How to Fuel Guide: Gravel Grinders

BY STEVE BORN

If asked what the most popular current sport is, I’d unhesitatingly say gravel races, also known as gravel grinders. And why not? Its growth over the past few years has been staggeringly impressive, and for good reason.

If you’re into cycling, what could be better on both a fun/challenging basis than riding an event that’s a cross between mountain biking and road biking? Beautiful and oftentimes demanding terrain on mainly backcountry roads and trails? And minimal-to-no vehicular traffic? That’s gravel grinders!

Equally as important as the training you do and the equipment you use, proper fueling and a bit of prudent supplementation will help get you through these challenging events, as well as making your day on the bike So. Much. More. Enjoyable.

Before you get to the product suggestions. Here is some essential information...

5 Simple Ways to Improve Athletic Performance Now

While there are numerous steps that you can (and should) take to optimize athletic performance, here are a couple of super easy ones. Start with this right away, and you’ll experience noticeably rapid improvement in your endurance and overall exercise performance.

1) Stay properly hydrated all day long. With approximately 60% of your body being comprised of water, it’s vital to maintain optimal hydration all day. Unfortunately, a lot of people—perhaps you? —live in a state of perpetual dehydration that negatively affects athletic performance and overall health. Starting now, gradually increase your fluid intake—primarily from pure, clean water—so that the total number of ounces you’re drinking daily is equal to 0.5 to 0.6 of your body weight in pounds (e.g., a 180-lb athlete should consume 90 – 108 ounces of fluids daily, in addition to what is being consumed during exercise). During exercise, drink 16-26 ounces per hour.

2) Fuel lean. It’s interesting to know how many calories you’re burning every hour during exercise; however, that amount isn’t a factor in terms of how many calories your body can accept in return for your fuel donation. The goal of caloric intake is to consume the least amount necessary to maintain energy levels where you want and need them to be hour after hour. For most athletes, this represents an intake of 120-180 calories per hour. Larger athletes (200+ lbs.) can consume 200 or slightly more calories. And if you find that’s not quite enough calories, that’s an easy fix—you consume a few more. Remember, it is ALWAYS easier to fix a “not enough” problem than an “uh oh, I overdid it, and now my stomach is rebelling” problem.

3) Ditch the sugar. Most fuels are comprised of short-chain carbohydrates, also known as simple sugars (glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc.) Hammer Nutrition fuels do not contain any simple sugars; instead, we use maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate. Both maltodextrin and some simple sugars will boost energy levels quickly, which is a desirable benefit. However, simple sugars—because they are comprised of only one or two saccharide molecules—will drop your energy levels just about as quickly. Constantly feeling great for a few minutes, then fighting your way out of an energy rut for several minutes—commonly referred to as ”flash and crash”—is no way to enjoy your winter sport/activity.

Conversely, because maltodextrin is MANY saccharide molecules weakly linked together, you enjoy quick-acting and much longer-lasting energy without any wild fluctuations in energy levels. Another great thing with maltodextrin is that your body can digest greater amounts of calories—with no delay from entry to exit of the digestive tract—and make them available for energy production. You can efficiently digest up to 3x more calories with maltodextrin than any simple sugar, which basically eliminates stomach distress issues.

4) Don’t eat for 3 hours before your workouts, races, and competitions. By refraining from consuming any calories in the 3-hour period before your workouts, races, and competitions, you put your body in the ideal physiological state to use its finite stores of muscle glycogen most efficiently while utilizing the vast amounts of calories from body fat stores more effectively. Adopt this practice in all your workouts—even the early morning ones—and you’ll start seeing massive improvements in your endurance in a relatively short time. Note: If you must have some calories before the start of exercise, consuming something easy to digest (e.g., a serving of Hammer Gel) 5-10 minutes before the beginning—but no further out—is acceptable.

5) “Refill the tank” ASAP after all your workouts. Your body wants to reward you for your efforts in training, strengthening the immune system, rebuilding muscle tissue, and storing more minutes of readily available fuel (glycogen) in the muscles. All you have to do to enjoy all of these endurance-enhancing benefits is supply your body with the materials it needs right away—ideally within the first 30 minutes after exercise (the sooner, the better)—meaning complex carbohydrates and high-quality protein such as found in Recoverite and Organic Vegan Recoverite.

