There's a few must-have recipes that every cyclist should know. Today we're breaking down five of these essential meals that can make fueling simpler, smarter, and a lot more enjoyable. I'm joined by Alan Murchison, Michelin star chef and author of the best-selling book The Cycling Chef. We give you the exact recipes that every rider should have and why good performance nutrition is about much more than just hitting your macros. Today I'm joined by Alan Murchison. Alan Murchison, welcome back to the Roadman podcast. Good to see you in the flesh. Good to be here. No more zoom screens for us. I'm back plugged in on training and diet for the last I'm not going to claim I'm world tour level here. I'm eight weeks at it, but what I've noticed in this eight weeks already is monotony is creeping into my diet. I'm pulling up Hexis every morning, looking at carbs, protein, fat based on my session and what's coming up the next day as Hexis does. I'm finding that I'm just eating Breakfast isn't too much of a challenge cuz I don't mind eating the same meal every day. I'm happy outcome with protein scoop in me oats, bagel, bit of Nutella, normally hitting the macros on that. It's lunch. Actually, you know what? It's nearly every meal. I need variety. I need I need five or so recipes that I can make on repeat that's going to give me variety in my diet and give me a bit more a bit more staying power with this diet cuz I think if I just keep eating the same stuff, it's probably going to be perfect until it's not perfect and I come totally off the rails. Yeah, for sure. I think the main thing with it is to try and get like say your protein sources from different places and I think there is very much two or three dishes that you could learn. So like pancakes for example, a pancake, you can develop a pancake to be whatever you want it to be. It could be high protein, it could be high calorie, it could be savory, it could be sweet. So if you understand something as simple as how to make a pancake butter, if you've got that in the fridge, you know what? You could have that with chopped avocado, you could have it with smoked salmon, pumpkin seeds, pineapple, you know And and that's then a complete meal. It could be high in carbohydrate, high in calories, high in protein. Alternatively, you know, it's a perfect pre-race because you can make that low fiber and you can make it extremely high carbohydrate by using maple syrup, you know, some jam on top of it, even something as simple as What do you make How do you make the base of a pancake? of a pancake is basically eggs, flour, and milk. It is something as simple as that. And I can give you a base recipe for it. But it's something that can be made in advance. So I think if you understand how you can tweak recipes to your training demands. And I And I think it's great now that you've got things like Hexis and Fuel and there's a number of these kind of applications that give you macros. The problem with that is you could follow the macros and eat a really unhealthy diet. That's what I'm falling into. I'm kind of going, "Lunch, all right, I need 140 g." I'm going down to the shop. I live above a shop, which is [ __ ] Sorry, Darren, if you're listening. It's a [ __ ] convenience store. And then I'm looking and going, "Right, I need to have nine slices of white bread here." And I'll just Yeah. And what you've got to think of is what is that doing to your gut cuz essentially you've got bleached white flour and a [ __ ] load of additives. So I think the thing with it is you need to also think health and well-being. And I think that's something that is To let's Let's exaggerate for effect. You could say I'm hitting the carbs. It could just be pure sugar. It might not be complex carbs so like potatoes have got other nutrients. It could be wholemeal bread. It could be sourdough bread. It could be whole grain pasta, farro, quinoa, orzo. All of these things have got additional benefits other than carbs. So if you were say, "Right, I've got say a three-week block, so three weeks on, one week off per se as a normal training routine." And you're not taking care of macronutrients, micronutrients, health and well-being, you just follow macros. You could hit the macros, but by the end of the three weeks you could be a shell because you're not actually having any nutrients within your food. is 100% what I'm doing at the minute. Yeah. And that's it. So theoretically, carbs could be What is that? Is that sugar? Is that white bread? Is it white rice? Or is it Let's again go a little bit the other way, is it whole grain bread? Is it whole grain rice? Is it Is it, you know, what is it? What are the carbs you're having? Fat, what are you drinking? Olive oil? Are you having chopped avocado? Or are you having nuts? Are you having seeds? Are you having grains? Are you having oily fish? And with protein, again, all protein isn't equal. So, I would always say that if you mix up the protein sources, so you can get protein from, obviously, plant-based protein, which is pretty good, easy on the gut, widely available. You can use, say, eggs, dairy products, and then use meat and fish. All of them bring something to the party. So, I would say a good way of doing it would say, "Okay, these are my macros I need to hit for the week, which is cool." And then on the other side, you say, "Okay, how am I going to look after my health and well-being?" Cuz you could supplement the [ __ ] out of that. But supplementation is not a replication for a good food. So, I would say, you know, I've seen a lot of stuff about eating 10 to 12 fruits and veg a day and everything else, but just be sensible about it. And again, it doesn't need to be an expensive middle-class hobby. Which you can think, you know, you're buying mangoes, papayas, you know, passion fruit, all that expensive imported [ __ ] You can get stone fruit for next to nothing. You can buy frozen berries, you know, so But where does it start? Like, so, you know, you and Jerome is now is a great example. Working hard for the last few days, we're banging out podcasts every day. It's been I would say impossible, but I I couldn't figure it out. But I've been eating [ __ ] in restaurants and snacking when I can in between stuff. Now I'm going into 10 days where I'll get the head down, focus on training, have a good balance with Yeah.
