I have been using TrainerRoad for a few days now Syncing my Garmin activities while i wait for trainer to come in the mail. But the main issue I was having with training was structure. Where to start, how hard to ride, how long to ride, how often to ride. So when I started looked around, TrainerRoad looked amazing for the structure I need. What I am wondering now is if there is a software for nutrition just like TrainerRoad for riding. Something to tell you when to eat, what to eat, when to take a gel in a training ride or how many carbs to consume.
I guess the thing that is confusing me is not knowing the best times to eat certain types of foods that will maximize my training. Like if i know I am going to ride at 430pm today. When is it too early or too late to eat my spaghetti lunch? When should I consume certain carbs and sugars like fruit and a yogurt? 30 minutes or 1 hour+? I never really thought about any of this but the more I read and study the sport the more I realize it matters a lot if you want to maximize your efforts. I just have no idea where to start or any idea how to build a timetable for nutrition and riding.
Is there a guide or program that helps with this for cycling?
I know they make apps like that designed around weight and power lifters but I don’t think one exists yet for endurance athletes. Time for you to design something and make some money
Thanks! Ya it looks really good but its not cheap! Wish it was a $5 or $10 app. They want $12 a month or $99 a year! Just sucks because it looked promising. All these bike apps are adding up lol
Outside of a nutritionist there is not going to be an app this specific to what your personal needs are. If you have health coverage (some benefit plans cover this) you may be able to look into a dietician or nutrionist (there is a difference). Otherwise getting one and having a consult plus some appt’s may be far more worthwhile to tailoring your specific needs and answering your questions.
There has been a ton of discussion on nutrition timing on the podcast, someone far smarter than me (paging @mcneese.chad ) can likely give you some podcast numbers to look at on this topic.
Otherwise once you get a plan using something like myfitnesspal is a sure fire way to track what you are doing and ensure you are staying on track.
Sadly, I am about the worst on tracking Nutrition stuff in particular (it’s the major deficiency in my own program), so I don’t know much specifically.
What I can offer is a simple search result, using the podcast category in the filters. It will take some skimming of each podcast post to find any relevant info worth reviewing:
The recent stuff with Kate Courtney was also really good, but there are a lot of really good articles depending on the specifics within nutrition itself.
The biggest benefit I have found from TR is having a schedule to stick to, so I wanted to translate that. Theoretically you could do a low volume plan where you eat salad 3 times per week but other days are unplanned
I roughly track in MFP, especially all of my snacks that are unplanned, but having 15 healthy meals per week seems to be working!
Not exactly what you asked for… FasCat has an introductory plan that I believe is a 4 weeks of 3 meals/day + snacks. It was developed by a registered dietician and they are working on follow-on plans. So it spells out what to eat during the day, everything except for on-bike calories/hydration. There is a link to a podcast episode that likely has a lot more info (I haven’t listened to it).
