LEJOG and le grub

[Brianjeff50]

When I’m doing a long day ride it’s often an excuse to eat and drink junk all day - £3.50 meal deals with chocolate milk drinks and chocolate bars, flap jacks etc etc.
Now I’m looking at 14 days of this - plus 14 dinners in pubs and B&Bs potentially of the pie and chips variety.
I’m going to come back fatter than I left! And I haven’t even thought about breakfasts.

So the serious question is - what ought I to be fuelling and refuelling on at the start and end of each day? (En route will just have to be what I find on the way.)

[philvantwo]

What do you normally eat before a 60 mile ride?

[Brianjeff50]

What do you normally eat before a 60 mile ride?

Porridge with some sultanas and syrup. But the option of a ‘Full English’ isn’t generally available on the menu at home.

[landsurfer]

On our LEJOG we tended to have coffee, biscuits, bananas and porridge from 0630 - 0730 ish .... start each days ride no later than 0900hrs then 2nd breakfast after the 25 mile point ... at a cafe when available or a roadside burger bar type of place .... meal deals and similar along the way and a big meal in the evening after we had stopped for the day ...
What we learned very quickly was "eat proper food" keep away from the processed sports foods like gels etc .....

[Jdsk]

What we learned very quickly was "eat proper food" keep away from the processed sports foods like gels etc .....

Why was that, please?

Thanks

Jonathan

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
It does really depend how long you are cycling each day?
The luxury of getting proper food cooked food or just basic staple stuff, is that you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere and out of food.
If you're cycling say 60 70 miles in a day Then breakfast lunch and tea will suffice, But if you're starting to talk about 100 miles will say 150 or more 250 even, then you really need to be carrying food with you, it's not too difficult to buy sandwiches cakes and pies from petrol stations and coop the like, When and where are you can and carrying it.
My biggest problem when cycling between 100 150 miles in a day is water?
You are limiting how much you can carry on at any one time, when I'm stumped completely and there's not a stream or river around I end up walking into a shop and asking for some water and also a offering to buy something at the same time.

[Cyril Haearn]

Flapjack
Porridge on a stick. Without the stick
©Debs of this parish

[landsurfer]

My biggest problem when cycling between 100 150 miles in a day is water?
You are limiting how much you can carry on at any one time, when I'm stumped completely and there's not a stream or river around I end up walking into a shop and asking for some water and also a offering to buy something at the same time.

We had water from cafes, Kwik Fit, peoples hoses as they watered the garden .... but never, never a stream .... not in England ...
North of Stirling was a different matter ....

[Brianjeff50]

What I really want to know is what I should be thinking about eating after each day’s ride - to help recover and starting fuelling for next day.
By choice I’d probably eat a pie and chips and a big sweet pud at the nearest pub but is there anything more scientific? Pasta, chicken etc.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
It really comes down to how you feel.
There's not really any science in it, if you're in good health anyway and you've been eating regularly through the day, Vitamin C is the only vitamin not stored in your body.
All the other stuff even the junk food forgetting things like gels and chocolate just convert into energy.
Carbohydrate stores are replenished and you'll be ready to go for another day.

Biggest mistake you can make would be to drink water and not eat anything.
Many people have washed the salt out of the body by just drinking constantly in hot weather and not eating, the effect then is total lethargy, it's like you've never eaten or drunk and anything anyway.
My advice is always to eat slightly more than you think you might need.
If you have an appetite at the end of the day that's a good thing, if you don't then something is probably gone awry.

If you are trying to do say 200 miles a day or even 200 K in bad terrain and conditions Then the advice would be completely different kettle of fish.

[Jdsk]

There's not really any science in it, if you're in good health anyway and you've been eating regularly through the day, Vitamin C is the only vitamin not stored in your body.

Roughly speaking that applies to all water-soluble micronutrients, so all of the B vitamins as well as C.

But I like the general sentiment. There's a load of highly misleading advertisements about commercial preparations of micronutrient supplements that imply that they are effective if you're "having a bad day". They aren't.

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

What I really want to know is what I should be thinking about eating after each day’s ride - to help recover and starting fuelling for next day.
By choice I’d probably eat a pie and chips and a big sweet pud at the nearest pub but is there anything more scientific? Pasta, chicken etc.

No special advice: enjoy your food and don't put on mass if you don't want to. Think about overconsumption of alcohol, I suspect that quite a few tourers decrease their consumption after the first few evenings.

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

And I haven’t even thought about breakfasts.

As above, but eating large high fat meals before exercise can cause discomfort. You'll find out soon enough.

Jonathan

[sjs]

When I’m doing a long day ride it’s often an excuse to eat and drink junk all day - £3.50 meal deals with chocolate milk drinks and chocolate bars, flap jacks etc etc.
Now I’m looking at 14 days of this - plus 14 dinners in pubs and B&Bs potentially of the pie and chips variety.
I’m going to come back fatter than I left! And I haven’t even thought about breakfasts.

So the serious question is - what ought I to be fuelling and refuelling on at the start and end of each day? (En route will just have to be what I find on the way.)

Full Englishes and pub dinners, however nice on an occasional basis, soon became a bit monotonous for me, so my fortnight or so didn't turn out as all sausages, bacon, pies and chips. I just ate what I felt like and did drink quite a lot of beer (evenings only). Still lost a few pounds.

[Tigerbiten]

And I haven’t even thought about breakfasts.

As above, but eating large high fat meals before exercise can cause discomfort. You'll find out soon enough.

Jonathan

I like to start with a full english.
But I order bread and butter and not toast or fry bread.
That way I can make a bacon/sausage butty to takeout for lunch, before eating the rest.
Stretch the breakfast calories out and get a "free" lunch in the bargain.

YMMV ..........