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Nutrition In Mountain Biking

I. Waterworld
1. Muscles produce 30-100 times more heat while riding
2. Water doesn't supply calories, minerals, or vitamins
A. But it is used for almost every body function
B. 55-65% of body weight is water
3. When losing a quart of fluid heart beats 8 more times a minute
4. Before a long ride start hyperhydrating 1 day in advance
5. Do drinking strategies during your training

II. Rehydrate
1. Drink alot after a ride
2. Sports drinks replenish the best
3. Eat alot of salty snacks
A. Sodium makes your blood like a sponge
B. meals contain more sodium naturally than sports bars

III. Diet helps
1. 60% of your daily fluid comes from food
2. Fruit and vegatables are great fluid sources
3. Foods high in fat do not provide to much fluid

IV. Equipment
1. Warm up bikes are good for bad weather or the dark
2. Good for intense intervals

V. Liquids
1. Replenish your self after rides
2. As soon as the rides over is the best time to replenish
3. Drink or eat 100 grams of carbo
4. Drinking carbo is much faster than eating carbo
5. You can spend over $1000 a year on recovery drinks

VI. Cereal
1. Flakes are carbo rich, low in fat, and quickly digested
2. Sugar coated are not bad either
3. Most cereals contain less than 2 grams of fat per serving
Nutrition in Mountain Biking

      When riding a bicycle, your muscles produce 30-100 times more heat
than when your body is at rest.  The body puts out this inferno by increasing
the sweat rates.  In the summer you can lose over two liters of fluid per hour
on a really hot day, dehydration and saddle soars are the leading reasons
cyclists drop out of races.  The body loses this much fluid mostly from an
increase in sweat rates.  Water does not supply calories, minerals, or
vitamins, but it is mandatory almost for every body function.  It keeps body
temperatures from rising while the person is exercising.  Water accounts for
55-65% of your body weight.  Cyclist that lose over a quart rate, which goes
up  to eight beats per minute a decrease in cardiac function, and an increase
in body temperature.  This is a study by Edward Coyle Ph.D. Director of the
Humane Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas (Walsh 92).
      Dehydration can possibly increase metabolic stress on muscles.  It also
causes problems on your internal thermostat by decreasing blood flow to the
skin, slowing sweat rates, and increasing the time needed for fluids to be
absorbed into the blood stream.  What is worse, by the time you feel thirsty,
your body has already lost 1-2% of its body weight.  Drink lots of water
every day, but before a long ride or a race, start hyper hydrating twenty four
hours in advance.  Avoid drinks containing alcohol or caffeine because they
both make the body excrete more water.  If you can not meet your calorie
needs, use sports drinks, recovery drinks or other liquid supplements.  Try to
step fluid lost to sweat, practice drinking strategies during your training.
Determine how much sweat you lose by weighing yourself before and after
your rides  Every  pound lost equals sixteen ounces of fluids.  It takes
practice to drink more than a quart of fluid per hour without getting cramps
or internal discomfort.  A hydration bladder system such as Camelbak,
provides water and will help you drink more (Walsh 94).

      After you have ridden for a while drink plenty of fluids.  What you
drink after the ride can make a difference.  Coyle also compared the effects
of drinking nearly two liters of water, sport drinks, or diet cola in athletes two
hours after a workout, the results showed diet cola replenishes 54% of the
fluids lost; water, 64%; and sport drinks, 69%.  Before or while riding you
should eat salty snacks.  Sodium makes your blood like a sponge so you can
absorb more water and excrete less.  Athletes such as cyclists should also
drink plentiful with meals and snacks, because food naturally contains many
times more sodium than soft drinks or energy bars (Walsh 95).
      About 60% of your daily fluid comes from the food you eat, but some
foods increase hydration better than others.  Fruits and vegetables are great
fluids sources, they are 80-95% water by weight.  Fat and Water do not mix
very well, so many foods high in fat do not provide plenty of water (Walsh
95).
      Most popular sport drinks contain sodium, potassium, and other
electrolytes.  Sport drinks are useful for short high intensity workouts, such
as sprints or intervals cool fluids taste better and may be absorbed more
rapidly than warm drinks (Walsh 95).
      Watch the start of any race and you will see an odd sight: Racers
furiously spinning in place, warming up on bikes attached to trainers.  These
devices are also great for workouts when the weather is bad or it is dark. If
you enjoy intense intervals, you can knock yourself out since there is no
distractions (Langley, Alsberg 68).

      If you just finish a big ride you should put down a sugary drink and
start thinking about your next ride.  You should already be preparing for your
next ride by replenishing yourself of the things you lost on your previous ride.
Eating plenty of pasta can also replenish a great deal of carbohydrates you
burned, but not as much as soft drinks or water.  During a ride, carbohydrates
in your muscles and your liver is burned to produce energy so you can keep
on going.  As soon as the ride is over, the enzymes and receptors responsible
for storing carbohydrates in the muscle and liver tissues are most active, this
is the best time to replenish yourself (Walsh 98).

      The common recommendation after a big ride is to drink or eat 100
gram of carbohydrates.  One hundred grams of carbohydrates is equal to four
bananas, or four, eight ounce glasses of fruit juice.  If you do plenty of short
intervals, then drink or eat 100 grams of carbohydrates every two to four
hours afterward (Walsh 98).

      Drinking energy makes more sense than eating; it is easier to slurp
from a bottle than it is to put down a plate of pasta.  There is also evidence
showing that liquids are faster at moving energy from your stomach to your
muscles.  When riding the best drink for refueling is probably a sport drink
like Gatorade of Powerade.  Trained cyclists have found out that people who
drank a beverage containing carbohydrates and protein replenishes muscle
carbohydrates levels 38% quicker tan those who drank carbohydrates only.
When carbohydrates is combined with protein, glycogen storage is enhanced
post exercise. 

      Nutritionists recommend cyclists consume 1.2-1.5 grams of protein per
kilogram of body weight.  (For a 150 pound cyclists, that 80-100 grams of
protein daily.)  The downside of these recovery drinks is they are expensive.
You can spend up to $1,000 or more a year buying sports drinks (Walsh 99).

      A bowl of flakes is convenient, carbohydrates rich, low in fat, quickly
digested and provides plenty of nutrients for the dollar.  The nutritional
profile of many cereals is similar to sports bars and recovery drinks.  A bowl
of raisin bran with a cup of skim milk provides 330 calories.  About 80% of
these are energy packed carbohydrates calories.  Sugar coated or frosted
cereals aren't intrinsically bad, they are better than eating nothing, but they do
tend to lack nutrients.  Nutrition labels separate carbohydrate content into
sugars, dietary fibers, and other carbohydrates.  Cyclists who have sugar
rushes should avoid cereals that have sugar listed as one of the three
ingredients (Walsh 82).

      Even the fattest flakes are skinny compared to sausage or French toast.
Most cereals contain less than 2 grams of fat per serving.  Pudgy cereals
would be those with more than three grams of fat per serving these generally
include granola, and flaked cereal with nuts (Walsh 82).
      The competitive sport of mountain biking is making its way to the
United States.  The sport which was mainly held in Europe, has come to the
United States and beginning to draw a heap of notable foreign competitors.
According to most estimates, cycling is the most popular spectator sport in
the world, just behind soccer.  The mountain bike is having improvements
made to everyday, and people are willing to spend the money to get the best
bike (Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia).