New Study on Glycogen Replenishment Rates | Why You Might Be Plateaued | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 581

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
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Alex Larson joined us to answer some questions on the recovery window and stage race nutrition that led us into reviewing some awesome research that looked into the replenishment rates of liver and muscle glycogen after exhaustive exercise, and scientifically-based best practices for endurance athletes looking to optimize nutrition.

The glycogen replenishment research causes a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, suggesting that nutrition could be playing a meaningful roll in the reason why an athlete may feel they need more than 24hr between hard workouts.

It also should influence our recovery nutrition habits in meaningful ways.

At the end we went over my nutrition and how Iā€™m using the EA model to optimize body comp and fuel performance, reviewing a week-long food log.

Hope you enjoy, and if youā€™d like to get a good baseline recommendation for your calorie and macro targets, try the free cycling nutrition calculator!

// TOPICS COVERED

(00:00:00) Welcome & Episode Overview

(00:00:58) Listener Question: Stage Race Nutrition Strategy

(00:02:32) Post-Race Recovery & Carb Timing Between Stages

(00:07:39) What to Eat, Avoid & Hydration Strategies

(00:20:24) Caffeine Strategy for Multi-Day Races

(00:22:00) Pro Stage Race Routine & Recovery Habits

(00:25:13) Research Review: Recovery Nutrition & Timing Myths

(00:30:03) How Much Carbs You Need (and Why Itā€™s So Hard)

(00:35:13) Glycogen Limits: Why You Canā€™t Fully Recover Overnight

(00:42:02) Why Intentional Refueling Matters for Performance

(00:52:58) Calorie Deficits, RED-S & Performance Risks

(01:00:11) Energy Availability vs. Calorie Counting

(01:04:51) High-Carb Fueling for Better Training & Body Composition

// RESOURCES MENTIONED

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On my second watch, good stuff :+1:

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Great episode! Eating 6-10 g/kg body weight of carbs definitely takes some thought, planning, and execution!

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Applying the energy availability concept that Jonathan described to my caloric intake has had a big impact on my training efficiency and adaptation. The thread below is also worth a read for anyone interested

Energy availability: a different way of planning your nutrition - Nutrition - TrainerRoad

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I just watched the episode and checked out the calculator. My training has been fading for several monthsā€¦cut back by 1/2 as I presumed I was just doing too much (9 hours plus resistance 2/wk at age 62). Also took a week off. Looks like Iā€™d been under fueling by at least 1500 Calories/day. This makes sense but I have no idea how Iā€™m going to be able to eat that much!

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Trying to relate the Kyle Pfaffenbach advice to this seemingly high level of carbs. And specifically to low volume masters. I have 3 days off the bike, and just using some round numbers at 88kg, the protein 1.7g/kg and fats 1.1g/kg take up 1500 kcal of my day. If my BMR is around 2000-2200, that doesnā€™t leave much room for carbs. On a day with 1 hour of intensity, I get 600-700 kcal more to work with (I can make all that carbs), but thatā€™s not every day. Iā€™m also trying to improve body composition, not aggressively, so trying to leave a small calorie deficit. Iā€™ve done Kyleā€™s plan and dropped 8ish pounds since the start of the year, but I realize the real risk of hampering training with insufficient fuel.

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This was a really good episode. The energy availability angle makes a lot of sense.

As an engineer and someone whoā€™s dealt with RED-S, Iā€™ve struggled with this in practice, itā€™s easy to be eating enough overall for a week but still end up back logging your intake post hard sessions when the hunger hits!

I ended up building a calculator for myself to make this a bit easier. It lets me roll over previous days, save meals, and Iā€™ve been playing around with photo logging and meal suggestions. It also scales carbs and calories based on my training duration and intensity.

It sounds pretty similar to the app you mentioned, Jonathan. Not trying to push anything, just would appreciate any feedback/testers. glycogo.fit

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My numbers from a big day yesterday. Luckily I donā€™t struggle with getting in enough food :smiley:

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My diet is mostly protein and fat ā€¦ based on that, and the KP advice, I assume our bodies must be getting energy from somewhere other than liver and muscle glycogen?

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Interesting podcast and also the nutrion link looks good.

Any recommendations for snacks that are high in carbs but low in fat? I tend to have nuts, peanut butter on some oat cakes but they appear to high in fat now after using the calculator!

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Sometimes itā€™s tough to find high-carb, relatively low-fat snacks that sound appealing..

I often eat toast with honey or jam, cereal with low/non-fat milk, fruit, smoothies, etc.

I also buy 25 lb bags of short grain brown rice and 50 lbs of AP flour.

Tracking macros as an endurance athlete makes you really covet fat, as itā€™s easy to get enough of it in, but many of the most delicious things contain plenty of it. :pleading_face:

Iā€™ve found that your options will be so much more vast and appealing if you allow a little bit of fat, while still watching your daily figure. That opens up things like pasta tossed in a pesto, PB in brown rice for breakfast with a little sugar and salt (I eat this almost daily), margherita-style pizza with small bits of mozzarella, etc., etc.

Take a closer look at some of the things you like to eat and see if you can find ways to scale back the fat without going overboard. :+1:

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Great podcastā€¦ @Jonathan , is it possible (if you want) to share the excel file too? Think it is a great tool to useā€¦ thx.. if not, no problem off courseā€¦

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The tool is awesome! Is the carb number inclusive of intra-workout consumption? it mentions 90g/hour but unsure if that is within the total

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Thanks, very useful! This is a big step change for me increasing carbs massively, 100g of porridge oats this morning as I have a Zwift race tonight took some time to eat!!

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@Jonathan - I thought I heard you make a comment on the podcast that you were tracking macros but not calories recently. Does this just mean that you are intentionally not doing the math because thatā€™s better for your mental health? Or are you saying that youā€™re making sure you meet or exceed each macro and arenā€™t tracking total calories? This comment just made me curious because the biochemistry says that calories are just the sum of macros.

Thanks!

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@Jonathan - I thought I heard you make a comment on the podcast that you were tracking macros but not calories recently. Does this just mean that you are intentionally not doing the math because thatā€™s better for your mental health? Or are you saying that youā€™re making sure you meet or exceed each macro and arenā€™t tracking total calories? This comment just made me curious because the biochemistry says that calories are just the sum of macros.

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Bananas, rice balls (make rice with miso for salt), and my personal favorite, Kodiak waffles (I eat them plain as my pre-ride meal). I also make muffins but sub out kefir for oil. If you like peanut butter, try things with peanut butter powder, all the flavor and a lot less fat.

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Loving the calculator tool and feel like it is working. Iā€™m keen to understand how folks include gym work into the calculator. For example on a Tue/Sat I have 1.5hr ā€œhardā€ rides and I like to double them up with a gym dayā€¦fair to assume I should just increase the hours on Tue/Sat to 2.5 and hard?

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Yes, great tool..