Don't mix another bottle until you've watched this - Nutrition with Reece McDonald

You're the head of performance for Imbuko — is that official? You know a thing or two as far as nutrition is concerned, and you're going to help me deal with a realisation I've had: I'm actually reading the serving suggestions on my nutrition now.

One of my simple aims is helping the everyday punter and enthusiast understand nutrition a little bit better. This might be ultra simple for you, so please bear with me as we navigate this topic.

There are a lot of labels on nutrition in general — I'm not going to be brand specific at all — that refer to things as two-to-one ratios. The labels are pretty confusing in general, and few people understand them. I just want to break that down to a point that most people doing the Cycle Tour, or any sort of normal racing, can use and understand: how to fuel training and how to fuel for a race.

So I buy a kilogram at a time of the nutrition I use, and there's anything from 10 servings to 20 servings to 50 servings out of the same kg packet. Obviously they cater for different needs — we went through some of that earlier.

So my question to you was: what's the right one to use for my training rides? I train anything from an hour to three hours at varying intensities during the week. Part of my training in those rides is to simulate race fuelling, so that I don't arrive on the day and have issues — which I do on the Tuesday rides.

What's the right everyday medium to use so that I'm fuelled right for those rides, and then what's ideal for race day, and we work back from there?

You mentioned the different transporters, which I'm now happy to understand. I think that's a good place to start, because things work back from there — these ratios, the different carb contents, the eight-out-of-ten ratios. It all stemmed from there and made sense, because you explained the universal limitation of what your body can absorb in terms of carb content. That's what everyone's obsessed with: carb grams per hour. That's what everyone's using, but mixed at what ratios, and so on. So would you mind starting off from there?

Yeah. Firstly, like you said, use what you train and race with — definitely use what you use in training and racing. So I wouldn't go, "let me use the cheap alternative here so I can save money." If you are doing that, look at the amounts and don't go drastically different on race day, especially for longer events, because you're going to run into potential issues.

Train your gut with your race-day strategy at certain points in big or long rides, or race-type efforts — durability work, et cetera — so that you know how you're going to respond. There's no point using a 30g bottle in training and then going to 90 on race day over three hours. You're going to run into problems, I can guarantee you.

And don't chop and change brands. That's something I learned the hard way. I used different brands over the years, so I can speak from a place of experience. Now I'm consistent, so I know how I'm going to respond.

On race day there are so many variables going on, so you want to control what you can. Don't try new things, or experiment, because everything's made differently — different additives, absorption rates, concentrations — so you can run into problems.

We can get into stage racing too: if you don't normally train on something but you know a race has a sponsor handing that stuff out, don't use it all the time, but see how you respond so you know what you like. Take the freebie, and then if you need it at some point you know you should be okay.

To the fundamentals: what you're looking for in a carb drink is multiple transportable carbohydrates. Using one type of carbohydrate is only going to get you up to a certain amount of fuelling per hour, and above that you'll typically have gastrointestinal issues. The rate-limiting step is the absorption in the small intestine.

Adding to that, obviously, gut training — getting what you're taking in into the intestine without it backing up. That's when people feel nauseous, sick, et cetera. Once you get that clog, you're stuffed; it's not going in. So multiple transportable carbohydrates are effective because, essentially, there's...

...a lot of research that's been done. Maltodextrin has a low osmolality and lower sweetness, so it's an effective carbohydrate that you can take in at 60g per hour. So 1g per minute is roughly the amount you can tolerate.

That doesn't mean you must take 1g per minute, but you know what I mean. Typically you want to fuel in 15-to-20-minute blocks — like 20 to 30g at a time. That's more effective than little sips, or very big doses at big intervals. But that's something else to discuss, and something you've got to test and try out in your own training.

Basically, 60g of glucose — 1g per minute — is the most tolerable amount that transporter can take. Then researchers looked at multiple transportable carbs, the other being fructose. They tried various sugar ratios, and fructose came out as having another transporter that can take in higher amounts.

So if you're taking in 90g per hour, the two-to-one ratio of maltodextrin to fructose has been found to be the most effective, because you're getting 60g from the maltodextrin — glucose, call it simply — and 30g from the fructose. Maltodextrin is glucose; they're all sugars, just different branches.

Maybe try and put up an image while we're talking about this. Yeah, I can supply some images, because when you see it, they're all the same thing, although they have different naming conventions.

It's literally as simple as: within the same brand, this product has just maltodextrin in it, and this product has maltodextrin and fructose. Make sure you look at your product. So when you see the two-to-one ratio, that's what it's referring to — that you can get this "magical" mix.

