Arielle Coy, 32, swam as her exercise of choice when growing up. But after moving onto triathlons, she found cycling not only brought her joy, but kept her from getting injured, unlike the running leg of multi-sport events.
In 2019, Coy participated in her first criterium race with a team of women cyclists in Indianapolis, her hometown. “I got the bug and I loved it,” she says. While 2020 put a pause on racing, she still “rode her brains out” and got super fit, later training with coach Ben Sharp and then joining team ButcherBox for the 2021-2022 season, scoring podium finishes at races like The Tour of St. Louis Omnium.
This past fall, Coy joined team LA Sweat, an all-women cycling team, and this April placed third at the Boulder Roubaix road race. With a medical residency in internal medicine on deck this summer, along with races like the Easton Twilight Criterium in May, we sat down with Coy to find out about how she fuels her fast performances.
Avoiding the Bonk
A self-proclaimed “bonk queen,” Coy focuses on getting in enough nutrition to make it through long days at work and on the bike. “It feels like a full-time job—the biking, the doctoring, and the eating,” she says. “You have to nourish your body to be able to perform whatever set tasks you have, because your brain needs to be sharp for all these things.”
To stay fueled, Coy starts her day with a hearty breakfast, often having a bagel with smashed avocado and four egg whites on top. If she has a big ride later, often lasting about four hours, she’ll add an extra bowl of Cream of Wheat with maple syrup and coffee. And she makes sure to eat about two hours before hopping on the saddle.
To consume during a ride, Coy has two one-liter water bottles, filled with 80 grams of carbohydrates from Scratch Labs Super High-Carb Sport Drink Mix in each bottle. She aims to drink one per hour. (The only time she doesn’t have nutrition in her bottle is during a recovery ride.) Thanks to reminders set on her Hammerhead cycling computer (a partner of LA Sweat), Coy typically takes a couple sips of the bottles every 10 minutes. “Especially at effort, when you’re going full tilt, you’re exhausted and maybe the last thing you want to be doing is trying to chew on something, so I’m big with drinking my nutrition,” she says.
Coy often stops at a gas station halfway through long rides, too, and may opt for a Body Armour drink for the second half. She’ll also carry Maurten Gel 100 with caffeine for extra energy, which she aims to take in every hour. “You put yourself in such a massive deficit for these four-hour rides that your body is going to continue burning calories,” she says. “I never see a reason to try and be in a caloric deficit ever on the ride.”
“Don’t be afraid to nourish yourself on rides,” Coy adds. “Don’t go out there trying to do an endurance ride on zero calories—that’s a good way to bonk and feel really shitty.”
Focusing on Recovery Nutrition
Coy prioritizes getting a 3:1 or 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio snack within 45 minutes of finishing long and/or hard workouts. In fact, she often takes the Scratch Labs Recovery Sport Drink Mix with her into the shower to sip, so she’s kickstarting the replenishment and rebuilding process.
After that, she’ll have a full meal that’s also heavy on carbs and protein. A couple of her go-tos (made by her husband): taco bowls and stir fries—both filled with lots of vegetables.
Fueling for Race Day
Coy still gets a nervous before hitting the starting line of a race. “You get the nervous stomach and you’re trying to drink coffee, but now you’re also jittery and over-caffeinated and nervous,” she says. That’s why she’ll keep her breakfast bland, often still reaching for a bagel.
About 10 minutes before the start, Coy superstitiously has a gel. “If there’s any lull in the race, I’ll pop another one,” she says. “I’ve just kind of been giving myself that quick hit because I know I’m going to have some sprint efforts in there, and I just want to make sure I never get low and can’t respond to a sprint when I need to.”
She also has one bottle with nutrition as a sort of just-in-case when she’s not feeling well and needs something to help her out.
“On race weekend especially, it’s so easy to be in a caloric deficit for the whole weekend because you’re so busy, so you don’t have the scheduled eating time,” she says. That’s why meal prepping in advance of the weekend is important, Coy adds, including having snacks on hand and maybe a Tupperware full of a recovery meal to stay energized and replenished when needed.
Eating for Heart Health
Not long ago, Coy found out she has high levels of lipoprotein (a)—pronounced as lipoprotein “little a”—which is an independent risk factor for heart disease, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Though one in five people worldwide have this, not everyone gets screened for it regularly. And while there’s nothing you can directly do to address this higher risk of heart disease, the AHA suggests following a healthy lifestyle, including eating well, managing cholesterol and weight, staying active, avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol, and getting adequate sleep.
With this in mind, Coy puts a particular focus on limiting fat intake, particularly saturated fats (anything solid at room temperature). She also avoids trans fats, meaning staying away from things like fast food or pastries and baked goods (as hard as that is!).
Because animal products are also high in saturated fat, Coy focuses on eating lean varieties, mostly chicken, and avoiding red meat.
Overall, Coy views food as fuel to her performance on the bike, making sure to get the most out of each snack and meal. “Being an athlete, it really is like we are well-oiled machines,” she says. “And we need to keep [our machines] fueled.”
Mallory Creveling, an ACE-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach, joined the Runner’s World and Bicycling team in August 2021. She has more than a decade of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition. As a freelance writer, her work appeared in Women’s Health, Self, Men’s Journal, Reader’s Digest, and more. She has also held staff editorial positions at Family Circle and Shape magazines, as well as DailyBurn.com. A former New Yorker/Brooklynite, she’s now based in Easton, PA.
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