Welcome to the June edition of the Triple C Coaching newsletter: helping you become your best YOU through endurance sport coaching.
This edition includes:
Juniors and Nutrition: Building Habits for a Lifetime
Race Strategy: Energy Management
Stories from the Motherland: All in the Family
Be your best YOU!
Coach Corey
Juniors and Nutrition: Building Habits for a Lifetime
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on juniors and nutrition. In the preteen and teen years, we build habits that can last a lifetime. At this time, athletes transition from eating what parents prepare to choosing their own foods. The high school cafeteria provides infinitely more choice than the elementary school cafeteria. Likewise, at training camps and competitions, food is provided, but the athlete decides what to put on their plate.
At this time, young athletes are listening deeply to the words of the adults they trust. Personally, I remember distinct experiences that still inform the way I think about fueling my body. I remember watching the NCAA Nordic Ski Championships beside my ski coach. As I admired a woman sailing down the track, he remarked, “She’d be a lot faster if she lost some weight.”
With his words, the skier transformed from someone whose strength and speed I idolized to someone who had “failed” in the collegiate cafeteria. Instead of hearing, “food is fuel,” I heard, “Food intake needs to be controlled. Too much food can ruin your athleticism.”
Comments like these cannot be unheard. Three-hour rollerski sessions consuming only watered-down Gatorade, and bodyfat testing at the Olympic Training Center at age 15, affect my mindset to this day.
While negative experiences yielded my dysfunctional relationship with food, equally, positive experiences can create a positive and educated food relationship! I’m told that it’s better for young athletes today, that food is fuel and strong is the new skinny. I hope so.
On a practical level, the junior years are a great time to learn good nutritional habits. Just as a junior needs to learn sport skills, tactics, and build their training base, they should develop fueling skills. I think I speak for college coaches and pro teams when I say the ideal recruit arrives already understanding how to fuel their training and racing.
Obviously, I’m not a nutritionist, and thus not qualified to provide detailed nutritional advice. That said, I am experienced in fueling for sport.
I’ve compiled the below list of trouble-shooting tips for parents of young athletes. If any of the following seem amiss, it might be a good idea to chat with the athlete’s coach and/or consult a nutritionist.
“Race Weight” is not a Concept for Juniors
Young adult bodies are constantly changing and may not be representative of their adult bodies. Youth need to eat to fuel their training. They should not be cutting calories or macros to achieve “race weight.” Because they are still growing/maturing, they don’t have an “ideal race weight.” Their ideal weight is whatever weight they are when well nourished!
Menstruation is a Marker of Health
Young women who do not start menstruating in a timely fashion or whose cycles stop or become irregular should be assessed by a physician. Delayed or lost periods are NOT normal for athletes. If a general practitioner tells you this, consult a sports medicine physician instead. Oral contraceptives should NOT be used to “force a period.” Hormonal birth control results in withdrawal bleeds, not periods. Withdrawal bleeds cannot be used as markers of health. Likewise, hormonal contraceptives do not “fix” the health of an athlete who does not menstruate on her own.
Endurance Requires All the Carbs!
Endurance sports require lots of carbohydrates and calories. Your athlete should leave for training sessions with jersey pockets stuffed with food, as well as water bottles on their bike. They should have a meal or snack before training and a recovery drink or meal immediately after. If this isn’t happening, they need to learn proper fueling from their coach or nutritionist.
All Foods Are On the Table
Young athletes should feel free to eat all foods. Obviously, their diet shouldn’t be exclusively “junk food,” but they should be able to eat “fun foods” (sweets, fries, etc.) without any sense of guilt or worry. If an athlete becomes strict about the foods they eat, or they show discomfort around family/social meals, their diet is likely getting too restrictive and you should seek the help of a nutritionist.
White Carbs Are Fuel Too
Whole grains and vegetables are great, but low fiber foods like pasta, white rice, etc. have a place in an athlete’s diet. Fiber is slow to digest and results in a feeling of fullness. This is not ideal when athletes need to consume a large quantity of food to fuel training or racing.
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No Diets!
Young athletes’ diets may need to be different from their parents. If you are going low-carb, trying to lose weight, eating paleo, or eating clean, your diet likely isn’t suitable for a young, active athlete.
Race Day Plan
Speaking of racing, athletes should have a race day eating plan. If they do not, work with their coach or nutritionist to create one.
Race Strategy: Energy Management
Triple C Coaching just completed hosting a Road/Crit Racing - Skills and Tactics clinic series. Several of the riders in attendance are about to head off to some larger, faster races, so their chief concern was being able to stay with a fast field. Accordingly, we spent a lot of time discussing energy management. This is a concept that’s particularly important in road, but can be applied to other disciplines as well.
It’s common for newer athletes to return home from a race stoked about their power records, but disappointed in their result. Yes, power records are a hard-earned achievement, so celebrate these! However, oftentimes the best races are NOT a series of power records. In-person racing awards the win to the first across the line, regardless of their power. What’s key is using your best power at the right times. For example, the athlete with excellent 30-second power might be most suited to get away on a short power climb close to the finish. However, if she does too much chasing, pulling, or attacking early in the race, she might be dropped before she even gets to the climb.
The harsh reality that everyone deals with – even the best in the world! – is this: we all have physical limits.
