Energy drink and energy bars

DonDaddyD

For long rides, what energy drink, bars and shot blocks should one buy?

stuaff

DonDaddyD wrote:

For long rides, what energy drink, bars and shot blocks should one buy?

I know that there are plenty of good, scientifically-tested, used-by-the-pros products out there, but as far as an isotonic drink goes, nothing comes close to home-made for value.
I follow the recipe from The Times- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 269054.ece - with a litre of Sainsbury's Basics orange juice it's 28p a litre, same sodium content as Lucozade Sport and over 50% more calories. And it does the trick (as tested extensively by me, not least round the IOW Sunday!).
I've got a pack of PowerBar Ride Shots (freebie with 'the comic' a few weeks back), I'll let you know on those....For 'regular food' choices, malt loaf is favoured by many (high in carbs, low in fat), went through a pack Sunday (in part for 'recovery' )- it does get squidgy and stick to your teeth though. And do not forget the humble banana.

jonginge

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

jonginge

JonGinge wrote:

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

Not sure I'm going to use gels again. That's your faults Jash and Greg66!

greg66_tri_v2.0

JonGinge wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

Not sure I'm going to use gels again. That's your faults Jash and Greg66!

Moi? :twisted:

jonginge

Greg66 wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

Not sure I'm going to use gels again. That's your faults Jash and Greg66!

Moi? :twisted:

Mais oui.





(comment made just outside Epsom IIRC)

cjcp

Malt loaf, jaffa cakes, fig rolls, bananas.

The Squeezy gels sold on Wiggle are the only gels I've ever got on with, but I've not used them for over two years.

Drinks: squash or, for longer rides, Hi Five. Avoid drinks with Aspartame.

As JG says, if you feel yourself flagging, better to take a cake stop than press on.

cjcp

JonGinge wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

Not sure I'm going to use gels again. That's your faults Jash and Greg66!

Moi? :twisted:

Mais oui.


(comment made just outside Epsom IIRC)

Yep. At the traffic lights before we turned left. I remember feeling a little weak after that comment.

stuaff

+1 for cake stops. Some splendid cake on the IOW courtesy of PTAs at Yarmouth and Bembridge. I burnt it off soon enough

greg66_tri_v2.0

cjcp wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

What I normally imbibe (YMMV):
Rides under 1hr: Nothing
Rides 2-4hrs: 1-2bottles PSP/GO blackcurrant, 2 bananas. GO takes over as it gets hotter.
Rides >4hrs: panic!. Well, as above plus some more solid food

Cake stops on social rides usually help too

Not sure I'm going to use gels again. That's your faults Jash and Greg66!

Moi? :twisted:

Mais oui.


(comment made just outside Epsom IIRC)

Yep. At the traffic lights before we turned left. I remember feeling a little weak after that comment.

Oh yes. I recall that. :twisted:

Up to an hour: nowt
1-2 hours: probably water. If it's hot, then maybe 500ml water + 500ml electrolyte. Maybe some leftover Clif Bar.
> 2 hours: 750ml water + 750ml electrolyte/carb drink. I use one I picked up in Canada, but I doubt it's much different to the SIS stuff. Plus a Clif Bar, and a sandwich bag containing enough powder to make up a second electro/carb bottle. When I'm on this regime, I aim to slug the electro/carb drink every 25 mins, and take a mouthful of Clif Bar washed down with water at the same time. Once I'm out of fluid, I'll stop, buy some water, and make up two new bottles. For a v loing ride I'll take two Clif Bars. Bits of leftover Clifs get recycled (see 1-2 hours above).

lost_in_thought

I like the High5 Orange one.

However, I generally forget to drink it until it's almost too late. I intend to drink a bit every 10 miles, but generally forget.

I also find that if I drink while exercising it makes me burp. TMI? Maybe...

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

drink a bit every 10 miles, but generally forget.

Needs to be a bit more often. Every 15 minutes or so. Little and often, as the saying goes.

Rich158

I use the High 5 drink with Super carbs - the isotonic one, although it doesn't seem to be any different to the normal stuff. The energy bars I use Clif, they're organic iirc and they seem relatively palatable. At the very end of a long ride, or just before a mega climb I use a Torq gel with caffeine, which seems to kick in pretty quickly.

