The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS
Coach Adam Pulford delivers actionable training advice and answers your questions in short weekly episodes for time-crunched cyclists looking to improve their cycling performance. The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast (formerly The TrainRight Podcast) is brought to you by the team at CTS - the leading endurance coaching company since 2000. Coach Adam pulls from over a decade of coaching experience and the collective knowledge of over 50+ CTS Coaches to help you cut throught the noise of training information and implement proven training strategies that’ll take your performance to the next level.
The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS
Fueling Tips for Busy Cyclists from Sports Dietitian Kristen Arnold (#216)
OVERVIEW: Sports Dietitian Kristen Arnold MS, RDN, CSSD works with busy amateur and elite athletes who sometimes struggle to optimally fuel for performance and recovery. In this episode, Kristen and Coach Adam Pulford break down practical, easy, quick, and effective tips and tricks you can use to fuel and perform at your best.
Key topics in this episode:
- Fueling for early morning training
- Fueling for longer rides
- Fueling morning workouts without pre-workout meal
- Fueling for people who don't like breakfast
- Timing of fluid intake for hydration and fueling
- The post ride meals
- Tips for daily nutrition intake
- Food delivery service tips
Guest
Kristen Arnold MS, RDN, CSSD is a registered dietitian (RDN), retired professional cyclist and Women's Development Road Director for USA Cycling. She is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD), received her master’s in human nutrition (MS) from the Ohio State University and is a Level 1 USA Cycling coach. Her private practice nutrition counseling business focuses on sports nutrition for women athletes.
Links
- Kristin's Website
- Kristin's Instagram
References from the episode - DC Sustainable Meals: Vegetable & the Butcher
- The Rounds sustainable meals
Host
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for more nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform
GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT
Join our weekly newsletter
CONNECT WITH CTS
Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete
From the team at CTS. This is the Time Crunch Cyclist podcast, our show dedicated to answering your training questions and providing actionable advice to help you improve your performance even if you're strapped for time. I'm your host, coach Adam Pulford, and I'm one of the over 50 professional coaches who make up the team at CTS. In each episode, I draw on our team's collective knowledge, other coaches and experts in the field to provide you with the practical ways to get the most out of your training and ultimately become the best cyclist that you can be. Now on to our show. Welcome back.
Speaker 1:Time Crunch fans. If you're like many of my athletes, you probably aren't unhealthy when it comes to feeding and fueling your body, but life gets in the way. Time gets short, schedules change and many of the right or healthy choices aren't always around if we don't plan ahead for them to be there and learn how to adjust on the fly. Kristen Arnold has been on the podcast in the past to talk about all things performance, nutrition and today she joins us to share a simple framework and some fun hacks for athletes short on time to stay ahead of the game when it comes to fueling, recovery and being a healthy human. Kristen, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Well, I know that planning ahead can take a lot of stress out of really anything that we do, but especially in the way of food prep and fueling for an athlete, and that's like what you do for your profession. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. A lot of my job is helping athletes navigate how to put all these best practices into place. So we can give a. We can give athletes all the best information and all the best science we know, but if it's not practical or they're not able to actually implement it, what are we even doing? So that's my favorite part is helping them achieve their goals with that.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I think you know we we've had podcasts before where we're talking about like grams per hour and percentages of kilojoule expenditure to do on the bike, and this podcast will be less of that. We're going to take and pull from the science of what to actually consume, but we're going to make it into that like actionable here's what to eat, here's what it looks like and, as you said, the hacks that go along with it. So I will admit, as a coach, I don't even always do this and plan ahead like that, so I'm hoping that you can help me as well as our audience. You know, simplify our fueling for busy lives. Can you do that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm excited too, and I just want to say, starting out too, if this sounds like a lot and you're like, wow, I don't think I'm going to be able to do all these strategies one at a time. Strategies one at a time Um, a lot of the research shows that when we introduce new habits one at a time, they are going to be more successful, rather than when we try to do so many things at once.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more. Uh, especially my wife, tell you that I'm a supreme monotasker. I can't do a lot of things at once. So, for for everybody else, I mean, yeah, baby steps, um, one thing at a time, and we'll provide kind of four or five things to uh, to to implement. And it all really begins with what I call a framework of identifying demands and needs of what you're actually doing as an athlete, and we'll boil that down into training sessions, and then we'll get some of Kristen's hacks that will go along with it, and then we'll pull it all together with healthy food tips that will fuel you all day. So, kristen, I'll turn it over to you. Uh, the first one that I just think of, which is kind of like the bread and butter for many athletes, is it's the early morning training sessions during the weekdays.
