NOTE ON THE CARB DRINK: I meant to say "no added sugar" not "sugar free". The "no added sugar" squash will still contain fructose which is absorbed in a different part of the intestine to the maltodextrin.
@@Cade_Media okay, I think here we call that a powdered sports drink - never heard of a non-alcoholic cordial. (We'll work our way through this language barrier.) Thx
Does it have to be maltodextrin? I understand that it provides the energy fast, but it is essentially a highly processed product. In the age when they say avoid processed foods as much as possible.. 🙄 My understanding is that maltodextrin is a starch pre-digested to sugars (so kinda glucose but still polymerised somewhat) which makes it even faster absorbable than the usual sugar. Not sure if sugar (sucrose = fructose + glucose) or orange juice (suspect it is just fructose) work the same way. From other health related videos it seems that body can't use fructose for energy effectively, but every cell of the body can use glucose. Maybe that's why my smoothie doesn't seem to work very well? 🤔 I was trying to stick to healthier option.. I think I just answered my own question.. 🙄🙄 Would be nice to hear other opinions though! Maybe someone actually knows how these compare in reality? Or have some biochemists out there..
Here’s a tip. The last time I hit the wall (bonked) was 1997. I changed my fueling strategy and it has never happened since. I drink every 15 minutes, and eat an energy bar or banana every hour.
Emphasising no5, I was once told over 30 years ago that the secret to a good training session was making sure you’ve recovered from the last one. I have never forgotten that.
Not sure if others have felt like this but a good one for me has been pacing myself well at the start of a ride, I have often gone out with people who are strong and destroyed myself in the first 40 mins. I find it takes me about that long (outside) until I feel I'm fully warmed up and feel I can go my quickest. Keep up the good work Francis!
Great point, and I also find it equally, if not more important, when you're riding indoors on Zwift. If you're not performing a structured workout and instead doing a group ride (Tour de Zwift is a great example), it's so easy to chase the next rider. I've found much more success when I stay within myself at the start of a race, and reel people in slowly throughout!
Totally, I thought it was just me. Some people have called me a slow burner. I had this weird idea that my body needed time to charge my blood and muscles with oxygen? I also believe that I have a small engine?
The one thing that really turned my training around was always trying to have pressure on the pedals. When I first started riding, I always powered up the hills and coasted down. Making sure I was applying pressure all of the time really was a turning point for me.
The Australian guy who runs The Road Cycling Academy always preaches that too about constant pressure on the pedals. What is the theory behind that, other than constant muscle tension?
@@AOL0321 My thought is that the style of on and off power is equivalent to multiple short intervals as opposed to sustained intervals. Kind of like going from 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, to 30 minutes on. I’m probably wrong. I just know that it rapidly improved my endurance on longer sessions.
I love how your video gives the ideal habits but also incorporates notes of reality for those of us who can't dedicate 20 hrs on the saddle per week (but would love to)
Great points!! Add in a quick stretch immediately after your ride or use a handheld roller on your legs (quads, hams, calves, etc). Foam roller is fine when you get home. That helps a lot in aiding recovery.
Yeah those were gonna be my comments, exactly - stretch, foam roller, rolling pin! Helps to get all that lactic acid out of your muscles...plus immediate relief from soreness.
Good tips, especially the DIY carb drink. I currently use SIS Go Electrolyte which works really well, but looking at the ingredients it's 93% maltodextrin. £20 for 1.6kg SIS or £13 for 5kg maltodextrin... think I'm gonna make it myself now!
I started using plain suger/water. 60g per/hr of 500ml water. Simplifies fueling on the bike and so far I have no complaints. 1 big bag of suger same cost as 3 gels. I'll take a gel on a ride where I'm going max distances for the water bottles I've packed, if I get an issue or go over the planned time I have extra feul
I tip I do my best to follow, which you have mentioned before, is to have all of your ‘stuff’ organised so when you go to leave everything is charged, you can find your gloves, your bottles don’t still need washing and so on. It doesn’t make me any faster but removes a barrier that could prevent me cycling. New studio looks great as a backdrop.
