What do you eat on a long ride?

[vernon]

Normally... bowl of porridge +toast for brekky... take a banana or two and/or a bar. Longer rides... well, this weekend stopped at a caff and had beans and sausage on toast plus a big slice of cake.
Jelly babies in case the last few miles are proving difficult.

My nutrition is evolving this year. I am eating far less on a ride than I used to:

Carb up the night before with pasta/rice and some savoury dish.

Breakfast - porridge and .75l or so of coffe with milk and sugar eaten about an hour before the ride. A mug or two of water is sometimes consumed too.

A banana is eaten 15 mins before the ride.

I get through anything between 1 and 2.5 litres of PSP energy drink at 3/4 strength.

I might eat a banana at each of the two control points on the average 100km Audax and nibble on jelly babies towards the end of the ride.

Yesterday's ride's calories was provided by

• Porridge
• 1 banana at start
• 1/2 mars bar at first control and 6 jelly babies plus a pear
• 1 pork pie and a can of 7 up at the second control
• 1.5 litres of PSP22 sipped throughout the ride
• 1/3 bag of jelly babies.

I used to get through all of the above plus:
2 bananas
1 malt loaf buttered and sliced
full bag of jelly babies
beans on toast at an Audax control

The reduced calories might account for my weight loss over the past six weeks all things being equal. I'm now a svelte 308 lbs .

 

[Greenbank]

The Dean 300, a.k.a. The Meat and Fat Wrapped In Plastic Estravaganza.

(Note that it's a barebones event with commercial controls, so not the usual Audax style controls of cycling huts and warm cafes on a summer afternoon.)

Night before. Pasty at Paddington Station. Ham and Mozarella baguette from Upper Crust.

Breakfast: Nothing. Ride started at 6am and I couldn't be arsed.

1 750ml bottle of water on bike with Nuun tablet in.
1 750ml bottle of water on bike with Vitamin C tablet in.

A petrol station in Stow-On-The-Wold (50km), 8am:-

(Had drunk only one of the bottles by this point)
Lucozade Sport Caffeine Boost 500ml (only about 200kcal in these)
Ginsters Deep fill Chicken and Stuffing Sandwich.
Terry's Chocolate Orange bar (saved for later)

Cafe in Newent (100km), 11.30am:-

Large Cappucino
Sausage Roll and salad (for some reason didn't fancy the beans on toast).

Petrol station at Tesco in Chepstow (150km), 2.30pm:-

(Had drunk both bottles of water by now).
Filled up one water bottle with 750ml of water, added Nuun tablet.
Filled up other bottle with 500ml bottle of Lucozade Sport
Bought and ate pack of sausage rolls.
Bought two small pork pies and shoved them in the rackpack for later.

On the way to Malmesbury I stopped at the top of the Hawkesbury climb (Somerset Monument) and ate a pork pie and the Terry's Chocolate Orange bar.

Malmesbury Co-op (200km): 6pm:-

Co-op Deep Fill Chicken and Stuffing (and red onion) sandwich.
500ml of water to top up water bottle. Had drunk half the 500ml bottle of lucozade sport on previous leg.
Bought a Cadbury's Caramel bar and shoved it in the bag.

Malborough Downs Info control (237km): dunno when

Ate remaining pork pie and half of caramel bar.

Membury Services (250km): 10pm:-

Bought and drank a large cappucino, a 500ml bottle of Ribena Light.
Ate a Ham and Cheese Croissant.

Combination of cappucino and ribena made a brief appearance again on the climb out of Lambourn. Ugh.

Oxford: (300km), 1am:-

Bought a Frijj milkshake for the receipt and to drink when I got to the hotel later on.

So, at a guess I ate about 3000kcal whilst expending 5000kcal (it's a relatively hilly ride). Thank god my fat metabolism is well trained; I've done a DIY 200 once without eating at all (with no breakfast either) but that's definitely not recommended.

I also don't drink enough (and I get frequent cold sores from dehydration after long rides). Working it out:-

750 (bottle with nuun at start) + 750 (bottle of vit c at start) + 500 (stow lucozade) + 500 (chepstow lucozade) + 500 (chepstow water) + 500 (malmesbury water) + 500 (ribena membury) + 500 (lucozade membury)

So that's 4.5L of liquids on an all day 300 with about 500ml of cappucino which'll dehydrate you more than it will hydrate you (given that it's a diuretic).

My advice:-

Eat little and often.
Don't skip breakfast. Weetabix or porridge is perfect.
Sugar is good for a temporary fix (all that lucozade got me up the hills) but low GI foods (pasta, beans on toast, etc) are better in the long term.
Fatty stuff (i.e. what I ate on the Dean) isn't very good, compared to low GI foods, as it takes more energy for your body to process it.
Don't ever go out without carrying bonk rations (i.e. a banana, a chocolate bar, flapjack, jelly babies, etc)
Drink lots of water. I didn't need to go for a wee until about 9pm that day, that's not good.

The above food/drink plan is a good example of how not to fuel yourself on a long ride.