In the most basic of terms, there’s a simple relationship between nutrition and performance: you get out what you put in. The ‘food for the road’ you eat while you’re on one of our cycling trips makes a huge difference to your time on the bike. One of our guiding principles here at Flyingeese is to look at every client as an individual, and to tailor a personal programme to make sure they get the very best out of a week in the saddle. Out on the roads our pro leaders do just that – but every day our nutritionists perform an equally important role in the kitchen.
The first goal is to plan big, wholesome meals that will satisfy you after a hard day in the saddle and set you up for the next day’s ride. Partly that’s a question of getting enough calories to keep your energy up, but it’s also to do with optimising recovery, improving performance, helping you sleep and so on. Protein and carbs are critical. Conveniently enough they feature heavily in the fantastic local produce that makes up the Flyingeese diet, which depends on seafood, lean meat, fruit and veg.
The sheer number of calories you’ll burn in a day’s ride with us (4,000-6,000 is usual) means you’ll get away with eating some of the fresh delicacies from the bakery just down the road, too – fat is essential. We then hone the diet to make it just right for each individual, and keep honing it as needed. Some may perform better with higher levels of protein, for others it’s down to fat, and so on.
Our goal is to find the right balance for you, to put the right stuff in, and to get as much out as we can. The fact that this process involves genuinely delicious food is a definite bonus for everybody!