Every workout does nothing if you don’t sleep well. That’s when the bodies carpenters do their work building a new you! Best addition to my training plan.
Last time when I had the bike fitting, the bike shop was 30k away form my apartment, and the train got delayed. I had to ride as fast as I could to get to the bike shop, then riding on the fitting rig for the rest of the afternoon...I only had one sandwich for the lunch and that was the most horrible bonk I'd ever experienced. I didn't realise how bad the bonk was when I got out of the bike shop, then it quickly catched me. I barely hold it to the train station, could have collapsed any time on my way. So glad there was a costa at the train station and it literally saved me
Sensible tips. that’s why, to be “fast” I am almost doing exactly the opposite to make me “slow”. Since a bad crash several years back, I’ve been banned by my wife from riding seriously. So I take the shopping bike for an intense work-out, to get intensity one or twice a week (and “compensate for not being able to do good old long rides): fat 650cc wheels & mtb tires, heavy bike steel bike (well over 20kg for sure!), picnic basket in front, old traditional pedals and sneakers, baggy shorts and super baggy tee-shirt, and doing the airport-loop ride always against wind direction. I do try the tucked Aero position though, since the picnic basket provides almost the perfect support and my water bottle is then really at my fingertip (it rolls a lot though). 1 good hour of that, full gas, TT mode, and I am done for -survival tip: don’t forget the buy fresh bread before reaching home! (Of course I do run a couple of times in a week to stay relatively fit overall, otherwise I think that would really be unhealthy). Interestingly I have much better Sunday morning rides (more power and stamina) after running Saturday morning rather than Friday. No clue why!
I bought a Brompton with similar intentions. It's certainly a heck of a lot more effort to keep up a pace within several MPH. Not sure yet whether it'll help my performance on a road bike, but is a laugh either way.
Last year doing a thing in Cycling Weekly the only way I managed a 50 hour work week and getting "some" training was to block out parts of my day and work outside of normal office hours during some dead time or on those occasional nights when you just can't sleep.
Before, I felt like "this is probably not useful for me", as I use bike mainly for commute and then with a very little spare time, I go on group or longer rides. Obviously, I can't put any structured training into either (not a good idea to do HIIT when you are trying to not die in traffic). So, I thought my case is hopeless and I will stay at some mediocre level forever. But since you mentioned that frequency and total volume is important, I have some hope. Thanks for the uplift.
Yes every habit helps, and consistency is the one that helps more, and yet. Age catches us all, and you don't get faster as you are aging, my mindset is not to worry about top speed, but average speed, then position and comfort is the base to stay on that aero position, feels fast enough maybe is fast enough and that's great. right? when your goal is not been the faster maybe is go further, and in most of this further trips helps a bit to got fast enough and not slow enough, and yet always remember at the end age will catch us all no matter who you are or how fast you are.
Common sense is often only obvious when clearly stated. Regular training is often easily achieved but i improved when I started to fuel correctly and rest properly. I also found thar regular stretching and ab work helped.
The Everest on the BMX was outstanding Francis. You could not eat and relied on just the liquid formula! Every serious person never mind any others should watch this vid. You showed a resilience that in my opinion is unbeatable. I watch this video when i feel life is not so good for me and every time it amazes me. I sound like a twat but your back up crew were totally supportive Jimmi Emily and Daisy. Blinding people. Apparently from every ones favorite viewer!!!!!!! Hahaha.
You can also cross train . Doing some mtb training can help in bike control , downhill , when there is a crash your skills might keep you safe. I am a xc mtb racer , but I does do road riding. But are very beneficial to each other . I used to be very hateful of road riding,but if you look at the props that came a mtb background . They are above most of the riders . Don't put yourself in a box. I also forget about weight training .
One thing I’m trying this winter is to slow down and get more zone 2 rides in. I didn’t realize the importance of how slow twitch muscles which build in zone 2 aid in the processing and flushing of wastes products produced by harder anaerobic efforts. Need to flush out the nasties for fresh legs for those high intensity efforts at the end of the ride.
