'There's no hack to it': Health comes before cycling performance, insists nutritionist – and why pizza trumps McDonalds

We cyclists are very good at obsessing over training plans. Whether it's weekly hours, or the minutiae of time spent in our various zones – or whether an off the peg plan will cut the mustard or if we should employ the services of a coach – we can think about and refine this stuff for hours.

(Please tell me it's not just me?).

But stop right there, because unless you're also giving plenty of thought to what happens in-between all that time spent in the saddle – ie, the vast majority of your life – you're going to progress about as far as a slug on a treadmill, according to the guest on the latest edition of Cycling Weekly's Going Long podcast.

Admittedly she didn't use quite those words but, says endurance nutritionist Jill Mooney: "You don't really progress when you train. Training just provides a load, a stress to the body. The progression happens when you recover and adapt to that load, and that is driven by nutrition, primarily.

"The training science obviously has evolved. What is now equally important is the interface between the training load and nutrition," she says. "And it's so much more than supplements or gels or the marketing of sports products. It is a whole platform of health and lifestyle."

She adds: "You need to be a healthy person before you can be a high-performing athlete and, you know, there's no hack around that."

As the wife and nutritionist of veteran endurance super-athlete Joe Barr – as well as nutrition coach more widely – Mooney knows a thing or two about this stuff, and she tells Going Long all about it over the course of a fascinating hour-long episode.

From how to organise your daily diet – "it's simple stuff" – to what and what not to eat on the bike in events – and, of course, afterwards.

Mooney also talks about the crucial difference between fuel and nutrition, and the different types of ride recovery and why they matter.

There are plenty of surprises, including good news for anyone who enjoys croissants, butter, and pizza. And of course in what is fast becoming a Going Long tradition, the thorny 'McDonalds Question' is also dealt with.

You can listen to the full conversation, and many more, at Cycling Weekly Going Long. Out now.