Nutritional preparation for and during a long ride (100 miles)

[Marcin]

Hello,

I am a cycling newbie. I mean I have done London to Brighton twice and London to Canterbury last year. Now I'm training for my first 100-mile Surrey Prudential ride in a few weeks time. I'm 36 and relatively fit for an average person. When It comes to cycling obviously there's a long way for me. When I did Box Hill a couple of times, most people were overtaking me. Each time my time was between 12-13 minutes so much scope for improvement. Having said that I usually do it having already cycled around 40 miles from London so my legs are tired.

Now, my question is related to:

1) what to eat/drink in preparation for the ride (two weeks before the ride, the day before the ride, etc)
2) what to eat/drink during the ride

In previous rides/training, I'd usually drink water with some dissolved electrolytes tablets and eat/drink energy gels. I'm concerned with calf cramps and would like to minimise the risk of having one. It happened to me a few times while doing Ditchling Beacon. Apart from training, is there any nutritional help with cramps. I have seen a you tube video where a guy recommends something called Glutamine Select but I'm not of your opinions. Anything else?

Thank you.

[Marcin]

Cheeky bump.... nobody???

[Erudin]

Here's what I had on my last solo 100 mile ride: Six bottles of water, 4 mini-Haribo packs, 1 SIS gel, 150 gram bag of dates, cereal bar, snickers bar, mars bar, banana, fruit scone, 3 coffees, and a 500ml Lucozade.

The main thing if you are new to the distance is conserve energy and to pace your ride appropriately.

Keep eating and drinking little and often throughout the ride, better a bit too much than too little.

As for cramps I would recommend spinning a good cadence rather than grinding up the hills, make sure you have low enough gearing.

[531colin]

Cheeky bump.... nobody???

http://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=106991

http://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=107545

http://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=106732

[Manc33]

The options are endless... as long as its carbs.

[eileithyia]

There's probably as many ideas as there are riders.
Partly depends on you digest food over a long distance coupled with how much intensity you intend to ride at.
Last time i rode a series of Audaxes, even though i was not riding at high intensity i found i could not eat large volumes at the stops.
I ride 1- 2 100 mile TT's a year, and used to 'carb' up all week preceding... and would put weight on by the end of the event.....
These days i just eat normally in the lead up to the event. Last weekend i had a protein drink before the event, an energy drink on the bike initially and swapped for plain water for the latter miles. Fulled with gels.

For a ride like Sportive it would depend on how i was intending to ride it; fairly leisurely and stopping at the food stops, or try to ride it in one go. Even if i stopped i would probably only something fairly light; little and often.

If you are getting cramp, have you had your position checked? You seem to be doing the right thing with electroylytes, what about tonic water.... ? If you are going to ride with it in your bottle let it go flat first.....

[whoof]

Most of this comes down to experience, training and pacing. You say you're not that experienced, it's too late to do a great deal more training but you can control your pace.

If you are relatively new to long distance then I would suggest that you start slowly, that is a pace that will probably feel is too slow. If you feel good in the last 1/3rd of the event then you can increase your speed. This will have a number of benefits;
Psychologically it feel better to finish strong than start fast and then fade.
Your body be more likely to use fat rather than limited stores of glycogen as a fuel at lower efforts
It will be easier to eat and digest the food you intake during the event.
You are less likely to cramp.

As to what to eat during the ride. Everyone is different, the last 100 mile ride I did I had burger and chips halfway around and felt fine but I would not recommend it. What I would suggest is small amounts of food and drink often. Personally I find gels and energy drinks sickly and I prefer solid food. Try whatever you choose in the next few weeks before the event to see how you get on. If it's an organised event try and find out what they have at the feed stations and then decide what extra you might need. Things you could try; make a savoury roll/sandwich cut it into 4 small pieces and eat it bit by bit in the first 1/3. A small bag or nuts and dried fruit and the old favourite bananas. You can then start to eat more of the sweet stuff (these things seem to be stocked by a seven year old) at the feed stations as the event goes on.
With regard to drink if you use energy drink you need to try this before the event. If you are used to say SIS and the event has something different be careful some peoples' stomachs don't get on with certain drinks. Whatever one (if any) you choose I would suggest you alternate with water.

