Spring is here, and your heart must be restless again...
When you went traveling or competing before, did you ever feel unsure about what to eat? Have you ever had trouble getting yourself into peak condition before a race? Here I’ll talk about some simple nutrition replenishment issues—all involving everyday, common foods or supplements that are easy to obtain and can serve as powerful energy boosts during your trips and competitions.
Let’s first discuss how the human body supplies energy. When cycling at low intensity, the body mainly burns fat for energy. At this point, the rate of lactic acid breakdown equals its production rate, so there’s no accumulation of lactic acid, and you won’t feel muscle soreness. If the intensity increases, the body will begin anaerobic respiration, directly breaking down carbohydrates stored in the body. This results in a large amount of lactic acid, accelerating muscle fatigue. The most abundant carbohydrate stored in the body is glycogen. When exercise intensity rises, blood sugar is broken down, and glycogen can quickly hydrolyze into glucose, thereby rapidly replenishing the body's energy. However, the body’s glycogen reserves are generally quite low and are usually exhausted after just one hour of intense exercise. Once glycogen is depleted, the body has to revert to fat for energy, but the anaerobic breakdown of fat produces lactic acid at a very fast rate—far exceeding the body’s ability to break down lactic acid—so you’ll quickly feel fatigued and unable to maintain your previous intensity. As you can see, the role of glycogen in competition is obvious. What about long-distance travel? During long rides, you’ll inevitably have to push for speed, which will tap into your glycogen stores.
So you’re probably wondering how to increase your glycogen reserves.
You’ve probably seen how a tree, when cut, forms a callus over the wound. This callus not only protrudes but is also much harder than the surrounding bark. This is the body’s self-supercompensation ability after trauma or high-intensity exercise. Increasing glycogen works on this same principle. First, engage in high-intensity cycling—the intensity must be high and the duration relatively long. The best way is to go on a mini long-distance ride. Then, go home and eat plenty of rice, noodles, and similar carbohydrate-rich foods to quickly replenish glucose. The excess glucose will be synthesized by the body into glycogen and stored. For the next 2–4 days, avoid any exercise and continue eating carbohydrate-rich foods. This allows glycogen to supercompensate, improving athletic performance and endurance during long-distance travel when you need to push hard. Of course, this method can be slightly adjusted to help you get into peak condition before a race: first, undergo 3–7 days of high-intensity training. On the last day, make sure the training is high-intensity and a bit longer, but be careful not to strain your muscles. Then, for the next few days, eat plenty of carbohydrate-rich foods. In about 2–4 days, your body will be in optimal competitive condition. By then, your muscles will be stronger due to the earlier high-intensity training, and your glycogen reserves will also be at a high level.
Next, let’s talk about replenishing various nutrients during long-distance travel (most amateur races in China are relatively short, so just drinking sports drinks is fine—we won’t discuss energy replenishment for those). During long rides, the most important and most often overlooked element is actually salt—more precisely, the sodium ion Na+ ! Especially in hot summer weather, when sweating increases, both body water and salt are lost rapidly. If you only focus on rehydrating without adequate sodium intake, you may experience many symptoms of hyponatremia. Medically known as hypotonic dehydration, symptoms vary based on the degree of sodium deficiency. Common symptoms include dizziness, blurred vision, weakness, rapid pulse, and in severe cases, confusion, cramping muscle pain, weakened tendon reflexes, and even coma. Based on the severity of sodium deficiency, clinical hypotonic dehydration is classified into three degrees:
1. Mild sodium deficiency: The patient feels fatigued, dizzy, and has numbness in the hands and feet, with no obvious thirst. Serum sodium is below 135 mmol/L, and urinary sodium decreases.
Rider's World Outdoor Network Cycling Knowledge (http://bbs.xzwyu.com) From: Bicycle Network