How to fuel for success and feel good on and off the bike!

Words and Photography by Kate Macleod

Let’s be honest, nutrition is a minefield! One minute we are being told to go Keto, the next minute we’re being told to monitor our glucose so it doesn’t spike, and the next we’re being told to eat fat to fuel. Social media has been great in that we now have access to so much information, however, a lot of the nutrition information is provided without any context and usually comes with an agenda of selling the latest gadget or supplement that you probably don’t need.

What are most people getting wrong when it comes to fueling for success?

The majority of people I speak to and coach know what they should be doing when I talk to them about nutrition. They know they shouldn’t exclude whole food groups, they know they should eat carbs, and they know they should eat more protein. However, when we look into their nutrition habits and talk about how they feel during and after training sessions, we usually find that the composition of the macronutrients could be better. Most people generally eat enough calories; however, the composition of those calories could be better. For example, when they start working with me, most athletes do not eat enough carbohydrates before, during and immediately after their training. They don’t get enough protein, and they get the biggest amount of their calories from fat. As a result, their training is inconsistent, they are tired all the time, they get “hangry”, they can’t focus, and they are constantly snacking after big training sessions, especially in the evenings. This is most common with athletes working full-time on top of training. 

When we change their carb, protein and fat intake and pay more attention to the timing of their carbohydrate intake, their training consistency improves, they regularly hit the planned power numbers and see improvements in their power. They stop snacking in the evening and aren’t demolishing the fridge after their long training sessions! Once you understand the food you are putting in your body, it’s a lot easier to make daily adjustments without tracking every calorie you put in your mouth!

What this looks like in practice:

Everyone’s nutrition will look different! This is simply an example of how my nutrition looks on an average training day. 

Example 1 is what my nutrition looks like now that I am training full-time and coaching.

Example 2 is how my nutrition looked when I worked full-time in a bank, plus training and coaching.

You’ll notice the food is pretty much the same, but the timings and amounts differ because my routine and training load were different. 

Example 1

Wake up at 10:00

Breakfast: Oats or rice flakes with almond milk, berries, 1 scoop of chocolate protein or greek yoghurt, 1 x teaspoon of peanut butter, and jam. The amount of oats/ rice flakes and peanut butter changes depending on the intensity and duration of the session. 

Flat white and 500ml of water or electrolyte drink.

On the bike:

For endurance sessions I eat a mix of Precision Hydration and Fuel energy chews and homemade ride snacks; oat and banana bars, rice Krispie marshmallow cakes, rice cakes, peanut butter and jam sandwiches or bananas. I usually aim for 40-60g CHO per hour, depending on the length of the ride. Recently, in the heat I’ve been having 80g CHO per hour and adding carb mix with salt tabs too. 

For rides with intervals, I use my race nutrition, Precision Hydration and Fuel gels, carb mix and sometimes the 60g chews. 

If it's a super long ride with intervals, I will have a mixture of the above and aim for 80 g- 100 g CHO per hour, or at least for the hours when I do the intervals. This is when I practice my race nutrition. 

Post-training “snack”:

This depends on the session and what I had planned to do later that day. 

If my session was very hard, and another one is planned for the next day I have a quick snack with carbs and protein as soon as I get home. At the moment because it’s been really hot my go-to is a smoothie, usually, a banana, berries, peanut butter, almond milk, and a scoop of protein! This ensures I help my body replenish my muscle glycogen stores and get protein straight away to give my body the best chance of recovering for the next day. 

If I have had an easy day and don’t have a hard training session the next day, I will just have a normal dinner and skip the post-ride “snack”. 

Lunch/Dinner:

With my training schedule, I often don’t really have “Lunch” as essentially, I eat over lunchtime on the bike. Sometimes I will have “lunch” after training and then dinner later in the evening, around 21:00. 

Both meals would be a protein source, loads of veggies, salad and carbs, the amount of which depends on the training I have the following day. 

If this meal is before 15:00, I’ll always have another flat white! 

Pre-bed snack:

If hungry, protein yoghurt or cottage cheese with fruit and peanut butter. 

Example 2 (working athlete) 

Wake up at 7:00/8:00 (if working from home):

Flat white and water (If I were not hungry, I wouldn’t eat; if I were hungry, I would eat). Usually, I wasn’t hungry because I ate dinner so late. 

11:00-12:00 Lunch: 

2-3 scrambled eggs with loads of veg, corn crackers or toast (work-from-home lunch). If eating at the office, I would run out for a salmon poke bowl and get extra salmon or prawns for more protein. 2nd Flat white of the day. 

