Life In The Saddle

Zinc and magnesium are two minerals that are vital to our day-to-day health, and also critical to endurance performance. Zinc plays a significant role in regulating healthy hormone levels within our blood stream. Magnesium is vital to the synthesis of protein, and to other reactions within the body's metabolic system, which ultimately provide energy to your muscles. A deficiency in either of the minerals could cause health issues and sub-optimal performance. In this blog post, I thought I'd talk through a few reasons why it might be useful to monitor, and perhaps supplement, your zinc and magnesium intake. Zinc – Vital to maintain normal testosterone levels  Zinc is found in every cell within your body, and after iron, it is probably the most important mineral. It is vital to your immune function, as well as your thyroid function and the maintenance of healthy hormone levels. After recent blood tests demonstrated that I showed some concerning deficiencies in Serum...

Most of us could do with losing a few pounds. Travel to even an amateur mountain event, and you realise that yes, sadly, it is the super-lean Italian, Spanish and Columbian climbers that dominate the top spots. Their vein-strewn legs glistening in the sun, as they fly past you on the climbs. Even if you're not racing up mountains though, shifting a bit of excess weight will likely make you faster in almost all areas of riding. Power to weight ratios remain the overarching performance indicator in cycling. Before you start starving yourself though, there is a serious caveat to consider; it is not actually weight loss you're trying to achieve, it's fat loss. Welcome to 'The Pursuit of Leanness'. Weight Loss versus Fat Loss Fat is a vital component of our body composition; it is an insulator, it is a protector and it is a fuel source. However, fat is also added weight, and unlike muscle weight, it is weight that makes little significant contribution to perfo...

For many of us, mid-week training is a chance to unwind, get in a few quick hours on the bike, and hopefully make a few fitness gains at the same time. Everyday life means that we're often restricted to short sharp sessions after work, and have to rely on the weekend for longer endurance miles. Short sessions can be very productive though, and training is as much about quality as it is quantity. A fundamental key to getting that quality though, is nutrition. You need to make sure you are properly fuelled to perform at your best; making the most of those brief hours that you can squeeze into a busy mid-week schedule. I've got this kind of nutrition wrong on many an occasion. Much like the feeling of 'bonking', if you haven't fuelled correctly, you are left lifeless and unproductive on the bike. With that in mind, I've now got a clear idea of how to effectively fuel for an after-work training set... Caffeine and Carbohydrates By its nature, evening is...

Ride hard. Recover well. Then, you'll be able to ride harder the next time... In order to do all three of these things though, you'll need to get your nutrition right. That involves taking on essential fast-release energy during your ride, and repairing your muscles with much needed protein once you've finished. Many of my snacks and (what I would label) "instant nutrition" for these two objectives, come from the well reputed MaxiNutrition brand. I thought I would share my favourites... MaxiNutrition ViperBoost Gels - 'The Kick' Energy gels are so developed now, and so effective, that I don't take much else in the way of food when I'm racing. Anything shorter than three hours, and I find these little sugar rushes are the easiest and fastest acting form of energy. The ViperBoost gels are some of the best I've tested (and I've tested a few!). They're effective, they're a good size, they taste great and they're ea...

MaxiNutrition asked me a few weeks back, what is #MyGoal for the 2015 season? It got me thinking. What do I really want to achieve in 2015 on the bike? In order to try and make it a reasonably succinct reply, I came up with: "Ride Further and Ride Faster in 2015"  That could mean a whole host of things though, so here's what I mean in depth: Ride Further In 2015, I hoping to do more ultra challenges; that is, more long distance non-stop rides. In 2014, I completed the Trafalgar Way from Falmouth to London in under 24 hours. The 300 miles route was a real challenge, but I enjoyed every minute of it (even the hours of rain between Salisbury and London). This year, I'm hoping to go one further, and do an even longer ultra endurance ride , perhaps in the Alps or the Pyrenees. Ride Faster Everyone always wants to ride faster, but what I really mean is I would like to race better than I did in  2014. I'd like to regain my 2nd category licence , wh...

After a cold and arduous winter ride, the thing on most people's mind is how quickly they can get to a hot shower. Because of this, I've decided that having a pre-mixed or pre-prepared protein shake made for when you get home, is a very good idea. Grab it, down it and run for the warmth. That's exactly the thinking behind products like ProMax Milk; convenience is key to avoid the temptation to shirk good recovery. I've been keeping a stock of ProMax Milk close to hand, so that when I get back from a ride and have forgotten to make a shake before I leave, I've got something quick to kick-start the recovery process. Made from UHT milk and whey protein isolate, these little bottles contain a significant 30 grams of high quality protein as well as a multitude of BCAAs. They're not too high in sugar and they're fat free. They taste pretty good too. In effect, they're a protein shake that is pre-mixed with milk. On the days when I do shirk recovery, ...

Back to back weekend challenge rides with the New Forest 200 and then the Falmouth to London ride left me feeling rather weak and worn down last week. Time to bring in the serious recovery tools. Pre-made protein shakes like Cyclone Milk are certainly the most convenient and least messy way to get your protein hit post-ride, or to top up your protein intake as a snack. Put one of these in your kit bag or commuting rucksack, and you don't have to worry about used shakers or needing milk to put in your shake. Cyclone Milk is made of UHT skimmed milk and whey protein powder pre-mixed into a drink. It contains 3 grams of creatine per drink, a massive 30 grams of protein, and it's fat-free. It tastes like a proper milkshake, although you do need to give it a really good shake to avoid gloopy bits at the bottom. I've always preferred protein shakes mixed with milk rather than water, so this is a great solution when you're away from a fridge. It seems to work at ai...

MaxiNutrition is the new incarnation/combination of MaxiMuscle and MaxiFuel; two iconic brands that provided sports supplements to some of the best athletes in the world. Maximuscle was the most well known brand though, and of the Maxifuel products that I tried, it was the muscular recovery shakes and bars that I was most fond of and found most effective. With the new Maxinutrition Promax Lean range looking like a great option for cyclists then, I was keen to try it out and see how it aided recovery. Promax was my preferred protein shake when I was rowing (although the price was often an issue as a student); it proved to be the most effective at mass-gain and muscle growth. Promax Lean is a stripped down, low-fat and low-sugar option; which is perfect for a cyclist that is wanting to put on lean muscle without the mass gain. As has historically been the case, Maxi products follow some of the latest science research. Owned by Glaxo Smith Klein, this is a firm founded in science. P...