Hour and half ride snacks?

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Shoxt3r

Active Member
Hi all,

I've recently started ditching the half-hour bi-weekly lunchtime rides in favour of going out in the evenings for about an hour and a half - mainly because it's cooler to do that at the moment!

I usually have a banana and a full 500ml bottle of water about half an hour before I ride. I then take 2x 500ml bottles of water with me but no snacks. I travel about 20-25km on each trip.

My route takes me over quite a few hills so ideally could do with a boost part way around - any thoughts? I've considered gels and powders but unsure if my ride routine is sufficient enough to get much benefit from these.

Thanks in advance!
 

BurningLegs

Veteran
I’d say swap one bottle for a sports mix and see if you feel better for it, or not 🙂

What sort of intensity are the rides?
 
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Shoxt3r

Active Member
I’d say swap one bottle for a sports mix and see if you feel better for it, or not 🙂

What sort of intensity are the rides?

Ok cool thanks - any recommendations? 🙂

They're usually pretty intense (for me, at least!). According to Strava my elevation gain is about 190m. I have a couple of stops for a couple of minutes to take on water before the big climbs.
 

boydj

Legendary Member
Location
Paisley
On a ride of that length there's not enough time for anything other than pure glucose to get into your system to have any effect at all. Even fasting before the ride and taking nothing during it will not have any effect on your performance unless you have totally drained your muscle glycogen with earlier efforts or you are very dehydrated.
 
An hour and a half is my standard ride, although little in the way of hill out here in the fens! I've always got a bidon of water with me, which I may or may not need. For that length of ride, I won't bother with snacks, but I do tend to have the odd mint imperial or haribo while I'm on the go.

I'll only take snacks if I know I'm going to be out for two hours or more. Then, it's usually something like a bag of crisps, a banana or those individually packaged pain au chocolat.
 
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Shoxt3r

Active Member
Thank you all for the comments (and the laughs 😆). Sounds like just a small packet of haribo or something would do the trick then, just to give me a bit of a sugar boost.

I had a nice bit of protein on the ride this evening - a bug flew right down my throat! The hazards of riding at dusk I suppose!
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Assuming you have eaten normally throughout the day i would agree with the above, you should be fine , water wise we all different .When its normal temps i sometimes dont bother although last night i did a similar time and drank a bottle and i was still thirsty .
 
Location
London
agree with general view above - no need for food or even snacks on such a short ride - if you even approached a bonk on such a ride something would be wrong somewhere else - would always take water on any ride apart from one to the shops/market though.
 

figbat

Slippery scientist
To offer some comparison, on Sunday I went out at around 4pm and did around 35km over a mix of road and gravel. I was out for about 90 minutes. I took a part-filled 500ml bottle and drank about half of it. No food, gels, powders or other energy source needed other than what I had inside me.
 
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