It doesn't mean you need to put 90g in a small bottle. That's my other point, which we'll get on to. But basically, if you're going above 60g an hour up to 90, a two-to-one ratio will be the most effective in terms of absorption. You can use other stuff, but it might not be as effective, especially over prolonged use in longer races.

I'm going to put it like this, because to my mind it's very simple. It could literally be a bottle that has just a fructose mix with 30g in there, and a second bottle that has just maltodextrin with 60g in there. If I consume those over an hour, I'd have consumed 90g.

Whereas if they both had just maltodextrin — 60 and 60 — you're not getting 120. You're putting 120 in, but your body's only going to use 60, because it's using that single transporter. It wouldn't be able to absorb more; the transporters will be saturated. So there's no point going above 90 if those transporters won't be saturated — you're wasting it.

Obviously you need to gut-train to that point. To get to 90... some people can only handle 60. But if you're doing 60, there's no point pumping high fructose, because your glucose transporters aren't saturated.

High-fructose products these days are much more expensive, so there's no point taking a one-to-zero-point-eight and paying more for something where you're not even saturating your transporters. Make sure you're getting the 60g of maltodextrin first.

Once you go above 90, that's where people are hypothesising that higher fructose can push more through that transporter — with gut training — so you can get up to 100, 110, 120g an hour. But you're talking...

...elite level there, and extended durations. If you carbohydrate-load correctly, you have enough glycogen with even 60g per hour to last you for two hours or less, pretty comfortably.

So the mindset I enter this conversation from: the majority are going to do the Cycle Tour, or a stage race, and you maybe know you've got refill points. You've got your two bottles, you put them in, and you say, "I want to hit 60g an hour. This bottle's got 60 in — that's hour one. This bottle's got 60 in — that's hour two." Cool, that's going to work over that period.

But then there are other people who think, "what if I have 120g in this bottle and 120 in that bottle? I'm fuelling at 120." Yes, you're ingesting it, but I don't think you're going to be absorbing it — your body isn't absorbing and using it, because biologically that's just what happens. There are probably exceptions, like...

...if you train like that and test it, potentially you could get away with it. But remember, doing it in training is very different to racing. In racing the intensity is significantly higher, and there are many other things going on — cooling, blood being taken away from the gut. You want as minimal GI distress as possible.

Think about the first hour. A lot of people get hammered, don't pace themselves, and feel sick. It's most likely because the intensity is so high that you've caused catastrophe inside, if you haven't fuelled and trained your body to absorb that fuel at that intensity.

It's easy to do a moderate ride and pump that in. But gut training is very important, to make sure that on race day you're able to ride at that intensity and handle the carbohydrate absorption amidst what's going on in the race.

Think of me doing 21-minute efforts and trying to fuel at 90g an hour — tell me how that feels. No, it's terrible. There's a rate-limiting step there. And the drink concentration is very important too.

I wouldn't just pump carbs into a bottle and say, "oh, I'm doing a three-hour race, I'm getting 90 an hour, I've got X amount of bottles," and make them super concentrated, because you're not going to get that in. I'd be surprised if you could ingest it.

So, 8 to 10% — basically 8 to 10g per 100ml of fluid. I'd say 8 is probably the best bang for your buck. You're not really going to be dehydrated in a two- or three-hour race, even with a low-to-moderate fluid intake. There are many factors there.

If you're working hard and sweating hard from minute one, and maybe not even pre-hydrated correctly, you could run into problems in that area too, and that results in a performance loss and a lack of absorption.

And we haven't even gone into the extra fuel you're taking on. Most cyclists have got 73 gels in the back — they're all over the shop. That's another layer of complexity; we're just talking bottles.

So what's the ideal for your average Joe Cycle Tour racer? 60g in a 750 is good. If you're going above 90, then more bottles.

8% of 750 is whatever that is — about 14... hope my maths is right, don't quote me. It tells you per scoop the grams of carbs, so I'm going to make sure that's around 40 and put it into that bottle. As a general rule — I'm over-simplifying. The more concentrated you go, the more you need to train with it. If you're going 10%, for example, you need to train with it and make sure you handle it.

I've completely ignored my own advice leading up to this — I've been over-fuelling in my 500ml bottle for the stupidest reason: I just don't like the way a 750ml bottle looks. It's so dumb, I'm telling you right now.

I struggle to fuel from a bottle over a ride, so I lean quite heavily on gels as I transition to the rest of the fuelling — all my fuelling isn't just what's in the bottle. I'm not a big fan of eating a bar on a ride; it's just too hard to eat for most stuff.

