nothing's coming in because you're basically going to just run out of energy. So it's really tricky in the moment. If you're noticing that you're not taking on.
00:16:58
Speaker
fuel properly anymore, I'd say. Um, so I think like most of the advice I would give is more like, I preventative in a way, like a lot of training of your gut, a lot of practicing of your race nutrition, just so like that doesn't fall on a race day. Like, so you have that really crappy moment where you like run out of energy, like out on the train ride and you can stop at like a gas station and get like a carrot cake or something, make yourself feel better, if not in the middle of your, your marathon or tour de France. So you, you mentioned train, train your gut as something, is there an ideal way to do this? Um, I think for myself anyways, I always think about making sure I have enough on the race day, but usually I don't consume as much in the training sessions personally. yeah Um, and I think I don't think a lot of people get this part.
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah. So like training your gut, like I said before, it's, it's coming down to like a couple of little transporters. That's taking sugar from your intestine and putting it into circulation and. It's just the most simplest, simplistic way to think about it. It's just like regular training. Like you expose your body to aip a stimulus and it reacts. So if you want to run, uh, you know, a four minute pace, whatever 5k, you're going to try to like do a lot of time at that four minute pace. Like likely you're going to do other training, but you want to have your body used to that effort. And it's the same with eating. So like, if you eat a lot of carbohydrates, your body's going to do the same thing. It's going to respond. It's going to make more of those transporters.
00:18:31
Speaker
They start to work a bit better and then you can effectively absorb more carbs. So you can do that training in a couple of ways. Like what I recommend for most people would be just do it on the bike. Just for that same reason, I just, I just told you like, so if you have a really, really challenging workout, practice your race, nutrition, bring the food that you want to take in the race. Do your plan like we're saying with the timing, like just do everything that you would in the race. And that way your body's seen it before. If it can't handle the carbs, it's going to make the adaptations to handle it for next time. And then once you do your race, it's not like a new stimulus for the body. It's done it before. And I think the other thing to note is I always thought that those adaptations are like.
00:19:16
Speaker
that took months to do. So I'd have myself even do like gut training for like way too long. But these changes that really happen like over days and weeks. So it's not like like like even your own training. You don't need to like start slamming 100 grams of carbs for your easy runs to train your gut. If you do, let's say, like two weeks out of competition, that's even generous, a little bit of gut training, you're probably going to be OK, I would say. and And as you mentioned in the beginning too, there you you you like to slam a high number of you know carbs. What's the low low end? Because I don't want people listening to this and and try and slam it back as much as you do necessarily or right away. Is there a friendly ah amount that you can ingest that's a good starting point?
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So like in an untrained gut, you can basically absorb 60 grams of glucose every hour. um And so glucose is like one of the the monosaccharides that come out of like sucrose. So it breaks down into glucose fructose. And glucose is like the main one that's giving you energy, let's say. So you can use 60 grams of that when you're untrained. And you can do about 30 of fructose when you're untrained. So I would say like apps absolute max is like 90 and it has to be in that good two to one glucose fructose ratio to absorb it. So, but more conservatively, I'd say 60 grams. You shouldn't have too many problems and then you can work up from there. And and I would personally work up like in 10 gram increments.
00:20:56
Speaker
and work up towards like what I do is kind of ridiculous like even saying it like I do like 140 grams an hour like in some races so like that's like honestly that's an extreme but like if you can start at 60 do 10 grams more in a few sessions and work up to that 100 you're fine like 100 grams is a lot of carbs per hour And why did you start doing your training this way or consuming this much? And do a lot of athletes at your level consume that much? Yeah. Like I think, okay, the way it's, it's interesting. It was almost like a shift in time. Like I was like a paradigm shift that I like remember. It was like 2019. I think like, I remember like low carb was like still kind of in them. Like people were doing like fasted rides and stuff like that. Cause they're trying to be more fat adapted. Like that was like in.
00:21:45
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, like people just started going to cars like quickly. And they're just like, no, like the saying I really like is is, is feed the speed. And it's like, okay, we're just going to eat more. And then I think people just saw like, okay, wait, if I eat a lot of food. All of a sudden I feel really, really good at the end of my rides and I'm racing better and I'm doing better power numbers. So let's keep this going. And I just noticed that over the last five years, that sort of like mentality just kept getting bumped up. So like, I remember when it was at 60 grams an hour and that was like the recommendation. And then all of a sudden it's like, no, do 80. And now it's like a hundred. And now I'm hearing like guys in the world tour.