Speaker 1:There's how do we, how do we fuel for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So those really early morning training sessions. I have a lot of athletes I work with where they essentially roll out of bed, put their kid on, get on the trainer and bang out a workout. So we're talking like literally first thing. They have no time to lose, no time to waste, rather, um. So in those scenarios there's a couple of different strategies that have been shown that I've had success with for athletes, and it really depends, like you said, adam, about the demands of the workout.
Speaker 2:So if you're just doing an easy spin, um, something under 50% threshold, those needs are not going to be as intense as if you're doing an interval training session or a Zwift race or even like a really early morning group ride. So if we're doing really early morning training, we do want to get some fuel in, especially for athletes with female reproductive organs and master's athletes. Exercising fasted, especially that high intensity is not recommended for a couple of reasons. But we do have muscle protein degradation. That happens when we exercise fasted and also it can disrupt our metabolic function. So we want to get something in, either before or during or both. But there's always going to be this balance between how we're going to feel with gut distress during the workout and how much fuel we can actually get in. Right, like we're not going to eat a giant bowl of oatmeal and then try to do an interval set five minutes later. That's just not going to work.
Speaker 2:Not going to pan out well, Exactly so there is some experimentation with like what types of foods and timing for different people. So a couple of the hacks. I have one set out everything you need the night before, especially for before and during. Some athletes I even recommend doing their post exercise either snack or meal, setting that out as well. But have everything ready to go either on the fridge or even on your bike. If you have your trainer set up in the garage and it's cold at night, you could put bottles on there already with drink mix and they're going to stay cold till the next morning. Like you could have that all ready to go. Put your gels or your um, your bars, in there, and then even one strategy I've recommended for some athletes is putting the snack that you're going to have before exercise even on top of your phone in the morning if it's really early morning. So literally the first thing you do when you're turning your alarm off is you have a snack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. I haven't done that one. That's a. That's a new one to me, but it's. It's interesting. You bring up the like the the fasted ride and in particular for, like, women's physiology and you said master's physiology, so not to get super deep into the weeds of, like, fat adaptation and, uh, fasted training. But what you're saying is there could be a detriment to doing fasted training or or say, like all of your training fasted.
Speaker 2:Exactly, is that what you're saying, and especially for high intensity. For lower intensity, it's less important.
Speaker 1:Exactly so, like the demands or the needs, change with the demands, right. So that intensity is really the key thing there, correct, yeah, so so blasting your brains with VO2 max on an empty stomach is what we're advising to avoid.
Speaker 2:Good luck, yeah, good luck with that.
Speaker 1:All right. So those are, those are really good. Good uh hacks, for for sure. I would say.
Speaker 1:On the coaching side of things, because you deal with everybody's like food intake, I'm kind of dealing with the logistics and I would say, uh, especially as we're coming into this like autumn and fall time of year and people are riding inside, more like the number one thing that gets people is like they plan on riding outside, then it's cold, dark and wet and they're like, okay, I'm going to ride inside, but they didn't set stuff up and they're like, oh, and the 75 minute workout turns into maybe 45, or maybe they just punt it to tomorrow because they weren't set up for success, they didn't plan ahead. So I would say get your equipment in order. If it is indoor or if it's outdoor, whatever it's like, put the layers out, because again, it's a roll of the dice sometimes in the morning of how cold it is, if it's damp, especially on the East Coast. So it's like, lay out the clothes ahead of time so that it doesn't take you 15 minutes just to find everything. Yep, minutes just to find everything, yep Should we talk about?
Speaker 1:Cause this they kind of dovetail because the the early morning, weekday uh, workouts um kind of dovetail into the weekend workouts, but the weekend have slightly different demands. So, at least for my athletes, those demands are we're generally just going to spend longer time on the bike. But if it is a group ride, typically I mean that's still high intensity, or what I call mixed intensities, where hopefully they start easier and then they get into the hills and the sprints and all this kind of stuff. So the demands change a little bit more. So what are the needs then to the athlete, kristen, what would you recommend either, along the same vein of setting stuff out, planning ahead, but what changes in the needs?
Speaker 2:So the needs of a longer workout versus a shorter workout, it's all based on time. The standard recommendations for fueling before or during are based on duration of your activity. So for a shorter activity 90 minutes or less, assuming you're well-fueled going into the workout which, again, for those early morning sessions you're probably not because you were sleeping, but in theory, if you're well-fueled you don't need as much fuel during as the duration goes up. So two to three hour rides, we're going to need 45 to 60 grams of carb per hour and 16 to 32 ounces of fluid with electrolytes, and then anything above three hours. That's when we want to get that 60 to 90 grams of carb with again 16 to 32 ounces of fluid with electrolytes.