As ever it's how you consume this stuff that affects your performance most. I start sipping the energy drink as soon as I start riding, and try to use approx 500ml per hour. I also try to eat one energy bar per hour for rides over about 50 miles, so it gives me something later on in the ride once it's fully digested. This gives me back about 5-600 calories per hour, which isn't bad when you consider I burn approx 900 calories/hour according to my HRM. Using this system I've yet to run out of energy, even on 100 mile rides at a high'ish intensity, and have even felt I had a bit to spare at the end.

biondino

Rich158 wrote:

I use the High 5 drink with Super carbs - the isotonic one

Seconded. It's tasty, not too sweet and it seems to work. That'll do me! Wiggle seem to have stopped selling it in useful sachet form (take a sachet or two on a long ride and just add water at a convenient cake stop) so I just bought a box from Chain reaction.

lost_in_thought

cjcp wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

drink a bit every 10 miles, but generally forget.

Needs to be a bit more often. Every 15 minutes or so. Little and often, as the saying goes.

Cool, will try that, thanks!

Must remember to drink...

seamonkey

For longer journeys of 16 hours or more I usually take at least 4 cans of Newcastle Brown, I take a big bag of Frazzles and I take a couple of Mars Bars.
Oh, and I usually take the train

Feltup

Clif bars are my favourite so far. Gels I find are quite hard to ingest but do give a quick injection of energy. I was put off them further after a comment on here about how they have the same consistancy as something else.... :shock:

il_principe

cjcp wrote:

Malt loaf, jaffa cakes, fig rolls, bananas.

The Squeezy gels sold on Wiggle are the only gels I've ever got on with, but I've not used them for over two years.

Drinks: squash or, for longer rides, Hi Five. Avoid drinks with Aspartame.

.

Or AsFARTame as I like to call it!

Clif Bars rule. On Sundays ride I got away with 1500ml water, 1 750 ml water with a Nunn tablet and 1 clif bar, but only just; the last 6 miles home, into the wind were hard hard work!

Clif bars rock, SiS bars are nasty and impossible to chew.

SiS PS stuff is good too, I buy the sachets that way I can carry spare for refil purposes.

stuaff

lost_in_thought wrote:

cjcp wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

drink a bit every 10 miles, but generally forget.

Needs to be a bit more often. Every 15 minutes or so. Little and often, as the saying goes.

Cool, will try that, thanks!

Must remember to drink...

It's easy to forget, when you're in the zone and bombing/pootling (my bombing's probably most people's pootling- skinny old git on silly little bike etc), but the problem is when you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. If need be, set an alarm on phone/watch/Garmin/ etc. Or you could think: traffic lights, crossroads, top of hill, etc: drink time. My Jetstream's rather frequent chain drops on Sunday proved to be a useful memory aid ('Oh bugger. Might as well have a drink before I get going again'). I did need to answer a few calls of nature, but I was taking that as a good sign...

Cubic

Did my first 3hr ride on Monday and had 1xbottle of High5, 1x bottle of water, 1xSIS Go gel, 1xpacket of PowerShots.
I was getting knackered and crampy towards the end. D'you reckon that was due to a lack of nutrition or the fact that I've never gone that far before and am not that fit? Or a bit of both?

cjcp

StuAff wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

cjcp wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

drink a bit every 10 miles, but generally forget.

Needs to be a bit more often. Every 15 minutes or so. Little and often, as the saying goes.

Cool, will try that, thanks!

Must remember to drink...

It's easy to forget, when you're in the zone and bombing/pootling (my bombing's probably most people's pootling- skinny old git on silly little bike etc), but the problem is when you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. If need be, set an alarm on phone/watch/Garmin/ etc. Or you could think: traffic lights, crossroads, top of hill, etc: drink time. My Jetstream's rather frequent chain drops on Sunday proved to be a useful memory aid ('Oh bugger. Might as well have a drink before I get going again'). I did need to answer a few calls of nature, but I was taking that as a good sign...

LiT - as above, it's easy to forget. Try drinking on the commute. You should then just get into the habit of it.

stuaff

Cubic wrote:

Did my first 3hr ride on Monday and had 1xbottle of High5, 1x bottle of water, 1xSIS Go gel, 1xpacket of PowerShots.
I was getting knackered and crampy towards the end. D'you reckon that was due to a lack of nutrition or the fact that I've never gone that far before and am not that fit? Or a bit of both?

