Nutritional Needs of a Tea Shop Tourist

Cycling nutrition is a complex subject, and many large organizations spend a fortune on research and development before making available to the general cycling fraternity a range of tablets, gels, powders and bars. Maintaining the correct level of salts, fats, energy and other stuff is vitally important and even the dedicated amateur cyclist goes to great lengths to find the right balance.
There is however another breed of cyclist, the tea shop tourist, who would view the idea of entering a 25 mile Time Trial or a city centre Criterium with horror. This article is aimed at cyclists such as these.

I am on a diet!!

I know this because my wife told me .

Hence getting the right balance between input and output is I am told vital.
I also love numbers and among the stream of data that my Garmin Edge 800 feeds to me as I pedal along is one that shows how many calories I have burnt off. Now obviously as cyclists we do not want to suffer the dreaded bonk ( see Nutritional Breakdown ) where all our energy resources become totally depleted; and so, eating cake should be regarded as a necessity and NOT as a luxury or reward. So, in order to give you some guidance on the stuff you should be eating in order to maintain your nutritional balance, I have pulled together the following table from which you can pick and mix.

Toasted Tea Cake with butter   370 cals

Plain Scone                               140 cals

Fruit Scone                                150 cals

Jam and Cream with scone         LOTS

Mince Pie                                  320 cals

Flap jack                                   335 cals

Slice of Lemon drizzle                 399 cals

Choc raspberry brownie             390 cals

Victoria sponge                          599 cals

Rich fruit cake                            780 cals

Tara Carrot Cake with Cream     986 cals

Now obviously, one needs sufficient energy resources to get home from the tea shop, so you need to make due allowance for that in the amount of cake you consume. 

I hope that these guidelines will stop you from fading away when you next go out on a general meander on your bike.

An Unfortunate Interlude

I have done very little cycling this year so far and hence the Blog has suffered too.
The reasons are many including needing a boat, not a bike, an increase in the number of grandchildren, injuries to legs and shoulder, but mainly due to downright laziness.

Last year I had a major project, to get fit to ride in the inaugral London100 and the training and fundraising for this dominated my life. It also included an attempt to capture in a few photographs, my cycling year and I published these in an earlier post.

But now I am re-energized!

And this years Blog Posts will have a different theme.

The other day I lost my multi-tool and in enquiring about  a suitable replacement I got involved about how tools had changed over the years. And then onto "Cycle Shops We Had Known" in Derby(shire).
Now those who follow my blog will know that I have only been cycling since I retired , about 6 years ago now, and so my personal knowledge is limited.  However, one of the great things about the OAP Tea Shop Tours thst I regularly embark upon is that they give us plenty of time to chat. So, with the help of a couple of old time cyclists to help with the research, this Years blog will aim to show the history of Derby Cycle Shops both present and extinct

Watch this space!

Research commences this morning where I am meeting my Research Staff.
Where are we meeting?
Why, in a Cake Shop of course