Sports Nutrition

ENDURO 24
78
Sports Nutrition
WHEN LOOKING INTO USING GELS, BARS OR DRINK ADDITIVES FOR THE FIRST TIME, YOU CAN BE FACED WITH A
BARRAGE OF INFORMATION, MARKETING JARGON AND PASSIONATE OPINIONS. EVEN IF YOU’RE AN EXPERIENCED RIDER,
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SPORTS NUTRITION FOR YOUR RIDING CAN BE PERPLEXING. GIVEN THE IMPORTANCE OF FINDING
NUTRITIONAL PRODUCTS THAT YOUR BODY RESPONDS WELL TO, WE THOUGHT WE WOULD DELVE INTO THE WORLD
OF NUTRITION AND OUTLINE THE KEY ISSUES FOR YOU TO CONSIDER.
What is sports nutrition?
In a nutshell, sports nutrition covers the
specialised food and drink on offer to cyclists
to consume before, during and after a ride
in order to fuel their bodies for optimum
performance and recovery. Depending on the
level of intensity and how long you ride for,
your body will expend a range of fuel sources
that will need replenishing. To some extent
we absorb these fuels (carbohydrates, water,
vitamins, minerals, proteins etc) from our
day-to-day diet, though the effectiveness
of how our bodies acquire the necessary
amounts of those fuels varies from person to
person. Sports nutrition simply concentrates
that fuel into an easy-to-digest product
that allows you to absorb key nutrients more
efficiently and more effectively.
In order to help you differentiate
what’s out there, sports nutrition
can be broken down into three broad
groups: hydration (electrolytes), energy
(carbohydrates) and recovery (proteins). To
put it simply, electrolytes keep you hydrated,
carbohydrates boost your energy and protein
assists in the repair of muscle tissue. The idea
is to simply ensure that at the beginning of a
ride, your body is topped up on all three areas
of fuel, and that over the course of a ride you
maintain those levels as best you can.
Beyond the basics however, there are
plenty of companies out there who will
bamboozle you with claims that their latest
elixir is the be-all-and-end-all of sports
nutrition. When it comes down to it though,
there are some clear fundamentals of sports
nutrition that will provide you with the right
information for you to select products which
will help you ride faster, for longer, with less
fatigue and without hitting the dreaded ‘wall’.
In this article, we reached out to the
sports nutritionists behind some of the
familiar brands in order to seek out their
advice on how to best approach things like
isotonic drinks, energy gels and recovery
products.
Endura
One of the better-known brands in
Australia, Endura is the sports offshoot of
Health World Limited, which has been around
since 1985. Starting out with the goal to
produce high quality nutritional supplements,
Health World classify themselves as a
‘Natural Health Science Company’ and are
therefore bound to a more stringent set of
standards than if they were simply a food
company. If you’ve not heard of Health World,
you might recognise some of their nutritional
products from your local chemists’ shelves,
such as the ‘Inner Health Plus’ products.
Like all of the brands we’ve featured,
Endura is an Australian-owned company and
is also locally made. Their range covers a wide
variety of products from rehydration drinks
to gels to magnesium supplements. While
Endura is a prominent brand in the cycling
world, they’re also big in running, multisport
and triathlon too.
According to Endura: “Sports nutrition
is concerned with the type, amount and
timing of food intake within your diet to
support your active lifestyle. It helps you
effectively utilise key nutritional areas like
carbohydrates, proteins and fats to boost
your athletic potential. Sports nutrition
is not just for elite athletes, the weekend
warrior gets just as much benefit as the elite
athlete from the right nutritional advice to
get the most out of their rides.”
That last point is particularly important,
79
as there are many non-competitive riders
out there who turn their nose at the idea of
having anything other than jelly snakes and a
peanut butter sandwich during an off-road
jaunt. However, while everyone has their own
eating habits, it shouldn’t be ignored that
sports nutrition can make a big difference
to your enjoyment on the bike, whether it be
a 100km marathon in the elite category or a
post-work blast with your mates.
“It only takes about two hours for the body
to burn through its energy stores (assuming
they’re topped up in the first place). Once
this happens it is vital that you re-fuel your
glycogen stores effectively to prevent those
feelings of exhaustion and prevent your body
from breaking down muscle to supply your
ongoing energy demands.”
Whether you race or not, most mountain
bikers will usually escape the house for longer
than two hours when they’ve got the chance.
Fitness aside, if you plan on keeping up with
your mates and finishing the ride in one piece,
getting energy into your muscles before and
during the ride is essential.
bottle of Optimizer for every two hours on
the bike, as this combination seemed to avoid
your stomach from feeling too loaded.