Supplement Suggestions

Race Day Boost – In the 4 days prior to your race—T, W, Th, and F for a gravel grinder on Sat—loading with Race Day Boost saturates the body’s cells with trisodium phosphate, a compound with a wealth of research that supports its positive benefits for athletic performance. Trisodium phosphate enhances functioning of all three of the body's energy producing systems—the ATP-CP system, the lactic acid system, and the oxygen/ aerobic system—making it a superb ergogenic aid. With Race Day Boost, you're boosting the performance of your body's short-, medium-, and long-term energy production systems. No other product can do that, and no matter what gravel grinder distance you do, Race Day Boost is the ticket!

Fully Charged – Hammer Nutrition’s pre-exercise supplement provides numerous athletic performance-enhancing benefits without resorting to stimulants or excessive amounts of caffeine. Taking one dose 15-30 minutes before the start of your ride will allow you to enjoy all of this amazing product’s benefits for a good 3 hours and oftentimes longer. If you’ll be riding longer than that, additional doses may be taken.

Anti-Fatigue Caps – This unique supplement significantly increases endurance by neutralizing the fatigue-causing ammonia that builds up in the blood and muscles during both high-intensity and endurance exercise, both of which are very much a part of many winter sports and activities. Take one dose of 2-4 capsules 15-30 minutes before the start, with additional doses of 1-2 capsules hourly.

Endurance BCAA+ – The perfect complement to Anti-Fatigue Caps, Endurance BCAA+ supplies the key amino acids—the BCAA (leucine, isoleucine, valine)—that the body needs to satisfy a small percentage of its energy requirements during prolonged bouts of exercise, helping to protect against lean muscle tissue breakdown. BCAA supplementation has also been shown to decrease the perception of fatigue on both a mental and physiological basis. Dosing is the same as Anti-Fatigue Caps.

General Fueling Suggestions

Success "during" starts "after"! It’s absolutely vital that you "refill the tank" after all your workouts... this is a major key for noticeably enhancing athletic performance. When you begin a workout or event/race, the primary fuel your body uses for the first 60-90 minutes or so is known as muscle glycogen. The more consistent you are with ASAP post-exercise fueling—Recoverite or Organic Vegan Recoverite is ideal for that—among the many benefits you'll receive is more minutes of glycogen stored in the muscles—maxing out at somewhere between 60-90 minutes—ready to serve you in future workouts and races.

Finish all calorie consumption 3 hours prior to start. See #4 in the earlier article as to why this is so important.

“Pre-emptive strike” dose of Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme. Taking a dose of Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme 15-30 minutes prior to the start will cover your electrolytic mineral needs during the first hour of the race, allowing you to focus on getting into a nice, smooth rhythm instead of having to consume pills at that time. The dose of Endurolytes can be anywhere from 1-6 capsules, with most athletes using 2-4 capsules an hour, the amount dependent on body weight and temperature conditions. If you’re competing in hot-weather conditions—especially if you’re not acclimated to those conditions—I suggest taking a pre-race dose of 1-2 Endurolytes Extreme capsules.

Take your first dose of Anti-Fatigue Caps and Endurance BCAA+. 1-2 capsules of each product, 15-30 minutes prior to the start, will get these nutrients in your body and ready to serve you during the first hour.

Consume 1-2 servings of Hammer Gel 5-10 minutes prior to the race. Consuming 1-2 servings of Hammer Gel at this time will supply some calories to augment muscle glycogen stores but without interfering with the efficiency of how your body will use its finite stores of muscle glycogen as a fuel source.

Fuel Selection During the Race

There are many distance options available in a gravel grinder; the ones I’ve selected are from a popular event and they cover a good range of distances. No matter what distance you end up doing, the key here is to make sure you’re supplying your body with sufficient amounts of calories, fluids, and electrolytes while being super-efficient (i.e., staying on the bike as much as possible) at the same time.

31.06-Miles/50-Kilometers

As completing this distance should take 3 hours or less, a “carbohydrate fuel” will cover your calorie needs perfectly. For that, we have two great options:

Hammer Gel is your best option if you prefer your calories in a more compact form, while also preferring to drink water to stay hydrated. One serving of Hammer Gel every 30-45 minutes is suggested. Note that Hammer Gel does not contain a full-spectrum electrolyte profile, so in addition to your pre-race dose of Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme, you’ll want to continue to consume either of those two products hourly. If you don’t want to take capsules, your other option is to add 1-2 tablets of Endurolytes Fizz OR 1-2 scoops of Endurolytes Extreme Powder to each of your hourly water bottles.

