Ireland's Barry Murray with his BMC team employers at the Tour of Normandy earlier this season
Gainfully employed in a comfortable and steady job as a chemist just a couple of years ago, Irishman Barry Murray decided to pack it all in for a new challenge. He now finds himself working with some of the best riders in the world at the BMC Racing pro team. He says his work as a nutritionist is aimed at helping the riders’ performance and recovery in every way possible.
I made a career change several years ago to pursue my interest in nutrition, particularly in sports nutrition. The career change involved me leaving my well-paid and secure job, as a pharmaceutical chemist, to become a student again and subsequently start up my own practice – albeit, a not-so-well-paid, not-so-secure job.
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However, my drive was not for money or security. It was to work at something I was passionate about. I was living in Loughborough University in Leicestershire at the time and I was able to immerse myself in the world of sports science.
I buried my head in the books to find out everything I possibly could about nutrition in terms of performance and health. I also started learning about the other aspects of sports science such as training and physiology.
Then I trained and practiced what I was learning myself through my running, racing and my own nutrition. My focus was always on endurance sports, given my own participation in triathlons and more recently, ultra marathons.
This has led to me to work largely with endurance athletes, particularly cyclists, whose sport has a crucial requirement for optimal nutrition.
As my client base grew and more doors were opened, I started to work with a few professional cyclists, some of whom compete in grand tours like the Tour de France.
Aside from the more recent controversy the sport has had with doping, this level of cycling is where nutrition has a significant role to play. After I made some enquiries, I found that many of the professional teams had chefs with mobile kitchen units. But very few of them had nutritionists.
Fortunately, one of the professional cyclists I have been working with for a couple of years recommended me to his team and I was able to get my foot in the door.
Subsequently, I secured a contract through the BMC Racing Team, working as their performance nutritionist for the BMC Development Team.
Title sponsored by Switzerland-based bicycle manufacturer BMC, the BMC Racing Team won the Tour de France with Cadel Evans. And its roster includes several other top riders like reigning world road champion Philipp Gilbert and three other former world road champions, plus several other present and past national champions.
The BMC Development Team consists of 14 top level riders – mainly younger than 23 years old – who receive coaching and sports science support to prepare them for the professional ranks. Their race schedule is primarily Under 23 races, but also includes classics (one-day races) and stage races on the continental circuit.
My role involves working one-on-one with individual riders while supporting their race program and working training camps. My work involves planning the team's nutrition in terms of daily structure, timings, recovery strategies and supplements.
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A large part of my role is in the education process of the riders, given they are essentially the next generation and this team serves as their launch pad for a ProTour team.
So apart from the team plans and race/training camp support, much of my work is to individually consult with the rider to design programs for them based on their own training schedules and lifestyle.
My role this season also involved working as part of the advisory panel for the BMC Racing Team performance team, led by former Australian professional Allan Pieper.
This is a new part of the organisation which was set up to optimise performance using the latest sports science and cutting-edge techniques. The performance team consists of sports medics, performance advisors, physiologists and sport nutritionists.
My focus was on how nutrition can be optimised to improve recovery, training adaptations, race-day performance and body composition. It has been an exciting part of the job as it involved putting the latest research into practice at the ProTour level.
They say once you make your passion your job, you never have to work another day in your life. I’m now fortunate to be able to say that that’s no longer a “saying” for me.
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Barry
Barry Murray BSc MSc, performance nutritionist with BMC is presenting at a workshop day for cyclists in Dublin this Saturday.
A half day conference, it will cover the latest in performance nutrition and health with a focus on endurance sports. It will shed new light on what, when and how athletes should eat as well as some of the training/lifestyle factors that have a bigger influence on your nutrition than you may think. The talks will focus on many of the current trends such as Paleo, High Fat/Low Carb, Fat Adaptation, Intermittent Fasting, Recovery Strategies, Anti-Inflammatory Strategies, Sleep Aids and more. The conference will consist of specific topic talks consisting of presentations and demonstrations with the emphasis of putting the theory into practice with real world examples.
Presenters:
Barry Murray: Performance nutritionist with BMC Cycling Team and elite ultrarunner
Ryan Sherlock: Road and MTB elite cyclist
Time: Saturday, October 26th, 2-5pm
Location: Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin, Ireland
Cost: €25 (early booking discount)
Booking: http://fs25.formsite.com/ryan_sherlock/health/index.html
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