One way to understand these limits is to view an athlete’s present capacity through the frame of critical power (CP) testing. For simplicity, you can think of “critical power” as similar to “threshold.” When you go over CP, it becomes nearly impossible to hold that pace for long. In this assessment, W’, pronounced “W-Prime,” represents the amount of work that can be done above CP.
W’ is often conceptualized as a battery. Above CP, you are utilizing W’. Every time you go over CP, you deplete your W’ “battery charge.” When you go back below CP, you recharge your W’ battery. As with any battery, when you run out of charge, it’s game over!
In a race, you are trying to get to the finish line before your battery runs out. Ideally, during training, you work to increase your CP, so that you don’t dip into W’ as often. If you can sit in the group at below CP, you are going to last much longer than someone who is burning through their battery reserves above CP.
Tactics can also help you minimize your battery usage. I won’t get into the details – that’s what we do in clinic! It really comes down to drafting, being in a good position in the field, and choosing where and how hard you go to save your battery for when it counts most.
As I mentioned, this concept carries over to other disciplines where drafting is less important. For example, in cyclocross, some features will require you to dip into W’. You may need to put out 600 watts for five seconds to get up a bank. Running a feature will likely take your heart rate above threshold.
You should use your cyclocross pre-ride to analyze the physical requirements of the course: Where will you need to put out 100% effort just to move forward? Where is the course technically difficult, so you must be rested entering the section? Is there a gentle downgrade where you can rest?
Once you know the course requirements, you can decide how to meter out your effort. Break the course down into chunks where you will be “full gas,” resting, or holding the effort. You might also make tactical decisions based on course features. Imagine there is a sand pit following a hard climb. If you know fatigue will keep you from riding cleanly, you might commit to running the sand pit.
In cyclocross, it’s tempting (but not very effective) to just go as fast as possible all the time. However, the fastest route around a cyclocross course requires energy management: making the right choices feature-after-feature, lap-after-lap.
Remember: power records are fun, but energy management yields race results.
Stories from the Motherland - All in the Family
I promised to bring you reflections on my professional cyclocross career in Belgium. Here’s another behind-the-scenes take on Belgian “veldrijden” (cyclocross).
From a distance, we tend to look at the pro teams (Trek Baloise and the like) and notice only their shiny professionalism. In my early years in Belgium, I was much the same, all but fan-girling at their campers. However, as I spent weekend-after-weekend, year-after-year among them, some of the professional luster faded, and I noticed the scene behind the scene.
I learned professional cyclocross in Belgium is a family game.
Do you remember the incident at Valkenberg Worlds where Sanne Cant’s brother was “involved in a scuffle” following her win? Have you seen Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado’s mom running around the course? Do you remember Lucinda Brand’s dad’s poor bike exchange at Bogense Worlds? Did you know that Sanne Cant and Loes Sels are cousins?
These aren’t one-offs. In the Benelux, a rider stands on the podium, but her family stands behind her.
“Family cyclocross” starts when riders are children competing at the amateur level. Campervans (or at least minivans) are commonplace at kids’ races. A camper is necessary to haul the family, bikes, wheelsets, rollers, and personal bike washing station, as well as to stay warm in Belgium's awful cyclocross weather.
Historically in Belgium, little boys raced, dads were mechanics, and moms and sisters were the soigneurs serving the boys. This is shifting slightly as young girls are starting to race, but the gendered mechanic/soigneur roles largely remain. As you can imagine, by the time riders reach UCI competition, the family cycling team is a well-rehearsed unit.
At the professional level, teams typically provide some team-wide resources and staff. There are professional mechanics shared among riders, technical coaches, and trucks of team material. Athletes receive a team-issued camper, but it’s typically driven by their family. That’s right: many of these pros in their 20s and 30s rock up to races in a camper driven by Dad.
To further clarify the family role, Mom and Dad aren’t employed by the team (but they get really nice team jackets!). They are not professional mechanics or soigneurs and they have day jobs midweek. Most dads can handle the basics: wash a bike and hand it up, set tire pressure, and change out wheels. However, the race bikes go to Service Course midweek and issues are managed by professional mechanics.
There are riders who have staff other than relatives. In particular, foreigners are likely to hire staff. In this case, Mom and Dad don’t move to Belgium! There are a number of Belgian “non-parents” who work the events. They are also often not professional mechanics and have day jobs midweek. Many are sort of superfans, people who got swept up into the sport. It’s their hobby to work the professional events, weekend after weekend, in truly grim conditions for a pittance. (Typically, they charge less than 100 euros/day. When you consider the cost of petrol and their equipment, their work is essentially volunteer.) To us foreigners, these people are the lifeblood of the sport.
My mechanics and soigneurs provided a necessary service, but in so many ways, they were family. Their love of the sport and investment in it matched mine. We were all living the dream, weekend after weekend in the slop. And as far as family vibe, think about it: they were the first people I saw post-race, good or bad. Over seven years, a small community of Belgian friends, “family,” were by my side for my darkest and most triumphant moments.
I’ve always thought it was weird and a bit entertaining that Belgians and Dutch riders brought their family to races. However, in hindsight, I realize I brought my “family” to races too!
Upcoming Triple C Coaching Clinics
FTWNB Intermediate Bike Skills - Skills, Drills, and Confidence Building - Starts this Monday, July 1
FTWNB Cyclocross Skills Level 1 - From Beginner to Cyclocross Race Ready - Mondays in August
All Genders Cyclocross Refresher - Blow off the Cobwebs Before CX - Wednesdays in August