The Rider's Breakfast - Don't Make These Mistakes

Do you know how to have breakfast before riding a bike?

Eat breakfast like a king, eat like a prince and dine like a beggar. Anyone has heard this phrase several times throughout their life, and it does not mean that it is true in all cases, but it gives off a lot of wisdom. In any case, this sentence serves as the perfect start for this article, which explains the importance of this first meal of the day for sports activity and, specifically, for cycling.

✅ Breakfast is the key to getting better

Because the importance of this first feeding of the day to achieve a good performance in a training is greater than it seems at first glance. Hence, you have to take special care of it and know some basic points about it that you should never ignore. Observe those that the expert Chema Arguedas considers most important.

This expert gives in one of his articles the example of a bad breakfast, carried out by one of his pupils before starting a route of almost 150 kilometers and two ports of considerable hardness.

During that morning, he drank whole milk and ate two pieces of toast with olive oil. This means that he ate excessively high amounts of fat, which impaired his performance during the test. Shortly after starting, his legs began to feel heavy and he was unable to perform at his best.

What happened to this cyclist is that he felt a classic heaviness in his stomach caused by the ingestion of these foods that, in his digestion, was prevented in a lower contribution of glycogen to the blood and, therefore, in a lower capacity to give your best on the bike.

Glycogen is directly related to performance and, although a breakfast with an adequate amount of carbohydrates does not contribute to increasing your reserves, it does guarantee that they do not begin to be used from the first minute of sports practice. Hence the importance of ingesting enough carbohydrates and always choosing the ones that most favor your activity.

How can a cyclist eat breakfast properly?

Chema Arguedas presents a series of recommendations that, if you follow them, will surely help you to have breakfast help you in sports practice. The first one can be pretty obvious, but if you don't do it, you could get into trouble.

Go through not eating any food that you have not previously checked how you feel. It is basic, yes, but if it causes you heaviness, stomach pain or diarrhea, rest assured that your cycling morning would be ruined.

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✅ Be careful with fats

On the other hand, it is important to avoid the intake of all kinds of fats and spices, from those present in products more clearly, such as butter, to those that include nuts.

Regarding proteins, be also very careful. Not because they are harmful to your activity, but because they are usually present in products with fat and take a longer time to digest.

✅ It is important to respect the time before riding a bike.

It is also important that your breakfast occurs between two and a half and three hours before starting sports activity to ensure that the nutrients you eat are digested correctly.

Do it in measure, that is, do not eat in large quantities, otherwise it could also be harmful for you. And, if you can, put aside any food that has a large amount of fiber, as it could cause quite uncomfortable intestinal discomfort.

As for carbohydrates, choose the ones you eat well, since if they are made up of a high amount of sugar, they could cause hypoglycemia, that is, lead you to the dreaded bird.

If you follow these recommendations at the breakfast table, surely your training will be much more fruitful and you will reduce the chances of suffering muscle, stomach or sugar-derived problems.