00:22:24
Speaker
Like their nutritionist saying like, yeah, yeah, our guys do do one 50. It's no problem. And it's just like keeps getting bumped up. And I honestly believe that that is like a big component of us seeing like so many power records getting broken and cycling these days. I think that feeling it's definitely an aspect of it. Like, cause people are one, they have more energy. They're training way more. And then when it comes time to race day, they're not fatiguing as prematurely. So they're like. end of race numbers are off the charts versus like 10 years ago. It's like super fascinating to me if you would like compare, this is 10 gentle, but if you compared like the the Tour de France power and times like last year versus 2013, it's like the winners in 2013 aren't in the race. Like it's not even close. I mean, of course there's so many factors in the sports, but I really do think that this carbohydrate like s shift is a factor. ah I would stand on that.
00:23:21
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, it's interesting. and I mean, and you're right. It's just like this shift that's happened and and you hear all these things in both, you know, in both nutrition, but also dieting. A lot of the terms get flipped from one to the other and whatnot. Can you explain maybe a or tell us a story ah of a really bad experience that you had with fueling and and kind of the lessons you learned through that? yeah Definitely. Like I, so like I was racing in Greece last year. We we were doing a few UCI races out there and sunlight Island and roads. And it's kind of like when you go to those races that you also in the same hotel, it's like a buffet in the morning and that's where everybody gets their food. And, but I noticed that like, of course we're in Greece, they have this like honey sort of fountain thing that you can like, you know, load up on, put on your yogurt in the morning if you like.
00:24:16
Speaker
But me, the like keen carb themed I am, I like had little like reusable flasks to like carry gels in. And I was like, you know like honey's just carbs. like Why don't we just do that? yeah like So I like dunked in my like gel thing. full of honey. I was like, great. I was like, this looks perfect. Like, and I calculate, I'm like, oh, sweet. This is like 120 grams of carbs and it's free. Like I just, just swiped it from the buffet. Perfect. So then I like go into the race.
00:24:48
Speaker
I like got a little bit in, I had other foods, so I was eating that. And then it's kind of like, it's kind of heating up. We're in some crosswinds. I'm like, okay, like, let's, uh, let's take on the honey. Like it's time. Like, let's go. And so I like, I want to like get down the honey and then immediately it like causes like this like awful film in my throat. Like it's like all stuck in there. Like. I don't know, like the best analogy would be like when you're sick and you have like a spoonful of honey or something and it's kind of like stuck in your throat. Think of that, but like 10 times more honey, like it was like a flask of honey. So that's like holding my throat and I'm riding like super hard, like head down, like trying to look cool. Like, uh, anyways, there was like a bunch of things just came up on my screen, but yeah, I'm like full gas and I'm like trying to like.
00:25:33
Speaker
like swallow down this honey and it's like stuck in my throat. So I can't breathe. So then I'm like desperately trying to like break it with water. So I ended up just having to like spit it out like logically, but like not really good either. Like it's kind of just everywhere. And then not to mention it's all over my hands. It's all over my pocket. It's like disgusting. So then I like basically from that did not consume any carbs. Um, I couldn't breathe. And my hands were sticky, uh, for the rest of the race. And my pockets were basically shut from attempting that. So right I would say, don't try the honey in my experience. Um, if you're going to do it something like that, I recommend the maple syrup much better. Okay. Nice. Yeah. It's a nothing new on race day too. Right. So exactly. That's like the number one mistake where I'd tell so many people that like, don't try anything new on race day. But then you just see it and you're like,
00:26:32
Speaker
It's time. We're going to do this. Got to test this out. um For people who know little about you know fueling, or this is the first time they're ever hearing anything about fueling, and they want to start, what is there like a 101 for fuel consumption?
Advice for Endurance Fueling Beginners
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. i think So the first thing I would recommend to people is look at the carbs in your food, not necessarily the calories. Because like I said before, when you're exercising, you're getting your energy from carbs, not just the straight calories. So that would kind of first like help you determine like maybe what is a good food to be eating while you're exercising versus something that's not so good. And then, of course, secondly, is it practical? like Honey's got a lot of carbs, but it's not.
00:27:19
Speaker
You're not going to eat that when you're in your ride. So I'd say that's the first thing. Look at carbs, not necessarily calories, just to make sure you're getting energy. And then the second thing I would try to recommend to people like when you're just getting started is that idea of like feed the speed. okay like Don't restrict yourself um on the bike, um especially if you're like Getting sensations of hunger cuz like I I don't know the stat like off the top of my head But I feel like it was like 50 to 75 percent of like endurance athletes do train in like a constant energy deficit So it's over half of endurance athletes are not consuming enough
00:27:59
Speaker
So even if your friend is like, Oh, you know, you should do like this much and like, that should be fine. You should maybe take it with a pinch of salt because most of us are even like getting it wrong. So I'd say like, if you're having those sensations of hunger, just lean into that and like try to try to yeah feed the speed. Okay. Like, and I think the way to, to frame that is really like, okay, it's more energy coming in. It's more work I can do putting out. Um, And then once you have that down, I'd say like the last thing is that's when, like once you're like used to consuming food on the bike, cause even for a lot of people, that's like a novel thing to like even eat as you're exercising.