And I'll try and cook here most days. But going to the supermarket, I'm just kind of walking around without a plan when I go there. I don't really know what where to start. I I think the thing is, obviously, you know, there's the old famous saying of you've got You've got to feel for the work required. Breakfast, for example, you know, if you have, say, something like a bircher muesli. A bircher muesli is essentially a cold porridge. So, you're going to take 50 g of oats, 50 g of Greek yogurt, 100 ml of apple juice, some chia, some flax, mix that together, gives you the base. But you then add, say, some frozen berries, which you can buy in Mercadona for €1.50 a bag, or you add fresh berries, bananas, maple You've got everything you need in that. And if you can't take 50 50 g of oats and 50 g of yogurt and 100 mils of apple juice, you need to take a hard look at yourself, cuz you're playing at it. And it's as simple as that. And if you're saying, "I don't want to have a shit." Heat it up. It's porridge. It doesn't need to be overcomplicated. And when you're finishing a ride, like you want to finish here, you might want a little beer. You know, to have a tortilla. What is it? What's in a tortilla? It's potatoes and eggs. It's protein and carbs. You don't need to overcomplicate it. You really, really don't. So I would say, if you can do a carby breakfast and a carbon protein baked lunch a base based lunch, which could be You can go and buy a Spanish tortilla for €3. For €3. Yeah. In any supermarket, it's that size. It That is a complete meal. You have it with some salad, you got carbs, protein, nutrients from your salad, and some chopped tomatoes. Where's the problem in that? And at dinner, again, it doesn't need to be overcomplicated. I would say that you have an I wish you would I'll give you some recipes for show notes. Like, you're going to do a curry. Let's say you're doing a Thai curry. Curry sounds a lot like my comfort zone here. Let's go. This is superb. So if you've got a slow cooker, a rice cooker, or a pan, you can do that. So if you think, "Let's do a Thai red curry." You're going to get red lentils, you can buy them anywhere. Tin of chickpeas, less than a euro. Root vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions. That's your base. And you get But the thing is, what again you've got to think of is what what you're doing tomorrow, what did you do yesterday. So the hypothetical Anthony scenario, day two of three, you're going to go out and do the course loop. You're going to go out with a group of locals that are going to kick your head in, right? You need to fuel that and then you're going to go out tomorrow and you want to go and do El Far, or you want to go and do some big or up loop. Brilliant. So you need calorifically dense food. If you want to lose weight, you tweak it. So, your base recipe, if you use say you get your root vegetables, your lentils, all that lovely stuff. And if you want to put chicken or tofu, it doesn't matter. But what I would say is if you make that base up and use tinned tomatoes, for example, great example, a tin of tomatoes is 60 calories. Two tins of tomatoes is 120 calories. Perfect. That means it'll be a low-calorie, relatively low-calorie meal. If you want to maintain weight, use light coconut milk. It's 300 calories. If you've come an absolute shell of a man that you need to get calories, but you can't you don't want to be full, use full-fat coconut milk. It's 600 calories a tin. So, you've literally got 60, 300, 600. So, that plate of curry, that could be 600 calories with 100 calories of 100 g of raw weight cooked rice, or it could be 1,300 calories for no more effort. And it's like you have a birchermuesli, you put a tablespoon of nut butter on there, a tablespoon of maple and a banana. You've suddenly increased the calories by twice. So, I think if you have an oat-based base breakfast, you've always got oats there widely available, do an egg-based lunch. So, it could be poached eggs, scrambled eggs, omelette, or frittata. These are sort of rules now that are brilliant, because now you're I'm starting to think about like what am I getting when I order a shop? Now I'm thinking right, well do I have the oats for the oat-based breakfast? Easy. And it is inexpensive. So, you go to Mercadona. Mercadona is your Asda kind of bottom-end Tesco level supermarket. So, if you go in there, you will see athletes queuing up. So, if you buy a kilo of oats, a kilo of frozen berries, and a kilo tub of yogurt, and a carton of apple juice, and a carton of say a plant-based milk like oat or almond, that's your breakfast. Breakfast done. That's breakfast done. And that And then if you add nut butter or maple, or nuts and seeds, or any other [ __ ] on top of it, you can make it more calorific, but your base is basically protein, being your yogurt, and oats, which is your carbohydrate. And your fruit is going to give you your nutrients, so that'll give you health and well-being. So we're zooming into this kind of this idea of five recipes I can use on rotation. So I'm going to take pancakes and they're oat-based. And I'm I'm two down now. That's two down now. So I'm on to lunch. You're saying egg-based. Egg-based. So again, learn how to poach an egg, learn how to make an omelet, because that's giving you protein. And to add, say, like a frittata, for example, you can make a frittata. What's in frittata? Potato and egg? Basically, that's it. You can buy one. Like here, I'd buy it. I'd go to Mercadona and buy them, because you have a frittata and you can actually look at what's in it. It's eggs and it's eggs, which is protein, and potatoes, which is carbs. It's like, what the hell? Have salad with it. But if you're super hungry, have smoked salmon with it. Or, you know, you can have cook a piece of chicken. Poached eggs. Like poached eggs on toast is a perfect meal, but let's not overcomplicate it. Like beans on toast with a fried egg is a perfect meal. It's gourmet. It is. You know, so that's the problem with food. It's like everybody wants to overcomplicate it and make it all Michelin stars with burgers, shoveling [ __ ] It doesn't need to be like that. So I would learn how to make an omelet, which you need a nonstick pan, which you can buy anywhere for €10, because an omelet can be anything you want it to be.
I would learn either how to poach eggs or make a frittata. And if you do an egg-based lunch, so you go by Pinch of Salt, you buy yourself a sourdough loaf, you toast sourdough, and you have poached eggs with it. If you're depleted, you add avocado. If you're depleted with a day big day the next day, you add avocado and smoked salmon. So a piece of bread with a poached egg, avocado, or smoked salmon, depending on what you're doing, cuz poached eggs on toast is perfect for lunch. And I think most of us get the idea of especially if we're using apps like Hexis, Yeah. portion size and manipulating that. Yeah. It's like it's that question you've already kind of answered. It's like, what are we manipulating? We're manipulating the amount of bread, the amount of eggs. Once I have that part, I'm fine. But it's like the part I get stuck on is like I come in from a ride, I'm like, "Shit, I'm on 140 g." Got downstairs by getting lucky. talking banging into each other. The the the other thing is I'm funny and this is what important This is why not it's great. It's great. But forget about the human. How are you feeling? And what's a hard rate? Cuz you say I'm going to go out for a hard rate. Well, what's a hard rate? So, a hard rate for me is something that's either is stressing your system physically or mentally. A hard rate here could be you're going out for 2-hour coffee ride. You bump into a couple of world tour pros. Suddenly, that's 3 hours. And you've got somebody got a finger under your thumb the whole time. And you've gone out on a one bidon and suddenly it's 120 g carbs per hour kind of ride and you've got 750 g of electrolyte. You're [ __ ] mate. You have absolutely got no chance. How you You know, how did you sleep last night? Did you have two Guinnesses in the Irish bar? So, I think that's where you need the human element of it cuz the map was could be correct, but did you fuel at the appropriate level for your zone? So, you're a coach, you understand the physiology, but your sleep, the external stresses, all of those things add to your recovery and your power. So, I'd say use it as a guide, but if it's saying what you need X amount of carbon or you need X amount of protein, I always think there's this needs to be a human. How do you feel? You know, how's your mental clarity? Yeah, cuz So, So, we got we got three meals. We'll we'll zoom back to the two in a minute, but even the jump on that cuz that's super interesting. Food for a long time hasn't been carbs, protein, fats. We've been eating since people have been breathing. Yeah. It's been bringing Well, we're going to go for a pizza after this. It's bringing people together. It's community. It's conversations. It's bonding. It's negotiations. It's marriage proposals. There's something very human about breaking bread. Yeah. And when we do reduce it to carbs, protein, I we got to be careful not to lose what it historically has been. Oh, for sure. And the thing is as well, if you think about cycling and we we know this is what we're all about. There's a lot of I I Nobody's having any sacrifices here. It's investments. You know, riding your bike is an investment in your health and your well-being. It's It's It's a first-class problem to have, but if you think about it, if you can bring a group of people around the table and you've got a meal that hits everything, it's comforting, it's cheap, it's accessible, and by all chances it hits your macronutrient content, that's a superb thing. So, I think we should never forget that if you want a long career either as a professional or an amateur that you want to enjoy your sport, if you suck the joy out of it with food, you're not going to enjoy the sport. You know what I mean? And there's the odd athlete here and there that could literally just eat anything. You know, they would just literally eat white rice, chicken, and broccoli. They're rare because I just think that's an opportunity that we can all as a as a team of people, as a community team, you know, it could be your wife, could be your partner, could be your husband, you sit around the table and you all come together. So, a really easy way to do that if you've got a neurotic or a semi-neurotic athlete in your ways, just make sure that the carbs and the protein are split out. So, then it can be you know, again, imagine you and Mrs. Anthony are sitting down for dinner, you're on a program, she's keeping house. Your requirements are very very different. So, what you need to do is you need to put a meal together that she can find interesting and educational and you know, it ticks all the boxes for that's healthy, it's got a beautiful texture, oh this is actually really really nice. And you say, "Shit, where's the protein and carbs?" I think if you lose that little bit of intelligence, then food can be just a chore. And I hear this all the time, "I don't have time." Or, you know, "I don't like recipes cuz they're over complicated." And I would say 90% cooking is irrelevant. It's complete [ __ ] It doesn't matter. So, it doesn't matter whether you're having quinoa, brown rice, white rice, potatoes, packet couscous, it doesn't matter. There's your carbs. And your protein, it could be tofu, it could be salmon, it could be mackerel. Your body doesn't know where the protein's coming from. But if you can make it interesting and you can involve people in it, I think this is the key. And like in the restaurant, if anybody ever said, "Oh, we we customers." I'd have them by the throat. We don't have customers, we have guests. We welcome people. That's a real Mitchell thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not It's not a customer. McDonald's have customers. They come in, they pay their money, they get their product, and they [ __ ] off. You're giving an experience. you're giving an experience, and you're welcoming people in and you're giving it care and you're giving it attention, and you want people to feel valued. And it's no different if somebody's coming around for dinner. Like, when they come around for dinner, you're thinking, "Oh, I know they're on a bit of a training block." Or, "You know what? I know they're on off-season." Or, "Do you know what? They're coming with a partner that doesn't ride." Let's not make this a draconian affair. Let's make this inclusive, not exclusive. You're very right on the experience though. Where was I in London? What's the nice Indian restaurant in Shoreditch? Is it Dishoom or Dishoom? I'm about out of the restaurant scene at the moment, so I'm not You probably know more than I do at the moment.
Yeah, it was a lovely Indian restaurant. I was there with my Mrs. Sarah a few months ago. And just the whole experience is lovely. You walk in, and even if your table's not ready, Yeah. you're shown to the bar, you're given a drink. we get a drink at the bar? Yeah, we'll do it. We'll leave you the menu. No, we are so in the [ __ ] we don't have your table because three members of staff didn't turn up cuz they were out taking cocaine last night. It's not like that. It's like, "Oh, lovely. See you. How How was your journey? Wicked? Oh, super. I'll tell you what, we we've got a bottle of champagne for you. Would you like a glass? And the menu here is a special." So, suddenly they've flipped a negative into a positive. You just think, "Oh, champagne. Oh, I've got a menu. Oh, the special. Wow, it's brilliant." And what we we used to do in the restaurant all the time was if we were in the [ __ ] and like somebody had [ __ ] something up or there was a problem on a table, I'd send out like an extra course, right? And I would say to the guys, "Right, I need two salmon and two salmon." And then to So, what I might Anya, who was my operations girl, I would go, "Anthony, I want you to have a special dish to let you try before your main course." And you'd come out and you'd have a little confit salmon with some horseradish. You'd go, "Wow, we're getting to try the new menu." No, he's in the [ __ ] He's just about to murder somebody. He's dropped a hundred pounds worth of turbot on the floor. Because you got Oh, I've got a little I've got a little extra course. And then they come back to you, "How was it? You know, you know, a little or a little waiting salad. You do you know, a little a little extra salad. lose that? Like that feeling you're talking about that the customer gets from that. Yeah. Cuz that becomes, like you say, from a a transaction to an experience, from a customer to a guest. Yeah. There's a happiness value in that that I don't know anecdotally all the athletes I know that win races are happy they perform best when they're happiest. But do we lose that in food? Can we capture that? I think the main thing in in in in this world. So, if you've got a restaurant and you got a high-performing athlete, the first thing that anybody wants to know, they don't care how clever you are, they just want to know you care. And that's emotional intelligence, and this is something that's really important. So, if for you what's important to you is that your food's served at a certain temperature and it's a certain dish or, you know, for example, that the meal's split out. So, opposed to having a a complete meal like a paella, for example, you've got the protein and carbs in together. We know that you are wanting to lose a couple of kilos or you want to be in shape for this race, we split them out. We don't make you feel comfortable. It's just making people feel