Welcome to the "Keep it Simple Newsletter". With an unbelievable amount of information bombarding us from every direction these days, the goal of this weekly newsletter is to present a simple common sense tip that can be applied to your daily cycling.
Ride safe, strong and be healthy!
Simple On-bike Fueling Tips
Fueling during your rides is a very important area of success. For the majority of your training sessions, the body requires only water, carbohydrate, and sodium. Here are some guidelines:
Fluid - 16-24 oz every hour, broken into 10-20' increments. Fluid should either be an electrolyte drink with the addition of carbohydrates or water. Both, if exercise is over an hour; water only if less than an hour. Of course, this will change given extremely warm conditions.
Solid - 24-28 oz of carbohydrate (CHO) every hour. The good news is there are so many pre-packaged nutritional supplements you can purchase. Find a brand that settles well with your stomach while exercising. Alter brands throughout the ride as it's very easy to get tired of the same thing!
Sodium - For every 16oz sweat loss, the average athlete in moderate conditions loses 250mg of sodium. If you feel ambitious, you can calculate sweat loss (contact me how), but for the most part, all the pre-packaged products have the correct ratios.
For athletes with power meters, you can use Kilojoules (KJ) to estimate how many calories you burned during a ride. As a rule of thumb, set a goal to consume 40% of those KJ in a combination of solid and liquid calories. (see below)
Kilojoules (kj) to Calorie (c) Conversion
When using a power meter you have the option on your cycling computer screen to see a measurement of work called kilojoules. We often equate kilojoules to calories burned on a ride. Here is how the conversion takes place:
One joule (j) is work done, or energy expended, so a kilojoule (kj) is 1000 joules. Kilo is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand.
To get calories from kj:
kj = 4.184 x kcal
So, if you know the kj from your ride, say 1712:
1712kj = kcal * 4.184
kcal = 355
Now here is the key: when cycling, we are 20-25% efficient which means that ONLY 20-25% of the energy we produce riding the bike goes towards producing the joules.
.2 (20%) * x = 355
X = 1775 kcal which is close to the 1712 kj
If you are less efficient (20%), you burn more kcals, if you are more efficient (25%), you burn less kcal to complete the ride. Estimating your efficiency can be determined using a metabolic cart.
