Big cycling event coming up - nutrition advice?

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

Cycling 545miles in a week at the beginning of June for AIDS/LifeCycle, did it last year but have since become mostly vegan so looking for some good advice on eating well and properly in the final few weeks lead up.

I'm managing a decent training ride once a week of 40-70miles, normally fit in another 30ish miles mid week, yoga once a week, trying to go for a run (very short, I'm terrible at running!) for half an hour some mornings and swimming for 40mjns once a week...the latter two don't happen very often!

Generally I eat fairly healthily at mealtimes but am a terrible snacker. Cutting alcohol to twice a week for the next three weeks while my parents are visiting then have two nights planned when I intend to drink in the final 3ish weeks (ones my birthday!)

Any tips or advice??

Make sure you get decent amounts of protein divided equally through the three meals each day, then top up on a couple of snacks

Porridge and soya with soya yogurt

Carbs are much easy to add to meals but protein is often forgotten, wholemeal rice, pasta etc

You say mostly vegan? Do you eat eggs? You could do some kedgree without the fish to load up on carbs and protein

Rice is really good so add chickpea curry or veggie chilli with plenty of kidney beans

I eat vegan when out and about 90% of the time at home. I eat eggs if I can get pasture raised ones and very, very occasionally eat meat if it's the stupidly expensive pasture raised stuff I buy direct from the farmer I trust. I'm in transition to possibly being ft vegan so if a friend is catering for me I don't impose the veganism on their catering, but will usually eat vegetarian at least. I do eat fish prob once every two or three weeks

I'm pretty good at eating tons of lentils and beans and pulses, and we only have wholewheat pasta and brown rice. I steer clear of soy as a general rule

Do you have any advice on timelines - is eating before training better or after (most of my training takes place first thing in the morning when I really don't have much of an appetite) and during training rides snacks. Does carb-loading before the main event actually make sense?

Well done on doing a hefty distance! I am going to be doing a100mile ride this summer. I am also 100% vegan. We def need protein. I liberally lace my museli with nuts and seeds. Dried fruit and cereal bars out riding. Beans on toast post long training session. Are you able to do spin aswell? A coach at my triathlon club told me to get as many cycling miles into my legs as possible in the week.

If you look down the world food aisle at tesco they sometimes have large bags of unsalted, shelled peanuts. They are a decent price compared to buying salted nuts. You may find almonds and unshelled peanuts as well.

I hate spinning so I'm trying to average 100miles each week out in the bike itself. Beans on toast is a good one - any other post ride tips?

I make my own recovery drink - half orange juice half water with pinch of salt.
My hubby is a duathlete and competes at european level, swears by the recovery drinks that you can buy in powder form then mixes them with water or soya milk.

Carb loading isn't necessary for everyone - how long are your training rides? DH does three-four hour rides in the Alps on a bowl of porridge and a banana (and a few snacks en route). If you don't feel like eating before and you'll be cycling for less than an hour and a half I'd say you'll be fine as long as you get enough fluids...but experiment, everyone is different. If you bonk 40 minutes in then you'll know you need to eat next time . Definitely refuel afterwards with some good protein and carbs though. Squeeze some lime or lemon and a pinch of salt into the water you take on the ride to replace electrolytes (coconut water is very good for this but so expensive - I save that to enjoy after a big workout).

There is a vegan brand of protein powder called Garden of Life. I have to say it doesn't taste as nice as the non-vegan ones. (Like optimum nutrition) but probably your best bet if you are looking for shakes. Also you could look at Vital protein powder which is made from pea protein.

Do you eat tofu or tempeh? Good protein there.

Alternative snacks post training could be scrambled eggs (how strict a vegan are you) on toast, half an avocado mashed on toast (nice with some fresh chilli or chilli flakes) or some raw nuts and (vegan form of) chocolate milk? A banana spread with nut butter maybe....

The most important thing (as well as fluid) is to eat regularly on the ride, take bananas, malt loaf, dried fruit and nuts, jelly babies and make sure you stop every hour or so and eat something, even if you don't feel like it.

Oh, have you tried Cocoyo yoghurt? It's amazing, vegan yoghurt made from coconut milk, that would be good post workout with some fruit/nuts/nut butter too

doh...Americas just saw it's you!

hello SLeep - this is awesome, thankyou - never heard of lemon and salt for electrolytes, I hate electrolytes so that's great. I did a 4mile run and 40mins swim the other day without eating before and was fine so I reckon up to 2 hours cycling will be fine too. I don't really like carb loading as it makes me feel so sluggish in all honesty and I'm not convinced I cycle better the next day

The carb thing is interesting - there are some endurance athletes who eat a low carb diet generally, though they are unusual due to the received wisdom re carbs and energy . I think there's a differentiation to be made between "carb burners" and "fat burners", ie if you consistently eat a low carb diet then your body naturally uses fat as its principal energy source - if this is the case then in effect you will never bonk - if you do, then you're in trouble because you've run out of body fat, and therefore dead .

Low carbing really doesn't work for other people who exercise a lot however (they simply feel crap) and in addition, the long term effects on those whom it does work for haven't been assessed. For me, it's all about experimenting and listening to how your body responds.