Denis Faye: The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro

🚴‍♂️ In today's episode, we explore the crucial role of nutrition 🍎 in endurance events such as the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR), as we discuss this fascinating topic with Denis Faye, an expert in the field of cycling nutrition.

Throughout the episode, our conversation delves into the importance of fueling our bodies and minds for perseverance in endurance racing. Along the way, we share personal experiences of trial ✍️ and error, discussing the lessons we've learned about proper nutrition through these challenges.

We cover valuable insights from Denis's book, The BWR Guide to Eating Like a Semi Pro, focusing on developing healthier diet plans, practicing gut training, and understanding the specific fuels needed for varying lengths of endurance racing.

 Additionally, we reminisce about some unique racing moments, including unconventional food choices that may not have been the best ideas 😅. Join us as we gain a deeper understanding of the art and science 💡 behind nutrition for endurance cycling. Don't miss this informative and insightful episode, designed to help you enhance your cycling performance. 📈

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Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos:

[00:00:00]Craig Dalton (host): Denis, welcome to the show.

[00:00:05]Denis Faye: Thanks. I, I

[00:00:06]Craig Dalton (host): It's good to connect with you. I'm glad you

[00:00:08]Denis Faye: Oh, it is, I, uh, you're, you're my, you're my target market. You're, you're the exact, uh, your people are my people. So, um, I, I really appreciate you, uh, checking out the book and having me on.

[00:00:21]Craig Dalton (host): Yeah. I feel like every year I wanna make sure to have conversations about nutrition because I. I think it's, it's something that's a very complex subject. Yet with the right information in front of you, it's easy to make a plan to be successful during a race like B W

[00:00:39]Denis Faye: Yeah. And, and there's, there's things you need and there's things you don't need, and you can kind of start with the basic stuff and work your way up. And it's also nice cuz you, you, you learn by doing, like everyone's gonna bonk. At some point, you're gonna, you're gonna have the worst trace in the world, and there's no better, there's no better way than to learn, than have something horrible happen because it's like, you know, grabbing the stove, the hot pad, you, you don't forget.

So,

[00:01:09]Craig Dalton (host): Yep. And in particularly in in these long races, I feel like there's opportunities to feel like crap, and there's opportunities to recover from feeling like crap. It's just about keeping going and making those adjustments to your nutrition. To fuel that recovery, to get the power back in your system and your

[00:01:28]Denis Faye: Yeah, exactly. I, I mean, you're, it's, especially when you're getting into the hundreds of miles, it's, it's a foregone conclusion that you're gonna run outta glycogen and blood sugar if you're going hard because you can, you, uh, can you expend more than you absorb. You don't, you just can't absorb that much, so, There's just some things you can do to kind of stave off the inevitable.

[00:01:53]Craig Dalton (host): And I think even in that, even in what you just said, there's an important realization for the listener in that you're not gonna stay completely ahead of the situation. It's about staving off the damage and never getting to a completely depleted moment in your your day effectively.

[00:02:12]Denis Faye: I mean, it's important to accept that moment because, I, I mean, a really important thing, especially in a, in a gravel situation where there's a lot of thinking you gotta do, um, once you're bonking, like your brain needs sugar too. So, uh, you and you feel miserable and you're probably not making the best choices.

So keep that in mind if you're gonna bomb a hill when you're bonking, because it may seem like a break, but your, your brain's still trying to figure out how to navigate that thing. So,

[00:02:40]Craig Dalton (host): yes. I've had many of perplexing bad decisions after bonking in a long endurance event. Stuff that just, I can't reconcile how I could possibly be so dumb in that moment in

[00:02:53]Denis Faye: it's cuz your brain was outta gas, so

[00:02:56]Craig Dalton (host): Yeah, totally, totally. I, one just quick antidote before I want, I definitely wanna get into your background. Um, during Ironman, I remember I had a, a, a particular time goal that I wanted to achieve and I got so bunked in the run that I could not do the simple math to get to that point and force myself to continue forward and hit that goal, which was attainable.

It's just my foggy math led me to believe I had more time than I actually had to meet my

[00:03:26]Denis Faye: it's what? What Iron Man was that?

[00:03:29]Craig Dalton (host): I, I did, uh, that was Ironman

[00:03:31]Denis Faye: Oh, okay. Hold on.

[00:03:33]Craig Dalton (host): so I did, I did Canada in New Zealand. I'm probably like losing listeners as we speak by admitting to being a triathlete, but I, they were absolutely formative experiences to me from a nutritional

[00:03:45]Denis Faye: okay. You know what, two years ago I did a half iron man in, so, you know, and I'd like to do a full, I messed up my shoulder, but when this thing's fixed, I, I do plan it. I'd like to do a full too, so maybe they're just okay. Now, whoever was sticking around. They listen to me left because we're both triathletes.

[00:04:05]Craig Dalton (host): Both admitted triathletes at times in our lives. Well, let's, let's do what we always do at the beginning of the show, Denny, and let's, let's just talk about your background and how you found your way to cycling. Cause I know it, it happened later in life for you. And then we'll talk about, because obviously it's germane to the, to the book we're gonna be talking about a little bit later, how you found your way into the field of nutrition and how you kind of learned along the way as you

[00:04:28]Denis Faye: Awesome. That sounds great. So,

[00:04:32]Craig Dalton (host): Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. How did you discover the bike

[00:04:35]Denis Faye: um, a guy named Steve Edwards, I mean, I always rode bikes. I, I, uh, heard the podcast a few weeks, ba was it weeks back, Andrew? I. Vance was on, he was talking about his banana seat bike. I mean, I had one of those. And then I had a BMX bike. It was a Pook, P u C h, it was a terrible bike.

And you know, and then 10 speed and, you know, and, um, then, uh, in my twenties I had a diamond back and aluminum mountain bike, but never really took it seriously. Uh, and then, uh, in. Uh, it was 2012. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was 2012. Um, I've always had kind of a, I like to do hard things or, or stupid things depending on your opinion of me.

And, uh, my friend Steve Edwards, who was my, uh, boss at Beachbody, he was like, you know, you, um, you'd probably be really good at bikes. And he was a hardcore, um, cyclist and so he gave me this, uh, CAD four. This cannondale, it was one size too big. It was like a 58, but, um, that didn't matter. I, I, I rode 20 mile.

Well, actually got on the bike, rode here from Redondo to the bridge to the marina, which was like 10 miles to get there and along the beach. And it was just magic. Of course, it was the first time I had ever clipped in. So I ran, like, I rode my 10 miles, got to the bridge. Stopped and fell over sideways. You know,

[00:06:01]Craig Dalton (host): Of

[00:06:02]Denis Faye: you gotta figure that out.

But, um, and it just went from there. I, I, uh, graduated past that bike and, um, the year after that Steve was like, you know, you'd probably be pretty good at mountain biking. So, um, just showed up at my house one day with a couple of, uh, a couple of full suspension bikes and took me up in Santa Monica mountains and.

That was, uh, that was more of a learning curve that was, came home from that pretty beat up, but loved it too. And, and then, you know, along comes gravel and, and Cyclocross, cyclocross came for me first before gravel, and it's a combination of the two. You know, it's, it's just, it's just great. It's, I, I, I love 'em both.

And, and what's beautiful about gravel and about cx, especially when you get into the single speed, but we don't have to talk about that, is, um, You, uh, um, you're not, look, I don't mean to disparage mountain biking. I, I have a great, I have a niner. I love it. I use it all the time. But the bike does a bunch of the work, right?

I mean, you just ba and when you're on a, a, a gravel bike and you do something technical, you, you really have to think it's a puzzle. And, and, and I love that. It's really, it's just really fun. So,

[00:07:18]Craig Dalton (host): And so talking to you offline, you mentioned that you got drawn into the first B W R in 2014. Right? So just a few years after you started riding.

[00:07:27]Denis Faye: So, um, so it happened on my birthday and, uh, another, I mean, I, it is just, Steve was just my cycling mentor, that's why he keeps coming up. Uh, he died of cancer a few years back, unfortunately. But, um, yeah, he was really pivotal to me and he taught me this thing called the Birthday Challenge, where every year on your birthday you do a hard thing and I've done.

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