Masters’ Records are being demolished at an astonishing rate. This is exciting for all of us who have no desire to hang up our cleats while our competitive spirit is still alit. Dr. Julien Louis joins us to discuss how we can optimize our nutrition to keep us firing on all cylinders for as long as possible.
ABOUT TRAINERROAD — CYCLING’S MOST EFFECTIVE TRAINING SYSTEM
TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-to-use performance analysis tools to reach their goals
The Science of getting Faster Podcast cuts through the noise and talks directly to the scientists doing the latest research into how to become a faster cyclist, stronger athlete, and healthier person.
Join Sarah Laverty of TrainerRoad as she interviews a new researcher every month about their latest studies, what questions they were hoping to answer, what they observed and what they are still hoping to learn.
EDIT - I listened to the entire podcast. As a master’s athlete, it was quite good. I think the main take-away for me was that as you get older, “Use it or lose it” is not only important to performance on the bike, it’s really critical to your overall health and cardiovascular fitness as a healthy human being. Once your strength and cardio start to slide, you can fall off a cliff.
Great questions and great answers. And yes, they covered beer. It’s not on the master’s athlete menu.
Yep. Recognizing the effect of beer on my sleep has been both a revelation and a source of great sadness for me this past year (ok, maybe that’s a little melodramatic). But over the past year (turned 51 in October), I’ve noticed alcohol has been affecting my sleep more and more.
Even 5 years ago, I could drink a pretty hefty amount and sleep like a hypothetical baby. But now if I drink within like 3 hours of bedtime, I sleep like an actual baby: waking up frequently, never falling into deep sleep, and consequently spending large chunks of the day whiny and discontented.
Hell, if I have one beer I feel kinda’ crappy the next morning. Not that feeling crappy has stopped me from having a beer every now and then. But it’s once a month now rather than once a week.
I just listened on Spotify. Good podcast. Thanks @SarahLaverty !
As for beer, when I used to drink, I always thought it was the chemicals in the booze that made me feel like crap. When I quit drinking several years ago, I was pretty surprised to find that it’s the lack of quality sleep caused by drinking that makes me feel poorly, not the drinking itself. The reason I make the distinction is because if I stay up late, eat like crap, and get 4 hours of sleep, I feel just as bad as if I had been drinking.
Granted, there are a million other bad things overconsumption does to your body, but this sleep part was a surprise to me.
Anyone have a summary, beyond alcohol and sleep? I’m podcast crunched and curious if anything new or novel is discussed. Already winning in the kitchen, off the bike.
Train plenty of low intensity with select intensity to offset VO2max declines over time.
Might have missed it, but aside from general health comments of training, strength work might have been missed. Seemed to align with what we’ve heard in many other areas with nothing earth shattering to my ears.
So glad you guys found the podcast interesting and helpful! If you guys liked this Q&A style of podcast with an expert, we’d love to do more of them!
I’ll be ask for questions on specific topics on the TrainerRoad instagram (trainerroad) so keep an eye out there. You can DM me on the forum too.
@carytb you can find TrainerRoad podcasts (Ask a Cycling Coach and the Science of Getting Faster) on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and of course, Youtube. It will be available on Google Pod in a couple of days too!
Likewise, you can listen on a bunch of other platforms like Overcast, Stitcher, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Podbean etc.
It can be easy to miss newly released podcasts. Following or subscribing to the podcast on your preferred platform will allow you to receive notifications when a new podcast is released. If you subscribe to our Youtube Channel, you will be notified when other TrainerRoad podcasts and videos are released too (for e.g Cycling Science Explained and Ask a Cycling Coach) .
How to follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Podcasts app.
Browse or search for The Science of Getting Faster
Tap the show to see its information page.
Tap the Follow button .
See the screen recording below:
How to follow the podcast on Spotify:
Make sure you’re logged in to Spotify on your device by opening the app.
Select Search and type The Science of Getting Faster. As you write, some results will appear automatically.
When you locate the podcast, click the Follow button next to the title. If you’ve followed it correctly, the button should change to Following.
Check out the screen recording below:
How to subscribe to TrainerRoad on YouTube:
Open the Youtube app, or search for YouTube in your browser.
Tap the search magnifying glass in the top right corner
Type TrainerRoad
Tap subscribe
See the screen recording below:
I hope that helps! Please let me know if anyone has questions!
Thanks Chad, personally I’ve found the following to be first principles for my body (per day):
diet includes minimum 6 grams/kg of carbs
diet includes minimum 1.5 grams/kg of protein
That absolutely requires some attention to meal prep and planning.
I’d be interested in listening if there is a discussion around that, particularly on the carbs side. I can absolutely see an impact on off the bike carb consumption and fueling volume/performance.
Off the top of my head, there was some discussion of how deterioration is significant every ten years, the need for more protein in aging athletes (3 meals a day plus an afternoon snack at 30-40g each), he’s against fasting and thinks we need to keep protein topped up, fuel your workouts with carbs, but do occasional fasted workouts, strength workouts are good.
A topic I found interesting was that runners and swimmers tend to reduce volume as they age, but cyclists tend to increase. This is somewhat obvious due to the nature of the exercise, but had never occurred to me.
Lots of fast Q&A discussion with Sarah asking user’s questions and follow-ups on interesting tidbits to try to get deeper insight.
Thats on the low end of carb recommendations for endurance athletes, long established and you can easily find them anywhere. TrainerRoad blog post covers it as well:
Personally at my age I’ve found 2g/kg of protein to be much better, but no less than 1.5g/kg.
And for carbs its not too hard to get to 6g/kg. One thing I’ve learned - I can’t “make up for it” by slamming carbs on the bike.
thanks, I’ll give it a listen. Re: 3 meals + snack… I actually eat meals with some protein/carbs 5 or 6 times a day. Smaller more frequent meals work better for me, along with its better to spread protein consumption out.
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That’s another long standing recommendation. And a reason I feed 
5-6 times a day.