Fueling the machine

The body of a Little 500 cyclist isn’t simply a body. It’s a machine.

For that machine to work at its maximum capacity and efficiency requires the best fuel. Only the proper foods provide what they need to perform at the highest level.
 
The staples of a college student’s diet — pizza, alcohol, processed foods — are toxic sludge for a rider.

Lisa Hutcheson, a senior rider for Teter, said the key to her nutrition plan is avoiding those items altogether.

“I can’t go to fast food restaurants or anything like that, so I completely cut that out of my diet,” she said.

While the usual thought concerning “dieting” is cutting down on food consumption, Hutcheson and her Teter teammates take a different approach.

Because of their consistent training and workouts, it’s paramount for them to consume more calories.

“We’re not trying to be low-calorie eaters because we still have to maintain a lot of muscle,” Hutcheson said. “We usually eat a lot of meat, pasta and eggs.”

However, adhering to that type of a nutrition plan has its challenges, particularly the temptations she and her teammates often face.

“It’s hard when you’re visiting other friends or if you go home or something,” Hutcheson said. “In those situations, it’s hard not to just eat a bunch of sweets. But I live with my teammates, so that certainly makes it easier.”

Perhaps no rider took that strategy to heart as strictly as senior Sigma Nu rider Brice Brookshire, who finished ninth in this season’s Individual Time Trials.

Brookshire underwent a rapid transformation as a direct result of his stringent dieting plan.

“I weighed 195 pounds at last year’s race, and I decided I needed to lose weight to be more competitive,” he said. “I started counting calories, and now I’m down to 177 pounds, which is huge on the track.”

Brookshire said he is easily able to stick to his plan through the use of an iPhone application and a heart rate monitor.

“I actually used the MyFitnessPal app and a heart rate monitor with my Garmin in it,” he said. “It keeps track of the calories that I burn.”

Brookshire said he is also selective about the food he consumes and that he tends to eat voraciously.

“I obviously like a lot of protein,” he said. “I can go chicken, chicken patties on the fryer and cheap steaks from Kroger. I cut out fast food and things like McDonald’s. That was the first thing I did when I started dieting because I realized how bad those things are.”

Through the addition of vitamins in his training plan, Brookshire has created a system that has allowed his body to feel energized on a daily basis.

“I feel great in the morning, and I feel great training,” he said. “I’ve seen a huge improvement in myself this year.”