00:28:39
Speaker
So once you have that down and you're feeling pretty comfortable with taking on food as you ride, I'd say that's when you can start to play with that a little bit more. That's when that like fuel for the work required comes in and you can start to get really geeky about calculating how many carbs you're going to do per hour and when and that stuff. But that's like step three. Step one is just eat and then. once you're comfortable with that, that's kind of like you're training the gut phase in a way, then you can start to like tailor your training a little bit more to what you want to do. So for people like that aren't good at math, what's the can you can you equate a certain number to an item that they can consume? Like, is it for sure? OK, so like, let's do like some simple ones. And that's enough.
00:29:29
Speaker
yeah A banana is 25 grams of carbs, like a medium banana, maybe a bigger one's a little bit more, but let's say 25. Okay. So that's 25 grams. If you need to do 60 grams an hour, like we're saying for like a longer ride, you need to have two bananas an hour, plus a little extra something. You know, that's a lot, you're not going to take like six bananas on your ride. Okay. So that's like where sport nutrition companies like come in. Okay. Like you need to have things that are like accessible, like a little, gel, like most of the things that I've seen, those are like 25 as well. You can have higher content ones, which are like,
00:30:07
Speaker
40 plus, you just have to read the paper, like a sports drink, usually 35 grams of carbs for like a 500 mil sports drink. Of course they can get high, they can get higher too, but I'd say like the typical one off the shelf is like 35. So if you're doing some quick math, if you do a Gatorade or I won't say the brand, sorry. that if we're If you're going to something off the shelf um at the, at the, the depth, um 35 grams plus that banana or like a little bar you're at 60 like look at that so yeah it's but it's still yeah you gotta practice you gotta practice this though so yeah because that's that's a meal that's it it's a meal it's like so you have to have a sports drink and a snack every hour to get to 60 which is a lot and you got to carry that with you too so i don't know find a strategy for that maybe a little bar bag maybe a camelback
00:31:00
Speaker
Other than um like just you know fueling your hunger, is there other signs that you might be low on fuel? Or yeah. So like, yeah, absolutely. Like, absolutely. Like, and I think it's really important that you like kind of recognize that. Cause like I said, most athletes are it, which is what, like, what the the research says. So like when you're riding or running, the signs are like around bonking, which is basically when you just tap out that glycogen. So that like gas tank goes to empty and that's what people call a bonk and like bonking, it kind of comes in waves. Like but for me.
00:31:41
Speaker
When I start to like feel like I call it low glide, when I go like low glide, it's a, I always, the first thing that comes to my mind is like this negative self-talk. Like I immediately go super negative and I'm like, this is stupid. I just, I don't like this, like brings up how hard I find the right, like the perceived exertion starts to, starts to creep up a little bit. So usually there, when I start to hear myself be like super negative, I'm like, okay, you got, you probably got to eat. Cause like I'm usually not like, super negative. So I'm like, Okay, that's probably been hungry. That's step one for me, other people, it's going to be different. But as it gets worse, it kind of goes into more like physical symptoms. So like, you might get a headache, you might get shaky, you might just be unable to focus, you might be dizzy. And then like,
00:32:26
Speaker
When you're like really cracked, it's like your mental state like goes, like you're really confused. You may be like irritable, like, and all those things. And like, I've had it at points like I've bonked bad before and it's like, you're unable to like hold a conversation. Like you you can't speak kind of thing. So I remember like I went out to dinner after like a long training ride with my my girlfriend and like a couple of her friends. And like I had finished my training ride and then she's like, no, like we're going to go to the restaurant right now. So I didn't get to eat after my ride. And I was like, it was a long ride. It was like five hours too. So I feel like pretty good on the ride, but then.
00:33:02
Speaker
through the time of like waiting in line at the restaurant and like ordering and stuff, I like completely crashed. like It was like ah an awful bonk. And like I remember taking the first bite of that burger and like coming back to life. And like I didn't even realize it, but I like obviously had introduced myself to the people we were having dinner with at the start of the night, but I didn't even remember that. So I took a bite of this burger and re-introduced myself as Nick. And everyone was like, like what? so like it Like, so you could bonk like even not on like while you're exercising. Like that was like a complete crack. Like, cause like, you know, your body's still like burning as you're getting off the bike. And that's what happened to me. So anyways, like those are a couple of things as you're riding, but I'd say like you could look like when you're just like not riding or running either and see if like your feelings up to standard, I guess, like.
00:33:58
Speaker
Like say it like, cause you're basically wanting to make sure you're not like in a huge energy deficit, um, through under feeling. So like, if you're like waking up all the time, tired, even though you're sleeping a lot, that's usually a sign that you're not taking in enough food or like, are you feeling really, really sore after doing a training session? And, but like. you you normally could recover from that. That's probably a sign too. like Or if you have a coach or something, is your performance not progressing in your sport as they expect it should? like If they're like, okay, we're doing these sessions, you should be about this fast now. um It could be a sign that you're not eating enough to actually help those adaptations go on.
