Nix the cliff bar(s) completely.

Avoid fat and fiber immediately pre-workout and intra-workout. Stick to simple sugars and easily-digested protein if you're interested in body composition alteration (whey is great).

This may help for in-depth understanding of the carbs. https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t=last-7417228#first

This is how I do it: Saving Money as an Endurance Athlete

Recommendation:

• Down 40-60g sugar upon waking.
• Consume another 100-200g during your 2-hr ride.

You'll have a way better time doing what is recommended below, if you fuel appropriately, and JoelO is right.



Completely agree.

Get closer to 150-170W average and you'll get way faster improvements. It'll suck while you do it. It will be worth it. It's early morning, so caffeine is your friend. 200-300mg is a great starting place. Consult with your MD before adding caffeine if you're not sure that's safe for you. (the preceding sentence is pure liability coverage on my part, though I have no idea if it would stand up in court).

Caffeine from Bulk Supps on Amazon is great. No affiliation. There may be equivalent products for up to about 50% cheaper if you scour amazon. 200mg caffeine per pill and nothing else is what you're looking for. Nothing fancy. The cheaper the better. This one is cheaper as of last checking.

---

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

Your comment in that thread about plasma volume loss, glycogen depletion and peripheral fatigue is pure comedic and scientific gold. Thank you for that.

---

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

I'll have to try this a few times.

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

How is Zwift or TR going to solve this?
If you weren't pushing hard enough, push harder. You really only have yourself to answer to. You don't need software to keep you honest, you need to get to the end of a session satisfied you did your best to accomplish what you intended. If you can measure power and time you can make objective goals, and if you're using Zwift you can do that easily, so what's the excuse?

If you haven't got time to do more significant volume, you can compensate a little with more intensity, but it's not ideal.
I'm only doing about 4hrs on the bike most weeks for the last year or more, and no running or swimming. I'd like to do more, but work and family have priority so that's how it's going to stay for now. I know plenty folks here think that's comically low volume and would question why I can't make time for more, but that's their problem. However, despite the low volume, I have been able to maintain pretty decent form compared to when I was doing triple this volume. My FTP is about 280W at the moment, so nothing to boast about for a just slightly overweight guy of 1.78m tall, but not pathetic either.
If you're going to keep volume low, focus on working hard for a decent portion of your sessions. I'd suggest stretching your short mid week sessions to at least 70mins to make time for stuff like 2x20min@FTP or some 30-40min races plus WU and CD. But also don't be a slave to other people's training plans.

If you can increase volume that'll be more effective. No need to wait for a plan to tell you if you can ramp up from 4 hours to 5 or 6. Just do it. Cycling does usually not punish this sort of volume increase the way running can. If you've a year of 4hr weeks behind you, and have the time, there's no reason not to immediately start throwing in a few more rides each week and significantly increasing volume. If you're also running and swimming it'll probably be wise to keep some of the cycles easy, but keep a couple of hard sessions too. As others have said, an FTP of 190W isn't going to move much in response to 4 hours at 135W. I like to use Zwift for a combo of group rides and races on Zwift for unstructured sweetspot and threshold/VO2max efforts, PB attempts on geographical features when I don't see an event that suits, or my own more structured programmed workouts. The programmed workouts would normally consist of say over-under intervals, the aforementioned 2x20min@FTP (sometimes I'll make it 2x22min or 2x24min, sometimes 3x16min), or perhaps what Zwift call "The famous 40/20s" which consists of 30 intervals of 40s @120%FTP with 20s recovery broken into 3 blocks. This keeps plenty variety and I've managed to maintain or improve form for a long while now without getting bored, or burned out. More structure may be more effective, but only if you know how to choose those structured workouts. It sounds like that might be where you're having a problem?

Had to read this twice because this blows my mind. I've always trained on a fast and understood sugar to be the enemy. It would have never occurred to me to try this. No wonder I'm toast at the end of my rides. Three questions, after reading your links, if you don't mind:

1) If I'm going to do a run / bike brick. Should I still drink sugar water upon waking or during my transition to bike?

2) Based on the 100g/hr fuel, what does a 100g recipe look like? Would it be something like two-scoops of Gatorade powder (~50g), 50g of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of Sodium Citrate, and 1/8 teaspoon of table salt?

3) Post workout it seems like I would crash after all this? Right now I usually have a homemade shake (banana, two scoops whey, spinach, fruits/berries) and oatmeal (w/ berries).



Everyone is different. I tried to lose weight for years, while slowly watching my weight balloon. It wasn't because I didn't know what to do, but the diet processes were failing (I tried them all). Sure, you can argue discipline prevents process from failing, but when you've eaten whatever you want for a decade ... the discipline doesn't come overnight. I lost 70 lbs and now I'm disciplines with what I eat, but discipline in other areas of my life needs to be strengthened.

So now thinking of cycling, my discipline isn't there and its compounded by my overall lower knowledge of the sport. Like dieting, I need to establish a process that clicks for me so I can built my discipline. Sure I know what I need to do, but TrainingRoad seems to click for me because it prompts me to do what's necessary (I am a good listener, haha). Prompts are very effective for me.

A few years ago I was a fat slob that couldn't run a mile and had trouble reaching down to tie my shoes. So for me, much of endurance sports is a mental exercise.

One thing to think about is entering into a consult/mentor type relationship around your training where you could make sure your knowledge increases. That would enable you to make smarter decisions around the type of prompts you're receiving, how you structure those prompts, or how they are structured for you and should allow you to make faster progress towards your goals.

consider this a prompt to ponder it

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta