In episode 9 of the MBA Podcast, we kick things off as usual with an update on Tom’s upcoming race plans and talk a little bit about the events he’s doing.
We also try to give our best answer to a great listener question from Michael, who asks us about eating on and off the bike and why he might be suffering with a lack of energy after particularly difficult rides.
The heart of the season
Firstly, Tom updates us on his racing schedule for the coming month or two, which is arguably the most important part of the season.
He talks about the two major events in July, those being the British National Championships in both the Cross-Country (XC) and the Marathon disciplines and a bit about how they differ.
The XC event will be held at Cannock Chase forest, whilst the 6-hour marathon championships will take place on the Isle of Man, just off the coast of England.
Tom’s aims for these races are Top 3 finishes in both, and in the upcoming episodes, we’ll cover a bit more about his training and how he prepares for these important events.
Listener question
As always, we got a great listener question from Michael Jansen and did our best to offer our advice.
Michael wrote in asking why he seems to struggle to recover from some of his rides despite eating in what he thinks is a good way. He also asks about some general eating guidelines, e.g. amount of fat, carbohydrate, protein etc and whether he should be using supplements after his rides.
Eating for energy on the bike
Colin and Tom agree that when it comes to post-ride eating and trying to increase recovery time through nutrition, real food always trumps supplements. Supplements are essentially a convenience item, and if you aren’t going to have access to food straight after your ride, they provide a good solution.
Getting in good quality nutrition with a good macro-nutrient balance within 30 mins of finishing a ride is what we’d suggest and then carrying on eating in the hours afterwards if it was a particularly long or arduous session.
We also advise on making sure to eat enough, especially carbohydrate, which will fuel those MTB rides adequately.
As for some other advice, Tom warns that the reason Michael’s recovery might not be as fast as he wants because his training is just too stressful. Trying to ride consistently and only pushing very hard on the odd occasion will help aid recovery and develop fitness in a better way.
Over to you!
If you’d like a burning question answered on the show, we’d love to hear it. Even better, if you have a question or comment you’d like to voice record, send it to us via the website and we’ll add you to an upcoming podcast!
You can hit up Colin or Tom on Twitter at @thepodcasthost or @bytombell respectively, and you can also keep up to date with Tom’s race reports and training advice over at tombell.co.
We’ll see you on the next show!
Any updates for new event there?