Chronicle of an announced bird, by Chema Arguedas
Wow! What a great time I've had! Last year I was here with twenty minutes more. Today I'm going out! What a good group I have caught. Let's see if the supplies arrive because I have little water left. Oysters! Not for anyone at the aid station. And if I stop they're going to leave me...!
Although there is always a kind volunteer who, with a raised hand, offers bottles of water, which must be caught on the fly, our protagonist will not be the first who, because he does not stop, ends up giving himself a cookie due to his lack of expertise or puts a trip to the bottle that flies away. Or half of the content ends up watering the asphalt.
Next refreshment hour and a half later. You will stop no matter what, but it will be too late. You will already be dehydrated and what you have eaten will not have been assimilated equally because you have not ingested it with water.. Even if you don't suffer from cramps, your performance will plummet when you have to push yourself harder than necessary.
How many and how many suffer the result of a march for not having adequate nutrition and hydration. AND The man with the gavel is not like the postman who knocks twice, the first one shows up without warning. Furthermore, we do not learn and we tend to stumble twice over the same stone even though we know that we have to pour gasoline on our bodies. At this point in spring, the heat and the lack of desire to eat come together when you have been pedaling for several hours and there are many who reach the finish line with food in their pockets when they should be empty.
FACTORS TO NOT GET INTO HYPOGLYCEMIA
We all know that we must eat to be able to perform, but there are certain factors that are directly related to what you should eat and more specifically when. As you will be able to see, they will be the ones who will set the times for how often you should eat food.
The intensity
This factor is one of the main references to know when you should start eating. The higher the intensity, the more glucose consumption. Between 70% and 75% of the maximum heart rate (maximum heart rate) is when fats have the most prominence, although glucose is also used, but from 75% of the maximum heart rate. max. This is when glucose consumption begins to skyrocket and from 80% onwards glucose flies through the bloodstream. Therefore, the heart rate monitor can be an excellent tool to control whether you should start eating earlier or later. Even if you have full muscle deposits when you go out since the previous days you should have increased your carbohydrate consumption, to 80% of your maximum heart rate, in one hour you will have used them all up.
Test duration
Even if you take it very slowly, as could be the case with a Brevet, between two and a half and three hours long, you will have depleted your glycogen stores. Furthermore, the duration of the test is a key element when choosing refreshment stations. For example, in long-distance and long distance marches, it is a good choice to look for gels or bars that contain traces of fruits, nuts, oats or fructose because when you spend several hours pedaling and have a lower intensity, it is important that the energy is provided more sustained way. Something that the ingredients mentioned above provide.
Muscle work
The orography of the test is very important since if it is dotted with numerous passes and slopes, as is usually the case, the muscular work or rather the muscular tension is very important, so the consumption of glucose by the muscle increases enormously. by using anaerobic fibers that consume practically only glucose. For example, it is not the same to start a march with a pass in the first hour as it is after a start time. You will have to start eating earlier in the first case.
Training level
Someone who has not followed proper training wastes their glucose. The muscle is not used to using and managing fat, so it uses glucose at much lower intensities than someone who has done a base at appropriate intensities. 30% of the glucose used at the muscle level comes from recycled lactate. In short, a trained cyclist is much more efficient and spends less for the same route than the untrained cyclist.
Once you know what factors are going to tell you very approximately when you should start eating, it's time to know how much and what you should eat.HOW MUCH AND HOW MUCH SHOULD I EAT
Approximately (since the factors mentioned above come into play), in one hour of exercise you can consume between 30 and 60 grams of carbohydrates. Once you start eating you should do it every hour. But you have the option of doing it in several doses depending on the intensity and the amount contained in the products such as gels or bars that you have purchased. Or if it is a natural product, you can also calculate it knowing the carbohydrates contained in 100g of that product. If it is a commercial product, on its packaging you should look for the amount of carbohydrates it contains (do not confuse it with the amount of product) and depending on whether it is 23 or 30 grams of carbohydrates, for example, you already know that in one hour you should make two shots of the 30 grams and with the other there would be three shots (although it barely exceeds 60gr/h).
WHAT SHOULD I EAT
Always carbohydrates with a high glycemic index such as maltodextrin, glucose, sucrose, glucose syrups, dextrose and amylopectin, mainly.
If you want to use less elaborate and more natural products, you can use skinless fruits. The most recommended are banana, orange, melon, watermelon (although it only contains four grams of carbohydrates per hundred grams), and a white bread sandwich, quince paste, raisins, dates in moderation and honey, among others.
Very important: On long rides it is common to see cyclists with their pockets full of bars and gels. Do not get involved in consuming gels without control because of an abuse of gels and bars, because by exceeding the capacity for assimilation and transformation into energy, the carbohydrates will remain free in the intestine and will ferment very quickly with the intestinal bacteria. This results in severe abdominal pain or attacks of aerophagia.
If you want to minimize this risk, you can eat smaller amounts spread over an hour, instead of consuming them all at once.
More important: When you eat carbohydrates, of any kind, you should only drink water with them. Carbohydrates absorb a large amount of water and if you do not provide it, it will use the water you have in the body to metabolize and you will accelerate dehydration.
Now that you know the quantities and qualities you should ingest and when you should do it, there remains another detail, perhaps the most relevant.GASTRIC EMPTYING
The products that are consumed during a cycling tour or training have a single function: to provide the necessary fuel so that you can perform to the maximum within your possibilities. Therefore, it must be facilitated as much as possible that the supply is governed by guidelines, whether it is natural or commercial, so that when it reaches the stomach it can leave it as soon as possible so that intestinal absorption is efficient. as quickly as possible and that its properties can be taken advantage of. We must not forget that the conditions in which the digestive system is found are not usual since blood flow has been reduced by up to 70% in order to provide the greatest amount of blood to your legs. So if, despite eating the right amount, you fail to comply with any of these guidelines, the food may not meet its objective.
Factors that affect gastric emptying:
- If you use isotonic drinks, which usually contain carbohydrates with a high glycemic index, you must check that these are in the appropriate proportion. This promotes gastric emptying. The ideal proportion is 6% to 8% (6 to 8 grams per 100 ml of drink). Which means that if you fill a 500ml bottle, you would provide between 30 and 40 grams of carbohydrates. Concentrations greater than 8% will delay gastric emptying. It is advisable that they contain different carbohydrates with a high glycemic index since their absorption is much more effective.
- Be careful not to abuse mineral salts.
- If the drink is between 16 and 18º the emptying is faster. At our levels this is somewhat complicated because many times it seems that we have broth.
- The amount of liquid in a single dose should not exceed 300ml. This failure usually occurs when stopping at some refreshment stations where we can find cans of soda and these usually exceed this amount (330ml). Even if you arrive very thirsty, avoid drinking it in one sitting because it is one of the points that will make gastric emptying the most difficult.
- Reaching dehydration. Something very common at our levels. To give you an approximate calculation of the amount of liquid you should drink, every twenty minutes you should drink about 2ml per kilo of weight. You should never feel thirsty because it is already a sign that you are dehydrated. This circumstance slows down gastric emptying.
- The intensity of the exercise. If the demands of the test make you go at an intensity between 80% and 90% of your maximum heart rate, gastric emptying will be slower.
- Providing fats, proteins and fiber slows down gastric emptying. However, in tests in which the pace is slower and more continuous, such as a gran fondo test, it may be advisable to provide some of these foods in the appropriate proportions. In this type of test, glucose has a more secondary role in providing energy. But equally necessary. You should never reach a situation of hypoglycemia.
Author
Chema Arguedas
Cycling training and nutrition