00:34:40
Speaker
And then, of course, like think others there's other things, too. like If your mood is really fluctuating, if you're really stressed, um you're having a lot of injuries, you're getting sick a lot, like those are all kind of like red flags to me to like appeal to the younger audience, like that you may not be um having enough carbs so um or just eating enough. like Those are like signs that, OK, I should probably look at this and probably eat a little bit more. um because you're basically, you're getting to that point where you're not eating enough at all that you're just an unhealthy person in a weird way. Like you're exercising so much, but your body is not recovering at all. So it's like eating itself, it's degrading and you're not in the healthiest state, I'd say. And actually really cool fact that I once, I once learned as like the last thing is like Olympic gold medalists take the least amount of sick days out of all the athletes.
00:35:35
Speaker
which is like a really cool correlation. And like, I do think that has something to do with the carbs as well, because there's a good link between um like high-carbohydrate consumption and like um avoiding illness due to like exercise-induced immunosuppression. It's like shown to be like one of the best things to avoid getting sick, like more so than like zinc and other like little minerals and nutrients. um So I do think there's something to be said about keeping up with your carbs, not just for performance, but like just your health, you know which kind of indirectly go together.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah. And since we're talking about carbs, actually, like, is there a bad, is there bad carbs when you're, you know, when you're training or is it just important to get them in, you know?
Optimizing Carb Intake for Training and Recovery
00:36:24
Speaker
I think, well, I think priority one is get them in. Like it to you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask who you are, I guess a bit. Like, I think like priority one is get the carbs in. And then if you're doing that well and you're looking to get a little bit more for performance, yeah, there's probably some better carbs than others. And like when you're eating them is important too. Like if you're just sitting on the couch, a bag of Skittles, they're carbs, but you, I wouldn't recommend like having a side of Skittles with your piece of chicken as your carb. You know, that's like, it's not necessarily the best thing you can do, right? Like when you're just at like at home, you probably want to have a little more complex carbohydrates.
00:37:02
Speaker
Um, especially in training, um, it's a little bit slower absorption. It's better for your body, stuff like that. You don't need to have that super quick burning stuff. Okay. Cause a lot of the time that's going to just end up going straight to being stored as, as fat. So I'd look like outside of riding. to do a little more complex, little slower burning stuff. So like the basics that every cyclist does for rice, pasta, quinoa, couscous even, like stuff like that are like great sides because you can really pile on the carbs because when you finish a training ride, you're going to need a lot of carbs. Um, and with those foods, you can actually eat enough of them to get adequate carb. And they said, okay. And the body things like what I've learned recently though is like,
00:37:49
Speaker
Excuse me, like potatoes don't have that much carbohydrates. So if you have like two potatoes, it's usually not enough if you've done a huge session, stuff like that. So you just need to like almost take a look at how many carbs are in the foods that you're eating off the bike too, just to make sure you're not in that energy deficit on the bike though. Like I would. Again, like there are better foods than others. It's just depending on what you're doing. So there's a time and place, right? Like if you were doing that 30 minute recovery ride, you don't need to be slamming a caffeine gel. Like that's just, that's just silly. But like, if you're racing, the caffeine gel is great. And same for vice versa. If you're doing like a two hour, quite an easier ride, you just want a little bit of food. You could bring like a nice thing of like home baked home baking or something, you know, like a muffin or date square or whatever.
00:38:40
Speaker
it's probably going to be great for that two hour ride because you're going at an easy enough intensity to to to use it. But in that race, you probably don't want to be hauling around a muffin in your back pocket, like multiple reasons. Yeah. Very cool, Nick. Well, I mean, this is a lot of information to to consume. And I really appreciate your insight today and in explaining these these concepts to us, hopefully simplifying you a little bit for for the listener. Oh, cheers, Justin. Thank you so much for having me and breaking me into the podcasting world. Cheers, man. Amazing. Hope you have a great day. Yeah, you too, Justin. Thanks, Nick.
Podcast Closing and Listener Engagement
00:39:21
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Just In Strive podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen, and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did.
00:39:29
Speaker
Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback, we'll be able to make the show even better and it'll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram at JustinStrivePod for all the latest episodes and updates. Of course, this show wouldn't be possible without a solid team behind me. With logo and design by Vanessa Pugliese, as well as audio, music, and editing by Forest McKay, a huge thank you goes out to both of them. Guest outreach, social media, writing, and advertising are handled by me, your host, Justin Pugliese. Finally, we'd like to thank you, our listeners, for coming along for the ride with Justin Stradd.