Speedy Nutrition Advice
Questions often come in on the topic of nutrition. Frequently, they are specific, to the tune of, “Hey Ted, what do you think of _____ (diet trend) or ______ (supplement) or ______ (nutrition brand)?”
Another inquiry just landed in my inbox and I liked it because it starts at the 35,000 foot level and then hits some specifics. In the hopes that it answers some questions that might be on your mind, I thought I’d relay that QnA here.
Hi Ted, I hope you can slow down and give me your opinion regarding your nutrition. I would like to know what your nutrition plan looks like during some of your great 200+ mile rides. I recently explored UnTapped and really like the taste of all these products. So what do you eat and drink each hour to make sure you will bring enough power and endurance on the pedals? And do you have a special recovery shake you can recommend? Kind regards from Germany and keep up your amazing work.
Hi Roy,
I had a conversation with a sponsor of mine just last night that hit on all these topics. Having seen most aspects of the competitive side of the sport — from amateur to domestic pro to World Tour pro to retired pro now to gravel dabbler and bike packer — my philosophy on nutrition is pretty simple. And that philosophy is to keep it simple.
Here in our household we try to eat real foods. So because as I type this, dinner will be the next meal of the day, let’s start there. Dinner consists of some sort of main course. It could be a meat or risotto or vegetarian chili or soup or stir-fry or pizza or casserole or whatever. But both Laura and I enjoy our time in the kitchen, so cooking is something we (usually) look forward to. With that main course, there’s always a massive salad or some type of vegetable, like baked squash or sweet potato or broccoli or carrots or cauliflower.
Breakfast is usually oats with some sort of diced fruit, so apple or banana or apricots or raisins or cranberries, and then we spice it up with cinnamon or ginger or chia seeds or peanut butter or yogurt or whatever looks tasty and in the cupboard. Sometimes we’ll have eggs or toast, but oats are pretty standard.
Lunch is a sandwich or salad or leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. We can spice that up too. For example, we made chicken earlier this week, and I then made a curried chicken salad with the leftovers and turned that into a sandwich.
I’ve lived a life of austerity and starved myself enough already in a previous professional lifetime, so I snack all throughout the day. I’d always prefer to eat a cookie or slice of cake, but during the day I try to snack on healthy foods like carrots and hummus or fruit or a handful (or many handfuls) of nuts.
We do drink beer, umm, yeah, pretty much every night. Although we are not currently drinking beer the entire month of January. Now THAT’S been a fun challenge.
When happy hour rolls around, we have crackers and cheese and wind down the day starting around 5pm.
We enjoy dessert probably 5 nights per week. Cake or ice cream or cookies, usually in some form of moderation, although polishing off a pint of ice cream happens too.
Nutrition on the bike is also meant to be simple, so we keep it to real foods there too. That’s the entire premise of UnTapped: emphasis on real foods. We don’t use “natural flavors” nor synthetic flavors nor any kind of flavors. Instead, we just use the real-food ingredients.
Specifically, I always have Mapleaid in my bottles, I always have packets of maple syrup and waffles in my pockets. On especially long rides, I ride to bakeries and like any cyclist I enjoy my coffee.
I do the vast majority of my rides on purely UnTapped. It has my full endorsement, for obvious reasons, but not least of which because I know it works. Because we have quick energy in the packets of syrup, electrolytes in the drink mix, and a way to quench hunger in the waffles, it really is an all encompassing sports nutrition brand. But better than that, it’s real food so it’s something you can feel good about eating on the bike, off the bike, give to your kids or grandmother or have at 7am or 7pm. And when I say “vast majority”, any supplement is something that I get at the bakery. I’d always rather eat a muffin or scone than a packaged energy bar.
I could absolutely do a 200 mile ride entirely on UnTapped, it just comes down to real estate in the jersey pockets. Heck, I rode a 9 hour 200km fat bike ride last week and 90% of the calories was UnTapped. The only reason it wasn’t 100% is that I did refresh at one point at a gas station since I’d run out of food and their UnTapped inventory was nil. So I bought a cookie.
No, I don’t bother with recovery drinks. I like real food too much so I just have a tasty meal after a hard ride. I do prioritize timing — that is, I try hard to consume something very soon after a long ride or hard ride. Especially if it’s later in the day, I do often have a beer after those rides, and assume the carbohydrates from beer help a lot. According to the reading that I’ve done, moderate drinking doesn’t help nor hinder endurance performance so I’ll take that as good news!
In a pinch, if I’m on the move or don’t have easy access to a meal, I’ll definitely have a chocolate milk after a hard ride, providing that quick carbohydrates and protein. Or much better yet, pour one Maple UnTapped into a glass of milk and make yourself Maple Milk. Like chocolate milk, but better!
Hope that helps some. Thanks very much for the question Roy.
-Ted
