How close to an event should yo stop eating?

320DMsport

Hi all,

I have a event on Saturday which i will be starting at 12.30pm.

I read a little about this and some articles say yo shouldn't eat for the 3 hours leading upto the event, then start eating once on the move.

I tend to have a bowl of porridge in the morning around 8am, but wold it harm my performance to say have a bagel with peanut buttet and banana at day 10.30?

I find i get very hungry leaving it along time to eat before riding, what do you guys tend to do?

Would it be worth having a gel per hour? it's a very strenuous XC i'm doing.

Thanks.

Jeff Jones

Sounds fine to me. A small meal should digest pretty well in two hours.

If I'm riding ~1hr to an event, I'll normally have a gel once I get there as a top up.

320DMsport

Yes i think i'll do that, i'll have a gel before the start and sip abit of energy drink as it's all uphill for the first hour or so and abit of bike carrying!

I'm aiming to be out for four hours, i did the route on Monday and only took 2 litres of SIS go and didn't use it all, on a hot day would i be under hydrating with that amount or maybe best take another bottel on the bike just incase?

Jeff Jones

320DMsport wrote:

I'm aiming to be out for four hours, i did the route on Monday and only took 2 litres of SIS go and didn't use it all, on a hot day would i be under hydrating with that amount or maybe best take another bottel on the bike just incase?

I find I need more fluid per km/time when I'm going hard, so that's something to consider along with the temperature.

Just remember it's bad to run out of water and and extra bottle won't slow you down much.

320DMsport

Cheers for the feedback jeff, i'll let you know how i get on!!

320DMsport

Cheers Jeff,

THe extra bottle came in handy!

There was feed stations but i wouldn't of had time for that!

The event went well and i did my goal, well two of my goals, i wanted to do it in 4 hours and get in top 50.

After doing 30 miles and 1400 metres of ascent off road i did it in 3hr 53. 51sec and came 40th in male solo out of 77, also had two punctures so quite happy as i've only been back in the saddle 9 months after a long break.

Raised 300 quid for charity too.

But the winning time was 2hr 21 seconds! mental that!

The guy that won is a fell runner too and apparently he runs up Garburn pass from the Kentmere side!

Jeff Jones

Nice one! It was pretty warm so that extra bottle would have been good.

How did your stomach cope with the extra food and how many gels did you eat during that time? I probably would have gone for 5-6 powergels (more if I was using SiS gels) for four hours, but I tend to use only water, not energy drink.

DaveyL

320 you must have done the Sam Haughton Challenge! It was 1400 m of climbing, was it? It was my first proper mountain bike ride for 11 months. Talk about a baptism of fire! Me and a mate got round in something like 5 hr 20, but our ride time was 4 hr 20. We had three punctures between us and were taking it easy anyway, trying to treat it as a training ride for the Corrieyairack Challenge next month, so we did dawdle a fair bit at the feed stations/checkpoints. Great event though, some really great and tough mountain biking up there. Congrats on a great result and a for raising so much momey for such a great cause.

I got through about 5 litres of fluid. I only had water in my Camelbak and had a load of Torq gels plus a couple of Torq bars. It's really difficult to eat when riding off-road though. I reckon the way to do is to have the energy drink in the Camelbak and maybe some water in bottles on the bike. Amazingly my two bottles survived the whole way round without flying out of their cages.

2 hr 21 is INSANE! That guy must have ridden every bit of the climbs *fast* and absolutely caned the descents.

320DMsport

Jeff i used SIS go mixed at six percent, drank 500ml before the start and had a SIS gel 15 mins before the off.

I drank 2 litres of the sis during the event which was the contents of my camelbak, then the last 30 mins i was onto plain water from my botte, which i drank half approx 450ml.

I had 3 gels on the way round, had one spare which i forgot about, to be honest i wish i'd taken more as i could feel the benefit of them 15 mins after i've had one.

I chopped fig rolls into halves and ate half every 40 mins, i was going to eat one every 20 mins but some of the climbs and bike carries didn't lend themselves to chewing a fig!

My stomach was fine with it which was good, maybe more gels next time!

Thing was as i've only been back in the saddle 9 months i'm always unsure how hard to push to set a good pace as i'm worried that i may not finish, then when i got to last road section and i had 14 mins to get back to do it under 4 hours i totally gunned it all the way back at 17-20 mph and i seemed to have abit left in the tank, maybe take a few risks next time or try and ride harder in training and see what happens?

Davey yes it was the Sam Houghton, i was riding Garburn twice a week but in the other direction as i like the downhill that way instead of carrying up like in the event!

Glad you enjoyed it, do you MTB the lakes much? yes 1400 metres of acsent and 30.4 miles i had it at, and you chose that for your first ride!!

I haven't XC'd in many other areas of the country and tend to ride more to Scotland than anywhere else but i don't know how tough other XC courses are compared to the lakes ones!

I think that one must be one of the toughest around?

The lad that won the Sam Houghton also came joint first in the Fred Witton this year! he's a local lad.

Apparently he runs up Garburn with the bike!

He passed me going up the Howe where you turn left after the 3rd check point off the main road, i was in granny ring and biggest cog on the rear, and he steamed by me!

There is a good event in Grizedale i September, GMBC 2008 40 miles with some cracking stuff!, lot of climbing again though!

sloboy

The "don't eat beforehand, wait until you start" thingy is about insulin reactions. If you eat something with a high glycaemic load (i.e. a quickly absorbed carb/sugary kind of thing) you get a big insulin reaction, which is supposed to depress your blood sugar level, so the theory goes it will have had the opposite effect to that you intended.

Oddly, once you're exercising, this insulin reaction doesn't occur in the same way, so you can stuff your face and get both an immediate and lasting benefit.

320DMsport

It's interesting stuff, i had a bowl of porridge with honey 2 hours before the event and a gel just before seemed to work well.

I was leaving it 3 hours before but i was starving by the time i came to ride, porridge is slow release so that is better for a pre race meal to combat the insulin effect??