Fueling.  Nutrition.  Two terms that are thrown around seemingly interchangeably.  I'm certainly guilty of this myself.  I've written to my athletes about dialing in their ride, race, event nutrition strategy but also about their fueling strategy. For best performance and more importantly, health, it’s perhaps best to consider these two terms independently.

Perhaps cliché, "reframing" how one approaches terms or situation is often very helpful.  The podcast that I linked below from Fasttalk certainly helped me to consider these two terms in a different "frame."  Within the first few minutes of the listen a light bulb went off.

Fueling:  what you're eating before, during, and after your workout for performance.

Nutrition:  what you're eating in general.  Some of it will be for performance, but the vast majority of it should be focused on your health and wellness as a human being.

And then we talk about "diets."  For many, this elicits thoughts of terms like: high-fat, low carbs; the grapefruit diet; keto diet; the Hollywood diet; see food diet (you see food and you eat it); etc.

My approach to the word diet, that is perhaps more "scientific", is that your diet is the compilation of all that you eat and drink.  Then you may be practicing a specific goal based on ratios of macronutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrates), or eating x amount of specific foods per day, excluding specific foods, etc.

This episode of Fasttalk:

Find Balance Between Nutrition and Fueling

https://www.fasttalklabs.com/fast-talk/find-balance-between-nutrition-and-fueling/

does a great job of clearing up these three terms and providing a framework for a very clean approach.

One great concept to consider is that what works well for fueling is not necessarily "healthy."  Just because it's athletic food or drink, doesn't mean it's good for you, and may be quite unhealthy when you're not exercising.  One area I've modified my diet over the past decade is to not go for that energy bar as my mid-afternoon snack.  My favorite go-to was loaded with over 20 (some flavors 30) grams of sugar.  Works great as fuel for my long rides, and it's convenient for sure, but not the best snack when off the bike.  Instead, now I go for a piece of fruit and maybe some peanut butter on organic corn cakes.  Or if I'm in a pinch time-wise, I found some great low or no sugar organic protein bars that aren't loaded with Aspartame but are filled with healthy fats and plant based protein.  Even though they're less than 200 calories (and no, I'm not counting calories), it's a very nutritious snack.  The result?  I find I am satiated and able to hold until my next meal or whole-food snack.  I'm not hungry again in 30-60 minutes as I was in the past with foods loaded with simple, or at least not very complex, sugars.

Likewise, what's very healthy for you might not be great fueling.  I love when Coach Connor comments that a kale salad loaded with vegetables might be very healthy, it's not going to give you good fuel for training or racing.

So mix it up, fuel up when you're going to be training or racing.  When you're not training that day, your diet may shift quite a bit to focus more on "healthy" eating.

In an upcoming post I'll be linking some great nutrition resources that I've come across and shared with my athletes over the years.  I find they break it all down and really simplify things.

If you have an comment, question, idea for a post, or random thought, please comment below or send me an e-mail.

Until then, drink your water and think about what you're putting in your body.  Make some small changes, create habits, and then make the next small change.  You can do it!

Cheers,

Coach Brian

One tip, one tool, and one resource this week.

What's the contact point between your bike and the ground?  Tires, of course.  I figured I'd stick on this most important topic for one more week.

One very simple tip this week, and it's something that almost everyone does unless someone else does it for you:  Check your tire pressure.  Are you diligent and check it before every ride?  Or do you do the old tire squeeze and "yeah, that feels good" that I've been guilty of when in a rush or feeling lazy.

To cut to the chase:

1)  Check your tire pressure before every ride.  Maybe mid ride with extreme elevation or temperature changes.

2)  Carry a small pressure gauge with you when traveling without your pump so you're using a reliable tool and not the gauge on an unfamiliar pump.

I've used the digital ones, but about 5 years ago I bought three analog types like this one to the right:

​I bought one that goes to 15 psi, one to 60, and one to 120, for fat bike, 'cross and MTB, and road, respectively.  Some gauges don't start reading until 15 psi or even higher, and the little fine tuning button is great.  Presta compatible and ready to go.

3)  Check out this site:

Silca Tire Pressure Calculator

https://silca.cc/pages/sppc-form

for a cool tire pressure calculator.  It will at least give you a great place to start.

Remember that with 'cross tires, even 0.5 psi can make a big difference, and mountain bike tires could be 1 psi that really changes your ride.

On to my musings...

I was installing some new tires on my road wheels that I use for training this past weekend, and it got me thinking back to 2001 when I participated in the Tour of Colorado with three buddies.  As a side note, it was one of the most amazing experiences I had on a bicycle.  Three days of riding, one rest day where we went rafting on the Colorado River, and then three more days of riding.  Huge mountain passes, 60+ MPH descents, and great company.  The icing on the cake was that we were raising money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (whatever you may think of the man, the foundation does some amazing things) and ended up being able to make a sizable donation.

There was around 1300 people in the event, and over the course of the days, we were able to chat with many of them.  One thing we heard over and over again was about all the flats folks were getting.  We also so them on the side of the road making repairs.  There was rough pavement, cattle guards, some dirt and gravel sections, and many miles.  Between the four of us, we had (knock wood) zero flats.  One thing we were very diligent about was checking out tire pressure EVERY SINGLE MORNING.  Didn't matter how early or late the roll out, we were hitting the neutral support pump.  And there was never a line to get to the pump.  Did that save us 100%?  Probably not, but it certainly helped to avoid pinch flats over the rough terrain.

In those conditions with the extreme elevation changes, the pressure can be drastically effected especially in a low volume road tire.  The temperature will impact it too, of course, as well as just slow leakage.  I was listening to a podcast where a very experienced mountain biker was doing some epic rides in the mountains with some climbs going up several thousand feet.  Before the gnarly descents, he would check tire pressure to set himself up for success.

Tire pressure is super important to help keep you rolling, but also improve your ride both for comfort and performance.  I'll be doing a post in the near future referencing Leonard Zinn and great information that was certainly eye opening for me.

Until then, check that pressure every ride.  And go ride!

Enjoy,

Coach Brian
​

Directional Tires?  Which way do they go?

Over my many years in the sport, I've gone through countless tires on the road, trails, and 'cross courses.  You may have noticed that some tires are "directional", meaning there's a suggested way to mount them so they're facing "forward."  Some tires have one direction for the front and the reverse for the rear.  I've found that directional tires are more common with mountain bike, 'cross, and gravel tires.  Basically tires with more of a knobby tread.






​Now, you're probably thinking, "duh, just find the directional arrow", shown in the green oval above.  Absolutely, and you should probably always confirm.  However, finding that word and arrow on the tire is not always easy, and if you're in a hurry or your tire is super dirty, it can be tricky,  I've also spotted it, then laid the tire down, and lost it again.  It can be a bit of a pain.

What I noticed was a real easy way to visually figure out which way the tires go.

Tires will often have different printing on each side of the sidewalls.  On one side you get the model, etc. (red) and the brand (red).  See pic below.