Downhill Mountain Biking Nutrition

One of the best ways to improve your riding performance is through nutrition and hydration.

To perform well, you need to ensure you are well fueled and well hydrated, and this requires planning in advance.  It also requires experimentation with different foods and portion sizes to work out what is ideal for you. 

Carbohydrates

Fuel your body

All foods must be converted into glucose before they can be used by your body as fuel. Carbohydrates are more easily converted into glucose than protein or fat, and so carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy.

Blood glucose levels

Glucose is the fuel the body extracts from the breaking down of carbohydrates.  During training, and on race day, you need to try and maintain your blood glucose levels by sipping energy drinks or consuming energy gels with water.  Dips in blood glucose levels can cause lack of concentration, focus, and impair your bike handling skills.  If you feel dizzy or lightheaded, your blood glucose levels are probably running low.

Energy gels and sports drinks

Don't forget to drink plain water with energy gels, as water is the key to proper gel absorption.  If you do not consume enough water to dilute the gel then your body actually dilutes it for you by using available water in your stomach/intestines.  This results in delayed benefits from the gel, possible stomach irritation and potential dehydration.  So, don't forget to drink water with your gels!

Sports drinks are designed to give you the perfect balance of energy, hydration and electrolyte replacement.  Do not use sports drinks to dilute the gels as this will results in a solution that is too concentrated.  

You can choose to stick to sports drinks throughout the day, or stick to energy gels and water, or another solution is to have energy gels and water for one section of the day, and then sports drinks for another section. This will ensure that you have the right concentration of fluid/energy for the body to absorb for optimum performance.

Hydration

Drink steadily throughout the day

Make sure you are well hydrated before you start riding, and continue to hydrate steadily throughout the day.  Sports drinks or water are the best options.  Drink on a schedule rather than to thirst - usually when you are thirsty it means you are already dehydrated. Monitor your urine colour to check if you are adequately hydrated.

Electrolytes

Body armor contributes to a rise in body temperature, which leads to increased sweating.   As well as replacing lost fluid, sports drinks can provide electrolytes which are lost in sweat. If you are heavily sweating, also try and consume some salty foods such as pretzels to replace some of the salt lost through sweat.

Racing

On race day, always eat the foods that have worked well in training, don't try anything new!

Leading up to a race

For racing, because you will have done practice runs in the morning, and maybe practice runs the day before, you must make sure that you have matched your carbohydrate and calorie intake with your output.  If you try and eat slightly more carbohydrates than required, this should ensure your glycogen stores are fully replenished before the race.  Try and consume a steady supply of easily digested carbohydrates throughout the day in between runs. Energy gels, high carbohydrate sports drinks and energy bars make good choices.

Race day meal

On race day, allow plenty of time for the digestion of your pre-race meal, ideally 3 hours.  Depending on your race start time, you will need to plan in advance when you will need to eat.  To work out the quantity of carbohydrates to eat, you need roughly 2 to 3 grams per kg of body weight in easy to digest carbohydrates.  Read the labels on products that you eat to see how many grams of carbohydrates they contain.

Easily digested high carbohydrate food choices are in the list below.  Please note, although your everyday diet must consist of high-fiber whole grain foods, these take longer to digest, so the day before race day and race day itself it is preferable to have low-fiber faster digesting foods instead.

Recovery

What you eat directly after training has a significant impact on your body's recovery.  Muscle fuel (glycogen) needs to be replaced, and the time that the body can absorb the energy back into the muscles is directly after training.  For 2 hours following exercise, the body's ability to absorb blood glucose into the muscles is enhanced.  Making the most of this recovery time by eating the correct foods during this period is especially important when you need to train/race again the next day. 

Good choices for a snack straight after training/racing is one that has a good source of carbohydrate and protein e.g. chocolate milk, creamed rice.