Great advice. PS saw you in BY bike shop today. My wife wanted to say hello but I said that's a bit weird....but we do watch and like all your videos. More Daisy though. You need to come to the Yorkshire Dales. MTB biking heaven and only an hour away for you. 😊
How about doing a comparison to see how close you can make the cheap bike with a good aero position, skin suit etc against a super bike with an upright position and baggy clothing, wrong tyre pressure etc. That'd be fascinating .. keep up the great work 🍻
Totally agree. I've been trying 16/8 fasting off the bike and it's really helped me become better at riding zone 2 endurance without food. Save the carbs for when you need higher power.
I find it possible to eat food and drink liquids made out of food, i.e. ingredients my grandma would have understood. Now you got me thinking of using water that I used to boil potatoes in. I wonder if that will impart much starch. It might be better than getting a load of sugar. Some people use brine from pickles to add electrolytes to their water bottles. This way, I avoid the stuff made explicitly for sports which seems pretty expensive to me.
It's wild how in cycling, carbs are king. That's not at all what is taught in everyday world life. When I came to cycling a couple of years ago, I started making my own “lemonade” sugar water lemony drink that I use to this day, and it's a godsend. I drink it constantly to survive my normal days at work which are fairly active.
That's because many people in everyday world life are eating lots of chocolate, donuts, lollies, lots of coke, but aren't physically active enough to use up this vast amount of energy. Of course it's different if you're training for many hours per week on top of your usual work/family life.
It's fun how most RU-vidrs telling you to shave your legs and arms to be more aero have some kind of beard anyway. I did not know that wind skips your face when dragging you
Validated top tips there Francis, 100% agree with all 5.. Following these we'll be better cyclists for it. A Francis Cade + Ken Buckley feature ( in the Toon ? 👌😉) That would be mint! Still envious of the Red Bull fridge ! 🤭
I haven't bonked before. But I do definitely eat before my 100+km rides and halfway through. Haven't gone more than 161km before so I have no idea and I'm on a mountain bike and can't go fast anyway, top out at 49.8 because of gear ratios. Actually if I'm not riding more than 2 hours I might not even eat before. But I do have a slow metabolism, I ride almost every day 1-2 hours on weekdays and longer rides on Saturday usually 100km. I think this is why I can beat even some of the road bike riders on my Saturday rides, people don't get to ride as much as me, people have friends and have to go out with them from what I've heard. I only leave the house for work, school or cycling, and I always have my bike with me, I go for rides during lunch. I've been living according to what was in Tyler Hamilton's book since I read it. "If you're standing sit, if you're sitting lie down, if you're lying down, sleep" maybe not always the sleep part, I already sleep more than 10 hours a day. But I'm definitely always lying down if I can.
4 to 1 carbs/protein mix for recovery is not always appropriate. it depends on the fuelling during the workout. if glycogen stores are not depleted, ie, they were topped during the workout by ingesting the appropriate amount of carbs, then there is only a small need of carbs after the workout... protein will be more important in this case.
Useful tips, I've started using the maltedextrin with a electrolyte tablet for a bit of flavour, though Sundays ride it was iced water not nice. Use the myprotein recovery xs after every ride works for me. The gauge I use to see if I get it right, finish a ride and I'm not hungary then I've fueled correctly.
Two, that you touched on but didn't emphasise enough. Gains are made during the recovery period, not the exercise itself. And I would have put quality sleep at number 2 due to its importance in recovery for consecutive training days.
For us NON PRO’s 40g-90g carbs per hour is plenty. I use 70g during my Ironman races. Infinit Nutrition gets rid of all that guesswork. One drink. One bottle per hour. Nothing else is needed.
I sleep bad and love tennis more than biking. But I do train much and usually sort of structured. Last summer (my most km year, almost 7000, I know, not a lot) I was averaging above 32, which for me is very fast.
Some great advice and good emphasis on recovery and resting. However, your advice on recovery drink…recently I cycled average 30-35mikes a day for 5 days and after every ride I had a protein shake. It was the best week I had in my cycling career. Usually without a protein shakes I’m very much fatigued by the ride home on day 3. But since I had the protein shakes I felt like I could continue beyond the 5 days but decided not to so as not to have overtraining creep up on me. I suppose it’s what works for different people. Protein shakes helped me a ton.
I don't think he's saying protein shakes are bad, they're definitely better than nothing or water. It's that you want a bit of protein and a chunk of carbohydrates as well, so if your protein shakes aren't just protein, it's even better. I remember getting taught years ago that protein shakes weren't strictly necessary, yoghurt or milk generally would provide enough protein for that immediate post training window.
You speak of recovery drinks in a bag. Mine comes on a box. 1% chocolate milk. Natural and, if you can tolerate it, the mix id 4:1:1. What several coaches recommended to me 10 years ago. If you can't tolerate milk sugar, get something with whey protein not soy.
Hello thank you for the info as always very helpful. One thing that no body ever talks about is riding and hemorrhoid’s, what can we do to ride when you suffer with this problem!!!
I bonked so hard on a 67kilometer ride last weekend, cold (zero Celsius) and foggy, yes, but ate too little and too late, two times even (2,5 hour ride). Man what a crap feeling and indeed, like a 24kmh average just before I finally refueled. I do believe you bonk harder and sooner when not fit. But really, indeed, never let it happen. Sort of fun once or twice in a way, but it is just shit and unnecessary.
Haha... My wife chuckled when you talked about limiting physical activity besides cycling. So no walks downtown for coffee after a hard training session? That's our typical Sunday deal after I do a 3-4hr ride. Luckily Monday is a recovery day so I'll take it to keep her happy.... That and I'm almost 55 so the top years are long gone.
Definitely! Cadence that suits you, together with heart rate monitor sensors are cheap enough to help pace until one can step up to a power meter (if you choose to)
It often says it's discontinued and then comes back in stock - if it doesn't, I don't know any other options that aren't a lot more expensive like huel!
Is Huel really more expensive? Difficult to say as none of them give clear serving size and pack size with out digging - but huel is £1.68 per serving and 1kg (£18.99) of myvegan whole fuel blend with 100g serving size is £1.899 per serving
Some thoughts - - Start with a consistent program. Find a route that's fun to ride - good mix of hills and flats, quiet, countryside if possible, circuits in a park if you're a big-city boy - and ride it three times a week w/o worrying about your speed. Not too long - you should feel happy when you get home. When it gets boring start keeping time and see if you can do it a little faster. - Find a weekly club or bike store ride so you have something to look forward to. Not competitive, but with riders who are strong enough that you'll want to do your solo rides to keep up with the group. - When you feel like you're back to normal, set yourself a goal - a century or some other challenge that you could have done before you fell ill. Once you have a reachable goal your desire to train will come back full force.
Should, perhaps, be emphasized that if you are concerned with long term health benefits rather than performance gains ayou should not eat like this. Drink water, eat real food and avoid processed sugars. You may be slower now but you'll be faster when you're seventy!
First, thank you for all your videos. You have an amazing circle of friends (kinda makes me envious) lol. I have a question as there are no more BFT anymore... I think I have the most perfect bike setup except for one thing, when I ride for some time, my gentlemans area seems to become affected. Is my saddle to high? Where's BFJames lol
they seem to fluctuate in price all the time and often have really huge discounts/multi buy deals - which is the only time really worth buying and stocking up
THE biggest thing fast cyclists do is to ride a lot but rarely ride fast! This also means you DON'T have to smash down carbs every 5 minutes! If you are always riding fast and are dependant on carbs, well, good luck with that!
Even the most fat adapted will be burning ~50% carbs in z2. (With the exception of keto) so that's still quite a lot of eating per hour - more than most people would anyway!
you are right and the advice on this video missed that fact. total volume should be most of it at Z2/Z3 depending if a good aerobic base is established. the riders that ride fast, only do it in spare amounts during training and during races.. and only at peak times of the season.. no one will be riding fast all year around, just not possible
I was thinking the same thing. My wife the dietitian always suggested chocolate milk. It seems though that there is a move towards focusing purely on carbs right now in the first 15 minute window.
