When the
training started to increase and I started to eat more and
more I started to wonder what should I and shouldn’t I be
doing nutrition wise. Being a healthy person with no real
problematic dietary issues I never really saw the need to go
to a dietician. The Epic however brings a new dimension to
everything. I new that I needed to loose a few kilograms to
get to race weight, but didn’t really know how to go about it.
I felt hungry all the time and needed to replace the energy I
was burning up in training.
Albert in the mean time had been trying to get to the
bottom of his fluctuating energy levels and finally narrowed
it down to an iron deficiency. Following some iron shots from
the doctor and dietician visits he came a way with some pearls
of wisdom about what we should be doing for nutrition. This
highlighted the fact that when you start pushing your body
past the limits that you are used to you can potentially come
across limiting nutritional and health factors. I realised
that it was important to get professional advice on the state
of my body and know how I could get it in the best shape
possible. Especially with an event like the epic you want to
give yourself the best possible chance and make sure that you
are as fit and healthy as you can possibly be.
So that was it and I made an appointment and off I went. It
was a very valuable visit indeed and definitely something to
be recommended. The dietician helped me look at my diet and
analysed what I was eating. We also looked at what my needs
were from a nutritional and energy point of view and looked at
changes that could be made to achieve the target weight goals.
… Oh and I got a lesson in correct back posture, seing as the
dietician shared rooms with a chiropractor. There was no way
you could chance slouching in the waiting room, for fear of the
chiropractor giving you a serious reprimand and lecture on
good back care. Little did he know that I planned to spend may
hours slouched over the handle bars riding from Knysna to Cape
Town.
The dieticians starting point was a full body composition
report, This consisted of some tests to determine fat weight
and percentage, lean weight and percentage, body water and
lean/fat ratio. A body composition summary identified my
limits and goal weight and very useful information on my
resting energy expenditure and estimated average requirement.
I then had a diet worked out for me to achieve goal weigh,t
without short changing myself on available energy. I monitored
everything for a few months with some repeat visits and saw
things moving in the right direction. Soon I had worked out
what worked best for me. Then it was onto a diet to maintain
the goal weight given the level of exercise and energy
expenditure demanded by an epic training program. The diets
were by no means onerous and merely required a few adjustments
to my normal eating regime. I also had an opportunity to talk
about and get some ideas on how we would maintain sufficient
energy levels during the event. This is a major challenge for
all epic riders. Luckily we did all the right things and have
learned a few things since then, but I will expand more on
these in some of the race preparation and actual race
nutrition articles.
A good nutrition regime is critical during training. As you
continue to push your body and manage a demanding training
program it is necessary to keep your body fuelled up. It will
help you to achieve your training goals and will be important
for post exercise recovery. The better you recover the better
you will be able to train. This is especially important for
the long rides where you will really deplete energy stores. It
will be good practice to get used to refuelling straight after
exercise.
On the bike nutrition and actual training nutrition is
something that varies widely between riders. One thing is
common though, and that is that everyone has found something
that works for them. I have come to realise that palatability
is really important. Lots of people have lots of advice on
what you should eat and use. But ultimately getting the food
down regularly is what counts. So pay attention to the
recommended options, but settle on something that you enjoy
and that makes you want to eat more. Training is the time to
really experiment with all of the various supplements, energy
drinks and soild foods that you will carry on race day. Think
about your refuelling strategy, how long you will be on the
bike and how much you will need to eat. Start to practice this
when you ride, get used to eating regularly and refuelling
after a long ride.
The Calorie Count
Getting down to race weight and staying there during
training can be quite a challenge. It is not always easy to
know what to eat and what not to eat. Getting the balance just
right by not over doing it or not under doing it is the
challenge. Even after 3 epics now I have found myself not
quite where I think I can be for race weight. Now that I have
some of the other aspects under control I have decided to
explore the calorie count option. Lance Armstrong used calorie
counting by weighing everything that he ate to great effect to
control his food intake and get it to match up to his energy
expenditure. Many other athletes, dieticians and nutritional
experts use this as a principle in establishing eating plans.
It seemed like quite a drastic step, to weigh all my food,
list it all and then spend time counting up the Calories, but
I must admit it is not quite as bad as it seems. As an
exercise to do to learn about what, when and why you eat it is
really valuable.
First thing was to understand the energy measures and what
they all mean. Energy is measured joules, this is essentially
the scientific term. Often though the energy capacity of food
is measured in calories.
The measures are as follows:
1 KJ = 1000 joules 1kcal = 1 Calorie = 1000 calories 1kcal
= 4.2 KJ
Note the difference between calories (small c) and Calories
(capital C). Often these are mixed up creating confusion, but
most of the time they are actually referring to Calories as in
1000 calories, despite using the word calories.
Measurements on a food item can be either KJ or Calories.
So you just need to know how many Calories per serving that
you ate or know the weight of your serving and use the
Calories or Kilojoules per 100g of food.
The basics of calorie counting measures the energy
contained in the food that you take in vs the amount of energy
that you put out per day. So you need to know how much energy
you are using per day. This is worked out using your BMR(base
metabolic rate), this is the amount of energy that your body
needs per day to function. It is calculated using your age,
weight, height etc. To get an idea of what it should be you
can consult various books or look up some references on the
internet. The BMR will vary depending on your level of
activity as well, if you sit at a desk all day you will use
less energy that say someone who is a tour guide and walks
around all day. But the calculations and formulas help to take
this into account.
By using a heart rate monitor which also calculates
calories burned you will be able to record the amount of
energy used during exercise. Adding this figure together with
the BMR figure should give a reasonably accurate total energy
expenditure for the day.
Counting the calories of everything that you eat is not as
difficult as it seems. There is a lot of information available
on calories in food, and just about every food stuff has this
listed under nutritional info on the pakaging. There are also
a ton of websites dedicated to calorie counting. Unless you
are a seriously adventurous person or a food critic, you will
probably be like the rest of us and eat much of the same food
and meals on a regular basis. So all I did was draw up a
little spreadsheet and started to keep track of everything I
ate. Slowly the list started to grow and now I only have to
add a new item every now and again.
The calorie count has taught me a few things · Now I
actually realise what I eat everyday · I pay attention to the
calories in all of these items and how they compare to each
other · I am getting a feel for how much I can and should be
eating, it stops me from over eating, but also allows me to
eat extra when I have been training · It is also going to help
at race time when I will be more aware of how much food I need
to take in to stay fuelled up.
Now I can comfortably know how much to eat based on the
amount of training that I am doing. So I will be able to
sustain my energy levels during training while at the same
time losing a bit of weight.
Calorie counting and goal
weight
If you have specific questions or comments then
contact us, or discuss and
share your experiences and advice for others to see at the
Epic Guide Discussion.
