I’ve finally managed to get consistent with my training, and I’m absolutely loving the Zwift and TR integration. My schedule only really allows me to train in the mornings—if I leave it to the evening, I tend to skip workouts. Lately, I’ve built a solid habit of getting up at 5:30 am, having a quick coffee, and getting in a 45-minute session before work.
I’ve noticed something interesting with my workouts:
• VO2 Max & Anaerobic efforts feel fine – I seem to manage short, hard efforts pretty well.
• Threshold efforts are a struggle – When I have to hold near FTP for a longer duration, I feel like I run out of energy, and my heart rate doesn’t recover well.
I know nutrition plays a big role here, but I don’t have time to eat and digest anything before my sessions. Any tips on fueling properly for early morning workouts?
Weight Loss vs. Performance Struggles
My second challenge is weight loss. I want to improve my w/kg for climbing (specifically to get faster on the Alpe in Zwift). However, every time I’ve gone into a calorie deficit, my workouts suffer drastically. I remember a time when I was dieting, and I could barely get up the Alpe, whereas when I was heavier, I managed a PB of 68 minutes.
How do I balance weight loss with maintaining performance—especially for early morning workouts? Is there a way to fuel properly while still being in a calorie deficit?
Yeah. If I’m more or less maintaining a steady weight, I have plenty of glycogen stores for an hour+ of just about anything. If I’m actively losing significant weight, then my glycogen stores can be lower. As soon as I get up, I’ll eat some simple carbs like fruit, most cereals, pancakes, even a donut. This is usually a half to three quarters of an hour before I start the workout. Any product I might use for fueling during a ride is OK too, like gels, chews, a banana, etc. A carb (sugar) sports drink before and during a workout is also OK. It doesn’t hurt to have something during the start of the workout too.
Fuel your training. There’s a recent thread about early morning fueling. I eat a banana and drink my sugar during my pre-down training (from sleep to bike in 15 minutes). Then I eat breakfast.
Eat a good diet off the bike for weight loss over time.
I like the idea of getting some quick carbs in, but given my routine, I don’t have time to eat before jumping on the bike. If I just scoff a banana as soon as I start pedaling, will that actually help, or is it too late by then? Right now, I go straight from bed to bike in about five minutes, drinking a coffee and some water during my warm-up. It works well for consistency, but I’d love to avoid that empty, struggling feeling when things get tough.
Also, I’ll check out that early morning fueling thread—sounds useful! And I totally get the point about fueling training properly and focusing on diet off the bike for weight loss. I just need to get the balance right so I can still perform well.
Unless you go in a 45 -60m workout pretty depleted it should work fine without much fuel… If you are that depleted I don’t think anything that you do 10min before the workout has much effect.
On the days before you have a morning intervalle session eat a bigger/ carb heavy dinner or eat some healthy carbs like oatmeal or fruits before bed if that agrees with your sleep.
For the morning you could add like 20g of sugar to your coffee that may kick in during the workout.
If I’m trying to loose weight I try to run a deficit on my easy days and make sure that I’m at least somewhat fueled on my interval days ( eating mostly the same but adding bananas and some other carbs a few hours before working out )
If I’m doing intensity, I eat a gel when I start my warmup and another after about 20 minutes. It’s only a couple hundred calories, but I’m going to burn much more during that workout, and it can make a big difference if I’m doing any level of lowish carb or calorie deficit the day/evening before.
For early morning workouts I usually grab some applesauce and 1 glass of water as a starter. Once the coffee is done, I jump on the bike to sip drinkmix and coffee during warm-up.
Usually, my drink mix is heavily loaded (80 to 100grs/h). It helps me for my morning at work later on and there is an additionnal placebo effect to push harder in the pedals.
I also struggle very much with sweet spot or threshold workouts for too long too close to my threshold.
Also, I don’t eat carbs for dinner. I have proteins and veggies, with a protein shake before going to bed. When I know that I have a hard training session the next day (2-3h Z2 or intensities) I have a a bit of carbs like 2 slices of bread.
