Ask any roadie and they will tell you that mountain bikers survive on a diet of burritos, pizza and beer or soda. While that is mostly true, it turns out that good nutrition helps out no matter what kind of cycling you do.

Food preferences are fairly subjective, so you will need to experiment a little to see what tastes good and works for you, but this should give you some ideas to try out.

There is a plethora of scientific research about sports nutrition, and if you are training for a race, you will want to consult an expert. This is intended to be a guide for recreational riders looking to do better than the stereotypical cheeseburger and Coke.

 photo credit: jameskadamson

Before the Ride

It is important to eat enough before a ride so you have the fuel to get started, but you don’t want anything so heavy that it will make you sick under heavy exertion. If I have a couple of hours before a morning ride, I will eat a breakfast burrito or sausage, egg and cheese bagel. But if I’m riding right away, I will instead do oatmeal or a bagel with cream cheese. Apples and bananas are also an excellent choice, or maybe even a pop-tart or cereal/granola bar, if that’s your thing. If coffee is your morning pick-me-up, have it, but also drink plenty of water or sports drink before you arrive at the trailhead. For an after work ride, I like a Clif bar or $0.99 chicken sandwich from the drive thru on my way to the trailhead.

During the Ride

Staying fueled and hydrated on the ride is crucial for avoiding cramps, headaches or outright bonking. While riding, try to eat one energy snack every 30-60 minutes in the saddle, depending on the intensity of the ride. I like to bring a hydration pack with water and a bottle with sports drink. I drink the water as needed throughout the ride, and the sports drink every time I stop for a break. In addition to flavor preferences, also consider the delivery method of various energy snacks. If you’re on a laid back rec ride with frequent stops, clif bars and other “hands-on” foods will be fine. If you’re in a race or any ride with minimal downtime, gels and other “one-handed” items are the ticket. For the latter situation, I love the Hammer Gel flask. It holds the equivalent of 5 packets of gel and the ounces are marked on the side for easy nutrition monitoring. I have also seen riders duct tape energy gel packets to their bike stem, allowing the packs to be ripped off / opened with one hand. The tabs don’t end up on the ground and the duct tape is available for trailside repairs if needed. Genius! But I still prefer the flask…

After the Ride

With all that extended effort behind you, your body will be craving fluids to make up for any hydration deficit, and protein to rebuild broken down muscle tissue. To kill two birds with one stone, check out a protein recovery drink like Hammer Nutrition Recoverite or Muscle Milk.

Now you can hit Sonic and grab that bacon double cheeseburger dripping with awesomeness. Or maybe a pizza is more to your liking. Chicken and fish are healthy alternatives, but whatever your preference, have a sensible meal, hydrate as much as needed, and check out the aforementioned protein drinks.or even regular milk.

As a side note, alcohol does not really help your biking nutrition in any way. It has no place on the actual ride, and it usually hurts more than it helps before or after. As always, use your head and enjoy responsibly and you’ll be fine. Just don’t expect to get rid of your beer gut with more beer.

Here are some energy foods I have tried and liked. Your preferences and mileage may vary.

• Hammer Nutrition Products – Hammer is a sponsor of a club I belong to so I have tried most of their stuff
• Gu
• Jelly Belly Sport Beans – great for kids
• Clif Shot Bloks – also great for kids
• Clif Bars
• Powerade
• Honey Stinger Waffles – these are 160 calories of pure awesomeness, soaked in honey. If you haven’t tried them yet, go get one right now!

As I mentioned before, taste preferences are purely subjective so I recommend making a trip to the local sporting goods store and getting one of each thing that looks interesting. Over your next few rides, see what tastes good. Learn what feels right in your body, and soon you’ll have your riding nutrition plan dialed in!

No more of these for me, I’ve gotta be ready to crush the springtime trails.

This week I received a digital copy of James Wilson’s 12 week mountain bike training program called “Mountain Bike Dumbbell Combos”. The package includes a 23-page manual explaining and laying out the options for the warm-ups, exercises and combined routine schedules that you can put together to whip yourself into full-on trail destroyer mode. If you’re snowed in right now as I am, you’re looking for anything to keep you sharp for that first day on the trails come springtime.

