On Ramp Program

Maintaining proper nutrition intake during heavy blocks of training with multiple sessions per day or during multi-day races can be quite a challenge for most athletes.  There are several areas of concern that need to be addressed to ensure that adequate energy stores are available for high output racing or training, as well as for recovering from those sessions to be prepared for the next day’s training session or race.  Critical factors to consider include: total energy intake and macronutrient balance, hydration maintenance, and optimizing the timing of pre and post session nutrition needs.  The following article will review some of these concerns so a proper diet can be established.  For your benefit we also include a three day diet recall from 2012 Triathlete of the Year, Cameron Dye and Olympian and National Champion cyclist Evelyn Stevens.   Energy Balance             The amount of energy that is expended during heavy training and racing can be extremely high, and failing tokeep a close balance between energy expenditure and energy intake can lead to poor performance and even signs and symptoms of overtraining.  For cyclists who use a power meter, it is fairly easy to get a handle on the total amount of energy expended during training or racing on the bike by looking at the kilojoules (Kj) that are expended in each training session or race.  Even though in actual conversion there are 4.18 Kj per Calorie, the human body is only 20-25% efficient in terms of converting the chemical/food energy into actual power output at the pedal.  Therefore, if your power meter says that you burned 1800Kj of energy during a training session or race, you would have burned about 1800 Calories of food energy.  There is a relationship between the intensity of effort and the ratio of carbohydrate and fat that is burned that can be measured in a well equipped exercise physiology lab by a process known as indirect calorimetry.  In the absence of that kind of equipment and