Nutrition..

[Chescadence]

Hi Guys,

For the most part this year, I haven't really thought too much about nutrition- Is this a mistake?

for a ride of <50miles, I'd probably get up, have a bowl of porridge and go out riding with about 1L of water and rarely carry food. Now that i'm going to be cycling further, I've bought a second bottle cage so that I can carry 1,100ml and usually plan to pass somewhere where I can refill or buy extra...

What do you guys carry on rides from 60miles to 80miles? what do you have before you go etc. Do you think nutrition plays a big part?

Thanks,
C

 

[fossyant]

60 plus, couple of 700ml bottles with energy drink, banana or two and maybe a cereal bar or two.

 

[simmi]

Still a Newbie myself, but on rides over 2 hours take some snacks with me, didn't want to go down the line of buying expensive specialist bars or gels, so have experimented with the bars I can get at my local supermarket.
I have found these the best so far http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/products/elevenses/Bar/elevenses_raisin_bake.aspx

 

[Pauln]

On a longer ride I usually take a couple of slices of Soreen malt loaf, cheap and does the trick.

 

[Broadside]

What do you guys carry on rides from 60miles to 80miles? what do you have before you go etc. Do you think nutrition plays a big part?

Nutrition plays a huge part after around 35 miles - get it wrong and it can turn a ride in to a horrible slog. Up to 60 miles its flapjack and home made energy drinks for me, 60+ I also take something savoury just to break up the monotony of eating too much sweet stuff. The big challenge is managing to eat enough while out on the road but you do need to.

 

[GentlyBenevolent]

Recently did a 68 mile ride. Had a normal sized bowl of porridge for breakfast, 2 toast.

I took a couple of 700ml bottles of energy drink (zip vit zv1) with me in the cages. during the ride we both had:

2 energy gels (1 about 1.5 and the other about 4.5 hours in)
A (hot) butter pie - glorious on a cold day (3 hours in)
2 (small) chewy bars (3 hours in)
Mars milk(3 hours in)
a banana (5.5 hours in)

Straight after the ride it was a couple of glasses of nesqwik.

It was my first over 40 mile ride and we averaged 13.4mph over the distance. It all seemed right to me, and even though I was expecting to ache for days I was only slightly achey the following day and nothing the day after that.

 

[Chescadence]

Thanks for all the replies, seems like I need to up what I'm currently doing by quite a lot. I do seem to fade after 40miles!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Varies - I always carry something fullstop (small dairy free bar of something usually), but whether i eat it or not depends on how I feel. Usually I don't for anything up to 2-3 hours of cycling and assuming i don't need to do something at the other end - this is the important bit. If I am going to college or physio then it is a different matter (homemade smoothy with soya soyghurt/oats/nuts/fruit at both the beggining and end of the journey). This last Friday, a day I don't normally cycle much or often cycle at all, and after 4 consequitve days of cycling, I ended up stopping and eating the bar I have carried for over 400 miles now - won't cover what because it applies to very few people given I am vegan. Usually I just have a bowl of porridge in the morning and lunch as normal if cycling in the afternoon. But anything that spans a meal time and then i do have to take that into account because I don't have much "reserves" and don't handle missing meals very well at all.

On a much longer ride, it is totally different. I try to eat and drink each hour in a 5 min stop at the top of the hour.just nuts & dried fruit with water, I don't particularly like sports drinks and can't have the protein recovery/muscle repair stuff anyway. That theory works just fine with me and my OH, but in a group I find it more difficult.

As for water - well I carry a 750ml bottle all the time and anything over 2 hours I will carry 2 of them, but my body has higher than normal requirements for water but that is another story.

 

[lulubel]

Hydration varies for me. I drink loads in summer, but at this time of year when it's relatively cool - mid teens here - I've discovered I can ride for an hour and a half without taking on any fluid at all, as long as I'm well hydrated before I start. (This came about because my mountain bike is proving very difficult to fit a cage and bottle to and I hate carrying a hydration pack, and isn't something I'd usually recommend.)

Food-wise, I have a cereal bar - just something from the supermarket - in my saddle bag at all times because I never know when I'll get lost, have to take a detour, or just feel a bit bleurgh and need a pick me up. For rides of over 2 hours, I take something to eat. This is usually cake of some kind, and in the past has been chocolate brownie, macaroons, flapjack, shortbread - basically, whatever's in the cupboard.

When I get back from my ride, I have a glass of milk and some chocolate (for anyone who's familiar with cooking terms, I think that's what you'd call deconstructed chocolate milk ). If it's been a particularly long, hard ride, I'll have a banana as well. I always ride in the morning, so lunch usually follows soon after.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I take all sorts of stuff from bananas - fig rolls - jelly babies - rice cakes(home made) - flapjack(home made). Sometimes I even find a cafe.

Generally carry some gels too and a usual bottle of High5 2-1 +1 bottle of water/sugarfree dilutey stuff.

 

[vorsprung]

Up to 2 hours, take nothing except a drink, water is fine
2-3 hours, plus a banana
3+ hours, an item like a flapjack or cereal bar per hour. Also you may be stopping, eat at mealtimes

On proper long rides when I'm riding all day and all night I am curiously addicted to Frij Milkshake.

 

[Kins]

On a much longer ride, it is totally different. I try to eat and drink each hour in a 5 min stop at the top of the hour.just nuts & dried fruit with water, I don't particularly like sports drinks and can't have the protein recovery/muscle repair stuff anyway. That theory works just fine with me and my OH, but in a group I find it more difficult.

Cant you have soya protein or hemp protein? I drink that as a veggie (not a vegan). I am positive they do it specifically for vegans to. When I did a 10km charity run last year pretty much what I lived on while training.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Cant you have soya protein or hemp protein? I drink that as a veggie (not a vegan). I am positive they do it specifically for vegans to. When I did a 10km charity run last year pretty much what I lived on while training.

I can have soya protein and hemp - which I use a lot in cooking. what I really have to be seriously careful about is avoiding the hidden dairy that frequenlty crops up in the most unexpected places like smoked barbarcue crisps of all things... I have not come across any that don't have something in them I can't have - like bananas which don't like me, pineapple which also does not like me... etc. etc. what ones did you have? (I tend to say I'm vegan because it is easier to explain then veggie allergic to dairy so I can have eggs but tend to avoid honey (too expensive).)

 

[Kins]

Nutiva from Amazon because I live quite far from town and don't use a car. Hemp drinks are great because it not only gives great energy but has fibre in it to and its a break from all the soya products out there.

Good read : http://www.goodhempnutrition.com/content/44-hemp-protein-for-vegan-veggie-raw

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Nutiva from Amazon because I live quite far from town and don't use a car. Hemp drinks are great because it not only gives great energy but has fibre in it to and its a break from all the soya products out there.

Good read : http://www.goodhempnutrition.com/content/44-hemp-protein-for-vegan-veggie-raw

looks like the same stuff I have been adding to my homemade smoothies for +5 years. Also gets added to pancakes and any other recipe that contains flour. i just buy it as hemp flour from my local health food shop - though local is comparative. i have to cycle 15miles each way to get there and the cheaper health food shop is 22.5 miles away... (Giving my remaining hemp flour to my brother-in-law (when we went off on our RTW) was what started him off on his Raw food diet to control is insulin dependant diabetes.)