Fuelling a Morning Workout

Morning workouts are the bread and butter for most cyclists. Favoured by both full time, professionals and time crunched amateurs it creates routine and allows the training to be done at the freshest point of the day.

What and when you eat can have a massive impact on your performance in training, the quality of the session and the recovery post session. Here’s a guide on how to get the best out of yourself and your workout.

‘Light is right’

You don’t want to start your session feeling full. Make sure if you are having a meal before your workout, you are giving your body at least 2 hours to digest the intake before the session. When you are planning this meal, remember that fatty foods take much longer to digest than proteins or carbohydrates. Factor this into your preparation! Don’t take on foods that are high in fat before the workouts. Bacon sandwiches are a no-go…

Pre workout snacks

Most people will not have the time to have a meal 2 hours before a session. Therefore, you should turn to a pre-workout snack to boost your fuel but not force the body to complete a session whist digesting food. We want all of the oxygen going to the working muscles.

Consider a pre workout snack such as a banana around 45-90 minutes before the workout.

Fasted?

Training in a fasted state has been widely adopted, especially for those who are time crunched. The benefits of fasted rides can be attained by lower intensity (aerobic) workouts in a glycogen depleted state. This would also therefore cut the time that the workout takes out of your morning by not having to wait for your pre workout snack or meal to digest.

However, higher intensity training can be much harder in this state. >70% of your maximum heart rate will require glycogen as one of the primary fuel sources. Therefore, being in a fasted state will likely lead to a poor performance in these workouts. There is a time and place to effectively use fasted training as a tool to improve performance.

It’s also important to note that refuelling is crucial after a fasted morning workout. The ‘Golden window’ of recovery becomes even more important as the body readily absorbs the macronutrients that you put into it.

The ideal scenario

The ideal way to prepare yourself for a morning workout would be to have a meal around 2 hours before the session which is rich in carbohydrates and proteins but low in fat. You would then keep your levels topped up throughout the session. Your body would have an adequate amount of time to digest whilst still starting the session with a full energy store.

This could look like:

Wake – 8am (After a good quality sleep, check out information on that at 'How & Why to optimise your sleep').

Pre workout meal – 8:30am (Rich in carbohydrates & proteins but low in fat).

Start session – 10:30am

Unfortunately, most people are not able to have the time availability for this strategy with work and/or family commitments. Although, the overall concept could be adapted to still give the same benefit.

Caffeine

You can use caffeine to your advantage for your morning workouts.

Caffeine is a stimulant that acts on the brain and can stop a chemical action which would make you feel tired (adenosine). The use of caffeine would therefore increase alertness, concentration and give you a decreased perception of your effort meaning you are likely able to push yourself further.

Research studies have shown that caffeine has a large impact on performance and can shave an average of 3.2% off finish times as well as increasing performance on short duration events!

You need to consume around 1-3mg/kg to receive the performance effect (a lot less than people are led to believe!). Try to consume the caffeine 30 to 60 minutes before the time you need the desired effects.

During the workout

Any session shorter than one hour – If you have fuelled correctly before the session, you can rely on your hydration alone (Water, electrolyte or carbohydrate drink).

Any session or race which is 2 hours – One energy drink & one energy bar (or similar fuel source)

Any session or race which is 2 hours (at high intensity) or longer – You should be aiming to consume around 250 calories per hour, your body will struggle to digest more than this. This should be made up of energy bars, drinks or gels for racing. This should allow you to take on 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour (Some riders may need to consume up to 90g/hr).

Hydration

It’s crucial for you to start your training or race already adequately hydrated for the exercise. Make sure you are drinking plenty through the day or even the day before, you may also need to pre load electrolytes and/or sodium.

A good rule of practice would be one bottle (500ml) per hour of water or electrolyte mix per hour of exercise that you are doing.

You can also use urine colour as a rough guide throughout the day as hydration strategies should be individualised, the lighter the colour the better hydrated you are.

Post workout

Try to get your post ride meal in as soon as you can to maximise the use of the ‘golden window’. More information on recovery can be found on our blog post ‘Optimum Coaching’s guide to the perfect recovery.’.

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