Music During Training, Eating in a Fast Race, Carb Loading and More – Ask a Cycling Coach 244

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
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How music during training can improve performance, strategies to eat and drink during a fast MTB race, effective and efficient carb loading and more is all covered in Episode 244 of The Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast.

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Topics covered in this episode:

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Thanks for covering mtn bike topics

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Yes! More MTB please!!! :+1:

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Why just cover fast MTB races ? - there are some slow participants & long races out there
and the longer the race the more nutrition makes a difference .

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Because the faster the race, the harder it is to take on nutrition. Longer endurance events simply require correct intake which has been covered multiple times on the podcast.

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It would be interesting to hear about carb loading and the right ratio/timing of fibers → the amount of fiber the evening before and morning of an event shouldn’t be too high? But the first days can be higher in fiber?

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“Get proper sleep” they say

“Watch the (addictive) podcast live” they say

One or the other, folks, one or the other :stuck_out_tongue:

[actually, I’m barely out of bed after a good/decent sleep, so this week it works :-P]image

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Nutrition wise a long mtb race will be similiar to a long road or tri race which they have covered a lot.

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I have a question regarding spikes in TSS. With the bad weather and short days in winter when the opportunity for long rides on the winter are available I take advantage of them replacing the Sunday ride with a long outdoor ride. Since this cannot be consistent due to weather fluctuations in my area I am wondering if this is hurting me as it is causing a not allowing a ramp in TSS (i.e. 420, 520, 440)? I am in the base phase right now, following a mid volume plan with slight increases in volume (mainly + workouts and active recovery rides).

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I’ve got a question about plan builder

Because my IM plan was slightly longer than the prescribed base, build speciality mine goes base, build, base, specialty

no issue with this BUT

the long runs in this second base max out at 1 hour, suddenly when I get back to specialty I am back up to 2.40 long runs, this doesn’t seem like a good idea to suddenly have such a massive jump in run volume, should I just keep up my slow long runs in second base?

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Is chad drinking beer at 8am??? :wink::joy:

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I really like my Bose SoundSports while on the trainer they block most of the wind noise from the fan. If I’m rolling solo on the road I put one wired white apple headphone in.

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I have a set of bone conduction head sets. They’re great. In the gym or on the trainer I use a set of ear plugs so I have noise cancellation . Outside you can still hear the music but can still hear what’s going on around you.

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My favourite noise cancelling earphones are JBL Under Armour Flash In Ear Headphones.

They deaden the sound brilliantly. You can press the button and then there’s ‘talk-thru’ so you can hear, if you need to, without taking them out.

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Here is a commonly referenced example of the Accuracy / Precision discussion:

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image707×476 100 KB

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One large difference between road/tri/gravel vs single track is bumps & turns.
On my road bike or TT, there’s not much bumping & twisting turning around: i can grab a bar , unwrap it and eat it even while staying aero. I can do that quite safely while steering with one hand and then dispose of the wrapper.

On single track: well it’s not difficult but you better find the right segment and that might be where you get passed by someone. That’s why having a bladder to drink is quite useful. Is there some solid food that’s preferable to use on mtb? Are the XC marathoners just use liquid fuel?

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“He’s a pro! He lives in Europe!” :rofl:

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You are correct there. I definitely look for places I can eat and drink at while I pre ride an xc course. I personally do just a bottle of sustain elite (25g carb drink) if it’s around an hour race, and I add one clif gel at the 45 min mark if it’s going to be an hour and a half or more. I can’t speak to marathoners. Longest race I’ve done was 40 miles and I just did gels every 45 mins. I have the top of the gel pre ripped just a little bit, then duct tape it to my top tube so when i grab the gel, it autimatically rips the top all the way open and it’s ready to consume.

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