Speaker 1:To that end. It's just like the 60 minutes and less sort of training session, whether it has VO two max or if it's just endurance or whatever. Our bodies have enough fuel on board to get through that. Typically, we just need to stay hydrated. So midweek focus on hydration, less on fuel.
Speaker 1:But for a lot of my athletes, and myself included, we're just doing more on the weekend, more time, also more intensity, and that's where it really starts to change and that's where, uh, consuming everything, like Kristen just said um, you need to plan ahead of time for that. So if you wake up, you're time crunched, you're short on time. I'd lay everything out the night before and I think of like what I'm going to need in total, and then I break it down per hour and then I set it out on the counter Is that you know? You know, along with my bottles and stuff. Is that what you would suggest? And then I put that in my you know Jersey and make sure that it's good to go. Uh, anything else along with that to help people map out what they need to be bringing on that bike?
Speaker 2:I think that was pretty comprehensive. I mean set everything out. I will say, when doing this, it will relieve so much stress in the morning, Like maybe it's annoying to do the night before, but you'll feel so much better in the morning when you're going on your ride and you have everything set out. So if that's a barrier, just just know that you can look forward to that. And, um, in addition to setting everything out, always make sure you're bringing extra with you. Um, and this is true even for your pre exercise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we'll hit some timing aspects here in just a minute. But I think with that long ride like I said, laying things out for my juniors in particular or anybody who's like new to the long ride fueling, I have them set everything out and then take a picture and send it to me and I'll be able to like tease out, like, oh, you need, you need another bar or you need two more gels, because it's it's really like a racy sort of group ride, that sort of thing. And I think having you know if you do have a coach you know sending them a quick picture of here's my plan for the four hour ride tomorrow, that's a pretty solid way of doing it, rather than taking more time to, like you know, type stuff out and say here's what I'm doing. It's like coaches typically know what's in a lot of this food, food stuff and, you know, nutritionists typically know that too. So, quick picture, really good. I'd say, what about?
Speaker 1:What about breakfast on a day like this? Should we, what? Should we have it? Yeah, and what if we don't?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so with breakfast, the standard recommendation is one to four grams of carb per kilogram body weight, one to four hours before exercise. So obviously that's a huge range. If we're doing a shorter, let's just assume we're doing a long ride, because that's what we're talking about doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, Long endurance ride.
Speaker 2:Long endurance ride, so lower, rather moderate intensity. Um, we're waking up only one hour before we're on the bike, so we have one hour to get our 75 layers on, get the bike all prepped, get ready to go. Um, so at that point you only have one hour probably less than that to eat breakfast before you start your ride. Um, at that point you'd want one gram of carb per kilogram body weight. So for most people that's going to be like 55 to 80 grams of carbs, something pretty small, actually, like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, um, a cup of oats with a banana and some maple syrup, something that's easy to digest but is still going to get you fuel before that ride.
Speaker 2:And something else I want to mention too is I think it also depends on the type of ride. So for an endurance ride, you're going to have more blood flow available for your gut to digest food and potentially an easier time digesting food. So maybe you could add more nut butter or you could add some eggs or something with more substance. That'll help to provide a more sustainable energy levels throughout the ride and you're not going to cause GI issues because you have that capacity, because it's a lower intensity. Now, if you're riding, and you're doing a group ride and it's full, send in the first 10 minutes, then we definitely will want to make sure we're getting something in beforehand, but something that's really easy to digest and it's going to hit the bloodstream quickly. So that's where that maybe even like a bagel with jam on it, or toast with jam or, um, some oats with maple syrup, something really easy, but getting something in before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean my go-to for endurance, cause I'm more of a savory person two eggs, two pieces of toast, salt on everything.
Speaker 1:So, that's my like long ride one, um. And then to your point is I'll usually a little bit of nut butter, some jam, but like just more carbohydrate focused. If it is full send. However, I have done the. I'm not going to consume anything because I don't want GI issue before I go full scent in the morning. When I do that, I just I really make sure that I start drinking my sport drink like within about 20 minutes, or I hit a gel and that's like first 20 minutes. Is that good, not good? Does that? Am I causing more issues? Like you said, as a master level rider, uh, doing intensity first thing in the morning? Talk to us about the people who don't do breakfast, um, and should they start fueling right away?
Speaker 2:Yes, they should start fueling right away, cause you always got to remember you're fueling for the next hour, right? You're not fueling in the second hour. You're not fueling for the second hour, you're fueling for the third hour. So really, if you're not taking in anything before you get out the door, highly recommend starting even in the first 10 minutes and trying to get those needs met by the end of the first hour, so that 45 to 60 grams of carb by the end of the first hour. But that's also a fine strategy to do. We just want some substrate on board so we're not tapping into that muscle tissue, breaking down, breaking down that muscle tissue for fuel when we can have it on board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or or draining the, the fuel tank, that's on your body more, more quickly than we want to, Would you? What do you say to the people who just are not breakfast people, Like if they eat in the morning? I just feel gross practice, first of all.
Speaker 2:Um, it's not that hard.
Speaker 2:Usually it comes down to like what types of foods.
Speaker 2:Uh, some people think they don't like breakfast, but they would totally eat a muffin, and maybe we just need to find a muffin that works for that athlete, that they enjoy and that they are interested in eating and they want to eat.
Speaker 2:So definitely practice, and at some point your body will get used to eating that breakfast and then it'll feel weird not to. Another strategy is for some people, coffee can be an appetite suppressant, and so trying to eat something before you drink coffee can be a way you're actually you'll notice you might actually be more hungry for breakfast if your intention is to eat something beforehand. Um, and my third tip would be if, if you have a race coming up and you have a lot of nerves or anxiety and that's part of the reason why you're not hungry for breakfast liquid calories in the form of like smoothies or something that is easy to digest Effectively, it's pre-digested already, it's already in the liquid form, you just don't have to chew it. So something soft or something like a smoothie beforehand can be an easy way to get a lot of calories down even if you don't feel like eating.
Speaker 1:I would say my other quick hacks, just personally, uh, for those early weekend rides is uh, grind your coffee the night before so you don't wake up, your up, your spouse and your children and things like overnight oats you know that are. Or just set the snack out. You know stuff that's prepped ahead of time so you're not banging pots and pans around too, can expedite that the fueling first thing in the morning. So you mentioned weekend races and we also talked about like timing of stuff. I think typically, if, if one of my athletes have a race, they're typically just like waking up a little bit earlier so that they have time to put in the fuel, that we talk about pre-race and that kind of stuff. Other times maybe it's a an afternoon start time and so we're not as hard pressed. So I think let's talk about races and let's talk about timing of fueling, because what I've found myself talking about to my athletes is, okay, fueling on the bike, that's important, but fueling before we get on the bike is probably even more important. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Yep.
Speaker 1:So let's talk timing what do we do before and how long before? How short before?
Speaker 2:anytime we're making a fueling strategy. Ideally we're keeping everything the same on race day, right, like there's the saying no, no, nothing new on race day. So ideally the like one to three hours before, during the race and post race. That's all uniform, any race you do, and all you're doing is further dialing it in every time. So, no matter what time your race starts, you want to have the same pre-race meal or some one of a few that you know work for you, so like. But that will change depending on the time of the race. Um, if you're working with, like, a gravel athlete where there's, their starts can be like 6 AM and I am not telling my athletes to wake up at 3 AM just so they can have their meal like three hours before, like. That is not part of the race strategy.
Speaker 2:So at some but some people do, some people do yeah, I know, I mean, some people wake up at three just for their lives, just for work for sure, yeah, and typically they make good gravel racers because they're just habituated by waking up early.
Speaker 2:So totally so. Um, if it's a really early morning start and we're not going to be able to get in our big pre-race meal, my recommendation there is, whatever time you have, start eating as soon as you can and get as much down as you can to not have GI issues before Um, cause at that point you're not actually going to hit the numbers, like you're not going to be able to get the the full grams of carbs in. That's recommended, but you want to get in as much as you can without having GI issues. So, like if you do rice with eggs which I've worked with one of Adam's athletes on the national team and she can pound down some rice with eggs before a race Like it's really impressive, this like junior woman is able to get three, four cups of rice down in one sitting.
Speaker 1:She's a pretty small person too, yeah it's impressive.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, maybe we would cut that down to one or two cups if they only have an hour, hour and a half before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with all my athletes you mentioned. One thing that I think is super important is we're not changing anything drastically on race day, and that doesn't mean that you can't change though, and I think it's the framework and then dialing it up and dialing it down. If we know, you know, race time is at noon, we then develop that plan, kind of like working backwards, of what to put in based on the time. If we know race time starts at 7am, we dial backwards, but then we adjust based on the science that you're talking about in terms of the, the grams per kilogram of body weight per hour, and I think it's really important to start kind of grounded in that framework of sorts, when you have the luxury of time and then work in in in.
Speaker 1:It's really going to be trial and error, you know, using some good science and talking with people like Kristen or a coach or your friend or whatever, and figuring out what works for you and what doesn't, Because four cups of rice and eggs for me, I would barf for sure, but for my athlete it really works for her, and so, to that end though like she's had some early start times and then we do dial that back and we adjust based on the food available and things like this. So I think it's having that framework to go from working backwards, having a good plan and then adjusting when the start time changes Exactly. How about from a timing standpoint of, like we've been talking about fueling and carbohydrate intake in particular? How about hydration? Let's go like with a race day sort of thing, Like should I wake up and just start guzzling water?
Speaker 2:Good question, like should I wake up and just start guzzling water? Good question so to a certain extent we can prehydrate and that means that we are unloading fluid intentionally so that when we start the race we are likely not going to be able to get all of our fluid needs met. So we at least have, like a backlog, a couple of things that are important with hydration. You will absorb more fluid when you take in small amounts often, so it's not recommended to like chug a bunch of water right when you wake up. It is recommended to start drinking early, but we want to drink small sips often rather than chugging a bunch. Because let's say, you chug like two cups of water immediately when you wake up. You might only absorb eight ounces like half of that, and the rest you're going to pee out and it's not going anywhere except your bladder. And it might even make you look like you're well hydrated because your pee is clear, but that's actually just because you chugged a bunch of water, not because you're well hydrated.
Speaker 1:You combine that with an early start time, some cool air and race anxiety and you're just going to be peeing a lot.
Speaker 2:Yikes, yeah. So, uh, what we want to do is start drinking early and small sips often and I do recommend putting some kind of electrolytes in there as well, and usually I'll recommend low calorie electrolytes and then we get most of our calories from food. So, um, something like a liquid IV or I think scratch just came out with, like a non calorie electrolyte mix, and then we're getting the, the carbohydrates, from the food.
Speaker 1:For me in particular, I I'm a big fan of um from the food. For me in particular, I I'm a big fan of um. Osmo has one scratch, has one, but some of their like um, high sodium, uh formulas, and I'll do that an hour before, uh, yeah, hour hour and a half before, and that helps to. I mean, you can talk about that too, but um, it does help, in my opinion, with hydration performance and it helps helps to retain some water as opposed to just kind of like drinking sipping or drinking too much water. For me, high sodium usually works, especially pre workout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think another really common one right now that I'm hearing a lot about is LMNT or element Um. It is 2000 milligrams of sodium per packet, which is quite strong and that, like those really high electrolyte formulas, absolutely practice them in training first. I've had a couple athletes that does work well for, but they basically felt like they had they had to have diarrhea for like three hours Um, so I mean, you're just putting so much solute like solute in your gut and so you definitely want to practice it first. But it can help to, like you said, retain that fluid which you want because you want that hydration on board for when you're sweating a lot later. Um, but you want to practice it first and usually people are going to be better able to tolerate it when they're drinking small amounts through a few hours, not like chugging a whole liter or half a liter right away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Exactly so. I think, to close out, sort of the race day advice and hacks here is you know, we spent a lot of time on the pre-race, leading up to the race. We've done podcasts before on what to do during the race and, like one thing that commonly gets overlooked, for anything from my juniors to my master's athletes to even sometimes the elite, is okay, I'm done with bike racing. I get in the car. I'm super hungry. Where's Chipotle? Oh, shoot, no, I got to get home. You know all these like things. So the post ride meal Kristen, can you tell us how important is the post ride meal, why is it important, when is it maybe not important, and how to plan for actually having it with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the goals of recovering post-ride, and we're talking about the 30 to 60-minute window right after you finish the race. So there's research to support that. There's this window of time where we are more efficiently able to replenish glycogen, which is stored carbohydrates and also support muscle protein synthesis when we have carbohydrates with protein. So we need both carbs and protein to accomplish those goals, and those goals are most important whenever our recovery or whenever our yeah, our recovery window is shorter.
Speaker 2:So the shorter the amount of time between one training session or race and another training session or race, the more important that window is. So, like, let's say, you're doing two races in a day, you have a time trial in the morning and a criterium in the evening. Or you're doing, like, an age group race in the morning for cyclocross and an elite race in the afternoon. Like, your window is only two, three, four hours long, and so we really do need to focus on that, that recovery. Now let's say you're racing on a Saturday. Or let's say you're doing doing a Sunday race and you have Monday off and your next training session isn't until Tuesday. At that point you have 48 hours, maybe even more, between training sessions or between races and at that point your body is going to replenish the glycogen and support muscle protein synthesis at some point, as long as you're meeting your daily needs, um. So that time window like is less important. But I will tell you like, yeah, back-to-back race days, or back-to-back races in a day, are the ones that are most important.
Speaker 2:To focus on that, um, and my top tips for that first, definitely plan what you're going to have. So you want to make sure whatever you have, you're going to have it with you, it's going to be shelf stable or you have a lunchbox that you can take with you to the race to have it, and it's something that you're actually going to want to eat. So that's another thing. I've had athletes like show up with some like soggy peanut butter and jelly and they're like no, I'm not eating this anymore. Or they had like leftover rice, but the rice is like so dry that there is just like congealing in their mouth and like I can't do this. So you want to make sure you're getting those carbs and protein, um in a form that you actually want to eat and will be accessible to you at the race at that time.
Speaker 1:I definitely agree and I think, because it is cycle cross season, if you're going back to back weekends, definitely put food in post race race even sometimes, if you don't really want to, um, put it in because that recovery for the next day is good, um, it needed, right for high performance. And I think what you said as well and it's in in something that's changed in my coaching philosophy is like I used to just, like you know, hit that recovery window all the time and like pound that into my athletes, but at some point it was um demonstrated through research. So it's like hey, actually you're going to regenerate all the glycogen you know in 36 hours. So like, if you have some GI issue, like don't press it right after a huge, huge race, you're not going to miss out on any training effect, any sort of adaptation or something like that. So it's like chill out a little bit so you can like, for anybody listening, take that advice. You don't always have to hit it, especially if you don't have a performance goal the next day.
Speaker 1:However, I will also say, based on my observation with my athletes as well as myself, at least stay hydrated and at least like put something in, whether it is, you know, recovery shake or just like water, just like keep the process going Because, as you said, kristen, it's like your body is primed for absorption, like the sponge is dry, post-race, and now it's like looking to absorb. So if you put something in, it's going to feel better. The problem is, if you don't put something in, sure you'll probably replenish glycogen in like 36 hours, but I get like stomach cramps and I'm just like whoa God, I don't feel great right now, and so, even from a being healthy standpoint, that recovery window is something to acknowledge and have food on hand in order to, uh, achieve healthiness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and one other point I did want to make too, as a sports dietitian um, athletes that struggle to meet their daily energy needs just having the habit of always having a snack or a meal right after exercise, it just provides another time point for them to get food in and it's also going to be a really productive time point. So, um, that's the consideration to like if you are going to skip that snack, you still have to get those calories or that food in later in the day. Can't skip, skip on that meal just because you're not eating it.
Speaker 1:And to those with weight loss goals. I think too, if you're trying to skimp out on that recovery window because you say, well, I'm not that hungry anyway, so I'll just skip that and dump a few calories, I typically find that the athlete may overeat that later. Because you get into the evening and you're in that deficit on a regular basis. Because you get into like the evening and you're in that deficit on a regular basis, and because you didn't uptake it or upload it, you know, post-workout you'll get those cravings typically a little bit more later in the night, before you go to bed. And that's when you know, the ice cream comes out and you'd be like, oh, I'm so hungry, oh, I did that big training session, oh, I deserve it. I'm not telling you anything about my psychology, but um may happen sometimes. So to that point I think a strat, like a real strategy, is hit the recovery window, because if you do have a weight loss goals, it could mitigate hunger later in the day.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and and also to that point too, when you are. If you have weight loss goals that your protein needs go up, like we usually try to up the protein anytime you are. If you have weight loss goals that your protein needs go up, like we usually try to up the protein anytime you are intentionally in a calorie deficit, and for athletes that are already in bigger bodies, their daily protein needs can get really high, and so, again, we want that time point of just having another dose of protein in the day. That's spaced out, and so you'll be more likely to retain or grow lean mass if you're having that protein there too.
Speaker 1:Can you remind me like a good ratio of carbs to protein for that recovery window that you're aiming for?
Speaker 2:There are several ratios that have been shown to be effective one to three and one to four but what I usually recommend is 20 to 30 grams of protein and then one to 1.2 grams of carb per kilogram body weight. So it's a more person specific one so like for that would be usually between 55 and 80 grams of carb with that 20 to 30 grams of protein right afterwards.
Speaker 1:So recovery shake could get you there, formulated in the right way, but it also sounds like maybe like two thirds of a Chipotle burrito, sort of thing, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Both of those would fit the bill or the whole Chipotle in my case.
Speaker 1:So, um, all right, we're getting a little long here, but I do want to talk about what I consider all-day fuel, because we're pretty hot and heavy here, you know pre, during and post, but it's, it's really the you know the nutrition and the density of food that we have throughout the day. That's going to keep us nourished, it's going to keep us focused, it's going to keep us nourished. It's going to keep us focused, it's going to keep us happy. What is Kristen Armstrong's hacks for having healthy food readily available? Because, I'll be honest, I cook a lot in our household. It takes a shit ton of time to do it right. So, for those who don't have time, how do we get healthy food to them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I just want to call you out. I absolutely love getting mistaken for Kristen Armstrong. Anytime I get it, I feel very honored. I always wonder if Kristen Armstrong Totally, totally.
Speaker 1:My brainstem went there. I worked on a team with Kristen Armstrong and my lizard brain definitely went there. So, kristen Arnold, can you give us the kristen arnold uh hack for uh, staying healthy all day when we're short on time?
Speaker 2:so, uh, keep it simple. And again, some people are really pro at time at um, food prepping. Right, they have their whole week planned out. They have all of their foods chopped and prepped, but pick one food, the food that you struggle the most with. So I actually usually recommend prepping carb-rich foods because for athletes, especially endurance athletes, that's one of, if not the most important one for the meals and also can take the most amount of time, right, like rice takes 20 to 45 minutes. Pasta takes 20 to 30 minutes between the water boiling and getting there. Potatoes take time.
Speaker 2:So if you're not going to do anything, I recommend doing the starchy vegetables or grains prepping and then you can add like pouched fish or like a sausage or something really easy for protein and throw in some greens, right, or potentially, if you feel like you have the starches down, prep the protein. So that would mean like buy a bunch of chicken breasts or a big filet of salmon and prep that and cook that ahead of time. So then you're just adding the grains or the veggies, but pick one food and then you can build meals off of that one, and I think that's a great place to start. If you're a more advanced food prepper. At that point you can get more creative and prep different foods from each food group, like prep two to three different vegetables, two to three different proteins, two to three different grains and go from there. But start with one food and then you can build meals off that.
Speaker 1:That's pretty solid and in this advice it's still like if you're going to cook for yourself, it's still takes time. So if you're short on time, what you got to do is just pick a day where you where you prep. Okay, Um, I was just talking with one of my athletes about running through what he eats over the course of a day and we found that we both kind of do a similar thing which is, uh, like lunch bowls would ends up being like dinner from last night, or maybe you did prep and you just like make three or four bowls for the week, but what it is is just what Kristen was saying. You've got a grain or a starch like quinoa or rice. You add that protein in which chicken breast usually holds up Well, sausages hold up Well, um, uh, veg, like in veg can be a number of different things Green leafy stuff, carrots, pickled onions, really like.
Speaker 1:Add a pizzazz, you know, to the flavor. Dressing balsamics is what I go for. But you can, you can put that in like Tupperware containers ahead of time, and so they're prepped, they're all evenly distributed and they're in their fridge ready to go and I just pull those out, um, right before a podcast, for example, post bike ride. And it's, it's super simple because you do not have to think about it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Yep. And then, um, pretty much anytime you're going to cook, try to double or triple the recipe. It's just going to save you later, If you don't eat it all, you can freeze it. Um, I guarantee it'll get eaten, though.
Speaker 1:If you're, if you have an athlete household, it will get yes.
Speaker 1:And this reminds me of, uh, when I was over in Spain working with a group of athletes this year. Um, my wife Kristen would, ironically, kristen as well uh, would call me or text me. You know we just try to figure out our talk time for the day, and it seemed like pretty much every time that she reached out she's like hey, what are you doing? I'm like I'm in a grocery store or I'm heading to the grocery store, I'm checking out at the grocery store right now, can I call you back? And she's like why are you like? I thought you were bike racing, why are you always at a grocery store?
Speaker 1:But you know, we had five athletes that we were, you know, just continually prepping and cooking for, and it was either like tuning bikes or cooking food or sleeping. I mean it was. I mean that's what it takes at that level, right. But I think, as you to our audience, as you look at and kind of observe your household whether you're the only athlete, or maybe you know the kids are into it, or maybe it's you and your wife that food, that food production line, you know, needs to keep, to keep going in order to keep yourselves well-fueled. So don't overlook it. And if you have healthy food on hand, you will eat it. If you have not healthy food on hand, you will eat it. The chips in the bag in the pantry if there needs to be fuel, you'll eat the chips. But if you have a nice healthy lunch bowl, you will eat that instead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the grocery stores are funny. I can definitely relate to that, even if you just forgot something. But athletes need a lot of foods. But definitely having a list before you go to the grocery store will hopefully cut out some of those emergency trips. And I'll say too, like this is the Time Crunch podcast, Like don't be afraid to get some of the pre-made meals. There's actually a lot of services out there now that provide, like nutrient dense, good options for athletes Factor. I'm not an affiliate of them, but they are designed by registered dietitians. It's just an example. Green Chef, I will say if you do do one of those meal services, more than likely you will need to supplement with additional carb-rich foods for athletes. You'll probably need to add more rice or microwave some potatoes or add some pasta, but, um, more than likely you'll need to add extra carbs.
