Cycling UK Forum

Hi guys,

I'm fairly new here so please be patient with my daft questions.

After taking up road riding after a 20 year break I am enjoying it loads but sometimes suffer from the bonk, as I believe it is known, and literally run out of energy.

On most rides I'nm fine but I occasionally cycle to work which is a 65 mile round trip - no trouble in the morning after a good night's sleep and a weetabix, but murder in the evening and I am almost in bottom gear for the last 5-6 miles.

Now I know that the answer is to eat more, but when? what? how much? I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight so I'm probably got one eye on that when I'm deciding what to eat.

All opinions / facts / recipies etc much appreciated!

Ta

I first came accross the term 'the bonk' on an old Cycle touring film. It basically meant hitting a brick wall where you feel drained of energy and can't go on any further.
What you need to do is to make sure when you cycle such distances is that you eat a good breakfast in the morning (if this is when you cycle) ? i.e. Porridge etc. and take breaks on your ride to eat things like a Mars Bar, Banana etc. this should stop you getting aflicted by the Bonk.

I find that grazing on moderatly high carb foods (dried fruit, malt loaf, cereal bars, etc) does the trick. I normally have a nibble every hour or every 15miles or so. How much you need to eat will differ from person to person - you just need to experiment a bit to see what works for you.

doing what you are doing, i would need to be eating before setting off ,as mentioned banana, cereal bars (nothing fancy just those from health shop preferably) and malt loaf. incidentally i make my own malt loaf in bread maker as soreen does (or used to contain hydrogented vegetable fat which i am led to believe is best avoided). yoy may need more or less than that, it seems the fitter you are the less you need. i'd be surprised if you put on weight with that amount of food and riding, but if you are worried about weight i would suggest bananas as its sugars are unrefined.

Get married Oh sorry wrong sort - er, eat bananas then!

What and where do you eat lunch?

Your breakfast will power you to work, but by then it'll be almost used up. You need a good lunch. Then perhaps a snack mid afternoon.

I know what you mean, and how you suffer. I didn't do the distance you do, but mid afternoon I'd be starving hungry unless I ate a good lunch. I used to grab a mid afternoon Mars or peanuts as well.

It nevr stopped me demanding more nosh when I arrived home!

Water, jaffa cakes, bananas. But 32.5 miles to work on sleep and a Weetabix!? Get some porridge down your neck and eat a 'decent' lunch - you will still lose weight (with the proviso that energy in </= to energy out)

I'd agree with those saying that if you're cycling 65 miles a day, you're going to lose some weight (or lose some fat-- you'll put on muscle). The only proviso is that this schedule may make you more hungry in the evening-- which is just when your body doesn't really need the energy. It might be best to shift your biggest meal of the day to breakfast or lunch, if possible.

I'd eat a decent breakfast (personally I don't need too much in the mornings), a large lunch and decent sized morning and afternoon snacks. Maybe just after arriving at work (10AM if you're on a 9-5 schedule) you could have fruit and oatcakes or something, and then another decent sized snack at tea-time to prepare yourself for the ride home.

The 'thing' in diets these days is many small meals rather than a couple of big meals as this gives you a more constant source of energy throughout the day. This should maintain your energy for the bike ride home.

It is, of course, difficult to graze throughout the work day, but give it a try!

Malt loaf, bananas & Robinsons Lemon Barley Water, mixed fairly weak.
Stay away from refined sugars and chocolate until you're within a few miles of home. The sugar's fine to start, then the body releases insulin to counter it and you hit the wall even harder unless you have ever more sweet stuff. I can't tolerate chocolate within 3 hours of starting even a short ride.

jawaka wrote:doing what you are doing, i would need to be eating before setting off ,as mentioned banana, cereal bars (nothing fancy just those from health shop preferably) and malt loaf. incidentally i make my own malt loaf in bread maker as soreen does (or used to contain hydrogented vegetable fat which i am led to believe is best avoided). yoy may need more or less than that, it seems the fitter you are the less you need. i'd be surprised if you put on weight with that amount of food and riding, but if you are worried about weight i would suggest bananas as its sugars are unrefined.

Recipe please for malt loaf perhaps?

Bowl of microwaveable porridge and dried fruit before leaving work. Certainly I often need re-fuelling before I leave work for a 17 mile ride home, carry some gel bars. Avoid mars bars as they gave you insulin highs followed by a low.

Beakyboy wrote:Recipe please for malt loaf perhaps?

Delia Smith - sticky malt loaf

It's not always easy to find malt in manageable quantities: it seems to start at 40 litres for home-brew and goes up to tanker size for commercial brewers.

Potter's extract of malt comes in 1lb size jars but I had to order it from Sainsbury's instore pharmacy.

The result is nice home-made malt loaf but it is a lot of faff in getting the malt then waiting ages for the mixture to rise. I'm not sure it's worth the effort to produce anti-knock bike food.

It appears Soreen have sorted their act out on the hydrogenated fat in malt loaf http://www.soreen.com/news.asp?id=85

Which is good because there is nothing better that a warm, slightly squashed malt loaf and peanut butter sandwich straight out of the jersey pocket

thirdcrank wrote:I'm not sure it's worth the effort to produce anti-knock bike food.

It's not when the likes of Asda do a cheap copy of Soreen fo 20p. Not read the contents to see if "hydrogenated fat" is there or not..... but only 20p

I think it is worth mentioning that it will take two hours before your digestive system breaks down your meal and you feel the benefit. Porridge does release its energy over a longer time and is the reason that the Newfoundland fishermen refer to it as "Work Food".