valued, and I've always tried to do that with the athletes that I work with. So, before races, you know, we all know ahead of big races, especially if athletes aren't carrying great form, they're particularly um quirky, you know, that that their their behavior is pretty acute. So, what I will always try and do is just make it so personal, put a note on the table, you know, put a note on a box or, you know, if you're if you're giving them pre-race stuff and and you're portioning it up, just make sure that it's just got a human touch to it. Do you know what I mean? It's about like um I work with an amazing athlete called Laura Stigger. And I first bumped into Laura at Worlds, I think, in 2018. And we were there with British Cycling in Innsbruck. And British Cycling were brilliant because we knew everything about everybody. We knew who the competition were. And at the time, our two women in the junior road race were I've got a really bad memory for stuff but stuff like this I remember. It was Pfeiffer Georgi and it was Eleanor Baxter. And we knew what we were going to do. We knew how we could win the race. And this this girl just [ __ ] off up the road. There was a girl called Laura Steiger who did one road race to qualify and then won worlds. No way. But she knew the course cuz she practiced on it. So, this little girl did one race and won worlds. Have you ever heard of that? So, I know I work with this girl and Laura is just so down to earth. You know, she lives with her family in this beautiful Austrian village. And And there was one time I was doing breakfast up for her before a race and she took a banana out the fruit bowl and cut the end off it because it was black. You know, cuz it had a black end to a bit of banana. So, instead of supposed to be a princess, give me yellow banana. She cut the end off cuz you know, that was her way. You know, she's a homely girl. And uh she won the race. So, I then the next time I was doing pre-race breakfast, cut the ends off and said, "Laura is such a [ __ ] diva. She only eats the straight bit of a banana." So, now whenever I'm doing breakfast for her, I cut the ends off and she eats half a banana, but she only eats the middle half. And it's become this You know, she's sat at a race, she's on her own, she's having breakfast and she gets the half banana. And what that does is it's positive reinforcement. I'm trying to make light of the situation. The last time she ate the middle of a banana, she won it. So, that's super important. She's having rice cooked in sugar and milk. Maybe it's why Mariah Carey only eats green Skittles. Could It could be. Like it Maybe she had a amazing performance. But what I'm trying to do is put the human into the fact that I'm just wanting to get And it's reconnecting to the process. Absolutely. But it's also that little tongue-in-cheek. It's like she just looks at it and she smiles. And All right, if anybody's about, I just say, "You know, Laura's a diva. She only eats the middle bit." And she just looks at me and they go, "She really? Oh, yeah, she does." But it does a few things. It decompresses an athlete on a high stress moment. It's a positive reinforcement where prior good experience. It also gives a bit of context to it.
We're just racing bikes. We're racing bikes. But it was just connecting with the human element of it. It's like really really we want to get 3 g of carbohydrate per kilo body weight down your neck. We don't care how you do it. I'm putting the human element into it of actually cutting the ends of a banana cuz I remember that she did well and we laughed about the only reason And And it's just that side of it. So, I think it's the same in restaurants, you know, I used to have people come to restaurants who have spent [ __ ] loads of money and they like to sit on a particular table or they like a particular wine or there was a particular dish which I particularly didn't like cooking but I'd cook for them. So, I think it's that connection is really, really important and I think you can do that with food and especially around athletes. I think people run the risk of taking themselves far too seriously in the in sport and because they've got a short career, they want to enjoy it and I think with food it's something that is there's an opportunity to bring everybody together around the table and and make it fun and frivolous but also connect with the fact is we're still going to hit our macros and this is still performance food but it doesn't need to be joyless and I think that's something that's really important that you can make sure that it's stuff you like and and good food. You know what good food is? First of all, good food is something you enjoy and something you afford and I think I tried to throw one into that and say context. Context. It's absolute It's It's context and people often say to me, "Ah, you know, what's the best meal you've ever eaten? Yeah, where's the best restaurant?" And you know what? Every single amazing food experience I've had, it's been the person and the environment. Like you could eat like I I remember one time going to do a food tour in Chicago and there was a famous American chef who burned bright for a number of years called Charlie Trotter and this guy was avant-garde. He was a He was a free thinker. He was doing amazing [ __ ] I want to go to Chicago to eat his food. I was flying to Chicago to have one meal. So, I first of all, I emailed the restaurant and said I'm coming for 3 days, can you could I have a table anytime lunch or dinner? Get in. Sorry, we're full. We're full. [ __ ] I know you're not full. Then I thought Then I thought, I don't want to use this card. I'm a Michelin star chef in the UK. I hate saying that cuz that's just wanky. I really, really Let me tell you mate, I got three restaurants with Michelin stars. I've got more stars than you, you prick. Anyway, that's but I I So, I thought let's do let's let's play this differently. I'm just going to start with this. I'm a huge fan of yours. I've got all your books. I'm in town for 3 days. I would welcome the opportunity." I'm writing this guy. And I'm dying to say to the [ __ ] "We're full." I was like, "Man, I thought I'm not doing anymore. You want me to pull my pants down?" Anyway, then so I then went to my old boss swimming blog went, "RB, do you know Charlie?" He went, "Yeah." I said, "Is he a prick?" He went, "A bit." I said, "Get me a table." He got me a table. His PA said, "One of Raymond's protégés wants to come and bow down at your temple." So, I was already on [ __ ] red alert when I got there. But, I wanted to still go. I was flying to Chicago to just to eat the food. And I walked in and they said, "Oh, would you like a glass of champagne?" Absolutely no problem. Sit down. Glass of champagne. There was a lipstick mark on the glass. So, 10 years of PR, marketing, books, dreams, and visions were blown like that. They gave us the menu. There was a typing error and there was a mark on the corner. There was a [ __ ] typo on a menu that was $500 a head. A typo. How has this happened? How has something like it's Excellence is always about details. Th- It doesn't matter whether it's Microsoft, whether it's Specialized Factory Racing, whether it's It's details. They had a typo. A typo on the menu. I was like, "Guys, seriously? Has nobody checked this?" And the menu was dirty. I went to the toilets. Toilets hadn't been cleaned after lunch service. So, my points of contact were gone already. So, they could have done anything after that. And it was a moderate experience because it was it was exclusive, not inclusive. There was a lack of attention to detail and there was an arrogance about it. And they lost me completely. Like they could have put anything on the plate and it was a very moderate meal. But, you know what? If I'd been in London, that restaurant would have closed down after 3 months because they were they were ahead of the game and they were living on their reputation, but they weren't self-critical and they weren't aware. So, I think with food is my best experience. It It could be Do you know what? It could be breakfast in bed, the first time you slept over with a new partner. It could be, you know, it could be a little bit of grilled chicken on the beach in the Caribbean but it's the sun between your toes. You know what I mean? It'd be a kebab at 4:00 in the morning after we've been out on the lash. I came in where's beyond the camera there in Spain last week as mental course. That was where's 2:00 or something. I wanted those spins, you know, where just everything's gone wrong. It's I seen a mate of mine who's a pilot. I He was coming in as I was going out and he's like, "Oh, you're only going out?" And I was like, "Yeah, yeah." Um we we chatted for a minute or two and he's like, "Best of luck, mate. Be safe." And I was like, "What's he talking about? Be safe." Like And I was like, "What does he know that I don't?" Fast forward anyway 2 and 1/2 3 hours. Storms come in. I'm getting lashed in sleet and 2°. 60 k an hour winds. You know, trucks going past me. I'm punctured. Of course you puncture. I've punctured all year but of course I puncture. Uh get back to the apartment like soaked, dripping, can't feel my hands. Like I can't even get my zip off. Get a thing of soup in the the shop downstairs. Best soup ever. Every rider chases that feeling. The one where the bike just disappears. Where the pedals turn easy and the road hums beneath you.
