If you’re competing in the Red Bull 24-hour next month, you’ve got to read this article. Yes I’ve got something to sell to you, but you don’t have to buy it, just make sure that you purchase a large stash of maltodextrin of some description for the weekend. You won’t get a better deal than this though…

Take a look at the diagram below. It shows how your body works in a very simplified form – in essence, how you get energy to exercise. The most important concept you need to grasp is the importance of carbohydrate. Without it, you don’t get pyruvate and without that you have nothing to combust with fat and oxygen, which is the basis of aerobic metabolism. You also can’t produce lactic acid, which is necessary for your anaerobic system to work effectively. So carbohydrate is pretty flippin important, and if anyone who tells you any different – show them this diagram.

Click here for more information on carbohydrate.

Opinions differ as to the amount of carbohydrate required by an athlete undertaking heavy endurance training, ranging from 60-75% of daily calorie intake. Recommended protein consumption ranges from 12-20% of daily calories and fat should constitute the remainder. No recommended dietary allowance has been established for fat, but we need 3-6 grams of essential fatty acids per day which should easily be achievable on a diet containing only 5-10% fat (Source: Williams, Melvin H. “The Ergogenics Edge” 1998). On days of particularly high training load, I suggest that dietary intake of calories should be increased substantially with 70% coming from carbohydrate, 20% from protein and 10% from fat. You should be leaning in favour of carbohydrate calories over fat and eating these while riding your bike. On lower load training days and recovery periods I suggest a 65% carbohydrate, 15% protein and 20% fat mix.

This high carbohydrate figure is very difficult to achieve through normal dietary means though, not to mention boring. This is because complex forms of carbohydrate like pasta, rice, potatoes, cereals and pulses contain a lot of bulky fibre, which take up a lot of space in your stomach and bloat you. Simple sugars contain less bulk, but play havoc with your blood glucose levels and are often mixed into fatty foods. What if you could get pure complex carbohydrate without the fibre and bulk? Pure metabolic fuel that you can mix with water and sip on after you’ve eaten a big meal? Well, fortunately you can and you get it from TORQ at about half the price you would pay anywhere else (£40-00 for 10kg delivered to your door).

It’s called ‘Maltodextrin’ and whilst not all maltodextrins are the same, there are plenty of reputable manufacturers offering flavoured/unflavoured mixes with or without electrolytes. Providing they’re using the right kind of maltodextrin (as close to 20 glucose molecules per polymer chain as possible), they will all do basically the same thing. TORQ energy is 100% maltodextrin (19 glucose molecules per chain) with nothing else added, so you just flavour it yourself with squash, or drink it natural (it doesn’t taste of much on its own). All of the TORQ riders use it and the TORQ FITNESS team will certainly be loading the stuff on Red Bull Weekend. 10kg of TORQ energy will look after your whole team for the entire Red Bull weekend and probably the team next to you (it’s a lot of carbs).

To give you an idea of how good this stuff is, 4 scoops of TORQ glucose polymer dissolved in a 500ml bottle of water delivers 384 Kcals of complex carbohydrate to the working muscles. That’s the same as a 350-gram bowl of cooked pasta!!

If you have any questions or queries about this product, please feel free to phone me on 01923 212856, or send an e-mail me to matt@torqfitness.co.uk

If you’re going to the Red Bull, the TORQ FITNESS team will see you there. Good luck!