Developing Your Own Personal

Nutrition Program

The website Cycling Performance Tips was designed to be used as a "cyber" book, taking advantage of hyperlinks for cross referencing as well as allowing for sectional updates on a timely basis. Although the website developed out of the author's personal interest in nutrition and cycling, it was not formatted to provide a step by step approach to construct a personalized nutrition program.

The following text will use editorial comments and hyperlinks to the CPT website material to lead you through development of a nutrition program tailored to your individual needs. As with the original website, this program will be in ongoing revision, and feedback or suggestions are always appreciated (gasman5@mindspring.com) and will be incorporated into future versions. (Any files that are changed to incorporate your questions or comments will be forwarded back to you via the WWW to download onto your original disc).

The Glossary will help you with definitions and provide additional hyperlinks back to relevant website material. If you want to take a break, Past Performance Tips is a series of questions that teach as they lead you to interesting areas of the website. And of course, there is always the Table of Contents for the entire Cycling Performance Tips website.

For those of you that wish to do additional research, the following websites are available:

• http://odp.od.nih.gov/ods/databases/ibids.html is The International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) - contains 328,000 scientific citations and abstracts from the scientific literature on dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, and botanicals.
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ is PubMed - 9 million citations in an online MEDLINE database used by healthcare professionals to research their own questions.

I. Background

1. Introduction - Your optimum performance is a result of personal genetics and training. While there are no nutritional secrets to improve your personal best, eating incorrectly will keep you from achieving that goal.

2. Energy and Cycling - Designing a nutritional program requires an understanding the relationship between energy production to support muscle contractions and the energy requirements of cycling.

3. Nutritional Physiology - Which type of Calorie (carbohydrate, fat, or protein) is better for you when you are exercising. And how does exercise affect the digestive tract (important in deciding when you should eat).

4. Keys to get that extra edge - A few tips to maximize the advantages of that pre ride, during the ride, and post ride nutrition.

1. The Rule of 4's - The Rule of 4's identifies the 4 critical time periods to be addressed in designing your nutritional program.

2. Specific Rides
   • Commute or Social Ride - This ride will cover 15 to 20 miles with mild to moderate effort.

   • Basic Training Ride - This ride, riden at moderate intensity for 15 to 50 miles, may be just a bit longer than the 2 hour limit that can lead to the bonk with inadequate "on the bike" carbohydrates supplements during the ride.

   • Intervals - intermittently at VO2max for 15 to 30 miles.

   • Competitive Event - This is what it is all about. High intensity (80 to 100% VO2max) for 20 to 30 miles.

   • Long Distance Ride - This ride, riden at moderate intensity for 50 to 100 miles, will definitely cause you to bonk if you don't replace carbohydrates by snacking on the bike.

   • Multiday Ride - Moderate intensity, 50 to 100 miles per day, 3 or more days.