[hamster]

It is indeed a really personal thing.
My feeding for a 100 mile ride:
Breakfast: big bowl of porridge cooked with muscovado sugar and raisins, banana, tea and orange juice. Eat at least 90 minutes before starting.
During the ride I like a couple of Tracker bars, generally I drink water only and don't like the energy drinks.
Rest stop: ham sandwich, flapjack, tea with sugar (normally I don't like sugar in tea)
Typically I feel bad around the 90 mile mark and need a boost of energy gels at the 80 mile mark and again at 90.

[mjr]

To my thinking, one problem with the Ride London 100 is that you have to do something like 12.5mph to avoid being "swept" out of the way of the pro race. You get a bit of a boost from it being closed roads but it's desirable to avoid having a mid-way lunch stop, so I'd be trying to pack small easy-to-eat food, starting with slow-burners like flapjacks, malt loaf and small pieces of panini, then moving towards simpler sweeter things as the ride continues. I'd be eating something about every ten miles and drinking water as I got thirsty.

The night before, I'd probably have a good hearty meal (whatever you like - I like a pasta bake, or pasta with a rich ragout) and in the morning, I'd have porridge like usual but add some dates, seed sprinkle and maple syrup.

BUT! I've done a few 100 milers (next one is planned for mid-September) and I've ridden closed-roads, but I've not done 100 mile on closed roads and thanks to BC's absurd rules, I'm not likely to. I like stopping for something like a panini and a pint in a rarely-visited place too much

[Manc33]

I heard something about how bicarbonate of soda is a banned thing because it enhances performance. Well it reduces the acidity of your blood and can help with lactic acid thus "enhancing performance". Its just funny if even that is a banned thing, wow.

They should have like a "doping version" of the TdF alongside the clean one. It would be interesting to see the difference between them (like the clean ones would be going any slower lol, they would all be doping to a man too).

Sorry this isn't really about nutrition on a long ride but to help lactic acid it might be.

Oh by the way ignore everything I just said because I am not a nutritionist or doctor and only what they sell to you could work, a £3 tub of baking soda isn't really something that can raise PH levels, its only an actual alkali so yeah just ignore it why would it be right.

[SpannerGeek]

The most important thing is to get a good high quality, hearty meal inside you the night before. Something 800-1200 cals including drinks.

This will help load your liver and muscles with glycogen, the fuel that will see you through most of the day.

During the ride I eat bananas, and will usually stop twice for cakes/sandwiches.

All this science based supplement stuff I've found next to useless.

On the ride, jelly babies are your best friend!

[Manc33]

I did a 50 mile ride on an empty stomach one time including all the way over Snake Pass and all the way back.

Only just made it back home.

The ride took me from 17:30 to 00:30. I rested for about 20 minutes in the 6 hours, sat on that bench in that village on the Sheffield side smoking a few cigs before setting off back over it again. One reason I wanted to get back home was I only had one cig left. I was on about 30 a day back then (2010).

If thats possible in the state I was in then anything is.

[david7591]

The most important thing is to get a good high quality, hearty meal inside you the night before. Something 800-1200 cals including drinks.

This will help load your liver and muscles with glycogen, the fuel that will see you through most of the day.

During the ride I eat bananas, and will usually stop twice for cakes/sandwiches.

All this science based supplement stuff I've found next to useless.

On the ride, jelly babies are your best friend!

I use jelly babies too. However I do wonder why if they're as good as I think they are, and evidently you too, why don't the professional teams in TDF use them in preference to the science based supplement stuff?

[Marcin]

Thank you everyone for your advice and links. Much appreciated.

[PH]

This will help load your liver and muscles with glycogen, the fuel that will see you through most of the day.

This suggests most of the glycogen stored in your liver will be gone by morning and what's stored in your muscles will get you through about 90 minutes of moderately intense cycling. Then it's carbs, carbs, carbs, just find a way that suites you to get them.
https://tunedintocycling.com/2008/05/09 ... ohydrates/

Or ride at such a low intensity that your body can burn fat. I can ride all day on little more than water, but I have to set off intending to do that and not ride like I otherwise would. I've been doing that this year as part of a very successful weight loss program.