So with all the focus on nutrition these days it occurs to me that TR users might really benefit from some basic nutrition advice being added to the calendar. It seems to me that some workouts wouldn’t really benefit from anything other than water (I.e., 30 minute recovery spin), while longer and harder workouts would really benefit from nutritional support. It would seem like a fairly easy addition to look at the distribution of wattage and time to figure out how many grams of carbs I should be sticking in my pockets before I head out the door.
Is this a topic that has been covered or is it a planned feature for TR?
The concept has been mentioned / suggested at least a few times over the years. I linked some below I found via search. Aside from that (and mentioned in at least one below) is the simple fact that “nutrition” is a topic that is complex on a number of levels and about as contentious as any aspect within our training universe.
So it is something I think would be a rather large challenge and maybe one not in TR’s greater skillset if I’m honest. I think there have been mentions by Nate (even recently?) that opened the subject on a basic level, but nothing ever stated as a goal or actual objective for them from what I remember.
On the TR podcast recently they mentioned that they once explored making their own drink mix and tying carb intake to the prescribed workout. It never went anywhere though (obviously).
Might be off topic, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a field along with the post ride survey where you could enter in the grams of carbs eaten during the ride. Might be a good data point for adaptive training/ red light green light.
Just use the Saturday app as previously mentioned. You can dial in your nutrition needs there pretty easily. I’ve been using for my rides over 2 hours only as anything less doesn’t require much thought on my part.
Yeah, Saturday is @Dr_Alex_Harrison 's app, and I’ve found it tremendously helpful. I get tubs of Gatorade powder and mix it with however much sugar the app tells me. I use it for intense workouts over 60 minutes and endurance over 90 minutes.
I was always intimidated by having to figure out using citric acid and such for flavor, but balancing Gatorade and sugar requires only a few more active brain cells than just a single ingredient.
Even more than feeling better on the ride (which is obviously huge), the calories during the ride are a massive improvement in recovery after rides, I don’t feel like a zombie after hard 3+ hour rides, and I don’t eat every single thing in the house that isn’t nailed down.
In the strict context of TR workouts, where the majority of them are under 90 minutes, there’s no need to overthink nutrition. The difference between 50g/hr vs 100g/hr isn’t going to have much of an effect on a relatively short workout.