Stories by Monique Ryan

• Posted: Wed, Apr 11th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: The all-too-common cramping calves
  Dear Monique,I suffer from leg cramps on longer rides, and even short ones early in the season. I always take a sports drink, usually mixed much stronger than recommended in case it’s due to salt depletion. I would be classified as a heavy salt sweater. I get white lines of ...
• Posted: Wed, Mar 28th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Eating right for those long rides
  With the arrival of spring and warmer weather for many North American cyclists, longer weekend rides are an enhanced and improved part of the training plan. While you may be wisely planning on carrying plenty of sports drinks and gels for the ride itself, what you eat in the ...
• Posted: Wed, Mar 14th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Food on the fly
  Many pros traveled to warmer environs early this in 2007 for early seasonteam training camps and plenty of quality miles on the open road. You mayalso have your own travel plans sometime over the next few weeks, in orderto train and get a jumpstart on your own race preparation. ...
• Posted: Wed, Feb 21st
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Are you getting enough iron?
  Cyclists in many parts of the country are ready to leave behind long rideson the trainer and eagerly await warmer weather and putting in some qualityroad miles. As you continue to train and prepare for the 2007 season, don’tignore a small, but essential component of your ...
• Posted: Wed, Feb 7th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Rapid weight loss and your immune system
  Dear Monique:I have read your column in VeloNews for a while and have bothenjoyed and appreciated the knowledge. I have a questions about weightloss and it’s effect on the immune system.For the past few years I have been competing in the sport of triathlon.This year I decided ...
• Posted: Wed, Jan 24th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Smart scales and oatmeal
  Hi Monique,In your column about weight loss and body composition monitoring, you mentioned that scales that compute body fat should use a formula appropriate to athletes. Can you comment further ...
• Posted: Thu, Jan 11th
  The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: The post-holiday reassessment
  With the holiday season officially over, cyclists are back to work or school and planning ahead for the coming race season. Perhaps you ate and drank your way through December’s seemingly endless string of parties and events, with both your training volume and frequency in a ...
• Posted: Wed, Jul 19th
  The feedzone: Nutritional Challenges of the Tour de France
  With 16 days of hard racing behind them, the peloton is headed for the last day in mountains. From a nutritional perspective, the biggest challenge of a three week stage race like the Tour de France is not only eating to achieve full muscle glycogen recovery off the bike, when ...
• Posted: Wed, Jun 14th
  The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Sugar confusion
  Dear Monique, I am thinking of eliminating sugar from my diet, but can’t find anything to replace my energy drink or gel with, have you come across any products that fit the bill?Soured on Sweets Dear Soured,There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the best types of ...
• Posted: Wed, May 17th
  The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Real food and recovery
  You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolsim that brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines. This attention getting study did bring up a lot of practical questions ...
• Posted: Wed, Feb 15th
  The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Sports drinks and tooth enamel
  Dear Monique,I had heard recently that sports drinks are bad for our teeth and cancause dental erosion. Obviously we need to use sports drinks when we trainand race. Is this a valid concern and what can we do about it?JBDear JB,Thanks very much for your question. Obviously it is ...
• Posted: Wed, Jan 25th
  The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: The art of timing- Part II
  In mylast column we discussed proper meal timing around evening training. Many cyclists also train in the early morning hours with little time to eat and drink before heading out on the road. Let’s take a look at some nutritional strategies that address the food and fluid ...