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Yeah, a red ambulance, you know, or and that's the thing is I think quite often it's it's the environment and it's the experience. It's not necessarily the food on the plate cuz the food on the plate can be technically correct, but it can be a bad experience and I think you can't replicate that, you know, and and there certainly is as with high-performance athletes who are in training, you know, you can you can create something that's pretty special just because environmentally it's correct and and secondly it's what you need at that time. So There's so many good lessons on what you said there. Like around you've you've data points. So you're picking up data points in that experience in Chicago. Yeah. If we know each other 20 years and I mess up and have a typo on a thing, you're like, "Oh no, I'm 20 years. I have a million data points that he's a 10 out of 10 guy, that it's a 10 out of 10 service." Yeah, yeah. This is data point number 1 million and 1. It's weighted against the prior context. When you go there and you've data point number one, typo. Data point number two, lipstick on the glass. Data point number three, I think this is about bike riders and diet and in general, you can almost tell who's going to win a race Uh by how they packed their bag. absolutely. The the habits and performances are a good. I've I've I think for about 10 years now I I do race reports for myself and turn race reports. I've got some great stuff. It would be a great book when, you know, at some point, but I I keep notes. Give yourself a team talk cuz this might be a problem. I just do habits and behaviors and and I and the habits and behaviors rarely are they misaligned with performance. Like there's there's one time that I spoke to Mike Posthumus is a performance director at Specialized recently about it. I said, "It's really wrong." I said, "It's happened once that I didn't see a truly world-class performance based around the habits I saw on the on the table. Once I've seen it in in 4 years with Spesh and used to see it with BC all the time. Like when you when you were there, you could see those habits and behaviors. Um rarely are those two things misaligned because if somebody's on as in on and they got the legs and they got the confidence, they'll be confident and eloquent around the food. But if they're under eating or over eating or they're missing meals, quite often they're scratching at straws so they're undercooked or overcooked. And that kind of that that awareness is actually then gets transferred to the food. So it's very very rare. I'm thinking I'm just thinking of one race uh in that I remember seeing one of our riders that I didn't see it coming based on his habits. Yeah. Based purely on how they are because it wasn't dialed. You know, it wasn't time keeping, portion control, the way they ate. The feedback that that the feed the feedback portion control attention to detail circle wasn't there. And I think you'll see it with certain people with bikes as well. It's like rare that somebody turns up that the bike's not quite there or the equipment's not there or their bag's messy. And there will be there will be outliers, but I I just think high performance habits and behaviors and I think I heard Iwan talk about this as well is that that's what you learn in those environments is those behaviors. And those behaviors and habits It's how you do anything so you do everything. Yeah, exactly. And some people get it and some people don't. But I think being able to switch it on, you know, absolutely able to turn it on and and you know, if I look see like Victor Koretzky who I work with. Like Victor's had a fairly challenging year this year, you know, he's welcomed another child into the family, you know, he's crashed a couple of times. He's had a couple of bad crashes this Yeah, he's he's he's he's he's had a he's had he's had a a few seasons worth of bad luck, you know, he he snapped a chain in a race, he's crashed, you know, he crashed in training and and and pronged himself which for somebody who's so technically correct all the time is hard. And then what he did was he adapted his habits and behaviors to kind of turn up at worlds. So, you know, he took himself away. He went away from racing and he just concentrated on the controllable, the things that he could control, you know, what time he get up, where he ate, how much he could sleep, altitude, all those KPIs which for him for us as a high performance athlete. He just turned up and he won worlds off no form. Off no form at all. Like actual Who's going to win it? What, the current world champion? Nah, he's been [ __ ] all year. So, I think it's being able to apply it and actually just dial it in and I I think, you know, we might have talked about it before, but it's well known that, you know, if you say with food, if you do off-season 70/30, 70% good stuff. Good stuff as in stuff you should be eating and 30% [ __ ] your Pringles and your chocolate and beers and all that other [ __ ] which don't add anything to performance. And then if you can just dial it in as you get closer to whatever your key Like a dimmer switch. Yeah, just dimmer it. Just dimmer switch it in and, you know, the 2 3 weeks before you're dialed in. Like the first ever truly world class athlete I worked with was Gwen Jorgensen who we started working together a year out from Rio Olympics and I I connected with her husband and I remember Gwen was about 3 or 4 months before Rio Olympics.
Like prior to that she was unbeaten, you know, she had the longest winning streak in triathlon history. And her and Pat went and did this went to Scandinavia and she's been eating McDonald's like 4 months to Olympics cuz she just knew that the 10 weeks they were weighing rice, you know, they were weighing water, you know, they were doing all the [ __ ] they can. So, they went I'm sure they took a week off and went to Scandinavia on holiday with with non-structured training. And all their all their competitors at 12 weeks out, you know, literally the women were all like sub 12% body fat, they're on the scale three times a day. Gwen's swimming in the sea, chilling, going out for like social rides, eating McDonald's. And that meant that she could dial in. So, I think I think there's a lot to be said when like I'm I'm going to write an article um soon about Christmas time, you know, cuz everybody's going oh, what do you eat at Christmas? Get over yourself. Cuz what you eat on the 25th of December, unless you're racing on the 26th, has zero zero outcome for your performance goals later in the year. Darren Rafferty, we just chatted with him yesterday on the pod, and he said he'll just press pause on that five-day block. Get over yourself. Get over yourself. Get get some credit. Get some family credit. You know what I mean? Sit down, you know, eat the dessert that your auntie Mary's made, which is disgusting, you know, have the overcooked turkey. Just get over yourself, and then just get back on, which it means I think if you can be off off, it means you can be on on. And I'm quite used I'm I'm chunky at the moment. I think to have a 10% weight swing is perfectly healthy. It's normal, you know. Use time We We're doing it at the moment. Like if you look at Julian just now, the people that live here are all having drinks, you know, that actually they're having a a normal life. So it means that then when you do have to literally take the scoop and start weighing [ __ ] and and start just really applying yourself, you can apply it. So I mean, being kind to yourself is something that's really important as well. Those high-performance habits are really interesting. It's kind of two mantras I have going into the new year. Uh one of them is there's no shortcuts for you. No. Like the shortcut If other people want to take shortcuts, fine. There's no shortcuts for you. That's one of mine. I think it's it's applicable in business and sport for me. It's like there's always a new hack, a new AI solution, a new Yeah. But I had a great mentor, and he said to me, "You can't outsource push-ups." There's work that needs to get done, and there's no shortcut for me getting there. And the other one is I'll know. I know. The thing is with It's what you're talking about, like you're getting dialed in. And And now you're being thrown especially the world that you work in, you know, you're you got a essentially a podcast as a promotional business, and I'm I'm sure you can get all sorts of magical potions and lotions. You've got to match your training load to your food. You've got to just strip out all the [ __ ] and you're much better to eat real food and actually do the work. And when you want to get dialed in with your weight and your energy levels, you just got to start counting calories and just being fastidious about what you eat. It doesn't need to be bought. It doesn't need to be boring, but I just think there's no shortcut for just a little bit of attention to detail and actual common sense. Um and the other thing as well from from yourself, like you obviously cycled at a reasonable level before. You don't win the Tour de France, but you were you were good is you've got to ask yourself, what does success look like for Anthony? Because what success looks like now is very different. So, and once you once you then recognize that, it's then I think that's what it looks like. So, if your main goal is something that you're passionate about, but isn't going to be life-changing, then the application is so. Whereas, if you said, "Look, I think I can win world championships next year." Or I genuinely think I can win the Olympics. The application and the attention to detail just gets dialed in that bit more. You know what? I've been thinking about this question cuz a lot of people have been asking cuz I've been dialed now for 8 weeks or so, barred the last 2 days and I've been out in Girona recording. Everything's been weighed. Yeah. Dropped 8 kg. Power's going the right direction. I was like 60 W gone onto the 3-minute power in the last period. It's all right. It's getting pretty decent. I'm up to 500 now. It's getting It's getting all right. Like You'll be all right if you're a 23-year-old girl. Yeah. See, this is the thing, isn't it? But I'm thinking about like what difference like what's the outcome? What are you training for? What are you and I was like That was maybe the difference between chapter one and now chapter two. Chapter one, I'm training for something that's a It's national. It's whatever UCI race. Chapter two, it's like, yeah, there will be events, but I'm really enjoying the process. Yeah, it's a I'm enjoying fully committing to the process as if there's a world championships at the end. And having that dialed, I'm enjoying running that template of sacrifice. And there's something very cleansing or cathartic about that. It's quite visceral as well, isn't it? Cuz you can feel it. You can actually And it's difficult to explain to people that have never really applied themselves cuz a lot of people don't apply themselves. And I think, yeah, it's the process. I'm I'm in a very similar situation. I only pinned a number on once in the last 2 years. I miss racing. You know, I love being at races, but I miss racing. And so, all I've done is I've worked backwards. I thought, "There's a mountain bike race in Banyoles in February. It's 10 weeks." I I enter the mountain bike race. That's what I've done. That's my process. And then I'm working back. So, this week's social, next week's social with macros, the following week's social macros. And I'm just doing it in bite-size blocks. Like, I'm not riding with, say, Bjorn Riley, local mountain bike ball. I'm not riding with him at the moment cuz I I don't have the skills to be I'm not ready. And I'm just basically doing it. But, mine was I know all I want to do is just basically get my head kicked in well and be the best version of myself. But, I think you've got to find out what works for you.
