Nutrition

As I have mentioned before I was worried about nutrition this year. Last year I got my weight and fat down, but as the regular long rides increased so did the calories and so did my weight.

This year though I think I've sussed it, and its very much related to the new style of training I have from my coach. Where last year I just blanketly increased my calories I now only do it on the days when I know (from experience, ahem) I will need it. I can do one week's hard training on a small calorie increase, but if another hard week is coming (or more specifically a week with some very hard days) then for a few of those days I will really have to pile in the food. Not crap mind you, but calories all the same. So I take more food with me to work so that if I do need more then its there and I don't have to worry about it being junk from the machine. This week has been very easy (was due an easy week and the Fred is coming) so I have been able to drop the calories back to normal levels and literally a couple of kilos have come off. Not complaining about that :-)

Last year I increased my eating a lot because every other weekend was a "big" ride, so a hilly century or more. I ate the week after to recover, and I ate the following week to prepare. The training this year though has worked a lot on my base endurance and aerobic fitness, and getting my body more used to using fat as a fuel. This means I know now I don't need as much before big rides, 1/2 days of eating more before is fine and any more is just going to stack the weight back on.

Hindsight is a great thing and I can see the improvements in what I'm doing now. But I still understand why I ate like I did last year, and I don't think I can turn around and just say it was stupid. Maybe a little mis-guided, but we live and learn.

So now my weight is lower than ever (77.5kg) and my body fat is its lowest ever too (10.1%). I hope this theory holds or I'll be eating humble pie soon (except I can't eat the pastry, so that ruins that idea, doh).