Epic cycle for mental health

Beth Towler, our Fundraising Development Officer, shares how she cared for herself on her amazing cycling challenge.

Earlier in the summer, Beth and her husband Harry – ‘Team Barry!’ – cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for the Trust. Not content with just completing ‘LEJOG’, the couple bookended their ride with the most southerly and northerly parkruns in the UK.

Beth has previously blogged about how she is recovering from binge eating disorder, so we asked her to share how she looked after herself whilst undertaking this extraordinary feat.

Staying fuelled

First we asked Beth how she kept herself fuelled on the 1,611km ride. She explained:

“I had a bigger breakfast than normal, including a balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats and sugars for optimum fuelling.

“I did my research before the challenge and looked into how my body might store energy when exercising. This encouraged me to top up my energy stores on long periods of exercise and reminded me that the more intense the exercise session the more carbs I needed.”

“Some cyclists prefer to eat food such as sandwiches, bananas and dry fruit. Others prefer sports nutrition such as energy bars, gels and drinks. Many like a mix. It’s a case of trial and error and discovering what works best for you. A mixed approach worked best for me, and little and often (whereas Harry could do bigger meals and fewer snacks – everyone is different!).

“Examples of our snacks were bananas, mixed nuts and dried fruit, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, homemade protein balls, flapjacks, protein energy bars and sweets. We always had a bigger food stop around lunchtime – either a meal deal from a supermarket or a café stop.

“To help me, we opted for self-catered accommodation when possible so we could make our own dinner and were more in control of what we could eat. Tempting as it was to head straight for the shower when we got in, it’s a good idea to eat something within 30 minutes of a long cycle, aiming for the classic 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein to help top up your depleted glycogen stores and repair the micro-tears in your muscles caused by exercise. We had to make extra effort to include as much protein as we could, being vegetarian.

“Examples of our snacks were bananas, mixed nuts and dried fruit, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, homemade protein balls, flapjacks, protein energy bars and sweets.

“With regard to hydration, the NHS recommends drinking around 1.2 litres of water a day but if you’re exercising, it’s hot, or you sweat a lot, you’re probably going to need more. To ensure you remain well hydrated, it’s recommended you drink about 500ml (one bottle) of water per hour – so we had to make sure we had places to fill our bottles up and balance this with finding a toilet when required!

“In addition, we added electrolytes to one bottle of water each day; they are vital salts and minerals such as sodium, potassium and magnesium that are lost when you sweat. If your electrolytes are out of balance it can make exercise feel much tougher and you’re more prone to cramps, nausea and fatigue. I definitely struggled with nausea related to this the first few days.

Advice from the care team

Next, we asked Beth what advice she received from her LEJOG care team in relation to food, drink and looking after herself. She told us:

“The care team advised me to eat regularly every hour on the bike rather than waiting until I got hungry as you’re usually too far gone by then and struggle to catch up with regard to food and energy.

“During training I was struggling mentally with the fact that I felt like I was eating a lot more than usual (and my brain was telling me I was eating too much). My coach and I talked about trusting my body in the lead-up to and during the cycle – really listening to it and trusting it and its signals when it needed more fuel. We spoke about the fact that we trust our bodies when they tell us other things – such as when it needs the toilet! – and they're always right, so let's use that as evidence that they're probably right here too about needing more fuel.

“This struggle continued into the first half of the trip, some days worse than others. I distinctly remember a day where I got very emotional and overwhelmed with thoughts about this and so we had to stop cycling and sit down for a chat.

Harry told me that he loved me just the way I was and that he just wanted me to feed my body with what it needed. These words stuck with me for some reason and it allowed me to relax about food more for the second half of the trip.”

What kept you going?

We really wanted to know what kept Beth going on this incredibly daunting challenge. She said:

“Harry’s support was really key. He was an absolute rock for me on this trip and I couldn’t have done it without him! Tina, my mother-in-law, was also hugely supportive: she would meet us in her campervan whenever we needed to be topped up with food and water and for moral support in the very volatile British weather!

The lovely messages of motivation and encouragement from back home were massively helpful, knowing everyone was behind us. And knowing I was making a difference to other people through raising money for the charity really spurred me on, as did proving to myself that I could achieve something awesome like this.

“It was important to sustain myself mentally and physically.

As I say, I did this partly by having food and drink little and often – and also getting a lot of sleep was vital: the amount of sleep I have not only was obviously really important to be able to complete the physical challenge, but it also really affects how I feel mentally and how loud the voice is in my head related to my binge-eating disorder.”

A very personal challenge

Finally, we asked Beth if she would be willing to share with us how she coped in general and how she managed the challenge in the context of her history with binge eating disorder:

“I struggled mentally leading up to the challenge” said Beth. “I think the pressure of it created quite a lot of anxiety. I was mentally questioning myself whether I had trained enough and whether I would be able to complete it, especially with so many people knowing about it and having donated to support us. I was also anxious around how I would be on the trip in relation to my disordered eating issues.

“To be completely open and honest, I struggled mentally in the last few weeks leading up to the challenge and had to reach out to the doctor again. I was no longer only seeing it as an adventure and a challenge to complete and raise money, but also started to see it as ‘an opportunity to lose weight’ again. Old ways of thinking were creeping back in!

“Because of this way of thinking, at the very start of the trip I probably wasn’t eating enough – I was being selective with my food and waiting until I got really hungry before eating which, as I mentioned, is not what is recommended.

“Because of this I struggled with ‘bonks’ in this part of the trip. Put simply, the term ‘bonk’ in cycling refers to the experience of being suddenly and dramatically more fatigued. Also referred to as “hitting the wall,” it’s a phenomenon that occurs on endurance rides or long workouts as a result of depleting your muscle and liver glycogen stores. You suddenly feel like your battery has completely drained and for me it makes me quite emotional. There were a couple of these moments on the trip that made me feel I didn’t want to, or couldn’t, carry on.

“Then, after a good chat with Harry, I reminded myself why I was really doing this – to experience an amazing adventure with my husband, to complete a brilliant challenge that I could be proud of, and to raise awareness of and money for the Trust.

“Losing weight was never a part of it. So I almost had to rewire and disengage that eating disorder part of my brain for the rest of the trip; and anytime a thought or worry about food came into my head, I would remind myself why I was doing this and let myself eat whatever my body needed at the time it needed it.”