And um I think very much that it it's hard when you're an amateur cuz you don't want to be one of these people that's just, you know, just talking about like amateur sport and middle-class, middle-age sport all the time. But, that process is the same as I I I still operate in a very meticulous way with food at home. So, if you went into my cupboards, everything's lined up would be in a mission style. Everything's appropriate. I buy two of everything. I've got back up of everything. Like, the the way my kitchen is set up, even though, you know, it's a domestic kitchen. If I showed you my cupboards, you'd laugh. Everything is lined up. All the spices are in a line. There's three of everything. And when I get get to two left, I buy another one. You know, I I stock rotate. The fridge is set up in a certain way. You know, it's like the fridge is set up in a certain way. I still have my raw protein at the top at the bottom. I still It's still done. That process is still there. Because it matters to you. to me. And this is what I maybe didn't get or when I have conversations people like, "Oh, why would someone put that commitment in? They're 54 years old. They have a family. They have a job. Why are they committing that much?" Because it matters to them. And it matters to them just as much as Tour matters to them. Absolutely. And and it's habits. And habits, as you know, good and bad. Habits are hard to break. So, you have those habits that they were There's either a right way or a wrong way of doing it. For for me, there's right there's a right way of putting your stuff in the cupboard. And that And it's a non-negotiable. That's the way it is. It's just like, "What Why would anybody not do that?" It just It's illogical. And it's a bit like with training. When you come over to my gaff, my my sister's cracks on this and I'm unloading the dishwasher, you know, like most people have she'll have like, you know, fork section, knife section. Yeah. Yeah. I just get them loaded, toss them in. You and I would We wouldn't be married. But I couldn't I couldn't do it. That would cause me trauma. You know what I mean? But it's no different. So, if you think if you apply that kind of perverse, somewhat I would say obsessive logic to training, whether you're training for some national race or whatever, you'd apply the same thing when you were trying to be the best person of a pro. And I'm exactly the same. Like I Like I I never raced elite cycling by any stretch of imagination, but I still want to I still want to win and I still want to give the best that I possibly can. And And And in some respects, I find it frustrating when you've got people who are so physiologically gifted and you just want to get them slap them like that and say, "Do you know what? If you just did that." But would you then ruin the athlete? You know, and and you know, would you ruin that? And And you know, so there's certain athletes I work with at the moment that are that are quite free spirits. And if you try and get them to conform, would you lose that real high performance? I don't know. I think you possibly can. Yeah. I don't know. I've always enjoyed it. I think life's tricky. Life's harsh. I enjoy the process of saying I'm going to do something and then continuing to do it long after the mood I said it in has left me. Yeah. For me, that's commitment. And that's what that means. Yeah. And I think that's where, you know, we we we could again have 3 hours talking about, you know, the benefits or negatives of social media. And that's where I think something like social media can be a real positive because I think there's a huge amount of negatives in current society um about how social media and how people are portrayed. But I think if you want accountability, that's a good way of doing it because you're basically putting it out there. And then you can be held accountable to your actions. And I think that's something that's lacking these days, is that you know, people aren't held accountable. And if you can hold yourself accountable, and even if that's to be the best cyclist in your street, or the best in your county, or the best in your nation, I just think it's really important. And But do you care what the like I care so little about social media? I think. I I don't care about it, but But I care massively what five people in my life think. Yeah, yeah. I I I I care that I've given it the best crack that I can. And I think I get really frustrated when I just I don't think I've done myself justice, you know, personally or professionally. And I think that self-critical means self-aware. Do you know, was that actually the best version I could be? That's something I think is really important. And again, I think that's a habit and a behavior of high performers, that if you back to my mantra, I'll know. Yeah, you'll know, and I'll know. You know, I'll know if I've been if I've been, you know, looking at food and everything else, and I go out and eat a dirty burger, you know. You know when you get to the start line? Like you're on the start line. Race hasn't started. And you have that quiet, smug feeling that from the moment you committed to saying you're going to do this to the start line, I've done everything I could to get here in the best possible shape. Yeah. And you feel like, you know, if you're in shape to win that race, you've a quiet confidence that you've done more than other people have. Yeah. And I love that feeling. That's where I'll know comes from. Cuz maybe I could have skipped that 4-hour training ride and went on the coffee ride and we missed the spot. I'll know. No one else on the start line will know, but I'll know. No, and I think especially especially when it's amateur, I think when you're professional, it's much easier, cuz it's your job. And and you know, you're being paid to do a job, and and and somebody will pull you up, you know, a performance director, or a coach, or somebody who's got access to training peaks, or whatever will do it. But I think I think in some respects, it's harder for amateurs, because you've got other things that you're podcasting. This is This is your job. It's what you do. You know, it pays your bills. You know, why are you then worrying about it? So, I think in some respects it's harder and nobody cares whether you do well or not, apart from you and your misses, cuz you'd be untenable if you don't.
Nobody else cares, nobody gives a [ __ ] really. Nobody cares. On the podcast it's like nobody cares. I don't know, people listen to your podcast don't care if you've just gone out and done your best 5 minute 10 minute podcast. where the coaching relationship is so much because you're paying someone to care. Yeah, yeah. And you And you know the ironic thing is is I I work with quite a lot of coaches and the coaches that I know that still ride themselves all have coaches. I have a coach. Yeah, yeah. I I love it. I'm the same. Do you know what I do? When I am when I when I'm really going to dial in dial in dial in and I need to cut so I know how to do it. I know how I'm going to lose weight and I know what dishes I'm going to eat. I can cook them. I know exactly what I've got to do. Do you know what I do? I I play with my with my weak spot. I get my ex misses. I send her my data, my ex girlfriend, I send her my data to put into MyFitnessPal. Do you know what? Somebody that I respect, somebody I value opinion that will go, "Well, you've had a bad day, [ __ ] boy." You know, she'll say that to me. So, I still give myself the accountability. I can do it myself. I can I'm perfectly capable of doing it. I'll send it to her and say, "Can I Can I ask you to help me with this?" And she'll say, "No problem. For the next 8 weeks, if I send you a picture each day, can you put it into MyFitnessPal?" I've got the bloody app on my phone. I can do it myself. But, I put that level of accountability in and there's a lot to be said for accountability. There really is. Excuse the brief interruption, folks. This episode is brought to you by Bikmo Cycle Insurance. That's right, the folks who make sure your ridiculously expensive hobby doesn't bankrupt you if things go sideways. Let's be real, your bike is probably worth more than your sofa, maybe even more than your car if we're totally honest. 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The last two of sort of out were with two breakfast. You've oats. Yeah, we've got oats. What was the other one we had? Pancakes. Pancakes. And we're talking about you learning to do something with eggs. So, I would find out an egg recipe that you do. So, it's either omelets, poached eggs, or latkes, frittatas. Perfect, because you can add You can add or subtract many things to those to make those whatever you need them to be. So, they can be a low training day, a medium training day, or a hard. So, if you get round eggs, they can be whatever you want them to be, right? So, that's good. We're going to do a Thai red curry. Oh, nice. That So, that would be the the the fourth one, because again, that can be tweaked. It's comforting, it's communal, it's cheap, and it's a one-pot dish. And that can be low calories, medium, or high. Can be high carb, low carb, and it can be very high protein, or it can be moderate. we making that? Real simple. You're going to get some root vegetables, get some parsnips, some sweet potatoes, some carrots, some onions, olive oil in a pan. Cook them off. Starch is kind of sugars, piece of piss. Then you add maybe a tablespoon of Thai red curry paste. You can buy it in a little Asian shop across there, any supermarket. Cook that off. You then going to add maybe 300 g of cooked lentil raw lentils. Red lentils are fine, can be bought anywhere in the world. Those in, I would then add a tin of coconut milk and then a tin of chopped tomatoes. Lid on, slow cooker slow pan, cook it nice and gentle so the lentils cook and the sweet potatoes and your root vegetables cook down, maybe take 25-30 minutes. And then to that you can add whatever additional protein. So you could either add cooked chicken, you could add diced tofu or you could add chickpeas. That's going to give you protein. You then cook rice. I'm not going to tell you to cook rice because I'm not. Uh then you add your carbs. So it could be rice noodles which can be microwaved or boiling a bag. It could be rice which if people here can't cook rice, they shouldn't be listening to podcast. So I would say that that meal is a one pot meal that can be whatever you want it to be. I like that. I'm actually And then you know, in the end touch of lime, maybe a touch bit of Thai fish sauce, bit of fresh coriander at the end. So those are your kind of little bits that just add up. If you have these recipes handy, ping them to me and I'll link them up. Absolutely. I would say that that would be a And another one, um I would say something like a paella or a kedgeree is a really good Kedgeree? Yeah, kedgeree is really good. Oh my god, do you know what kedgeree is? So kedgeree is basically is mildly spiced rice with smoked haddock in it. So again, like a beautiful comforting carby dish because we're cyclists. Carbs are king and I think it's a really good dish to do because it's inexpensive. So I've got a brilliant recipe for kedgeree. So kedgeree would be traditionally cooked down and you're going to basically cook some rice down, you're going to add some curry spices to it, cook it nice and gentle and then at the end you're going to get for some smoked haddock or smoked cod just fold it through and maybe like a boiled egg or poached egg on the top so it's a complete meal. So I would say either a kedgeree or a paella. And when I mean a paella, like a cheats paella, not like a Spanish one with bloody rabbit and goodness what in it.
