10 minutes before riding / Other Paleo Diet 4 athletes thoughts
Just a quick observation on the Paleo Diet for Atheletes plan.
In the first section they give some guidelines for eating for training. 2-3hrs before, 10 minutes before and after riding.
The 10 minute thingy is interesting. Intaking an influx of carbs 10 minutes before exercising tops off the tank but because your body is working you don't get that bonked spike followed by a deep valley==> the bonk.
I've learned that I can't eat carbs within an hour of riding. If I do I'll be bonked during the ride. I've tried slamming an energy drink right before a race to top off the tank. It did not cause any bonking feeling but due to the high intensity of a mtb race it wasn't the best for the stomach.
However today I was commuting by bike. I love to commute IN. I hate to commute home. Riding in the morning is such a great way to start the day. Riding home at the end of the day, my blood sugar is always low. Can't eat cause within a few hours of riding home otherwise its worse than nothing at all due to the spike/crash. Sort of a catch 22. So riding home always seems more uphill, windier and a PIA.
Today I ate lunch at 12. No other snacks the rest of the day. I'm famished had to get home somehow at 5:30. So right before leaving I gobbled down some soft cookies. You know the kind pure sugar. Within 5 minutes I'm starting to blink my eyes really hard which is what I do when trying to clear the cobwebs.
By this time I'm changed and on my way down to the bike. With some energy drink in the bottle I start riding home. Once I got on the bike the light headedness started to fade and I was also starting to sip on my energy drink. My legs felt great. I was riding well which is such a contrast to how I normally feel riding home.
I need to test this out again. But I know that 1hr-10mins before I can't eat otherwise I'm screwed. However this -10mins seemed to work out well.
With regards to the whole Paleo thing in general, I'm cutting back on carbs in the morning, more egg whites, less PBJ/english muffin. At lunch I had some soft tacos and some chips and sure enough felt the crash.
Dinner was steak/vegetables and fruit. No issues. By 9pm at night I am hungry. Having a beer now because I read the propaganda that beer is as good as wine for heart health! Trying to eat more vegetables and fruit. Problem is that just veggies don't fill me up.
As typical with Friel the book has a more phased approach depending on where you are in your training. I'm just trying to simplify the whole thing and create some general guidelines to make it possible to truly follow.
Basic plan
When riding. Either eat a ton of carbs 2-3hrs before and/or 10 mins before. Anything goes. Energy drink, yogurt, Ensure, COOKIES..
Right after riding eat some carbs/protein. Good stuff hopefully. Gotta figure out a good smoothie mix.
When not riding, or several hours after riding. Cut back on carbs a lot. More fish, chicken, lean meat, vegetables fruit.
Snacks: nuts, dried fruit, vegetables,
Doable? Not sure. It's still a total paradigm shift especially when eating out. I'm real good about getting gung ho about something at the start. And then fading away after a little while.
All I know is that the spike/crash is a tangible event for me and I'm tired of it. But I love my carb food: Pizza, tortillas, pasta....
posted by Ashwin Amanna @ 7:46 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I hope the Paleo diet works out for you.
Here are a few of my observations:
1. Eating enough calories is hard at first. For me, the key was to eat relatively big pieces of meat, and lots of fruit. You're right that veggies are good, but they don't give you much in the way of calories. I also eat at least 5 times per day, more on days when I'm riding.
2. You may want to try the diet for a little longer than 3 weeks. I had a very lethargic few days after about 2 weeks. You need to stick with it long enough to get through this period.
3. As for eating out, typically you can find a dish that's just meat (chicken, fish, whatever) and veggies. I haven't found it to be too bad.
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Just read your blog from a post on mtbr.
Sounds like you might be hungry a lot due to needing more food throughout the day?
I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snack in between breakfast/lunch and lunch/dinner.
My snacks could be low carb, but I'm not worried about that. I usually eat yogurt (you'd have to do nuts/fruit since dairy is out) in the morning with granola (packed with calories, fat, carbs, and a bit of protein). I eat an apple and a string cheese in the afternoon. I like to have protein spread out through the day, and use the apple as an afternoon pick-me-up of sorts.
Also, I've found some veggies are better than others to fill me up. Broccoli, for instance, seems to make me full and keep me full. I buy a big bag of it at Costco every 1-2 weeks and share it with hubby.
Salad's before dinner I make our huge with lettuce and/or baby spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, chopped zucchini, chopped squash, dried cranberries, and sometimes Planters Trail Mix Nuts, Seeds, and Raisins.
You could probably try whey protein shakes with water and fruit? I have yet to try adding those in, but substitute with Ensure possibly also.
Lunch is turkey sandwiches (substitute bread for whole grain tortillas?) and then we usually eat chicken, sometimes fish, and every once in awhile red meat.
When I do eat pasta almost always it is pasta plus (Barilla - added protein and Omega-3), and mix in lean ground turkey in the spag sauce.
Otherwise plain with olive oil/seasoning to taste.
Anyway, thanks for the posts. I'm still catching up on the new diet ;)
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