Brendon had a couple of questions at the end of our first case study post. Here are the answers.
1. I often ride first thing in the morning. What should I eat before going for a 2-hour bike ride and how long should I wait before riding?
The best thing to do is to eat nothing.
This will sound strange to a lot of people, but eating can’t improve your bike ride!
It will only kick start the carbohydrates (CHO) into your blood stream straight away, which can lead to depletion of energy sooner over longer rides.
The ideal situation is to take a CHO drink with you (like HEED) and to start drinking this throughout the ride.
2. What should I eat when I finish a 2-hour ride? And how quickly after the ride should I eat it?
Ideally you should be taking something as soon as possible after the ride.
There is a window of opportunity, when your body is most receptive to the uptake of CHO within 30-40 mins after exercise.
Following this period, the body closes down and does not absorb nutrients as effectively, which affects its ability to be ready for the next session.
Ideally take CHO and a whey protein, along with some Glutamine.
Hammer makes an ideal product called Recoverite which has the perfect ratio of all these ingredients.
Cheers
David
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