![FILLING THE TANK](https://cdn.magzter.com/1360045451/1662019440/articles/a2hHcTzI-1662868600418/FILLING-THE-TANK.jpg)
YOU READ A LOT ABOUT RECOVERY METHODS - and recovery tools: gimmicks and gadgets that massage, freeze, or compress your muscles into accelerated bounce-back from hard training. The pursuit of performance has created an industry to sell recovery.
This sometimes happens at the expense of the fundamentals: sleep and nutrition. That's not to say there's no industry around those too; spend some time at a bookstore, or online shopping, and you'll soon discover a hundred new ways to sleep and eat.
In one example study, cyclists did hard blocks of training lasting seven days each. During these blocks, they ate a diet that was either low in carbohydrates (5.4g/kg/ day, so an 80kg cyclist would eat 430g of carbs a day), or high in carbs (8.5g/kg/day, or 680g for our 80kg cyclist).
What they found was that the high-carbohydrate diet 'protected' performance against the effects of fatigue; and in the
time trials they did at the end of each hard seven-day block, the high-carb cyclists had much smaller performance impairments than the low-carb cyclists.
TOPPING UP
The same is true of energy intake during exercise. Studies have found that muscle damage is reduced when carbohydrate intake is higher during exercise, and performance improves considerably particularly compared to when we run out of fuel, and enter the dreaded no man's land of hypoglycaemia.
Remember that our bodies are like very sophisticated cars - without fuel supply to the working parts, they stop on the side of the road! But unlike cars, we have multiple fuel tanks, of different types. We have carbs in the muscle and in the liver, we have fats in the muscle and in the adipose tissue; and we can even convert one fuel type to another, all to protect our brains from running on empty.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September/October 2022-Ausgabe von Bicycling South Africa.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September/October 2022-Ausgabe von Bicycling South Africa.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
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GEAR FOR THE AGES
Some bicycle components, tools and accessories - by design, luck or a bit of both - become icons of performance, reliability and permanence in cycling.
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A RACE LIKE NO OTHER
IN KENYA'S MAASAI MARA, KNOWN MORE FOR SAFARIS THAN CYCLING, THE MIGRATION GRAVEL RACE CHALLENGES RIDERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD THE WORLD WHILE FORGING A FUTURE FOR BIKE RACING IN AFRICA.
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WAR ON WHEELS
IF YOU GO FOR A RIDE IN CAPE TOWN AT THE WRONG TIME, YOU COULD FIND YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF A CYCLING GANG WAR, WHERE THE WEAPONS OF CHOICE ARE STRAVA RECORDS AND SALTY COMMENTS ON INSTAGRAM. THIS IS THE TALE OF THREE RIVAL ROADIE CREWS AND A REMINDER THAT CYCLING IS A SPORT BEST TAKEN WITH A SENSE OF HUMOUR.
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GET TOUR DE FRANCE FAST IN FOUR WEEKS
HAVE YOU GOT TOUR FEVER? If you have a good fitness base, let the pros inspire you to take your riding to the next level.
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THE SECRET TO MAKING A COMEBACK? JUST START
\"THIS IS WHAT DECONDITIONING LOOKS LIKE,\" I said out loud to no one, as I looked at the heart-rate reading on my phone and gasped for breath. \"This shouldn't be so hard.\"
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DEAR MARK CAVENDISH
WHEN I FIRST STARTED FOLLOWING professional road cycling around 2014, you were at the top of your game.
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HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR POWER-TOWEIGHT RATIO
POWER-TO-WEIGHT RATIO IS one of the most telling metrics in cycling - and thanks to indoor trainers, many more cyclists are now familiar with it. Right now it's never been easier to calculate your power-to-weight ratio and use it to improve your performance.
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EASY RIDER
A FEW YEARS AGO, my wife and I along with her parents, brother and his wife-cycled down the Danube River in Europe.
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LEADING THE WAY - RYAN GIBBONS, 29, SA PRO RIDER, MULTIPLE SA & AFRICAN ROAD CHAMP
AFTER JOINING LIDLTREK from UAE Team Emirates, South African national champ Ryan Gibbons aims to be the best lead-out man he can be - while also helping his new team in their quest to climb the World Tour rankings.
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6 WAYS TO BEAT THE HEAT THIS SUMMER
TOP TIPS TO KEEP YOU COOLER AND RIDING STRONGER... NO MATTER WHAT THE TEMPERATURE.