Is nutrition the missing link to riding faster?

About a year ago, following the "Fling Training Weekend", I decided to step up my training. Not in volume, but in quality - so for my last few races I have used a very structured approach for the 6 weeks leading up to the event - hill repeats, threshold intervals, tempo sessions, skills sessions and a weekly endurance ride. This had an immediate impact on my race results, culminating in a 7th (in my age group) in the Convict 50 this year. Not breaking any records, but a nice little step up compared to my previous results. But then it got me wondering what's next. As a family man and business owner it would be very hard for me to do a lot more volume of training. Then a comment from one of my clients caught my attention - I won't mention the company name, because this is not an ad, but they provide dietary supplements and nutrition programs, including programs targeted at improving performance for athletes. I met with a young marathon runner who is working towards Olympic selection, and apart from his daily training schedule, he attributed a lot of his success to the nutrition program and supplements. I then spoke to a sports nutritionist who recommends the program to her clients, including some very prominent professional athletes. I'm sure there are other programs around, but I was convinced enough that this one looked good.

So about 6 weeks ago I decided to give it a go. An initial 30 days of cleansing, and then onto a maintenance program. Here's a summary of what I've done and the impact it's had so far, and I'll provide updates over the coming months.

The 30-day cleanse is to rid your body of toxins. So I committed to 30 days of no alcohol, no coffee, virtually no refined sugars, and massive doses of nutritional supplements every day. And one "cleanse" day every week, which is a bit like fasting. To be honest, my diet prior to this wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic either - with all the riding I do I can get away with eating a lot, and I tend to crave a lot of sugar. But it seems that filling up up on empty carbs isn't exactly good for recovery or building strength.

So as I went through the 30-day cleanse I started to get some immediate benefits. I was already very slim but I lost a couple of kilos I didn't know I had. I started feeling more energetic, not getting the highs and lows throughout the day that I was used to. And at age 46 I started to see some muscle definition developing that I had never had before. I won't go into detail on this but I have also had all sorts of digestive issues all my life... and within a couple of weeks these were rapidly going away.

So at the end of the cleanse I moved onto the maintenance program - beer and coffee is now back on the menu, but in moderation. I'm generally staying away from refined sugars, but a bit of cake here and there is fine too. In terms of supplements, I'm having protein shakes daily, especially after training rides, and taking a couple of nutritional supplements. I'm also trying to keep my meals more balanced - a good mix of meat and veg, and a bit of fruit. Suffice to say I'm getting a lot more protein and good carbs, rather than too much of my calorie intake being taken up by "empty" carbs, as it was in the past.

So after 40 days, has it made me faster? The short answer is yes, I think so. It's not exactly a scientific test, and I was training pretty hard during the cleanse, but over the last week or so I've been going out and one-by-one beating my previous PRs on Strava, some of them by significant amounts. But probably the biggest change has been my recovery - after a full-on effort, I feel like I recover much faster than I used to. My next race is coming up on Sunday, the Three-Ring Circus, so I'm looking forward to seeing how I perform there.

It's early days, but I'm going to continue with the program and see what happens from here. But after 40 days, I'm feeling like up 'til now 50% of my training has been missing.

Stay tuned!