Looking over the 12-week plan and all its exercise components, I am truly psyched to get in the gym. But one of the best parts of this training regimen is that you don’t even need a gym to do it. Forty five minutes, 3 times a week in any 5′x5′ space will do. Grab a jump rope and adjustable dumbbells and you’re ready to work your upper body in addition to conditioning your core and legs.

Along with the detailed explanation of the exercises, Bike James includes several nutrition tips about the most important meal, what you should be eating (and avoiding), and some great meal suggestions to feed those muscles you’re developing. Nutrition has always been the weak point of any “training” I’ve done in the past; I’m hoping that having the benefit of concise guidelines about it will allow me to take full advantage of this non-trail time.

I’ll report back as things progress. Perhaps next post I’ll be raffling off a couple tickets to the gun show. Dadum ching!

By now you’ve probably seen the ads for FRS Healthy Energy products featuring top riders like Lance Armstrong and Travis Brown but you may be wondering, does this stuff actually work? I wondered the same thing myself so I decided to put FRS to the test. At the age of 40 I have been having a few of those days – both on the trail and at home and work – where I could definitely use a little extra gas in the tank.

Over the years I’ve tried various different products on the market, from your typical energy drinks that promise to make you fly to those small bottles that have hours of energy but I found mixed results. Yes, most of them work but how good are they for you? Reading the ingredients makes you wonder a bit: caffeine, taurine, glucuronolactone, ginseng… you get the point.

FRS is made with quercetin, a powerful natural antioxidant that’s also know to work as an antihistamine and an anti-inflammatory. Most FRS products also include vitamins (C, E, B6, and B12) which help the body absorb quercetin while adding other health benefits. Some studies show antioxidants reduce the risk of cancer which sweetens the deal even more. Also, unlike most energy products we’re familiar with, FRS needs to be taken regularly for the user to see results. In that way it’s more like a supplement than a true quick-energy product.

The Folks down at FRS sent me both the powder and chews for testing. FRS can also be purchased as a ready to drink can or as a concentrate that’s mixed with water. I opted to stick to the powder and chews since for me it’s the lightest, most convenient way to transport and consume. The small packets are about the same size as a crystal light packet and weigh nothing. Toss a couple of those in your hydration pack for when you want something other than water on the trail plus a few chews in a pocket sleeve and you’re good to go for mountain biking!

I tested out the low cal wild berry and the low cal orange powders. With the powders I found that they needed to be shaken pretty vigorously to totally mix in my bottles and hydration bladder. In my opinion the flavor was just okay. Neither was too sweet medicine-like and the orange flavor tasted very much like Tang.

In terms of performance I never got a burst in energy like I’ve experienced with Red Bull or 5 Hour Energy products. Instead, after using FRS for a few weeks I felt more measured effects that seemed to take the edge off when I was feeling tired. Riding on my CycleOps bike trainer I can’t say that I was able to pedal at a higher cadence but I didn’t feel any negative effects either.  I did notice that after the workout I didn’t feel as tired or drained as usual.

FRS claims their studies show cycling fatigue reductions on the order of 13% along with 3% VO2 Max improvements (taking the product twice a day for 7 days) but let’s just I didn’t personally experience that sort of lift, even after a few weeks. I did feel a little less tired overall but didn’t see any clearly measurable results.

I also tried the FRS Healthy Energy chews – pineapple mango, orange, and wild berry. Here again I have to say the orange wins in flavor with pineapple mango coming in a close second. One thing that does come to mind however when tasting these chews is that unlike some other brands like Clif shots or the like, these tend to feel a bit chalky in the mouth. One serving is two chews and as advertised you don’t need to take water with them (though I needed a bit of water though to rinse my mouth out while riding).

Since energy and nutrition products work differently for everyone, give FRS a try for yourself to see if it works for you. You can buy FRS Healthy Energy products online or at GNC stores.

I would like to thank FRS Healthy Energy for sending up the products for review.

Here’s a quick item for those of you who like your nutrition in gel form: Clif Shots just got a new formula for 2011. Previously, Clif Shots used organic brown rice syrup for the base which some noted was a little thicker than other brands. The new product builds off an organic maltodextrin base and is offered in a new chocolate cherry (or cherry chocolate?) flavor in addition to espresso and plain chocolate. Clif claims the energy gels are 85% to 90% organic which definitely important to some folks.

