We are all interested in improving our rides, and the area of nutrition has always been something to work on. The club asked Dr Rianne Costello of Invictus Performance Nutrition to come and give us a talk on Nutrition for Cycling.
RIanne was already working with one our club members in preparation for the Maratona dles Dolomites, and he was so impressed that we organised a presentation for the members of the club so more of us could benefit.
Rianne has a great deal of knowledge and experience in Sports Nutrition, having a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, a Masters in Applied Sport and Exercise Nutrition and a PhD on “Recovery from strenuous exercise using polyphenols or ‘antioxidants'”. She now works with groups and individuals in a variety of different sports to improve performance using nutrition as a basis.
The talk was held at Tin Horse offices in Marlborough and attended by over 20 of the club members and a few extras. The idea was that with some big events coming (training camp, Fred Whitton, Maratona) it would be great for everyone to have a better understanding of fuelling rides.
Rianne’s presentation was over an hour long and covered many different aspects of nutrition for cycling including:
- Pre-, intra- and post-ride fuelling
- Hydration
- Recovery
- Training vs Racing nutrition
- Veteran riders
- Supplements
The presentation was very engaging with a great deal of information packed into the slides and discussion. Rianne’s relaxed and informed presentation style made sure all the information was accessible to the audience, with the use of plenty of examples to illustrate key points. Although several questions were submitted before the session to allow Rianne to prepare, there were quite a few questions during the presentation which gave Rianne the opportunity to expand on a topic or to clarify some of the more complicated areas. I think we were all surprised how much more carbohydrate we should be consuming on our rides – some of us saying “no wonder I’m shattered after a long ride”. The topic of cafe stops was particularly popular..
It is fair to say that everyone learned a lot during the talk. We all came away with a new understanding of how to approach nutrition for our club rides, our training and the big events we have planned for the year.