...unless it's easy to chew. The product I use has a lot of grams of carbs in it — it's bigger. Me just having that one gel, and knowing what's in my bottle, I know I'm hitting it; I'm actually probably a little bit over. I prefer that, because I carry less.

In a race I'm going to reach down to that bottle three times — I want that thing finished in three sips. I don't like the sip, sip, sip; it's just another thing that's going wrong. We know the touch of the wheels, especially at the Cycle Tour, with 300 bikes in a bunch — I just want to be present the whole time. So I fuel as infrequently as possible, every 20 to 30 minutes.

You don't need to fuel earlier than that. But with gels, you'd be way over — you almost couldn't, with the contents of some gels. So you've got to sit and plan that out. Especially if people are pumping concentrated drinks and then taking gels on top of that — now you have a severe carb dump in your stomach.

I know you get those hydrogels and absorption's better, but I think taking a gel with regular fluid is shown to be just as effective. It might contradict what I said earlier about drink concentration, but fluid intake is different to a gel, a bar, or eating a solid. Typically you make up the balance of whatever you need with gels or bars.

What's your preference for a Cycle Tour race — what's in your back pocket? I like gels. I do like a bar, though. I've seen you on the stem of your bars — smash and go. Personally, the bars I use are 40g, and I know that if I take that, that's a good half hour.

I just feel like it's a good energy delivery, honestly — the way it goes from your mouth to your intestine. I don't get gut issues; I can handle and tolerate that. I just typically feel better later on if I'm eating something, even once in a race, than if I'm only taking in fluids and gels. But everyone's different — some people don't work with solids. And race duration changes all of that.

And how extreme you go on the duration. But I think for most road races, gels and drink are fine. Maybe have a small snack before you start. If you've eaten a proper pre-race breakfast, you should be pretty sorted.

Pre-race breakfast — you've got to go down the rabbit hole. You've got to test it out and train it, but ideally you want low fibre, low fat, low protein, and very high carbohydrate, easily digestible. Avoid slow-digesting stuff.

You have liver and muscle glycogen, and when you wake up in the morning you want to make sure those reserves are as full as possible, because they deplete slightly overnight even if you're correctly loaded. So you top those up and have the most full reserves on race day.

Rolled oats overnight? I'd say go for easy oats, the most broken-down form you can get. I'm not sure how rolled oats classify, but a big bowl of oats can sit in your stomach for a long time. People add fat, protein, fibre — that slows gastric emptying. So you're going to start and still feel full, which is what you don't want.

You want anywhere from two to four grams per kilogram of carbohydrate. Obviously you need to work up to that point and train it. If it's very early and you're not used to waking up early, or don't usually have a big breakfast, there's no point pumping a massive one now. Rather go a bit smaller and get something quality in — like 60 to 80g, which is about 1g per kilogram for most people — at least two to two and a half hours before.

Two and a half hours for a bigger breakfast, definitely. For very early races that poses a difficulty. It also depends on the duration of the race, how well fuelled you are beforehand, and how good you are at waking up and getting that fuel in.

My mindset is to frame this around the Cycle Tour. If you haven't done anything significant in nutrition prep, you've still got two weeks between now and the race. You can get used to eating oats in the morning and training on that. You can change what you're putting in your bottles to hit whatever your goal is. You can try the products you're going to use on race day at least six times between now and then.

You'll arrive on the day in a better position to perform. Other than training, what has a bigger impact on your performance than nutrition? The previous topic was heat, but nutrition is everything — your car can't go anywhere without petrol. So the fuel needs to go in; that's the rate-limiting step, and making sure you have a well-fuelled process is important.

I'd definitely say less is more. If you aren't well gut-trained, rather go a little bit lower and be more comfortable, and maybe have it a little later on, than start high from the start and end up with problems.

There are some really good breakfast alternatives — you don't have to have oats. You can have white bread with jam, or white rice and banana. Maize meal's really effective: super high carb, easy to eat. Look for something palatable that you want to eat. Even bagels with jam — super high carb.

Bagels are very high in carbohydrate. I'm not a nutritionist, so I'm not going to give dietary advice, but those are just some good examples.

Typically I'd say use oats in a smaller quantity, or use multiple types of things in your breakfast — a small bowl of oats, plus a bagel or white bread with jam. White bread, because it digests better than brown bread or whole grain; the seeds and slow-digesting fibre, as I said, you want to avoid. You can even have some race mix and sip on that.

