What should I eat & drink during indoor cycling?

Indoor cycling has gained huge popularity over the past few years and is the ideal way to exercise during drizzly days, but perhaps even more so to get through the shorter autumn & winter days. (Because winter miles = summer smiles right?! 😉) 

However, many forget to consider their nutrition strategy on the rollers. Agreed, these sessions tend to be shorter than outdoor workouts, yet you need to take some things into account.

Your basic nutrition is always key. Therefore, make sure your energy supply is adequately filled and that you are sufficiently hydrated before jumping on your bike trainer.

Has it been several hours since you ate anything and are you going to start your indoor training in an hour? Then you can take an Energy Bar, for example, to get you ready for this.

This depends on the duration and intensity of your workout. A water bottle is the bare minimum, but in many cases certainly not enough.

If you ride indoors, you will sweat a lot more than if you ride outdoors. Sweating then means not only fluid loss, but also mineral loss.

For shorter indoor sessions (< 1h), we recommend drinking ORS instead of plain water. You won't need carbohydrates right away, but this will compensate for the losses mentioned above.

If you plan to do a longer workout on the rollers, then it basically comes down to sticking to your usual nutrition strategy (if you have one at all).
Here, try to target min 30-60 grams of carbs per hour. You achieve this by drinking at least 1 bottle of Isomix (Isomix contains minerals as well as carbohydrates) every hour, combined with e.g. 1 Energy Fruit.

For the real die hards who last more than 3 hours on the rollers, you can (should) even increase this to 90 grams.

Finally, a good tip for athletes who cycle long distances. Training on the rollers is an ideal way to get your stomach and intestines used to a new or adapted nutrition strategy.

Do you have a big cycling challenge planned next year? A challenge that will at your cycling legs for hours on end? If so, your body could benefit from a higher energy intake (90g to even 120g).
Just as your legs need to train for that challenge, you also need to train your stomach and intestines for higher energy absorption. Indoor training is ideal for this: if your stomach or intestines don't respond quite as desired after all, you'll just be home already.

Pro tip: Want to move towards more than 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour? Then make sure your sports nutrition always has a 2:1 glucose-fructose ratio. You'll maximise energy absorption and this ratio is ideal for your stomach and intestines. SANAS' Energy Gels, Endurance Bar and Isomix have this 2:1 ratio.