Cycling UK Forum

What do you eat the day before and the morning of a ride?

The night before a ride, I have pasta salad.. (pasta!,pineapple,peppers,chicken,pepperoni,cheese,nuts/seeds)
I have cereal before I go out for a ride, chocolate bars, cereal bars and bananas during the ride.

I assume that this will give me a good start to the day and keep my energy level going once the pasta meal has been burnt off. Is this healthy/balanced/enough?

I always find myself hungry when I get home, regardless of what I eat during a ride or how far I ride (15-50 miles).
Any suggestions on what I should eat before during and after a ride?

Porridge for breakfast. And typically now, I get through three or four bananas, 2-3 litres of PSP22 energy drink and 100g of jelly babies on a 100km Audax.

A apal of mine cope with a banana and a can of coke on similar distances. Don't know how he does it.

I think my prep for the 100km reliability I did today was somewhat poor as I ended up drinking whisky all day and only managed a piece of toast yesterday. Scrambled eggs this morning and a couple of geo bars on route and managed just over 4hr which was almost all solo.

The ideal cycling food has fast- and slow-release carbohydrates and burns away to nothing. Avoid anything with too much fibre in it on a long ride (you don't really want the problems of dumping in the middle of nowhere with no TP, nor do you want trapped wind and bloating). Anything with oats is good - porridge, flapjacks. If you need a lift on night rides, coffee only works if you've been totally off caffeine for a couple of weeks, and that includes tea. Red Bull works better, although it's banned in certain countries

The whisky all day sounds good to me can you pass on the secret of this diet.

As I ride virtually every day, it very much depends on the type of riding I am doing, but generally I just eat "normally".

I might "carbo-load" the day before a 100 mile tt, but normally it is porridge, then the various staples of a cyclists' diet; toast, toasted tea cake, soup, beans or egg on toast, and my main down fall; fruit cake.
Not necessarily all at once or even on the same day/during the same ride.
But as I said all depends on the ride; audax, touring, racing, commute to work etc.

I eat normally the night before.

I have porridge - with raisins, cinnamon, a drizzle of golden syrup and a splash of skimmed milk - before anything over 10 miles.

These days, I take an entire fruit basket with me: bananas, pears and the tiny, sweet, juicy clementines which are around at the moment.

I continue to be amazed at how hungry I get while/after cycling.

Jam sandwiches used to be a peloton favourite before all this gel stuff came along.

I think the two problems if it is a long, self-sufficient ride, are unmessy portability and is it still going to be appetising when you want it?

Bananas are an example: ideal, healthy etc. But, carry a couple in your back pocket and they soon turn into a squidgy mess. A small group of us did the West Yorkshire Cycle Route (160 + miles round the county boundary with a lot of sharp climbs) in one day. We were met part way through by Duncan Hall (familiar to Bradford cyclists as the cycling officer) who cycled the last 80 miles or so with us, giving a rapidly tiring yours truly a lot of encouragement. At my request he came laden with (unsquashed) bananas. I'd eaten a good few sqashy ones earlier in the day and could not have faced another to save my life so I felt very guilty.

I've found tinned rice pudding useful - if a bit bland. I usually ate a can last thing before a longer ride, with another in a disposable plastic bottle to be binned when it had been eaten.

The big benefit of energy bars, gels etc, is that they can be carried without mess and they do what it says on the packet.

Otherwise, I've always tended to be a greedy eater and I enjoy a good fry-up. That is probably why my ticker is suffering now

thirdcrank wrote:Bananas are an example: ideal, healthy etc. But, carry a couple in your back pocket and they soon turn into a squidgy mess.

I've found padded envelopes really helpful in reducing babana squish. I put them in my back pocket or in the bar bag with no drastic liquidisation occurring. Eventually the bubbles pop, but it's one extra use for all those a used envelopes.

On the subject of preferred food, after I've been for a long ride I like to tuck into a luxury bowl of muesli, with a good few nuts and (if it's at hand) fruit smoothie on top instead of milk (or soya milk goes well with smoothie). It's sweet, tasty, nutritious and quick to prepare, which is important for me, psychologically as well as for my body's recovery.

Jerry

Dave Gy wrote:What do you eat the day before and the morning of a ride?

The night before a ride, I have pasta salad.. (pasta!,pineapple,peppers,chicken,pepperoni,cheese,nuts/seeds)
I have cereal before I go out for a ride, chocolate bars, cereal bars and bananas during the ride.

I assume that this will give me a good start to the day and keep my energy level going once the pasta meal has been burnt off. Is this healthy/balanced/enough?

I always find myself hungry when I get home, regardless of what I eat during a ride or how far I ride (15-50 miles).
Any suggestions on what I should eat before during and after a ride?

David your diet looks fairly good I would say Don't get fixated on diet unless you are 1 either trying to overcome a problem or 2 loose weight. There are many studies out there. Which suggest what you should and shouldn't do, most are based on racing

I often cycle early on Sunday morning to fit in with family life and find I can go upto 50 miles just on the body reserves from the previous day. After about 50 miles I find I need something. So if I am intending riding further then I will eat before I set off.

There is a good article in the latest edition of cycle about breakfast when touring. I loved the line about Porridge which suggested it is the best breakfast if you like it, but forget it if you don't as life is too short. I like Porridge, but the sentiment is right there. If you don't enjoy it don't eat it.

My favourite food for along the way is wine gums or other gelantanous sweats, they fool the body into fat burning whilst providing the brain with the carbs it needs. I find I can push on for about an extra 20 miles on four of them. after 70 or so miles I need real food.

I can't stand bananas, which is a real shame as they really are the food of the gods when it comes to riding. apparently you can get special boxes to protect them.

http://www.bananaguards.co.uk/eshop/

Graham

grim wrote:http://www.bananaguards.co.uk/eshop/

Graham

Out of curiosity I just looked at their website:

Q: "Is there a battery attachment?"

A: No. The Banana Guard was designed for its intended purpose only as a device to prevent banana trauma during transport.

GeoffA wrote:to prevent banana trauma

Well I suppose that would be one way to traumatise a banana :)

GeoffA wrote:Q: "Is there a battery attachment?"

ROFLMAO