15:00-16:00 Pre-training meal: 

Oats or rice flakes with almond milk, berries, 1 scoop of chocolate protein, 1 x teaspoon of peanut butter. The amount of oats/ rice flakes and peanut butter changes depending on the intensity and duration of the session. 

Training fuel: 

When I was working in a Bank I would usually train after work. Sometimes this meant fitting a turbo and a gym session together, so I always had to be super organised with my food and kit to be time efficient. 

Fuel depended on the same principles as the above example. The only difference was on double days, where I did a turbo and then the gym immediately after. On these days even if I had an easy turbo I would either fuel it as I would an endurance ride or I would take a carb drink to sip at the gym as the total training time would end up being 3 hours, 4 taking into account getting to and from the gym and the faff in between.

Dinner: 21:00/22:00

Protein source, loads of veg and carbs if the session was hard, usually potatoes, rice, corn crackers or rice noodles.

Again, everyone’s nutrition looks different! This is how I managed mine around an office job and training 16-20 hours per week. 

Pro-tip on training nutrition

Fuel on the bike depends on the following factors:

1. Duration

2. Intensity

3. Goal of the session

4. Previous training session

5. Next training session

   
   

The level of detail you go into should be aligned with your athletic performance goals. If you are riding for fun you should only fuel to feel good and focus on eating enough carbohydrates before, during and after the session. Most importantly, eat food you like!

Pro tips for fueling for success: 

1. Eat like a normal person off the bike. A lot of people think they can eat all the calories they burned during training on top of a normal amount of food. It’s not quite as simple. Keep your meals the same day to day and the only thing that changes is your training snacks in line with the duration and intensity of your training each day. 

   
   

2. Get curious, find out what is in the food you are eating, don’t presume. Most people know that an avocado is “healthy”, but they miss the fact that it is really high in fat, which means it’s also high in calories. So if you are trying to lose weight you might want to have a smaller portion so you can use the calories on something more substantial. 

   
   

3. Plan ahead: meal prep when travelling or during busy periods. Plan what you are going to eat in the morning and take out all the decision-making. It means less stress for you, and your choices have been made when you are in the right frame of mind to fuel your goals. 

   
   

4. Always take more food than you think you need: when training, you never know when you’ll get lost or decide to ride an extra two hours because it's sunny!

5. Get protein in at every meal: this will help you feel fuller for longer and give you a better chance of hitting your daily protein target. 

   
   

6. If you want the chocolate bar, have the chocolate bar: When we restrict ourselves and label things as bad we usually end up binging and feeling bad or eating a load of other “healthy” foods which add up to more than the chocolate bar!

   
   

7. Practice your race nutrition: there’s nothing worse than doing alllll the training and then your food ruins your race or event. Find out what works for you and doesn’t cause stomach upsets. 

   
   

Who is Kate MacLeod?

I switched from rowing to cycling in 2018, with the plan of cycling for fun, coffee and cake. However, my competitive nature got the best of me after a friend convinced me to race at Hillingdon and I was immediately hooked! 

I raced in the UK for one season and then moved to Estonia, where racing is flat and fast, and we race with the men. I’ve mainly raced on the road and decided to focus on gravel in 2024 as I really like the longer races and the community that comes with gravel racing. More recently I’ve discovered e-racing as well, so I race online when I don’t have a gravel race! Alongside cycling, I’m a nutrition coach and strength coach which I offer 1-2-1 coaching through KM Health & Lifestyle. 

I launched KM Health and Lifestyle in March 2022 because I want to help fellow athletes perform better at their sport and stop feeling anxious about food. I've met so many people, both athletes and non-athletes, who want to change their body composition or perform better at their sport, yet they are stuck in a cycle of restricting food and being anxious about what they eat. You know what you need to do to reach your goals, but instead, you are paralysed by the number of things you need to do and end up with information overload and just revert to your existing habits. I want to help people like you learn what is in the food you are eating, how it impacts you and your training and how to fuel your body so you too can perform at your sport!

I have also joined forces with cycling coach Toms Flaksis, to launch community coaching through Train with Us. We want to get people training together and having fun! Everyone is busy, and it’s easy to lose the joy of riding bikes, especially when you are just squeezing in training sessions because you feel you have to. We are going to bring people together in person and online to have fun on the bike, lift weights and see how training as a community brings better results and makes you happier. 

Contact:

• Follow me on IG @katemac_44 & @kmhealthandlifestyle for tips on how to fuel to feel good! And @trainwithus.cc for group coaching and community 

• Website: www.kmhealthandlifestyle.com

• Email: kmac.nutrition@gmail.com