- Eat real food while training and racing!
I’m sure all of us have experienced that “flavor fatigue” when you’re hours or days into a workout and you can’t even think about eating another pre-packaged bar or gel block. That’s your body’s way of telling you it needs some variety – and it’s also totally fair, so you should listen to it! Try some fatty and salty foods, such a peanut butter filled pretzels, mini PBJ’s on salty crackers, even some boiled potatoes tossed in olive oil, salt and parmesan cheese. One of my favorite go-to’s is a handful of Jackson Honest Salt and Vinegar potato chips.
- Coconut water is not nature’s perfect electrolyte replacement drink
When you sweat, you lose a lot of sodium and a smaller amount of potassium, magnesium and other minerals. With that, you need to replace what you lose in your sweat by consuming foods or electrolytes with a high amount of salt and less of the other minerals. Coconut water has the opposite ratio of what you need to replace: it has a lot of potassium and not a lot of sodium. If you’re hooked on coconut water, at least add some salt to it, but try some other electrolyte options as well. My favorite is Skratch Labs exercise hydration mix.
- There’s a lot of nutrition information out there – it doesn’t apply to all of you.
Everyone is singular when it comes to nutrition strategy. What one person is doing does not mean that works for you. Take basic nutrition recommendations and treat them as a baseline. From there, you need to experiment to see what works for you. Some people can eat a snack within 30 minutes of their event start, while others need 3 hours to digest anything. Training your body to figure out how to optimize your nutrition is the same as physical training, it takes time, but it’s worth it!
Uriell, better known as “Uri”, is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and IMBA Level II certified mountain bike instructor. With her master’s degree in Nutrition and Business Administration and is the owner of Whole Life Nutrition, a local private practice focusing on whole foods based nutrition. Uriell has spent the last three years coaching mountain biking for VIDA MTB Series and is really excited to expand her coaching experience within the local community. Beyond that, Uriell rides for Juliana Bicycles and can be found working events and cooking for Skratch Labs.
