Nutrition In Mountain Biking Essay, Research Paper
Nutrition in Mountain Biking
I. Waterworld 1. Muscles produce 30-100 times more heat while riding 2. Water
doesn’t supply calories, minerals, or vitamins A. But it is used for almost
every body function B. 55-65% of body weight is water 3. When losing a quart of
fluid heart beats 8 more times a minute 4. Before a long ride start
hyperhydrating 1 day in advance 5. Do drinking strategies during your training
II. Rehydrate 1. Drink alot after a ride 2. Sports drinks replenish the best 3.
Eat alot of salty snacks A. Sodium makes your blood like a sponge B. meals
contain more sodium naturally than sports bars
III. Diet helps 1. 60% of your daily fluid comes from food 2. Fruit and
vegatables are great fluid sources 3. Foods high in fat do not provide to much
fluid
IV. Equipment 1. Warm up bikes are good for bad weather or the dark 2. Good for
intense intervals
V. Liquids 1. Replenish your self after rides 2. As soon as the rides over is
the best time to replenish 3. Drink or eat 100 grams of carbo 4. Drinking carbo
is much faster than eating carbo 5. You can spend over $1000 a year on recovery
drinks
VI. Cereal 1. Flakes are carbo rich, low in fat, and quickly digested 2. Sugar
coated are not bad either 3. Most cereals contain less than 2 grams of fat per
serving
When riding a bicycle, your muscles produce 30-100 times more heat than
when your body is at rest. The body puts out this inferno by increasing the
sweat rates. In the summer you can lose over two liters of fluid per hour on a
really hot day, dehydration and saddle soars are the leading reasons cyclists
drop out of races. The body loses this much fluid mostly from an increase in
sweat rates. Water does not supply calories, minerals, or vitamins, but it is
mandatory almost for every body function. It keeps body temperatures from
rising while the person is exercising. Water accounts for 55-65% of your body
weight. Cyclist that lose over a quart rate, which goes up to eight beats per
minute a decrease in cardiac function, and an increase in body temperature.
This is a study by Edward Coyle Ph.D. Director of the Humane Performance
Laboratory at the University of Texas (Walsh 92).
Dehydration can possibly increase metabolic stress on muscles. It also
causes problems on your internal thermostat by decreasing blood flow to the skin,
slowing sweat rates, and increasing the time needed for fluids to be absorbed
into the blood stream. What is worse, by the time you feel thirsty, your body
has already lost 1-2% of its body weight. Drink lots of water every day, but
before a long ride or a race, start hyper hydrating twenty four hours in advance.
Avoid drinks containing alcohol or caffeine because they both make the body
excrete more water. If you can not meet your calorie needs, use sports drinks,
recovery drinks or other liquid supplements. Try to step fluid lost to sweat,
practice drinking strategies during your training. Determine how much sweat you
lose by weighing yourself before and after your rides Every pound lost equals
sixteen ounces of fluids. It takes practice to drink more than a quart of fluid
per hour without getting cramps or internal discomfort. A hydration bladder
system such as Camelbak, provides water and will help you drink more (Walsh 94).
After you have ridden for a while drink plenty of fluids. What you
drink after the ride can make a difference. Coyle also compared the effects of
drinking nearly two liters of water, sport drinks, or diet cola in athletes two
hours after a workout, the results showed diet cola replenishes 54% of the
fluids lost; water, 64%; and sport drinks, 69%. Before or while riding you
should eat salty snacks. Sodium makes your blood like a sponge so you can
absorb more water and excrete less. Athletes such as cyclists should also drink
plentiful with meals and snacks, because food naturally contains many times more
sodium than soft drinks or energy bars (Walsh 95).
About 60% of your daily fluid comes from the food you eat, but some
foods increase hydration better than others. Fruits and vegetables are great
fluids sources, they are 80-95% water by weight. Fat and Water do not mix very
well, so many foods high in fat do not provide plenty of water (Walsh 95).
Most popular sport drinks contain sodium, potassium, and other
electrolytes. Sport drinks are useful for short high intensity workouts, such
as sprints or intervals cool fluids taste better and may be absorbed more
rapidly than warm drinks (Walsh 95).
Watch the start of any race and you will see an odd sight: Racers
furiously spinning in place, warming up on bikes attached to trainers. These
devices are also great for workouts when the weather is bad or it is dark. If
you enjoy intense intervals, you can knock yourself out since there is no
distractions (Langley, Alsberg 68).
If you just finish a big ride you should put down a sugary drink and
start thinking about your next ride. You should already be preparing for your
next ride by replenishing yourself of the things you lost on your previous ride.
Eating plenty of pasta can also replenish a great deal of carbohydrates you
burned, but not as much as soft drinks or water. During a ride, carbohydrates
in your muscles and your liver is burned to produce energy so you can keep on
going. As soon as the ride is over, the enzymes and receptors responsible for
storing carbohydrates in the muscle and liver tissues are most active, this is
the best time to replenish yourself (Walsh 98).
The common recommendation after a big ride is to drink or eat 100 gram
of carbohydrates. One hundred grams of carbohydrates is equal to four bananas,
or four, eight ounce glasses of fruit juice. If you do plenty of short
intervals, then drink or eat 100 grams of carbohydrates every two to four hours
afterward (Walsh 98).
Drinking energy makes more sense than eating; it is easier to slurp from
a bottle than it is to put down a plate of pasta. There is also evidence
showing that liquids are faster at moving energy from your stomach to your
muscles. When riding the best drink for refueling is probably a sport drink
like Gatorade of Powerade. Trained cyclists have found out that people who
drank a beverage containing carbohydrates and protein replenishes muscle
carbohydrates levels 38% quicker tan those who drank carbohydrates only. When
carbohydrates is combined with protein, glycogen storage is enhanced post
exercise.
Nutritionists recommend cyclists consume 1.2-1.5 grams of protein per
kilogram of body weight. (For a 150 pound cyclists, that 80-100 grams of
protein daily.) The downside of these recovery drinks is they are expensive.
You can spend up to $1,000 or more a year buying sports drinks (Walsh 99).
A bowl of flakes is convenient, carbohydrates rich, low in fat, quickly
digested and provides plenty of nutrients for the dollar. The nutritional
profile of many cereals is similar to sports bars and recovery drinks. A bowl
of raisin bran with a cup of skim milk provides 330 calories. About 80% of
these are energy packed carbohydrates calories. Sugar coated or frosted cereals
aren’t intrinsically bad, they are better than eating nothing, but they do tend
to lack nutrients. Nutrition labels separate carbohydrate content into sugars,
dietary fibers, and other carbohydrates. Cyclists who have sugar rushes should
avoid cereals that have sugar listed as one of the three ingredients (Walsh 82).
Even the fattest flakes are skinny compared to sausage or French toast.
Most cereals contain less than 2 grams of fat per serving. Pudgy cereals would
be those with more than three grams of fat per serving these generally include
granola, and flaked cereal with nuts (Walsh 82).
The competitive sport of mountain biking is making its way to the United
States. The sport which was mainly held in Europe, has come to the United
States and beginning to draw a heap of notable foreign competitors. According
to most estimates, cycling is the most popular spectator sport in the world,
just behind soccer. The mountain bike is having improvements made to everyday,
and people are willing to spend the money to get the best bike (Comptons
Interactive Encyclopedia).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alsberg, Tony Langley, Jim “Tickets to Nowhere”
Bicycling Febuary 1997 pgs 68-69 Walsh, Julie “Eating for the Long
Haul”
Bicycling September 1996 pgs 74-76 Walsh, Julie “Liquid Assets”
Bicycling March 1996 pgs 98-99 Walsh, Julie “Super Bowls”
Bicycling Febuary 1996 pgs 82-83 Walsh, Julie “Waterworld”
Bicycling August 1996 pgs 92-96 OUTLINE