Hi everyone. First post here. I have seen lots of good threads on plant based ect but nothing that is helping with my specific questions so giving this a try.
I switched cold to almost 100pct plant based about a month ago (high fiber) after doing trainerroad for a while and having some success with fitness but also having fairly frequent setbacks (injury, sick for a week etc) but overall was definitely progressing.
Come to now, i feel great on the new diet but i am absolutely getting crushed on the intervals even ones ive completed fairly easily in the past. Endurance rides don’t seem to be a problem just the ss/Threshold stuff. I am getting enough calories, protein, and a great mix of food (tracking on chronometer).
Has anyone been through this? Do I just need more time to adapt? Should i just do endurance rides until im adaped? Any help is much appreciated!
By way of background im definitely a beginner, have been mountain biking since 2020 at a beginnermediate level. Am just trying to progress a little to join the intermediate group rides and have fun. Currently doing 3 days trainerroad and 2 days strength and one day stretching and stability a week for the most part.
Thank you for responding. I am eating at least 2 pieces of whole grain bread or oats/granola a day plus lots of chickpeas or beans plus a banana or some sweet potato etc. It varies by day but definitely get some with breakfast daily and some complex carbs with lunch/dinner.
Maybe you’re just not fueling adequately for the hard workouts.
For every 100g of sweet potato or banana, you’re getting 20g of carbs, so you would need to eat at least 300g of sweet potato/banana to get 60g of carbs for zone 2. For SS/Threshold, you would need more than that.
If you are failing workouts that you previously completed fairly easily and the only thing that has changed is your diet, then the link between those two things seems likely.
As others have already said, carbs are the easy way to fuel higher intensity workouts.
As an easy experiment, shovel plenty of carbs in at a suitable time for your next attempt at such a workout and see how you get on.
…and those carbs are slow carbs, so timing of meals is in play. I messed with keto for a while, too long, but long enough to figure out the relationship between carbs and intensity on the bike.
If you’re doing a hard workout a carb-rich meal (oats, rice, etc.) 2-3 hours before and then some simple carbs (juice, gel, etc.) ~10-15 minutes before the hard work begins should help out quite a bit.
Eating carbs throughout the day helps get glycogen into your muscles and then that shot of simple carbs before your effort helps to get it into your bloodstream. Because of this, don’t take those simple sugars until you’re ready to rock otherwise your blood sugar could spike and crash before you start your workout which won’t help at all!
Put some carbs in your drink during the workout and take sure quick release carbs about 1hr to 30 mins before your workout… white bread, banana, a gel.
Also don’t forget to refuel after your ride to bump those glycogen stores back up.
On a plant based diet, carbs are easy to come by, protein harder. I’ve been fully vegan for 5+ years and you definitely have to work at your diet but honestly, I’ve felt much better since going vegan… good recovery, less illness and my chronic restless legs disappeared (likely due to an allergy to milk)
Good luck with it and happy for you to reach out to me if you have any questions. I’m not an expert or nutrtionalist but I am someone who researches these things and has successfully adopted a PB diet.
Thats not nearly enough, thats enough snacks to get you through 60min of low Z2.
Regular day if I have a hard session the bike in the afternoon, around 4PM:
Breakfast: 2-4 pieces of toast with ham, plus some protein on the side, a coffee. Lunch: Chicken and rice, here I start to add more sugars as well Afternoon snacks: 2-3 pieces of toast with honey and jam (balance between fructose and glucose), glass of orange juice. On the bike: 60-90g carbs per hour, depending on if it’s short or long session, medium or hard. Post ride: If it’s 1-2 hours until dinner, just a piece of toast plus a glass of milk with some nesquik, for quick carbs. Dinner: Depending on the ride the day after, ill shift focus between protein focused or carb focused, but either way, its either 250g of cooked rice of 450g of rice, depending on carb needs. Then protein on the side. Evening snack: If I am riding the after, I’ll also have some cereal, usually all bran with a banana.
You’re not eating enough.
My guess is that you should triple your carb intake, at least.
The most important thing is eating enough off the bike. You cannot compensate with carbs on the bike if your muscle and liver glycogen is too low coming in.
Also calories in doesn’t really matter, if your macros are wrong for your needs. More carbs, less fat, rest protein.
Thanks! This is encouraging. Ive also read people saying it takes a month or more to fully adapt and im almost to a month. Was thinking i just need to develop the gut bacteria to be able to process the food im eating now since i went from almost no fiber to a massive amount. Will try more carbs before the intervals as well.
Thanks. Wow thats a lot of food ha. I saw some recommendations on reddit saying something similar and i was trying for a bit to stuff more food in but it was making me feel like crap. Constantly overstuffed. I can believe that i need more carbs though so will try to adjust the meals a bit to add more rice etc
I eat a plant-based diet, and strive to eat as many whole foods and fresh vegetables off the bike as I can. But for on-bike nutrition and workout fuel, I eat pretty much the same as I did before going vegan: gels, sugars, and carbs. During races it’s drink mixes and gels; in training I often use cheaper candies for the same effect. The only change has been a switch from Haribo (which contains gelatin) to Sour Patch Kids (which does not).
How does you carb consumption compare with when you were eating meat, assuming you were tracking on chronometer?
It’s pretty hard not to get enough carbs on a vegetarian diet because all the protein sources, grains, seeds, pulses contain more carb than protein anyway. Unless you are feeling so bloated from all the extra fibre you struggling to eat enough?
In the long term make sure you are getting enough iron and B vitamins because they are more difficult to get enough of when you’re not eating red meat.
Nuun is basically only hydration…nowhere near enough carbs to fuel workouts.
Look into drink mixes where you can get 60-90g o f carbs in your bottle, but still meet your dietary requirements. Flow Formulas should work since Dylan Johnson uses it and he is vegan…but there are plenty of others, too.
As another athlete responded above, Nuun is really only for electrolytes. For caloric drink mixes I tend towards whatever my LBS has in stock; I’ve used Skratch, Tailwind, and a few others. I don’t have a strong preference for one over the other; in the end they’re just fast carbs and they all (for me at least) seem to do the job—as long as I don’t overdo it with too many scoops per bottle
