Bespoke Blog

Like most amateur cyclists, I know I have a few barriers to improving my performance. Mainly these are: getting the miles in around work and life, motivation, following a structured training plan and diet. Coming out of what feels like a never-ending winter, I'm on track with the first three; I'm up to 16hr weeks on the bike, motivation is at an all time high for the coming season and I've got a good training plan I'm sticking to and seeing improvements in numbers.

This is not a dieting programme, but fuelling for performance

Diet is something I cannot do alone though. I'm a slave to my sweet tooth and don't have the background knowledge in Sports Nutrition to know what to eat, how much and when. Therefore I've started working with the Sports Nutritionist at New Body Osteopathy based here at our Gresham Street store over the last few weeks and I can say I've never felt better on and off the bike. First and foremost, she stressed to me that this is not a dieting programme, but fuelling for performance.

Prior to our first meeting, I completed a three day food diary. We then sat down to discuss my training load and my current dietary habits. The nutritionist then took a few measurements including height, weight and skinfold measurements to build a picture of my body composition. This data would then be used to identify exactly what my body needed to fuel and recover from training and racing.

Our second meeting involved running me through the data she'd obtained. I was blown away by the amount of information I was provided with. Vitally for me an area for improvement was highlighted (ie. I needed to find a better balance between carbohydrate, fats and proteins in meals), and a solution offered to guide me in the right direction to do something about it. She also provided recipes for pre and post workout, and tips for eating on the bike (which has completely changed when I eat during a long ride). Importantly there are follow up sessions structured into the programme to check progress and adjust diet based on where I am in the season.

Now I'm on the road to optimal fuelling and recovery with my diet, it's one less thing to worry about and I can focus on the training and returning some good race results. Thanks to the team at New Body Osteopathy.

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