In addition to the new base, Clif has amped up the caffeine in the espresso gels to 100 mg. The company claims this is more than any other gel on the market so perhaps we’ll start skipping the morning coffee for a Clif Shot.

Finally, the new Clif Shot formula comes in a redesigned package that’s perfect for cyclists. Pouch edges have been rounded to eliminate poking when carried in jersey pockets plus the mouth has been narrowed about 20% to improve mouth comfort (though we have to wonder what this has done to flow speeds). The new package also includes the familiar “Litter Leash” to reduce the chance of ripped tabs “accidentally” ending up on the trail (though element22 ripped right through a litter leash without even trying).

Everyone has their individual on-trail nutrition preferences so for those who are into gels, check out the new Clif Shots and let us know what you think!

I’ve been using Nuun Active Hydration tablets ($19.50 for a 3 pack) for a while and just wanted to give a quick heads up on this product. Unlike other tablets on the market, these babies can be used in your hydration pack without fear of growing a funky science experiment. The Nuun tablets are also crazy easy to use, no measurements required – just pop in one tablet for every 500ml of water in your hydration pack. For instance, I have a 3L pack so I pop 6 tablets in and go.

Nuun tablets add a little flavor to your water but more importantly they deliver a combination of fundamental minerals and electrolytes that promote hydration during exercise. The tablets also feature a catalyst to speed up the absorption of water while you’re active. The best part? No added carbohydrates or sugars means no harsh crash later.

Now everyone is different so I won’t offer any performance claims however I can tell you that I didn’t feel any worse off using Nuun. I actually felt pretty good on rides when I used Nuun and I enjoyed all the flavors I tried including lemon+lime, tri-berry and banananuun. I was also happy that cleaning my hydration pack was not an issue; a simple rinse with water (and occasionally some dish soap) left the pack without a sticky mess afterward.

If you’re interested in more details, check out the Nuun website.

Cheers folks and happy trails.

Let me start this out by saying I almost never review nutrition or hydration products. Nutrition and hydration choices will generally be specific to each rider and what works for me might not work for you (and vice versa). And that’s precisely what makes Me & Goji so interesting and different: it’s customized nutrition that’s perfect for mountain bikers, whether you’re in training or just trying to stay healthy.

When I started training for the Sumter Metric Century back in March I’d typically eat a bowl of sugary cereal (something like Corn Pops or Honey Comb – no kidding) before heading out on a long weekend ride. Of course I’d feel full when I left the house but by the time I drove to the trailhead I’d start to feel hungry and I’d typically eat a pack of peanut butter crackers right away. During the ride I ate stuff like granola bars, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, etc. – whatever I could to get the calories I needed. Clearly this is not the diet of champion riders

About halfway through my training program I got the chance to try a custom cereal mix from Me & Goji and not surprisingly it made a huge difference. First off: one bowl of the cereal kept me full until lunch time, even on long rides. In designing my custom cereal mix I stuck to the basic artisanal cereal base which is made from organic multigrain oat bran flakes – hearty stuff that fills you up and stays with you, even on epic spins.

Of course the artisanal cereal base is good for you and has a nice crunch but frankly it’s not all that sexy or tasty on its own (it’s no Honey Comb I can tell you that ). The really cool thing about Me & Goji is they allow you to customize your cereal by adding various dry fruits, nuts, seeds, and flavors. I added quinoa flakes (revered by Incan warriors for the stamina they provide – all 9 amino acids in one package), goji (a superfruit from the Himalaya packed with phytochemicals), and chia seeds (also used by ancient warriors, chia seeds absorb 12 times their weight in water and prolong incredible levels of hydration). For flavor I added dried apples, cinnamon, and pecans

The Me & Goji website makes it easy to drag and drop ingredients into your cereal mix and within a few minutes I was able to create and order my creation. You can even name your mix and the name is printed right on the cereal canister – how’s that for customization? All the nutrition info is updated as you create your mix so you can make sure what you’re getting is good for you.

Building a custom cereal is certainly more expensive than buying “off the shelf” but with Me & Goji you’re actually getting 21 oz. of food (compare to 15 oz. or less in a typical cereal box). In terms of nutrition and fuel for your body you really can’t do much better than a personalized mix from Me & Goji – give it a try before your next epic ride!