I'd avoid trying to dump too much in your stomach beforehand, especially in that period between breakfast and the start. Let the digestion happen; don't overfill yourself.

And remember, if you're pumping electrolytes, having sodium in your drink will make you thirsty. So be careful of over-hydrating before the start, because pumping a lot of fluid in can also cause GI distress. Don't think, "I need to be hydrated" — that starts days before. Make sure you're getting the correct amount of water daily.

If you're adding a little bit more sodium to your diet, that's going to put you in the right space. But don't drink a litre of electrolytes right before the start, because you'll actually do the wrong thing. Avoid over-hydrating beforehand.

If you add a little more salt to your food, that's going to give you plenty. You already have a massive amount of sodium reserves, so it'll give you plenty for a Cycle Tour, for example, unless you're out there for a very long time.

Everyone's different, but you get people who say, "oh, I'm a very salty sweater," so they take salt tablets. Well, obviously you're going to be sweating salt, because you're consuming a huge amount of salt that you need to get rid of. So be careful with dumping it in — you could cause a lot of fluid shifts within the body.

Roughly 400 to 600mg per litre is around what we're drinking. About 600 to 680 is a high classification, 400-ish is medium, and 200 to 300 is low. That's going to be plenty given the duration of a Cycle Tour for most people, with pre-hydration. There's already sodium in your gels, too — all these things add up. So avoid being obsessed with electrolytes and smashing them in, because it can cause fluid shifts and make you exceptionally thirsty as well.

Panic-consuming — particularly on race day, particularly the Cycle Tour. There are 30,000 people, give or take, who come and do this thing. For a lot of them it's once a year, so it's your big punt for the year, and you do panic-consume. I certainly did.

The general guiding principle is: rather be more conservative. More is not going to equal better. Have a glass of water when you wake up. Sip another with breakfast. Sip some water between then and the race. That should be more than enough. But if you're downing all these things with high sodium — don't panic. Don't buy into the social media hype you're seeing.

Everyone's different, so for some people maybe, but I'd typically say stay away from that and do what you do in training. If you're never doing it in training, don't do it on race day. We all fall into the trap, so many times. Not this year. Not this year.

Let's see — sub 2:45. Oh, please. Now that you've said it, I have to. You'll know that's going to be more dependent on the group and the weather. But let's see how the weather looks; it's too soon to tell for tomorrow.

This is open to anyone watching: if there are specifics you haven't seen answered, fortunately Reece is extremely approachable and willing to come and talk to us as regularly as you want. I don't necessarily ask the right questions, and it might be different for females versus males — they may have a different perspective. Pose the questions in the DMs and the comments. We can build them up, and if we see meaty topics like this — the heat we spoke about, basic fuelling — we'll cover them. This literally started with a question about riding fast. So that's the opportunity, and the challenge, to anyone watching. Reece has been very kind with his time — thank you again.

Pleasure. My colleague Mikey is a nutritionist as well, so he's more of an expert than I am with this sort of thing. For more advanced questions, you're welcome to — I can always ask him and get some added info.

And, as you said, the website has got articles and stuff on there. Crazy good content, and more's coming.

I'd just be cautious about following fads, or what the pros do. I know it's tempting to follow what looks cool, but think about the fundamentals. For most people, cycling is already expensive as it is, so avoid thinking you need to do what marketing tells you to. Look at what's in the products. Just because something's cheap doesn't mean it's good, either.

The golden rule, as I said, is multiple transportable carbohydrates — two-to-one maltodextrin and fructose. If you're not fuelling higher than 90g per hour, there's not much point going to higher fructose, because you're not maxing the fructose transporter — you should be getting enough through your system. And fructose can come with other GI issues, as can too much maltodextrin.

So just be careful: know what you're consuming, know your numbers, and stick to them religiously. Don't say, "I only use 30g in training, but now I'm doing 90 in my bottle on race day because I want bang for my buck." Do exactly what you do in training. 60g in 750ml is perfect. Incremental, not experimental, is the notion I try to follow.

Keep it consistent for a good amount of time, and then you'll see where you're stemming from. Most of the time the issues are actually happening off the bike: you're not fuelled enough into the race, you're not hydrated enough, you're eating the wrong things before. All that stuff makes a difference.

Reece, thanks for taking the time. Pleasure to be here. Appreciate it — this will not be the last.

Performance-wise, stick to what you know. Don't try and do 50 heat sessions now, or drastically change or mix things. Do things methodically, make incremental small changes, because it's a bit close to race day to play around with too much stuff.

Right then. Appreciate it, thanks again. Pleasure, thanks for having me. Lekker.