I am using the weight loss meal plan WITK 8-12 hour week meal plan and I would like to know if and how I should modify the breakfast to accommodate early morning rides.
I currently do all of my rides first thing in the morning. I do 3 weekday rides of structured training for 60 to 90 minutes starting at 6:45am with a TSS of 75-100. I also do a fast-paced Saturday group ride starting at 7:30 am for 3 to 4 hours with a TSS of about 250. I do an endurance ride of 2 to 2.5 hours on Sundays that starts at 8 am now and will start later in the day as the days get cooler with a TSS of about 100.
I usually wake up about 60 minutes before the rides and in the video on pre-ride nutrition, Lacey recommended a different nutrition strategy for someone in my scenario since I have limited time available before rides. She recommended that athletes should get about 35 carbs from some quick absorption sources: drink a 1/2 cup of oat milk, eat one cup of grapes, and have some coffee in the hour before a ride.
If I follow that recommendation, would I modify the meal plan’s breakfast after the ride and if so how?
What you can do for those early morning rides is have one of your planned snacks and then have your breakfast after.
For quite a few of the days, you have an apple and granola planned for a snack. You can do that or the granola + 1 serving of other fruit such as a cup of grapes or banana.
Some days you have banana refuel wrap planned as a snack and since that is quite a big snack to have early in the morning, you could simply go with just a banana with nut butter and honey and then add 1/2 cup of rice to your lunch or dinner to make up for not having the tortilla.
Of course, be sure to fuel on the bike for rides longer than an hour or so
Lacey, your suggestion worked great. I swapped out the snack and breakfast before my hill repeat workout on Friday. I had a bit more of a challenge implementing the tip on Saturday and Sunday though. On Saturday, I left the house at 7:15 am. I ate the day’s snack (Sat for the first week). I was on a fast paced group ride of 70 miles at about 20mph. The ride started at 7:30 and I got back to the house at 11:30. On the bike, I had three bottles of GU Roctane with two scoops of mix – 250 calories/60 carbs and four GU Roctane gels. I think I should have had one more GU Roctane bottle, but setting that aside, by the time I got back to the house, it was lunch time. I just at the lunch on the meal plan and never replaced the breakfast calories. I wasn’t super hungry by the end of the day either like I’d under nourished.
I plan to do this group ride going forward. In the future, what should I do in this scenario?
@kleinj - yes it will be tough when you are doing those big rides since you won’t get back until late. What I suggest is adding a few more calories to your breakfast, so you could add 1/2 a bagel if you like those or even a cup of oat milk to have with the granola that you had.
Then have a post-workout recovery shake as soon as you get back & before you have your lunch (aim to have that within 2-2.5 hours of finishing if you drink the shake). This is a good recipe, but you could also do 2-3 scoops gu recovery mix blended with a frozen banana, almond milk and a tbsp of peanut butter or almond butter. That should make up for the deficit of missing the full breakfast.
I have another question about this plan. I am on the plan for a cyclist who weighs 200-230 pounds. When I started the plan, I weighed just a couple of pounds over 200. I’m in the middle of the second week and I’m about 196-198 pounds. That seems like a lot of weight loss in just a couple of weeks. I’m probably 198, but still losing 4 pounds in two weeks seems like a lot. I use a Tanita scale that I bought in the last six months and I think it is fairly accurate, but I may be wrong.
Assuming my weight measurements are accurate, should I stick with this plan or move to the plan at next level down (I think the next level down for males is 170 to 200 pounds)?
I thought I could also skip one of the snacks daily or trim a bit off one more of the meals to maintain an appropriate amount of calorie deficit.
Hi Lacey,
I just started the weight loss plan and its keeping me full. Great job! I will be doing the 10 week strength plan in 2 weeks and wondered a couple of things.
Do I need to consume maybe some whey protein right after hard weight training or just stick to the plan? If so is that added protein on strength days or replace another protein.
Also if the weekend rides are longer than an hour, or in the 16 week SS some are even 2.5. hrs +, do I need to add the on ride nutrition that you have advised in a video I watched?
3, I want to lose what I can but don’t want to cost myself progress by not eating enough during the latter phases of the SS program. How far into the off season should I stay on the weight loss before switching over to the regular Winning in the kitchen plan?
Thanks for always coming through with great advice
