August 23, 2024
Planning activities once was the basis of EatMyRide. Still it forms a significant part of the app. In this guide we will walk you through the process of planning sports activities in the app and creating nutrition plans for those.
Step 1: Select the type of activity
When you tap Add an activity in the EatMyRide app the very first step is to define what kind of activity you are planning to do. The following types of sports are supported:
- Cycling
- Running
- Swimming
- Triathlon
For each sports type you have a few options:
- Cycling: you can either select a cycling sub-sport (Road, Gravel or Mountainbike) or select a route you created. For more details on route planners you can connect in EatMyRide, check this article.
- Running: you can select a running sub-sport (Run, Trailrun or Treadmill). The sub-sport will influence your energy needs during the run.
- Swimming: currently we support only freestyle swimming. Other styles of swimming are not specifically supported.
- Triathlon: you can select one of the five triathlon distances:
- Super sprint
- Sprint
- Olympic distance
- Ironman 70.3
- Ironman
Step 2: Specify activity details
The next step is to specify the details of the activity. What kind of details are needed depends on your choice in the previous step. E.g. if you have selected Cycling – Road you need to fill in the Distance, Elevation and Speed / Duration. If you selected a route, the distance and elevation are already known. What you always need to fill in is the Start date and Start time. These are particularly relevant for the meals you can plan around the activity.
Then you can fill in some more details regarding your training or race:
- Goal: This determines how much glycogen depletion will be acceptable. When you select Optimal performance less glycogen depletion will be acceptable then when you select Get home. This means that you’ll have to eat less in the latter case.
- Carb loading: If you have followed a carb loading protocol in the 24 to 48 hours before the ride, the start level of your glycogen will be higher. If you turn this Carb loading setting on, this will be taken into account by the app.
- Note: although the app does give carb loading advice when you plan a Race, this setting gives you the freedom to indicate whether you actually did carb loading / plan to carb load.
- Intensity (only cycling): By default the app predicts the intensity of the activity. However, if you already have an idea at which intensity you will be riding, setting the intensity yourself may increase the accuracy of the calculations.
- Activity type: Four types of activity are specified, namely Recovery, Endurance, Interval and Race. The activity type influences the minimal required intake during the activity as well as the meal advice for the preparation and recovery meals.
Step 3: Check the required intake
After you have filled in the activity details the app shows a summary of what you will need during the activity. For some short activities you may not need to take carbohydrates during the activity, but for most longer activities you will.
Step 4: Add drink products
You can now add the drink products to your plan. By default the required fluid intake is 500 ml per hour. You can change this by tapping the Default – 500 ml / hour button on top of the screen. If you performed sweat rate tests using EatMyRide, you can view the results by tapping Help me to estimate my fluid needs. It will show your test results so that you see how much fluid you will likely need per hour.
Step 5: Add nutrition products
After adding drinks to your plan, you can add any nutrition products you want to take with you. The page shows how many carbs you will need in total based on the activity details. If you added drinks that contain carbohydrates as well, these carbohydrates are already added to your plan. Do you want to aim for a specific hourly carbohydrate intake? Tap the Recommended – x gram per hour button on top of the screen and select the desired intake.
If you doubt whether you can handle a certain high carbohydrate intake, you can check what intake rates you had during actual rides in the past by clicking the Check my carbohydrate tolerance button.
Note that for all products the app shows how well the product fits your activity. This score ranges from Very good product for this activity to Very poor product for this activity. The score is based on the nutritional values of the product in combination with the details of your activity.
Step 6: View your plan
Once you have added enough products to your plan to meet your fluid and carbohydrate intake needs you can finish the creation of your plan. The app will show the nutrition plan, with a timing for each product. It also shows a summary of your plan so that you can see at a glance whether the intake suffices for your activity.
The Glycogen level graph in particular shows how your glycogen level will likely develop over time during your activity if you follow the nutrition plan and if you perform the activity according to plan. If the level stays in the green zone, the glycogen level is optimal. Below the green zone the risk of impaired performance increases. Be aware that very hard and long activities may result in a very low glycogen level, even with a high hourly carbohydrate intake.
Step 7: Use your plan on your Garmin
Do you have a Garmin device? On most Garmin device you can download one of the EatMyRide apps to use your nutrition plan during your ride. On the Edge devices with touchscreen the app to use for this is the Cycling Nutrition Planner data field. Here you can read how to install it.
When you have the app on your Garmin, you simply tap Send to my Garmin in the mobile app and follow the steps on the screen to sync your nutrition plan to your device. During the ride you get alerts when to eat and drink.
