We want everyone on top form on challenge day so here’s our top tips for getting your eating and drinking right pre, during and post challenge, preparing your body for a demanding 24hrs in the saddle.
The Day Before
Continue to eat the food you normally eat and avoid anything new. Drink plenty – that way you’ll start the ride well hydrated rather having to play catch up in the morning. Eat several small high-carb meals to maximise glycogen storage. If travelling, pack suitable food e.g. sandwiches, salads, fruit, nuts, dried fruit and bars.
Challenge Day
Breakfast
The morning of the challenge is a very important time. Aim to have breakfast 2-3 hours before the challenge start time. This should be mainly carbohydrate based as our glycogen stores decrease over night.
An ideal pre-race breakfast is light and high in carbohydrates with a little bit of protein too. For example, porridge, toast and rice pudding are good options for carbohydrate and poached eggs or omelette would be a good source of protein. Aim to have around 500ml of fluid alongside this.
Pre-Challenge
Hydration is key. Aim to drink 500ml-1000ml of fluid in the build up to the race, ideally 500ml 2-3 hours before at breakfast and 500ml in the build up to the event. Electrolytes or Hydro powders can increase fluid absorption and retention and will ensure you are optimally hydrated on the start line. However, remember, your rides may well be in shorts stints, so approach this differently to that of a full sportive.
Caffeine gives you both a physical and mental boost. When taking part in tough sport events like our challenge, it helps to increase your endurance performance. This means you can go faster than before without any extra training!
On the go fuelling
Because our challenge involves shorter stints of cycling you need to be careful not to over load with on the go fuelling, however, the harder you work, the more carbohydrate you will use.
The general rule for carbohydrate intake during an endurance event is that you need to supplement 1g of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per hour of exercise (1g/kg/h), this will help you sustain your energy levels when riding at a brisk pace.
We recommend your on the go fuelling to include bananas, flapjacks, cereal bars and energy drinks.
Try to save energy gels for the early hours of the morning when you are at the bottom of your energy stores, midnight through to 3am.
Post Challenge Recovery
Just because the challenge has finished, it doesn’t mean your nutrition plan stops. In fact, this is the most important time to refuel. For the past 24 hours you’ve been working the body hard, putting it under a lot of stress and processing a fair amount of fuel.
It’s important to kickstart the refuelling process within 30 minutes of the end of your cycling.
Sports recovery drinks are convenient and formulated to give you the right amount of protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals.
After the challenge aim to consume a snack or meal that is high in protein to aid muscle repair, and rich in carbohydrate to refuel your body’s glycogen stores, such as a chicken sandwich or eggs on toast.
That being said our past experience says that asking a friend of family member to deliver a McDonalds breakfast to you at the velodrome goes down especially well!