I recently heard on one of the podcasts that the newer research shows no need to carb up within an hour of finishing a long ride. That as long as you eat well sometime later in the day you will be fine.
Could someone comment on that? I grew up hearing about the golden hour of opportunity after a long effort.
1 Like
It was more about eating real, whole foods that have everything we need (carbs, fats, fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals) and not refined, ultra processed foods. When training, one seldom does multiple hard days back to back, except when racing multiple stages, so we’ll have glycogen store replenished within 24h of that hard workout. During the hard efforts, though, it’s a different story.
1 Like
HI @micomico,
Great question and probably one I should clarify. That “golden windows” does still exist. You will replenish your glycogen quicker if you take advantage of it. It’s something to focus on if you’re doing two events in a day and need to get back to as close to 100% as quickly as possible.
But what the research is showing is that after 24 hours, it really doesn’t make a difference. You’re going to end up in the same place. To make this point, there’s actually a study that compared the current recommended glycogen replenishment approach to literally eating McDonalds. After six hours the athletes following the recommendations were better recovered, but 24 hours later, both groups were in the same place.
Hope that helps!
Trevor
1 Like
Now that is a marketing strategy 