We asked Professional Cyclist Nic Moerig to provide a little bit of insight into what it’s like on the road as an elite athlete. Her account may surprise you…

Words by Nic Moerig

At World Tour races you are constantly surrounded by athletes from the World’s top teams. You race together, stay together and eat together. In the dining hall, you’re surrounded by the greats. Wiggle, High5, Rabo, Liv and Boels-Dolmans to name a few. It still puts me in my place, being surrounded by these amazing athletes with years of experience over and above me.

I never would have expected eating in this sort of environment would have made me feel so self-conscious about my food choices. Filling up my plate at the buffet and parading around in front of the rest of the peloton with my selection of dinner on display is a nerve-wracking experience. Yes, I see the eyes watching me, just as I watched my competitors do the same walk of judgement back to their designated seats. How...

Race season is well and truly here!

Have you developed your race nutrition plan yet?

WHAT you eat and drink during a race and WHEN can have a massive impact on your performance…

Lay the foundations in training

Before we delve into race nutrition, let’s not discount the value of your everyday eating plan. The foundations of daily healthy eating are where you will see the greatest performance benefits. Day-to-day nutrition helps you optimise your general fitness and training capacity, recovery system, immune function and both fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Once you’ve got the foundations right here, then you can focus on fine-tuning things come race day. OK got that sorted – read on!

Work out what you need

Nutrition and hydration are very individual, so what works for your training buddy may not work for you. We are all different with different taste preferences, food preferences and gut preferences.

The amount of carbohydrate needed during a race depends on...

Whether you’re a beginner runner or pro athlete, nutrition plays a key role in running performance. Check out these winning tips to eat and drink your way to peak performance.

Find Balance

Running is (generally speaking) a high energy burning sport. Sometimes this allows us to get away with eating whatever we like with little consequence on our weight. However, while burning lots of calories, runners still require a mindful approach to eating, as everything we eat and drink directly affects our performance. Just because you can get away with it, doesn’t mean you should be reaching for the biscuit jar every afternoon for a pick me up.

Focus on real foods to fuel training, with a balance of carbohydrate and protein-rich foods at main meals and snacks.  Be sure to include lots of colourful fruits and vegetables as these provide important run-fuelling nutrients. Include moderate amounts of healthy fats such as avocado, nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil and oily fish...

There is so much media attention around low carbohydrate diets at the moment; it’s hard to decipher what is fact and what is fiction. Low-carbohydrate diets are not a new dietary concept by any means, yet they have made a popular comeback with claims of rapid weight loss and other health benefits. A quick Google search pulls over 2 million results in 0.3 seconds! Let’s have a look at some of the evidence and find some clarity around the concept…

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrate is a macronutrient found in foods such as bread, rice, quinoa, pasta, cereals, fruit, the starchy vegetables  (potato, sweet potato and corn), legumes (chickpeas, lentils, red kidney beans) and dairy products (milk, yoghurt).  It is also found in packaged foods such as sports drinks, gels and bars, soft drink, cordial, juice, honey, sugar, lollies and baked goods. When we eat carbohydrate-rich foods, they are digested and broken down into smaller building blocks, such as glucose,...