How to Improve Nutrition & Recovery – Insights from Elite Cycling Coach, Scott Bugden

How to Improve Nutrition & Recovery – Insights from Elite Cycling Coach, Scott Bugden

In this video, Coach, Scott Bugden from Swiss Cycling Track Team explains to Michael how you can use nutrition and recovery to optimise your cycling performance.

Michael is a Level 3 British Cycling coach who works with cyclists across a range of disciplines, developing fitness, skills and competitive performance. He is a keen bike racer, currently focusing on Downhill and Enduro MTB. He has a strong endurance background, having raced at a National Level in XC, Road, and Cyclocross.

 

To get in touch with Michael about performance coaching please head to his website RideAbout.

Fuel your ride with great tasting coffee

Fuel your ride with great tasting coffee

After what feels like a lifetime of being stuck inside our homes and restricted from non-essential traveling, we are now finally allowed to step into the great outdoors once again. Get rid of those odors coming from your biking clothes, give your bike a good clean and get ready to hit those trails again!

There are a few things that we’ve deeply missed when it comes to the thought of getting out on the bike once again – The view of surrounded forests from the top of a climb, the feeling of the wind rushing past your face, and doing all this whilst the rest of the country is still waking up. Now that we’re feeling that extra appreciation, let’s talk about how we fuel these early morning starts on a full day of mountain biking.

First up, let’s talk about equipment. You don’t need anything fancy to make an amazing cup of coffee, an Aeropress is perfect for making great tasting coffee without the faff so you don’t need to wake up any earlier. Overall it should take around 3 minutes including boiling the water.

Aeropress

In recent years there have been world championship recipes brewed with an Aeropress that are so simple to make, you can prepare a cup before you set out or take it in a flask for the journey to your trails. Try the below method:

  • Heat some water over your stove or fire until near boiling point
  • Weigh out 20-25g of good quality coffee, you want a coarse grind if you’re using whole beans and grinding yourself.
  • Add coffee to the press and use 150ml of hot water
  • Stir for around 30 seconds using a spoon and then apply the press and push down slowly, don’t stop when you hear the bubbling, we actually want this to happen and create a nice compact coffee disc when we’re done with the brewing. 

You should now have a fresh cup of coffee which you can dilute with hot water to get your preferred strength and taste. The smell alone from a freshly brewed coffee is enough to wake you up and give you that boost to tackle the day ahead. Take a deep breath in and savour the moment. 

Author: Rave Coffee

“Quality beans. No jargon. No BS. Great coffee made simple”. 

 

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Despite Storm Dennis and the aftermath of wind and rain, our mountain bike holiday camps for kids went ahead last week without too much disruption. Over the half term week over 50 children braced the wild conditions, wrapped up warm and headed out onto the trails for some great outdoors fun from Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Horndean, Hampshire.

Over each day we ran different groups based on ability from our beginners learning about bike control and handling skills like cornering and braking, to more advance sessions for riders who where looking to progress their riding and start jumping.

All the sessions link together progressive coaching using fun games and feedback. Our young riders also got to play coach, in the advance group, giving feedback to each other making positive suggestions and giving helpful tips to other riders.

Thank you to our super coaching team Renee, Francie and Jools who passed on their own mountain biking experiences and made the sessions enjoyable for all riders.

Brecon Beacons mountain bike mini break

Brecon Beacons mountain bike mini break

Inspired by the sun today we thought we would share a little video of our mini break to South Wales. Mountain biking is an awesome way to experience the outdoors and get back to nature, all of our mini breaks include wild trail rides as well as skills coaching by experienced mountain bike coaches, Pilates, comfy beds and comforting food.

To book onto our next South Wales mini break visit our weekend breaks page here. This mountain bike mini break is perfect for those who have been riding blue and red graded trails at trail centres and fancy getting off the beaten track away from signposts and going where there is less ‘traffic’. You will need a good level of fitness and have been riding a mountain bike for at least a year to enjoy the trip. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Guest Post by Finlay aged 16

Guest Post by Finlay aged 16

This is a special post by a young man called Finlay who was meant to be coming and having coaching with us whilst over in the UK from Australia. Sadly Finlay hurt himself (riding his bike of course) so couldn’t come for any riding. However he did write us a little post on riding and his dreams of down hill podiums.

Good luck Finlay!

Where does it start? The desire to go faster, to go longer, to go higher? For those who don’t know me, I’m Finlay. Currently 16 years old with a dream to become a pro downhill mountain bike racer.

At the age of nine I discovered some small jumps in my local bushland. On the heaviest BMX of the century, I was petrified to send this foot jump to flat. Later I learnt about bikes that are designed to do this sort of thing, bikes that have gears and suspension. That summer I worked all weekends to save for a mountain bike. By the end of the summer I had saved $700. A short drive to Nannup and I had a Giant Talon. It was love at first sight, the fresh paint job, 2×9 gears and a front fork. What else does a beginner need? In my Nike trainers and green tee, I was flying down local trails. With a hardtail rocks felt like boulders, with my xc tires roots were like ice and all jumps had a hard landing.

Years down the line I now have a 2014 trek session which is my main bike. My mates and I raced each other down the local trails. From there I started to race in state rounds. I fell in love with racing and have wanted to do it as a career for a long time. I’m now doing bigger jumps and going faster than I ever could have imagined. I still want to go bigger, faster, longer and higher. I wake up every day thinking that I could win a world cup because if others can do it why can’t I? I’m dedicated to working out, eating healthily and lots of practice riding. The thing that gets me up at 6am to train and what I think about when I go to bed is that I can win a DH world cup, and one day maybe I will.