So I think if you could do a version of those which is a one pot dish which is carbohydrate heavy and really simple. So I'll give you I'll give you a recipe for a kedgeree and I'll give you a recipe for a paella, which again are under 30 minutes cook start to finish. They're ingredients you can buy from any supermarket cuz it's going to be basically be stock, rice, vegetables, and some form of protein. And the the key to that is the amount of liquid that you add to the amount of rice. So, if you add too much, you're going to get a sloppy mess. Or And if you add too little, the rice won't be cooked. So, there's a ratio that you would add of liquid. And the main thing as well when you're cooking your vegetables at first is you just cook them nice and gentle. You get the flavor out of them. You break down the starches in there, and then you can just add your carbs to it, and then your liquid, and then just cook it really gently. So, I would say that those would be And that's a complete dish again. So, if people say, "Ah, I don't have time." It's a one-pan dish. How many hours do you spend looking at your phone? I'll tell you. 5 minutes to chop up the vegetables. It's 30 minutes start to finish. And all the recipes I ever try to develop for athletes, they're never more than 30 minutes. I'm also aware I'm not going to say, you know, go buy, you know, hand-dived scallops. Go and buy some more West Coast of Scotland. Go and buy Kobe beef. We're talking about stuff. My benchmark was, can you buy it in Tesco's? Can you cook it in an Airbnb? And can it be finished in under 30 minutes? And the recipe you gave me, which you didn't mention there, which you gave me I'm not sure if it was on air or off air before, but I think you said to me in the quote unquote me, "Every man should have a pancake recipe." And I Yeah. The pancake recipe out of your book, I think it's like a flaxseed recipe. Oh, it's nice. Yeah. I think again, it if you get a base recipe out of flour, milk, and eggs, and it doesn't matter whether you're using gluten-free flour. Doesn't matter whether you're using rice milk. Ah, stuff, honestly, it actually doesn't matter. So, you can make a dairy-free, you know, you can use rice milk, you can use almond milk, you can use gluten-free flour, which is rice flour. So, you end up with a low-fiber, non-dairy thing. So, for these people that are maybe a little bit more acute about, you know, tolerances and everything, you can tweak it. So, I just say, we'll give you up So, in the show notes, what we'll do is I promise to give you a birchur, a pancake, we'll definitely do an omelet stroke poached egg recipe, and we'll give you a Thai red curry, and we'll do a paella, and for good measure, we'll give you a kedgeree. And all of those things are cheap, they're all efficient dishes to cook, and they're also perfect for athletes. But I'll just say, never forget the human. Never forget how you're feeling. And I remember um Chris Boardman saying a couple of years at Comms, we're talking about performance things, and he said, "The first thing we should ask every athlete is, how are you?" And I say, "If you're feeling fatigued, or if you're feeling underwhelmed, or you know what, if you just say, 'You know what, I don't want to go out tomorrow.' Just look at your training. Have I eaten enough today?" And don't be afraid to go to the fridge before you go to bed and eat half a tub of Greek yogurt. Don't be afraid to half chop nuts and a banana on your breakfast in the morning if you're feeling depleted. Because if the training plan says do this, this, and this, but you as a human are feeling fatigued, you're feeling drained, you're lacking energy, just think about it. And then, you go down to chicas, you go down to women. As boys, we're really easy because our hormones and our requirements from week to week are completely the same. If you look at the poor females that we all have in our life, they've got very big fluctuations depending on where they are in the menstrual cycle. So again, what I'd recommend for female athletes is they look at say an app called Fitter Woman, which is fantastic. And what it does is it tracks your hormones and your menstrual cycle because they can have certain times within the month that their carbohydrate requirement could be up to 25% more. So, if their A event, and the A event like is a normal person could be, "I've got to deliver a presentation to the board." Or I've got to go out and do a training race. Or heaven forbid, I've got a race to do. And they're at a part of their cycle that they need more carbs, they could have the best training, the best FTP, the best of that wonderful watts per kilo [ __ ] that's going on, but if they're under eating with regards to where they are in their cycle, and this will apply to all women, then they're going to under perform. So, that's something that's really important, and the protein and carbohydrate varies for females all the time. So, I would say fitter women is really good, and then start looking at there's a really good sports scientist called Stacy Sims, who's got a podcast. Yeah, follow her. She's good. It's great great stuff because in the past, and even probably now, most research is always done on males of a certain age. And I would say that as as women, women have to spend a lot more time tracking stuff as well. And and that mental clarity and not being able to perform is really important. So, fitter women is an app for females, and yeah. But think about you as a person. If you don't want to go and ride your bike, and you're feeling foggy, just think, have I eaten enough? And don't be scared to eat more. On that note, we're going to go for a pizza? Pizza and a salad. Thanks for chatting, Alan. Appreciate it.