jefmcg
Guru
(TL;DR Does anyone else lose their appetites on longer cycles?)
I don't get hungry on or after long cycles. Mostly I've gone out in small groups, so stopped for the sake (imagined or otherwise) of my fellow riders. I've done four 80km+ solos. One was a couple of weeks ago in Germany: no problem, I love new food sensations so the stop at a Bier Garten for the surprising Himmel und Erde and later at a cafe for the less surprising Käse Kuchen were natural. My first long cycle was to Brighton and when I got there, I wasn't hungry at all and just picked at a plate of chips my friends insisted on buying me. Dunwich Dynamo, I paused regularly for a bite of baguette, but didn't really eat that much relative to the distance, but enough.
But on Saturday I cycled to Eastbourne from Twickenham, about 130km. I stopped - as is my habit - in Reigate for a panini. Then I decided to get food next time when I felt like it. And I never felt like it. Around the 100km mark, I was dead: walking up every tiny hill, stopping to repeatedly check my rear derailleur was still shifting (I had to replace the cable that morning) as even in the lowest gear, everything felt like a mountain.
Finally I put together the lack of food and the exhaustion - yup, I was slow on the uptake but glycogen depletion is like that. I grabbed the bread I stashed in my bag for just such and emergency and still not feeling hunger, scoffed the lot and the rest of the journey was much better.
OK, so problem understood and solution is obvious. But when I searched these forums about hunger, I keep finding people being ravenous with cycling. Does anyone else have this problem? Note: outside cycling trips, my appetite is hearty and vaguely famous amongst my friends.
(this is important because i do my first audax in a couple of weeks, and if I can increase my endurance, I hope to do LEL next year)
I don't get hungry on or after long cycles. Mostly I've gone out in small groups, so stopped for the sake (imagined or otherwise) of my fellow riders. I've done four 80km+ solos. One was a couple of weeks ago in Germany: no problem, I love new food sensations so the stop at a Bier Garten for the surprising Himmel und Erde and later at a cafe for the less surprising Käse Kuchen were natural. My first long cycle was to Brighton and when I got there, I wasn't hungry at all and just picked at a plate of chips my friends insisted on buying me. Dunwich Dynamo, I paused regularly for a bite of baguette, but didn't really eat that much relative to the distance, but enough.
But on Saturday I cycled to Eastbourne from Twickenham, about 130km. I stopped - as is my habit - in Reigate for a panini. Then I decided to get food next time when I felt like it. And I never felt like it. Around the 100km mark, I was dead: walking up every tiny hill, stopping to repeatedly check my rear derailleur was still shifting (I had to replace the cable that morning) as even in the lowest gear, everything felt like a mountain.
Finally I put together the lack of food and the exhaustion - yup, I was slow on the uptake but glycogen depletion is like that. I grabbed the bread I stashed in my bag for just such and emergency and still not feeling hunger, scoffed the lot and the rest of the journey was much better.
OK, so problem understood and solution is obvious. But when I searched these forums about hunger, I keep finding people being ravenous with cycling. Does anyone else have this problem? Note: outside cycling trips, my appetite is hearty and vaguely famous amongst my friends.
(this is important because i do my first audax in a couple of weeks, and if I can increase my endurance, I hope to do LEL next year)
Easy to say, much harder to do - especially when you don't feel hunger/ thirst.
).
, coffee) at some point.
