Great episode with Alex as she shares everything she has been learning as she has gotten back into training consistently for the last 4 months and is applying all of her guidance and advice in her own life.
We quickly cover my collarbone recovery from a nutrition perspective, then jump into three questions from an athlete on:
Artificial sweeteners and cycling
Budget-friendly nutrition for cyclists
Sustainable weight loss strategies
Give it a listen and share with your friends!
// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Welcome!
(00:00:28) Alex Larson’s Training Journey
(00:04:19) Balancing Training and Family Life
(00:09:52) Nutrition Strategies for Late Night Workouts
(00:18:58) Fueling and Recovery Insights from Alex
(00:30:21) Jonathan’s Recovery Nutrition
(00:33:54) Navigating Weight and Self-Perception
(00:36:46) The Impact of Injury on Weight and Self-Image
(00:39:39) Exciting Announcements and Upcoming Events!
(00:40:51) Listener Questions: Nutrition and Weight Loss
(00:42:33) Artificial Sweeteners and Cycling
(00:48:20) Budget-Friendly Nutrition for Cyclists
(00:58:49) Sustainable Weight Loss Strategies
Kudos to you both for. talking about things like Poptarts and Nerds Clusters as budget friendly cycling foods. I feel like this stuff gets left out of the discussion far too often.
My personal recommendation is Rice Krispies treats. They’re super cheap when you buy in bulk and they pretty much melt in your mouth, so not a lot of intensive chewing while you’re trying to ride.
Another good eat that is cheap, for me are Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars. Taste good, easy to eat on the bike, 38g of carbs. You can get a box of 40 at Costco for very cheap. Only downside is wrapper packaging.
Cheap fuel
Gummie Cherries. 5 pieces are 110 calories and 24g of carbs, no sodium. Cost 24¢ per serving.
Gummie bears. 13 pieces are 100 calories and 23g of carbs, 5mg of sodium. Cost 25¢ per serving
Gummie cola bottles 8 pieces are 110 calories and 24g of carbs, no sodium. Cost 27¢ per serving.
All the above gummies will fit in your cheek, once they get a layer of saliva on them, the get even softer and slicker to the point where with the bottles and cherries, you can just swallow without chewing.
Pop tarts are a favorite of mine for riding indoors but fall apart easily. Which makes it hard to have on an outside ride.
I’ve been buying the knock off nutrigrain bars from Walmart ( great value cereal bars). It’s like $7 for 32 of them 24g carbs- 130 calories for 1. They can also fall apart outside but they’re cheap as .
Fair point, but I’d argue that if you’re on a ride where you’re eating pop tarts you probably aren’t consuming 100g sugar per hour. OTOH, it would be fun to watch someone do a stage race while consuming nothing but pop tarts, Rice Krispies, and corn dogs. (Ivy has entered the conversation )
Just don’t ride behind them!
Also, most people who are eating solid foods aren’t getting all of their carbs from that one source. I regularly do long rides with 40-60g per bottle and supplement that with some real food as needed.
Good pod with plenty of interesting insights. One thing got me thinking though. Early on, Alex spoke about how she was against weighing food and journaling. Then, later on, she discussed the importance of making sure to get the optimum amount of protein - I think she mentioned 1.8g per kg.
Genuine question and not a criticism: how are you going to establish how much protein you’re getting if you don’t weigh your food and keep some sort of journal - albeit for a relatively short period?
In regards to cheap fuel, I’m not sure why the hosts are not a fan of table sugar. Jonathan mentioned that it doesn’t dissolve well in water, which is not my experience. I believe that you can dissolve about 180-200g of sugar in 100ml of room temperature water, which would be potentially 1,000 g of sugar in a 500 ml water. Also I think it’s one of the cheapest sources of carbs you can get.
I can’t do large amounts of table sugar on the bike. It turns my stomach. I’m fine with like 40g on a Z2 ride, but in heat or under intensity, 90g will turn my stomach fast.
Also, I definitely have the “it doesn’t dissolve” issue at room temp. There’s always a lump at the bottom of the empty bottle.
I’ve never had an issue dissolving it. Granted, I generally make my bottles the night before for early morning workouts, so it has all night to dissolve. Still, you get a 1:1 glucose:fructose ratio for a fraction of the price of buying malto and fructose in bulk.
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