It is 3 weeks out from my main event of 2019, the Vatternrundan and so training ramps up and as it does I need to make sure my fuelling is right. Fuelling wrong in training and in an event can make all the difference and I have been on that bike ride before thinking I feel great and then bam I’ve bonked.
The Vatternrundan is a cycling week festival in the town of Motala in Sweden and I will be taking on three events in five days with a total mileage of 550km. This means my training is including strength and conditioning, yoga, structured turbo sessions and longer rides on the road. Food is key for this and that is good as I love food!
I was sent some ingredients from Buy Whole Foods Online (not just Whole Foods Online) and over the weekend it was super easy to add these to my meals in different ways.
My go to breakfast before any event is porridge – you need to find what works for you and oats are something I have tried and tested and found to be good for me. I also like that you can be adaptable with them with so many things you can add including nuts and seeds, fruit, dried fruit and nut butters. Before my club ride on Sunday I added some cashew nut butter, organic cashews and a few dried cranberries – delicious! Another breakfast option is overnight oats – again with the oats and super easy to mix oats with either milk (any type) and fruits, nuts, seeds or toppings of your choice. I did a blog post on the recipe I use that you can see here. In this pic I added oat milk, fresh banana, teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon, handful of macadamia nuts and dried organic cranberries.
I like to experiment with food for on the bike. I love cooking and trying out new things. I make granola bars that I cut up into bite sized pieces. They are easy to grab on the move and portable. These are for energy and contain a lot of sugar so I definitely wouldn’t be snacking on these on a regular basis but on the bike they were fab and I froze the leftovers in snack bags for future rides – easy to grab and go!
To make them I used:
- 180ml oat milk
- 8 tbsp nut butter of your choice
- 5oz muscovado sugar
- 180ml coconut oil
- 9oz rolled oats
- 4oz shelled hemp seeds
Super easy to make too – literally put the milk, sugar and oil in a pan and melt. Remove from the heat and add in the nut butter, oats and hemp seeds. This is the point where I normally go off tangent and add whatever nuts, seeds and fruit I have. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, add the mix to the pan and simply leave in the fridge overnight to set. Cut up and put in portion bags – and add some to the freezer as they freeze well too!
I have joked that I will cycle for cake and I will – lots of people do! For longer rides it is often nice to have a coffee or cake break on route. Also gives the opportunity to fill up water bottles too. I made the honey cake in the pic below with sunflower seeds as a little treat for post ride.
To make this I used:
- 170g raw honey
- 140g butter
- 85g muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- 2 eggs
- 200g self raising flour
- sunflower seeds for decoration
Again another easy recipe where you put the honey, butter, water and sugar in pan until melted. Take off the heat and add the eggs and flour. Add to a cake tin, top with sunflower seeds and bake at 180C for 40 minutes.
After 86 miles on the bike on Monday a slice of this cake was perfect!
I look forward to using these ingredients in more cooking – loads of options with salads, stir fry and smoothies too!
The smartarse answer is “anything you damn well want”, which was pretty much my approach to half marathon training, especially in the later stages. Love the sound of the honey cake, so thanks for that!