What do the "proper" riders eat on long rides???

drumsmasher

I have just completed my first 100 mile sportive yesterday (Rutland). I filled my pockets with cereal bars, my bottles with High5/Rego and even stuffed a load of jelly beans into another pocket.
The sugar/carb content got me round ok apart from my teeth feeling like they had a layer of paint on them, but what do the proper riders eat? Do they continue to just ram sugar into their bodies or is there another way? I'm not talking about team cars bringing sandwiches out, but is there anything that you can put in your pockets without arriving back feeling sick! These guys that do multi-day rides surely cant keep ramming that amount of simple sugar down??? Thanks!!

zammmmo

Why not have a go at these! Garmin pro team's Allen Lim's idea:

http://www.slipstreamsports.com/2008/07 ... rice-cakes

..would be interested to hear how you got on and what they were like.

Pokerface

Bananas and gels!

guilliano

Dried fruit, nuts, Mule bars, peanut butter and jam sandwiches..... I leave gels to near the end of a ride as I find the comedown off them too similar to bonking and I'd rather that happened when I'm at home with a nice hot shower almost tearing my skin off

eh

I'm no fan of all this processed sugar crap that sold as sports nutrition. So for me on a long ride I'd take sandwiches for sure, probably something plain like cheese and pickle or Marmite. Also bananas, then cereal bars for later in the ride as the keep better. I would probably take one gel but only use if absolutly necessary. I'd also avoid a lot of energy drink as they are the biggest problem for making a mess of your teeth. Try just water.

guilliano

I love the criticism of the "processed sugar crap" then the addition of cereal bars, which are just as bad, if not worse. By the way... Mule and SIS use all natural ingredients for their bars, although the SIS ones are pretty horrible

REF123

I've found that 2 Fig Newtons substitute well for one gel (GU).
Small, modular, bought just about anywhere and, best yet, cheap.
Two Fig Newts for every 45 min. on long rides, up to and exceeding 100 miles, work just fine but I always pack one, or 2, GUs to be on the safe side and, like "guilliano", I save then for the end of the ride, if I feel I need them.
One last thing the Fig Newtons have a fair amount of Sodium to help offset the amount lost during the sweatfest... although, I must admit, I'm still fine tuning the Electrolyte issue because I sometimes find myself cramping up a little after mile 80.
Always learning....

Barrie_G

Try this

1 jar of clear honey (340ml or there abouts)
1 similar sized jar of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth your choice)
300-350 grammes of whey protein powder ( I prefer plain but flavoured if you prefer)
Porridge oats (3-5 hand fulls is usually enough)
Hand full of raisins

Place the honey and peanut butter in a large microwave safe bowl and heat on full power for 2.5 - 3 minutes. (this is only to aid mixing so the timing isn't to important)

Stir the honey and peanut butter until the peanut butter is melted add in the raisins.

Stir in the Whey powder a little at a time to create a stiff mixture, as soon as the mixture starts to look dry and crumbly you've added enough.

Add the oats a little at a time, this is best done by hand, be careful as the mixture may still be hot and will stick to the skin, add oats until the mixture forms a smooth solid mass, you're looking for a consistency of plasticine.

Line a 9x12 baking tray with cling film, place the mixture into the tray and level it out. Allow to cool and cut into bar shaped pieces, I usually cut it into 15 bars, remove bars from the tray and wrap in cling film.

These will easily keep in the fridge for 2 weeks or more.

I'm sorry if some of the instructions are a little vague, but a lot of it is down to personal judgement and what sort of consistency you like your bars to be.

Bhima

Funny, I thought I replied to this thread....?

aphex2k

Fig biscuits and a sip of water every now and again. And a nice bit of cake and a brew post ride.

You really don't need all these "sports gels". Waste of money unless you're a pro racer with a nutritionist scraping every ounce of energy out.

deal

Bhima wrote:

Funny, I thought I replied to this thread....?

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12619613

perhaps you are confusing these two threads ?

drumsmasher

zammmmo wrote:

Why not have a go at these! Garmin pro team's Allen Lim's idea:

http://www.slipstreamsports.com/2008/07 ... rice-cakes

..would be interested to hear how you got on and what they were like.

Cheers mate....great link and they do look a bit more appetizing than jelly beans and cereal bars! I'll let you know when i try them!

drumsmasher

Bhima wrote:

Funny, I thought I replied to this thread....?

Yeah sorry mate, i put it in the Sportive section and didnt get many replies so tried here. It worked anyway. Cheers for your advice!

drumsmasher

Barrie_G wrote:

Try this

1 jar of clear honey (340ml or there abouts)
1 similar sized jar of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth your choice)
300-350 grammes of whey protein powder ( I prefer plain but flavoured if you prefer)
Porridge oats (3-5 hand fulls is usually enough)
Hand full of raisins

Place the honey and peanut butter in a large microwave safe bowl and heat on full power for 2.5 - 3 minutes. (this is only to aid mixing so the timing isn't to important)

Stir the honey and peanut butter until the peanut butter is melted add in the raisins.

Stir in the Whey powder a little at a time to create a stiff mixture, as soon as the mixture starts to look dry and crumbly you've added enough.

Add the oats a little at a time, this is best done by hand, be careful as the mixture may still be hot and will stick to the skin, add oats until the mixture forms a smooth solid mass, you're looking for a consistency of plasticine.

Line a 9x12 baking tray with cling film, place the mixture into the tray and level it out. Allow to cool and cut into bar shaped pieces, I usually cut it into 15 bars, remove bars from the tray and wrap in cling film.

These will easily keep in the fridge for 2 weeks or more.

I'm sorry if some of the instructions are a little vague, but a lot of it is down to personal judgement and what sort of consistency you like your bars to be.

Barrie...thanks for taking the time to put all this down! I am on my way to the kitchen as i speak!! ....Well i'll ask the Mrs!

Tom Butcher

Water, bananas and that dutch ginger/fruit loaf thing you get in supermarkets. I'll use a fairly dilute sports drink on a sportive or a road race (or a long time trial if I ever did any) but very very rarely outside of that. Ran a marathon on water and a couple of hi5 bars and felt fine. I do think the whole sports food business is largely a marketing scam - I'm sure it's good energy food but the amounts they claim you need are excessive.

dave milne

considering how often I hit the wall despite consuming vast amounts of energy food and drinks I'm not sure I agree that the amounts they claim you need are excessive at all.

jibberjim

dave milne wrote:

considering how often I hit the wall despite consuming vast amounts of energy food and drinks I'm not sure I agree that the amounts they claim you need are excessive at all.

Are you sure you're hitting the wall? And not being limited by some other sort of fatique?

Are you sure you're actually digesting all that food you're eating and not having it sit in the stomach undigested during your ride.

What energy food and drinks are you taking? Are you mixing simple sugars and complex carbohydrates?

During relatively intense exercise (say 80% of max), most research suggests people can digest only 250~300 calories per hour of easily digested food. At lower intensities you can digest more, and higher intensities less. And there is of course a wide variation within people.

The intensity difference is why some people say they need nothing, and others say they need lots, at a low enough intensity (and it changes with training and varies with people etc.) there's pretty much no need to eat at all for hours, since you'll just be burning the fat stores, as that's what the body prefers to do.