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Biking being an endurance sport, the cyclist must adopt a diet in line with the practice of this sport, especially when he wants to tackle long distances in training or during a race. After seeing when and what to eat for a long bike race, today we propose to discover which foods to prefer during the effort.
How to eat during exercise
During the effort, it is necessary to eat on the bike and hydrate regularly in order to push back the fatigue, not to dehydrate, but also to avoid the degradation of muscle and liver glycogen reserves. To do this, you must alternate between solid and liquid food, without forgetting the energy drink. Below, we explain how to eat and what foods to focus on during the effort.
What solid foods should you eat during exercise.
During a workout or race, you should consume solid foods. This category favors a longer energy intake thanks to their composition (maltodextrin, glucose syrup), so they are ideal on long rides. Some solid foods are also enriched in sodium which can be useful during endurance rides to fight against the loss of salts due to sweating.
These usually come in the form of cereal bars or sweet or savory energy bars, fruit pastes, etc. The spice bread can also be your ally during the effort, but also before or after a ride. Remember to drink water right after ingesting them to facilitate their digestion. It is advisable to consume one per hour, alternating with a liquid food.
In case of endurance outings or long-distance races, you can also resort to salted snacks, such as pieces of cakes or salted pies, easy to wrap in aluminum foil. This provides variety and prevents brain saturation from eating only sweet things.
What liquid foods should be consumed during exercise?
During a training session or race where the effort is intensive, it is also important to alter solid food with liquid or semi-liquid food.
These foods are mainly in the form of energy gels. But you can also consume one or more flasks of fruit compotes during your outing.
Unlike solid foods, energy gels are easily assimilated by the body and have the advantage of having an almost immediate effect, within ten minutes of taking them, thanks to their composition rich in dextrose (fast sugar). They are particularly recommended for short events (time trials, cyclo-cross, etc.), but can also be consumed on long events before an intense effort (such as climbing a mountain pass or before the finish line in case of a sprint for example). Remember to hydrate well after taking an energy gel to facilitate its assimilation. It is advisable to consume one per hour, alternating with a solid food.
In order to suit everyone, energy gels exist in different tastes, in different textures (more or less liquid) and with different kinds of packaging (more or less convenient to open during the effort, resealable or not).
Finally, there are different varieties of energy gels: classic energy gels, antioxidant gels (which delay the arrival of cramps thanks to their composition enriched with vitamins and minerals), boosters (for an immediate effect before a violent effort), caffeine gels (same effect as boosters) and gels enriched with sodium (ideal in case of high heat to fight against dehydration).
What energy drink should you consume during exercise?
During a training session or bike race, it is recommended to drink at least 500ml, or one bidon, per hour in order not to become dehydrated. This measure is to be adapted according to the effort provided by the cyclist and according to the weather conditions. The body is composed of 60% water and if you fall below this proportion, your performance level will gradually decrease until you are completely exhausted.
But, on the bike, you should not be satisfied with a water bottle, especially when the effort exceeds 1h30. It is preferable to opt for an energy drink (not to be confused with an energy drink), which comes in the form of powder or lozenges to be diluted in water. Enriched with maltodextrin (slow sugar) or glucose syrup, isotonic drinks (which can be hypotonic or hypertonic) thus allow a regular energy intake, in addition to solid and liquid food. Remember to drink little but often, i.e., two to three sips every 10 to 15 minutes for regular intake.
Now that you know all about which foods to prefer during exercise, how about finding out what type of diet to adopt for cycling? Do you also know what foods to prefer before exercise?