HEED, mixed in water, is for you if prefer a flavored sports drink. Each scoop of HEED contains 110 calories. I (Steve Born) personally use 1.75 scoops of Perpetuem 2.0 an hour, which supplies 192.5 calories, an amount that works well for larger athletes like me (I’m 200 pounds). For light-weight athletes, 1.0 scoop (110 calories) per hour works well. Medium-weight athletes will find that 1.25 scoops (137.5 calories) to 1.50 scoops (165 calories) per hour is an excellent amount.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Carry and consume additional Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme capsules just in case the amounts of electrolytes in your bottles of HEED are proving to be not quite sufficient (e.g., you feel a twinge of a cramp coming on).

NOTE: Make sure you continue to take doses of Anti-Fatigue Caps and Endurance BCAA+ hourly while you’re on the bike.

62.1-Miles/100-Kilometers

If you’re a faster rider, you may be able to complete this distance in ~3 hours, give or take. If that’s the case, then the use of Hammer Gel and/or HEED—as outlined previously in the shorter distance—will be completely sufficient. Keep taking hourly doses of Anti-Fatigue Caps and Endurance BCAA+.

If your finishing time is going to be closer to 4-or-so hours, you can still use the Hammer Gel/HEED (“carbohydrates only”) fueling plan, but you’ll definitely want to make sure you continue to take hourly doses of Anti-Fatigue Caps and Endurance BCAA+ hourly while you’re on the bike. A second dose of Fully Charged halfway through would also be highly beneficial.

Another option if your finishing time is going to be in the 4-hour range is to use Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 as your sole fuel from beginning to end. These are our long-duration fuels, containing complex carbs, protein, and key auxiliary nutrients (Perpetuem 2.0 also contains a small amount of healthy fat).

Each scoop of Perpetuem 2.0 contains 90 calories. I (Steve Born) personally use 2.25 scoops of Perpetuem 2.0 an hour, which supplies 202.5 calories, an amount that works well for larger athletes like me (I’m 200 pounds). For light-weight athletes, 1.0 scoop (90 calories) to 1.25 scoops (112.5 calories) per hour works well. Medium-weight athletes will find that 1.50 scoops (135 calories) to 2.0 scoops (180 calories) per hour is an excellent amount.

Each scoop of Sustained Energy 2.0 contains 100 calories. I (Steve Born) personally use 2.0 scoops an hour, which supplies me with 200 calories. For light-weight athletes, 1.0 scoop (100 calories) to 1.25 scoops (125 calories) per hour works well. Medium-weight athletes will find that 1.50 scoops (150 calories) to 1.75 scoops (175 calories) per hour is an excellent amount.

The Advantages of the Multi-Hour Fuel Bottle

As far as Perpetuem 2.0 and Sustained Energy 2.0 are concerned, instead of making a 1-hour bottle, which would mean I’d have to drink a full bottle of flavored/semi-flavored liquid hour after hour (which I wouldn’t like), while also having to stop and make more (which burns up precious time), I would make a bottle of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 that contains a few hours’ worth of fuel. To make (for example) a 4-hour bottle of fuel I’d start by using the smallest water bottle I have (less flavored drink mix I have to consume). I’ll fill that water bottle 1/3 full of water, add a couple of scoops of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0, put the lid on, and shake well. I’ll repeat the process until I’ve mixed the appropriate number of scoops in my one bottle (9 scoops for Perpetuem 2.0 and 8 scoops of Sustained Energy 2.0). Now, because I have 4 hours of fuel in one bottle, I only have to drink ¼ of that bottle every hour, augmenting that with water from another source to take care of my hydration needs.

Again, the benefits of using a multi-hour bottle of fuel:

I don’t have to drink so much volume of flavored liquid hour after hour. Because I have 4 hours’ worth of fuel in one bottle, I only need to drink ¼ of the bottle every hour, augmenting that with plain water from another source (water bottle, hydration pack) to take care of my hydration needs. I personally find—as a lot of athletes do—that plain water quenches my thirst better than liquid fuels do, and drinking water to cleanse the palate makes taking another drink of flavored fuel even more palatable.
Because I have 4 hours of fuel in my bottle, I don’t have to stop and make more every hour, which saves me time.

If you need to, take a Sharpie pen and mark your bottle off into four equal sections. This will give you a visual as to how much to drink in a given hour.

NOTE: If the weather is going to be hot, make your 4-hour bottle the night before and put it in the freezer. Perfectly acceptable, and it will keep the mixture cold for a longer period of time.

Don’t forget your electrolytes! Continue to take doses of encapsulated Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme hourly during your ride! With Endurolytes, the dose ranges from 1-6 capsules per hour, with most athletes using 2-4 capsules per hour. For Endurolytes Extreme the usual dose is 1-2 capsules, with the first dose taken 15-30 minutes prior to the start, with additional doses every hour during. If you prefer to drink your electrolytes versus taking capsules, 1-3 tablets of Endurolytes Fizz or 1-2 scoops of Endurolytes Extreme Powder added to your water bottles will be sufficient in fulfilling an hour’s worth of electrolytic mineral requirements.

Last thing! Carry 2-4 single-serving packets of Hammer Gel with you, just in case you end up being out there longer than 4 hours, thus requiring more calories to get you to the finish!

103.1-Miles/166-Kilometers

For this distance, our 8-hour fueling plan will work great! Here’s what to do!

1) Primary-to-sole fuel is Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0. These are our long-duration fuels, containing complex carbs, protein, and key auxiliary nutrients (Perpetuem also contains a small amount of healthy fat). These are both such complete fuels that you could use them as your sole source of calories from beginning to end. That said, I do like some variety in the menu, so I alternate with other Hammer Nutrition fuels.

The Advantages of the Multi-Hour Fuel Bottle

Again, the benefits of using a multi-hour bottle of fuel:

I don’t have to drink so much volume of flavored liquid hour after hour. Because I have 4 hours’ worth of fuel in one bottle, I only need to drink ¼ of the bottle every hour, augmenting that with plain water from another source (water bottle, hydration pack) to take care of my hydration needs. I personally find—as a lot of athletes do—that plain water quenches my thirst better than liquid fuels do, and drinking water to cleanse the palate makes taking another drink of flavored fuel even more palatable.
Because I have 4 hours of fuel in my bottle, I don’t have to stop and make more every hour, which saves me time.

If you need to, take a Sharpie pen and mark your bottle off into four equal sections. This will give you a visual as to how much to drink in a given hour.

NOTE: If the weather is going to be hot, make your 4-hour bottle the night before and put it in the freezer. Perfectly acceptable, and it will keep the mixture cold for a longer period of time.

2) Carry a full Hammer Flask of Hammer Gel. The Hammer Flask holds 5 servings, which easily covers 2 hours’ worth of calorie requirements, and for some 2.5 hours. Plus, it is a LOT LESS MESSY than the single-serving packets.

3) Solid food? Hammer Bars! A great option for some solid food during your 8-hour fueling plan, consume 1/2 to 2/3 of a Hammer Bar. Super easy to chew, really tasty, and quite satisfying.

4) Don’t forget your electrolytes! Continue to take doses of encapsulated Endurolytes or Endurolytes Extreme hourly during your ride! With Endurolytes, the dose ranges from 1-6 capsules per hour, with most athletes using 2-4 capsules per hour. For Endurolytes Extreme the usual dose is 1-2 capsules, with the first dose taken 15-30 minutes prior to the start, with additional doses every hour during. If you prefer to drink your electrolytes versus taking capsules, 1-3 tablets of Endurolytes Fizz or 1-2 scoops of Endurolytes Extreme Powder added to your water bottles will be sufficient in fulfilling an hour’s worth of electrolytic mineral requirements.

So, in 1 bottle, 1 flask, and 1-2 bars you have all the fuel you need to take care of your calorie requirements for 8 hours. A flip-top capsule dispenser will carry enough Endurolytes for at least 8 hours, oftentimes more, and it’ll easily carry all of the Endurolytes Extreme you’ll need.

Here’s a possible fueling plan using the above-listed fuels:

Hour #1 – ¼ bottle of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #2 – ¼ bottle of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #3 – ½ to ¾ Hammer Bar+ water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #4 – Up to ½ flask of Hammer Gel + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #5 – ¼ bottle of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #6 – ¼ bottle of Perpetuem 2.0 or Sustained Energy 2.0 + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #7 – ½ to ¾ Hammer Bar+ water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)
Hour #8 – Up to ½ flask of Hammer Gel + water + Endurolytes (or Endurolytes Extreme)

SPECIAL NOTE: On a hot-weather day consume Perpetuem in the first four hours...

5) Stay up on the supps! Continue to take hourly doses of Anti-Fatigue Caps and Endurance BCAA+ hourly while you’re on the bike. A dose of Fully Charged every 3 hours will also prove to be highly beneficial.

6) Finished? Great! It’s time to “refill the tank!” As soon as possible when the your ride is completed, be sure to consume a 2-scoop serving of Recoverite or Organic Vegan Recoverite. The complex carbohydrates will restock the muscle cells with fuel (so that you’re not “on empty” for tomorrow’s workout), the protein will help repair/rebuild the lean muscle tissue while also reducing soreness, and the glutamine (amino acid) will provide outstanding support for the immune system.

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