Endura Optimizer is a unique product in
the Endura range that actually straddles
all three of the nutritional groups: energy,
hydration and recovery. It predominantly
utilises a mix of both carbohydrates and
protein in a 6:1 ratio that makes it effective
for both boosting energy needs and aiding
muscle function. It comes in a powder form
that you add to water to create a drink
solution (chocolate and vanilla flavours
available). In addition to the protein and
carbohydrates, the solution is also packed
with essential electrolytes for rehydrating
as well as vitamins and minerals, making
Optimizer about as close to a liquid energy
food as you can get.
Our Take:
Our Take:
If you’re feeling a bit flat prior to heading
out for a ride or before a race, we have found
that a serve of Optimizer is an ideal way to
load up your body with the above nutrients
and top up the energy stores. We also utilised
the vanilla drink to great effect during 50 and
100km events where the muscles would start
crying out for more fuel after a few hours
on the bike. It has a pleasant malty taste
that’s relatively sweet and seems to be wellreceived by most people’s palates.
Endura also make a regular isotonic drink
called Magnesium Rehydration Formula,
which is a great way to keep up energy levels
and electrolyte levels. However, Optimizer
features much of the same content, just with
an additional protein mix that makes it an
ideal fluid choice for more strenuous rides
beyond 2 hours.
We achieved the best results by switching
between a 750ml bottle of water and a 500mL
Endura Gels are one of the more common
food items you’ll see in a mountain biker’s
jersey pocket, mainly because they’re
convenient, inexpensive and an effective form
of energy. For each 35gm sachet, there’s
about 26gm of carbs that are split between
slow and fast-release sugars for topping up
your glycogen levels. Flavours include citrus,
coffee, vanilla, berry, raspberry, cool mint and
grape.
As quick-acting as they might be however,
gels shouldn’t be relied on as a sole source of
energy: Endura note, “If you haven’t managed
your intake of carbohydrates and protein
well and are in need of an immediate energy
hit, gels can also provide fast and sustained
energy for the body in tough times. After two
hours of riding, you should consider taking
one gel sachet every hour.”
Ideally, you should already have your energy
needs covered from taking an isotonic sport
drink such as Optimizer or Rehydration, as
they contain carbohydrates. For whatever
reason though, there are some rides where
we skip the flavoured drinks, particularly
when we’re riding with a hydration pack. On
these rides, downing a gel every hour or so
in between drinking water provides a pretty
consistent supply of glycogen, though your
tummy (and potentially your toilet the next
day!) will dictate how many gels you can
tolerate. Speaking from experience, energy
gels are also an excellent 'emergency item'
that are always in our pack or jersey pockets,
which can be guzzled in times of desperate
need.
Alternatively, Endura also make energy bars
if you’re after solid carbs instead. They’re a
chocolate-flavored bar that provide protein,
carbohydrates and magnesium for an ideal
energy source that keeps the hunger away
and is a nice alternative if you need to change
it up from gels.
ENDURO 24
there are significant bioactive components in
milk that improve muscle function.
According to Dr Victoria Inglis, Ascend
Nutritionist, “Our products are made from
100% Australian protein. We manufacture
all our protein ingredients, and as a dairy
company we control the quality throughout
the supply chain from farm to end product.
Our elite products are clinically tested by
independent Australian universities and are
proven by elite and amateur athletes on the
field.”
After strenuous exercise, your muscles
are screaming out for nutrients to replenish
and repair what’s been lost from exercise.
There’s around a 30-minute window postriding where you can effectively deliver those
nutrients into your body, which is best done
with a protein-mix drink.
Elite Recovery is a mix of protein made
up from a long list of exciting-sounding
whey peptides that you can read all about
on the side of the tub. It comes in powder
form to mix with water or milk (vanilla
malt and chocolate flavours available). In
comparison to Endura Optimizer, one serve
of Elite Recovery contains 78% protein, while
Optimizer contains 13%. It’s not something
your stomach would want during a ride, but
then it is most effective as a recovery drink.
Also available from Ascend are recovery
bars that pack in the same proteins into
a solid and tasty choc-mint bar. However,
they use a heavier mix of carbohydrates to
provide energy as well as benefits to muscle
recovery.
Ascend
Our Take:
Like Endura, Ascend is also a sports arm of
a bigger company, having been born back in
2007 as an offshoot of the Murray Goulburn
Co-Operative. Murray Goulburn is Australia’s
largest dairy company, representing over
3000 dairy farmers. That may seem like an
unusual connection for a sports nutrition
company, but a multi-million dollar research
program that began in 2002 in partnership
with Australian universities has shown that
After a training ride or a spin class, we’ve
got into the habit of knocking back a serve
of the Elite Recovery drink, which provides
a marked improvement in the freshness of
your legs the next day. Due to its high protein
content, the taste is less sweet than other
drinks (don’t be expecting a Big M!) though
you do get used to it over time, and mixing
the powder with milk instead of water helps
in the flavour department.
Ascend claim: “after maximum training,