Announcing NPB's First Book! (Spoiler Alert: It's About Nutrition.)
An excerpt from "The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro," just for you!
New Personal Best Nutrition has partnered with Monuments of Cycling to present The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro: Nutrition Strategieën for the Most Unique Cycling Event in the World.
I’m excited about this book for so many reasons. Although I’ve ghostwritten or edited-so-much-that-I-might-as-well-have-written a number of books, this is the first one with my name as title author.
I’m also stoked to collaborate with the organizers of one of the most badass sporting events in the world, the Belgian Waffle Ride—a series of hellacious gravel+ races that take place all over North America. Working with BWR founder Michael Marckx to help thousands of aspiring hardpeople kick ass is an absolute honor.
That said, you don’t really need to do the BWR to get a lot out of this guide. It works for anyone who likes to do hard things on bikes, covering basic nutrition, on-the-bike feeding, and all points in-between.
Full disclosure, the NPB newsletter served as thought lab for a lot of the content, so you might recognize some of the intel.
And if you’re a paid NPB subscriber, I’ll send you a copy for FREE!
Thank you in advance to everyone who buys The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro. It’s available as an ebook on Amazon. If you dig it, please give it a positive review!
Without further ado, here’s that excerpt.
Introduction: Why is this guide important?
“It never gets easier. You just eat better.”
- Greg LeMond (lightly paraphrased)
My first Belgian Waffle Beat Down Ride took place in 2014–the third edition. It rolled out in sunny Carlsbad, CA, long before BWRs took place all over the North American continent. This particular sufferfest included 30 miles of dirt, 11,500 feet of vertical, and 135 miles of pain. So much pain.
Gravel riding was a relatively novel concept back then. Most riders didn’t have a “gravel bike” per se. Instead, they’d just take their trusty road bikes off-road and pray for the best.
For me, it was brand new, but I felt I had the right stuff for a BWR. In preparation, I threw a pair of thick commuter tires on my road bike and spent a couple of mornings practicing gravel on Santa Monica Mountains fire roads. Just like that, I was super pro. Good to go!
And completely delusional.
Every damn minute punished me, from the endurance-paced 20-mile “neutral” start to the 3,000 feet of climbing in the last 15 miles. I was grossly unprepared for this race. My fitness was lacking. My gear was ill-selected. My optimism was misplaced.
Worst of all, my feeding plan completely missed the mark. This was especially humiliating considering that I worked at the time for a fitness company, Beachbody, where I created nutrition guides that helped millions hammer their workouts. I figured my foundational knowledge of sports nutrition meant I had the savvy to improvise proper food and drink for 135 miles of road and gravel.
Incorrect.
I bonked about halfway through. At first, I grossly underutilized the aid stations in the name of hauling ass. I also buried myself so deep into my pain cave that I forgot I had water bottles. Around the time I realized things were going sideways, flavor fatigue set in. Everything tasted like sand. At around mile 100, my teammate Kevin offered me an ice-cold can of soda. Physiologically, this cooling combo of water, sugar, and caffeine should have been just the ticket. Psychologically, though, I’d completely lost my mind. I threw the can back at him, shouting, “No more effing Coke!”
I hobbled across the finish line, dehydrated and exhausted. I spent the whole awards presentation barfing bile into a trash can as everyone else feasted on Belgian-inspired ale and moules frites.
It’s not that I didn’t know how to feed and hydrate properly. It’s that I didn’t take it seriously.
The following year’s BWR was different. I upgraded my rig to a Specialized Crux with tubeless Hutchinson Sectors. I trained by racing a season of cyclocross. I did every gravel grinder I could find. The whole time, I paid attention to what I ate and drank.
Leading up to race day, I seriously carb-loaded. On race day, I planned what to eat and drink, when to eat and drink, and how much to eat and drink.
My second BWR was still a hideous, leg-mangling beat-down, but I loved it—and, by my standards, I kicked ass.
Long story short, proper nutrition is pro. The BWR is a rite of passage for thousands of graveleurs. Some train for months, sometimes years, for the big weekend, spending thousands of dollars on coaches, fitters, and gram-shaving high-end bike components.
But how are you eating?
This guide is divided into four parts. Part One looks at your overall nutrition. It explains why you need protein, carbs, fat, and other nutrients. It also discusses supplementation and hydration.
Part Two dives into pre-event, cycling-specific nutrition. Briefings include fasted-state training and pre-race carb loading.
Part Three covers nutrition during the BWR.
Part Four contains three “recipe-o-matics”: simple, über-flexible recipes designed to fuel your busy training schedule with foods you dig.
The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro is not intended as a specific plan. Rather, it gives you the tools and knowledge to figure out what personally works for you as an athlete–and what doesn’t.
For a fraction of the cost of a tubeless-ready tire, it should enable you to train harder, race faster, and make the Muur Van Dubbelberg a completely doable climb. Sort of. If you’re lucky. And the wind blows the right way.