Probably a bit of both, but more the latter. I can do that long on the DIY isotonic alone. Don't worry about it too much- build up the mileage steadily and you'll be fine. I went from pretty much zero leisure mileage (17 or 18 years up to end of 2007) to 5-10 mile runs (early 2008), to 10-20 (spring) to 30-40 miles per week (late 2008), up to 50-100 (now- well, more this week, I'm doing a couple of biggies). In mileage as nutrition: little and often. As you build confidence, route knowledge and fitness, so will the miles.

Christophe3967

On Sunday's ride I got through 2 x 750ml bottles of PSP22, 750 ml of water plus one SIS energy bar. I almost had a gel which I could have enjoyed but for some reason that remained unopened.

Trial and error really - Cliif stuff is very good IME and SIS drinks too, but everyone's different so don't buy lots of stuff until you've worked out what agrees with you.

No need to have anything on a normal commute apart from water.

bratboy

What I take with me to eat :

For training rides -
< 90mins, 500ml water
< 1-2hrs, 1 x 500ml water plus 1 x 500ml home made isotonic orange and apple juice usually
2-4hrs, 1 x 750ml water, 1x750ml home made isotonic orange and apple juice usually, 2-3 fruit based bars, 1xmaxim resealable gel (citrus) these are about 3 times the size of a standard powerbar gel (taken with the water). I alternate between gel and fruit bars.
4hrs+, as 2-4hrs plus cheese and jam on white rolls, maybe some maxim energy bars and replace the isotonic with maxim energy drink mixed with sqaush. The difficulty is carrying enough fluids so I use 900ml bottles and if it's warm then I have to stop and replenish

For racing -
< 90mins, nothing during, energy drinks and caffine tabs before hand
1-3hrs, 1x750ml isotonic, 1x750 energy drink, 1 maxim energy bar or similar, 2 maxim citrus gels or similar, some caffine tabs to start
3hrs+, more of the same, but use any feedstations/drinkstations available to grap what's on offer (try and found out first what it'll be and try it out before hand)

I'm reasonable lucky in that I can pretty much ok with most of the leading nutrition brands, but they are all diferent. Just tried Powershots last weekend from a friend, they seemed reasonable too.

As mentioned, try setting your bike computer (or watch) to bleep every 15mins to remind you to drink/eat. Try to drink/eat on flat/downhill sections rather than uphills

cee

Feltup wrote:

Clif bars are my favourite so far. Gels I find are quite hard to ingest but do give a quick injection of energy. I was put off them further after a comment on here about how they have the same consistancy as something else.... :shock:

wallpaper paste?

il_principe

cee wrote:

Feltup wrote:

Clif bars are my favourite so far. Gels I find are quite hard to ingest but do give a quick injection of energy. I was put off them further after a comment on here about how they have the same consistancy as something else.... :shock:

wallpaper paste?

Oh no, it's much worse than that (or so i hear, I wouldn't know).

Christophe3967

jashburnham wrote:

cee wrote:

Feltup wrote:

Clif bars are my favourite so far. Gels I find are quite hard to ingest but do give a quick injection of energy. I was put off them further after a comment on here about how they have the same consistancy as something else.... :shock:

wallpaper paste?

Oh no, it's much worse than that (or so i hear, I wouldn't know).

Pork, wasn't it?

Bassjunkieuk

cjcp wrote:

LiT - as above, it's easy to forget. Try drinking on the commute. You should then just get into the habit of it.

As we all know most of the London SCRer's are plenty good at drinking during the commute, especially on a Friday evening ;-)

cjcp

Christophe3967 wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

cee wrote:

Feltup wrote:

Clif bars are my favourite so far. Gels I find are quite hard to ingest but do give a quick injection of energy. I was put off them further after a comment on here about how they have the same consistancy as something else.... :shock:

wallpaper paste?

Oh no, it's much worse than that (or so i hear, I wouldn't know).

Pork, wasn't it?

I feel weak again. :shock:

cjcp

Christophe3967 wrote:

No need to have anything on a normal commute apart from water.

You say that, but there are times when I feel like Chavanel in the picture belong, and go-go juice of some kind is exactly what I need: