Fueling - Pre, During & Post Bicycle Ride
Food Choices
Colorful plates
Real Ingredients (i.e. peanut butter made from only peanuts)
Healthy fats (avocado, coconut oil, olive oil, grass-fed butter, omega-3 rich foods)
Whole grains vs. processed carbs | Rice or Quinoa instead of pasta
Hydration
Normal Daily Intake - Cut your body weight in half and treat as ounces
Example: Weight = 150lbs | 150lbs / 2 = 75 ounces of water per day
Adjusted Water Intake for Activities - Every hour of exercise equates to an additional 15 ounces of water needed per day.
Example: 2 hour bike ride = Additional 30 ounces of water consumption
Assume you weigh 150lbs. Considering the information above, your normal water intake with no exercise would be 75oz/daily. With a two hour bike ride added into your day, your daily consumption would increase to a total need of 105oz of water/daily.
Incorporate electrolytes - these allow you to hydrate at a cellular level. If you do not have electrolyte tabs available, you can always use lemon and a dash pink himalayan salt in your water.
Hydration Enhancing Products We Love:
Nuun Electrolyte Tabs
Hammer Electrolyte Tabs
Skratch Labs Electrolyte Powder
Calorie Intake to Prevent Bonking
You need fuel and nutrients to carry you through an activity without bonking / crashing.
Whole food bars with real ingredients | clean nutrient dense solutions
ProBar
Kate’s Real Food
Hammer Nutrition
Granola with real peanut butter; addition of banana if desired
Taking in calories with consideration to your exertion and eating at times that you may otherwise not feel hungry - you need to replace the calories you are burning. Fueling is important ahead of schedule and hunger. Force yourself to eat even if you do not feel hungry.
Recovery
Fueling goes beyond what we put into our bodies, it is also how we treat our bodies.
Sleep | Allow your body 7-9 hours of sleep every night; at least 7 hours
Rest / Recovery Time | Allow your body time to recharge to it’s “normal”
Garmin uses something called a “Body Battery” to help you know where you’re at day to day
Stress | Exertion puts your body under physical stress. If you also face mental and emotional stress, this needs to be considered because these also impact your recovery and overall wellbeing.
Other personal factors should also be considered:
Are you an introvert or an extravert?
Does your job require you to act in a way that is opposite of your natural personality type (i.e. be extroverted when you’re an introvert)? This impacts your energy levels:
Source: nypost.com
Helpful Apps to Explore
Garmin Connect Body Battery Metrics
Garmin’s Body Battery metric is a great way to gauge your body’s current “load”. This tool takes into account your tracked activities, sleep, stress, and creates recovery recommendations based on those measurements to prevent overdoing it and putting yourself at risk for bigger issues.
FitrWoman App
As a woman, what phase of your cycle are you within? This affects your recovery and physical load requirements as well. Apps like FitrWoman take into account the different stages of your menstrual cycle and provide education surrounding both recommended diet and physical activities that are beneficial within these points of a female’s natural cycle. The Garmin Connect app has also started incorporating the menstrual cycle into their metrics.
Strava App - Premium Subscription: This will give you insight into your training load & metrics.
Garmin Connect
FitrWoman
Strava Premium