Speaker 1:If you go that route as well, I would recommend finding one that's a little bit more local that has some sort of like sustainability aspect to it and uh my wife and I were at a mountain bike race last year and one of the catering services was just that and I forget the name right now but I'll put it in our show notes but it was essentially a weekly delivery service. They drop it off, they have a big basket, sort of thing, but it was something like 90% of the stuff that they give you is compostable. So what you do is you consume the food, put the compostable items back in that little tote that they give you and then they take care of that too. So, from a like a sustainable and food delivery very simple standpoint, and that's DC, that's metro area. You're not going to find that in Northern Minnesota, um, sort of thing. But if you're going to go that option, look for opportunities like that. Yeah, because it can create a lot of waste.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if it's a local company, I have a couple of clients that there's tons of them in California my California athletes like they have lots of options and a lot of the time you can have requests or you can tell them things that you need because it's a small company. So if you need, like, extra servings of blank or you want extra foods of these, like you can make those requests.
Speaker 1:Well, kristen, let's wrap this thing up. What was kind of fun is we didn't really talk about like food bars and mixes and gels and all that kind of stuff. We know we consume it as endurance athletes, but I think having that on hand is handy because it goes into the during the ride sort of thing.
Speaker 2:that on hand is handy because it goes into the during the ride, sort of thing. Um, any hacks on that? Definitely have it there. Um, buy in bulk and plan out what you're actually going to eat. Have it organized in your cupboard or in your pantry, like so many pantries. I've been in there's bars that have been there for like four years because they're stashed in the corner. I've been in there's bars that have been there for like four years because they're stashed in the corner. So, be organized, don't waste money. And you know, a more advanced strategy would be to make your own ride fuel right, like making bars or making rice cakes and things, but I would consider that a more advanced strategy. We always want foods and emergency options on hand, so that's maybe for another episode. But, like emergency meals, emergency foods are really helpful.
Speaker 1:So for the more advanced um, can I ask you a question? For the more advanced user, slash time rich user, can you provide a recipe for your, like your favorite bar to build at home?
Speaker 2:I will. Yeah, I have a no bake power bar that I really like. They're also freezable, which is nice. They freeze really well. So I'll even make like two batches and I can use them for a month or two. Um, but they're great for rides and lower intensity activities, so I'll put that recipe in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So for everyone listening uh, come back on our show notes and that's at train ratecom backslash podcast or you can find it on the Apple podcast or really wherever you get it. But if you want that recipe, definitely come back and get that. So I guess, in summary, a little planning can go a long way. We talked about a very simple framework to identify the demands and the needs of what your workout session or the training session or the race is going to be, and then that can help you work backwards, essentially to map out your, your fueling and hydration needs. Kristen, is there any kind of last little tidbits or hacks or tips that you want to give our audience?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I just want to reiterate again start small, like pick things that you find you're consistently unsuccessful with, and start with that one and then build off of that. And this is all about building habits to help you be successful. So baby steps.
Speaker 1:Couldn't agree more. Well, if, if someone uh heard you today, kristen, and they were like you know what? I don't really know what I'm doing here. I need to talk with Kristen a little bit more. How do they find you? What does that process look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my website is sportsnutritionforwomencom. And yes, this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the wonderful information and ideas that I've come up with, because, I'll tell you, most of the clients I have are time crunch. That's one of the reasons they're coming to me is like how can they optimize their time, their performance, their health, like all of those areas?
Speaker 1:Well, cool, we'll put that in our show notes. We'll tuck it in next to the recipe. And, kristen, I'll probably be reaching out again because we do have a lot of nutrition questions coming into the podcast. So, yeah, I'll look you up here in a few months and we'll go from there.
Speaker 2:Sounds great. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us on the time crunch cyclist podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you want even more actionable training advice, head over to train rightcom backslash newsletter and subscribe to our free weekly publication. Each week you'll get in-depth training content that goes beyond what we cover here on the podcast. That'll help you take your training to the next level. That's all for now. Until next time, train hard, train smart, train right.
