I did the free trial of two separate endurance nutrition apps, and I decided neither was worth the price. Mostly because their food tracking UI and/or food database was rudimentary (bordering on non-functional).
I’m a T1 diabetic and have been tracking my food for my entire life, so I don’t actually require the tracking functionality of those apps (I currently use an app called MyNetDiary, btw. I prefer it to MyFitnessPal). However, I did like how the nutrition apps pulled my upcoming workouts from TR and TP and periodized my macros around past and future efforts to (presumably) optimize training and recovery.
So, I’m hoping to to build an excel sheet that can take my baseline daily macros, and adjust/periodize them based on my training. What I’m struggling to determine though, is if I can use the TSS and IF of a given workout to calculate how much additional carbs are needed before, during, and after that effort. Or is it simpler to just use the projected KJ of a given workout and plan on dividing that into a ~15/50/35 percentage of calories to add before/during/after?
After a couple hours of googling I seem to only find extremely rudimentary ‘rules of thumb’ or academic papers that require blood lactate and/or tissue biopsy values in the calcs
I’m trying to analyze a similar idea, to calculate the nutrition plan for 10-12 hours of cycling, 5000 mt d/+, and to prepare myself in outdoor trainings for that effort. I’m 61 years old, the FTP is around 230 and cannot change so much (i use Trainerroad for training from 2014…), and so i’m focusing on the thing that can guarantee me to survive until the finish line, the nutrition.
My idea is to divide the course in segments, calculate IF, TSS, W’ (on steepest parts i am obliged to go over my ftp), Kj, and trying to understand better if it’s possible for me to do it . Teorically, i could also discover that it’s better for me to pause for 30 minutes at some point, to let the body refuels. After that, i would try to organize some long outdoor ride to simulate some segment of that course, especially for nutrition.
So… have you discovered something on your analysis ? ….Some tips ?
IMO, you are over-complicating it. Train your body to tolerate as many simple carbs as possible during training so that you have an idea what you can do during races. It’s very unlikely that you would ever get off the bike with a calorie surplus from “overeating” during your training session. If you don’t want to pound carbs on every easy endurance ride, that’s OK. But for any hard training session, maximizing/increasing carb intake should be part of the training objective. And that should absolutely include some race simulations where you try to replicate race day as much as reasonable (ie- don’t stop for 30 minutes to refuel and rest). Pushing the carb limits in training will train and inform your race approach. There isn’t a magical formula that says you should be taking in X grams of carbs per hour at one intensity vs. y grams per hour at a different intensity. You might find that your carb intake limits vary by intensity, temperature, altitude, duration, etc., but that’s something you want to figure out during training. All just my opinion/experience, ymmv.
firstly, you are right, i’m addicted to data. I realized that i didn’t mention that the course is La Marmotte, 175 km and 5000 m/d+. I already get the golden rule: “load up on carbs as much as you can because they’ll never be enough”.
I also know that, even if a train my body to accept 70-80 grams of carbs/hour for 10 hours, they are not enough to cover the Kjoules that will be requested. So, i’m trying to find some way to evaluate the power, nutrition, fatigue build-up, etc. . I’m asking (to myself) if there is a smarter way to do trainings, combining other things to the TrainerRoad plan. I have already made a race plan with the free option of BestBikeSplit, but i haven’t found “trick” info (maybe there is nothing to discover…) .
I wll try to go deep in analysis, don’t know where i will go. And last but not least, for personal reasons the vast majority of my training is indoor, with TrainerRoad. Many things stuck together, i have to activate my brain.
Never hurts to research and educate yourself looking for “tricks”. But I really think the only trick to fueling is to find your limits in training (including race simulation). For me, I’ve gotten to a point where I can push 130-150g/hr for shorter races in cool weather, but that doesn’t work all day in longer races or when it gets hot. An effective strategy for me in those 8-12 hour races is to load up early in the day when my stomach is still processing things and then drop down to ~100g/hr (or even less) as heavy fatigue sets in or as the day heats up. It was just a lot of trail and error to figure out what works for me. Another change I’ve made over the years is to make fueling and hydration as simple and “mechanical” as possible. Fueling on the bike isn’t about enjoying the flavor or eating/drinking when I’m hungry or thirsty, it’s a emotionless task that happens every x minutes to maximize the calories my body can process. And that’s not to say I don’t enjoy a fresh cookie or pastry on an easy training ride or group ride, I just don’t consider that part of training my gut to perform on race day. There are plenty of things to discover about nutrition on the bike, I just don’t think there are any special tricks beyond trial and error over time.
