speedster wrote:I would suggest getting enough sleep the day before; makes a huge difference in your energy level..
Very true. Have made the mistake of drinking the night before biggish ride. Alcohol disturbs your sleep.
speedster wrote:I would suggest getting enough sleep the day before; makes a huge difference in your energy level..
Sweep wrote:speedster wrote:I would suggest getting enough sleep the day before; makes a huge difference in your energy level..
Very true. Have made the mistake of drinking the night before biggish ride. Alcohol disturbs your sleep.
LittleGreyCat wrote:Everyone so far has been fuelling on carbohydrates.
The 'bonk' has been mentioned, which normally happens when your relatively small glucose store in your body runs out.
After a point it is also quite hard to take on more carbohydrates to match the glucose burn rate.
One alternative is to convert to burning ketones; to be 'keto adapted'.
This isn't training your body to switch to burning ketones during exercise when your glucose store runs out (as some have posted in the past) but to use ketones as your main energy source day in and day out.
Minimal carbohydrates and mainly protein and fat.
If you can adapt to this then your body has far larger energy stores in the shape of fat than it does in the shape of glucose.
Ultra athletes (which I certainly am not) are turning to this more and more (according to the articles I read).
For myself I can ride 50 miles at a gentle pace with rest stops fuelled by coffee with double cream and butter (so a high fat load and minimal carbohydrates). Eating Low Carbohydrate High Fat (LCHF) can improve endurance, and also help in weight loss; logical because the extra weight is fat and suddenly it is your main fuel source.
Not for everyone; I ended up here because of my T2 Diabetes and trying different eating regimes to avoid the dreaded pills. It seems to work for me but YMMV.