Nutrition
You would be surprised how many athletes think they are fueling enough during races, but when we analyze what they consumed, the amount of calories is much too low. Racing requires an enormous amount of both physical and mental energy. Hell, you are sitting at the start line with an elevated heart rate before the race even starts, burning sugar! You are so busy when driving to the race, getting ready, and warming up that you could go hours with little nutrition, as you might not even be thinking about it. Here are a few guidelines you can follow, keeping in mind everyone is a bit different in terms of what types of foods they can handle or like:
Fuel before:
- Eat your balanced meal 2-4 hours before the start of the event. This restores liver and muscle glycogen. Moderate protein is OK.
- Meal should be high in carbs and low in fat, protein is OK. Consume 16 ounces of fluid.
- Snack 30-60 minutes before the event, focusing on ingesting 50-75 grams of easily digestible carbs.
Fuel during:
- Consume 30-60 grams of carbs per hour
- Drink 2-6 oz of fluid every 15-20 minutes. Can also use a sports drink. This of course will vary by time of year.
- With longer events, solid food can be eaten along with 250-500 mg of sodium per hour.
The bottom line is don't neglect eating small amounts of food thoughout the morning and into the event, as this may be one of those "silent" killers in terms of your ability to perform.
More: Carbs: Fuel for Your Cycling
Patience, Conserve
Everyone feels good at the beginning of races and it's easy to be overly active and waste valuable energy. And although those efforts may not hurt you initially, they add up just enough to prevent that last effort needed at the end of the race. Remember, just because you feel good, it doesn't mean you should use that energy. Try to take an approach that may be quite obvious. It's a bike "race", not a workout. The goal is to cross the line first and that requires a lot of patience. Try riding the race with what the race is offering you, not what you want the race to be.
More: 5 Tweaks for Speed
Rollers and/or a Trainer
One of my favorite instructions to our athletes is to incorporate rollers and/or the trainer into the ends of their outdoor workouts. Have the indoor trainer already setup and ready to go. When you get back from your ride, go onto the trainer and add in anywhere from 15-30 minutes of riding where you incorporate some high intensity and high cadence work, which is needed at the end of racing.
Initially, when your legs are tired and feel like dead weights, you may want to just focus on cadence. As you adapt to the rpm's, add in some harder work along with doing the higher cadence. For this approach to be successful, it takes a lot of motivation and consistency. It's not easy to do a great workout outside, then come home and hop on the trainer or rollers. Give it a chance for a few weeks, as you will see improvement in your ability to finish strong when it counts!
Remember, that everyone is different and it may take one or two tweaks in your tactics or training to help you be more successful. Take some time to review these important five areas and see if any of them are preventing you from achieving success at the end of the race, when it counts!
More: 2 Indoor Trainer Workouts
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