Endurance riding

E30Sport

Over the last year or so I have entered a few 24 endurance events as part of a team of three or four. I am now going to attempt my first 12 hour solo event (Hit the North). Can anybody offer advice on the best way of approaching the event regarding eating and what foods and / or supplements to eat throughout the day to maintain energy.

Steve

Surf-Matt

I'm mystified as to why BMW owners need to use their car model as a user-name?!

Not done any endurance events yet.

Pippen33

You should be looking at sleep & rest more than pre-ride nutrition *

* so long as you have a healthy balanced diet and are well hydrated there's nothing that you need to worry about.

JasonRwmb

I did a couple of 12 hour solos last year. I used a mixture of energy drinks, gels and bars during the 12 hours, and didn't really eat any proper food. The main thing to remember is to have tried out whatever you are taking with you. 2 hours into the race is not a good time to find a certain product gives you stomach cramps.

Make sure you start eating and drinking early on. I find that I end up picking a section of the course and every lap I will have a gel or a bar there, which mentally helps make the course seem a bit shorter.

I like the High5 range of drinks and gels. So I normally use their 4:1 drink for most of the race, and use the extreme version if I start getting tired. Their caffeine gels seem to work well as a pick-me-up. You can get a sample pack of their stuff for £2 from here . For energy bars I find torq bars to be best.

Before the event I would aim to stay of the beers for a few days, and maybe drink a few bottle fulls of energy drink the day before. I tend to buy plain maltodextrin and mix that with water and squash as it works out loads cheaper than branded products.

E30Sport

Thanks for the replies. I'll certainly take the advice offered and hopefully I'll get round the course a good few times. I'm looking to acheive 8 laps of the 8.5 mile circuit in the 12 hours. It's not going to break any records but will be a big achievment for me.