Touring and fuelling strategies

FixedNewbie

Good Afternoon all!!

I am looking for a little bit of advice on touring and keeping your body sufficiently fuelled. Starting on Saturday coming i am cycling across Wales to Fishgaurd and then from Rosslare in Ireland to the west.

Ive never done any touring before so i am not too sure on how best to fuel my body. Ive done the odd longish cycle but ive never fuelled myself properly and always been too tired to do the same again the next day.

I was thinking of stopping every 30 miles or so to eat and drink but i am not sure the best things to be taking on board? I am travelling very light so everything will have to be bought ready to eat weather that be at a supermarket or in a pub etc. I am guessing evening meals can be is big and dirty as i like since ill have all night to digest them but what do people recommend eating for breakfast and lunch? Also how about on the way? Will eating walnuts every 30 minutes or so be beneficial? Banana every 45?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading.

Martin

onbike 1939

Oatmeal is a good start, either as Porridge for breakfast or a oatcakes for snacks during the day. Bananas are very good too and any Pasta dishes are excellent. All of the above are long-lasting in their effects as they release their stored energy very slowly.
Best to drink regularly rather than waiting until you feel thirsty.Thirty miles may be a bit too long before a break. I tend to cycle for twenty miles or two hours and eat at every stop as it's important to keep up the sugar level in your blood.

GyatsoLa

Little and often is usually the key. Simple things like a mix of nuts and raisins is a good way to keep your body ticking over, along with bananas. A very good recovery and energy drink is actually milk - either just buy the odd carton or if you don't like it buy yoghurt drinks, just check the ingredients to make sure its real yoghurt, not flavoured water with some vegetable fats added, which some are.

FixedNewbie

Cheers for the advice guys.

Will go for little and often, i seem to be bad for waiting until i am VERY hungry before stopping which is too late and therefore i am shattered even after a good feed! Need to try and pace myself as well instead of setting of as though i am on a 10mile commute!

Will go for nuts with raisins with the odd banana while cycling and stick with pastas for lunches. Of course by evening I am allowed a big pie and Veg :-D

daviesee

Hi,

I have only done one tour so I'm not sure how much of an expert I am. However, on that tour like you I was a novice

I did it in 4 sessions per day from around 9:00 to 17:00 of around 1 1/2 - 2 hours depending on distances between places worth stopping.

I did one session after breakfast. Stopped for 1/2 hour tea break (sometimes pint :shock: ) Then another session before a longer stop for lunch (publunch :oops: ), sightseeing etc.
Then another session before a 1/2 hour break and then a last session to destination and find a B&B.

Basically I averaged 85 miles a day (15mph average) and it seemed realtively easy and very enjoyable but it was 15 years ago and I was much younger and fitter. Oh, and it was dry and sunny every day :P

FixedNewbie

Cheers for the advice Davisee!

I like the way you've broken your day up, some good refuelling time in there!

I am praying for it to be dry and sunny as i am kipping in a Bivi bag, spent the last couple of nights in the back garden trying to decide what clothes i can take and what is just going to be additional weight that I can live without.

I think my biggest challenge is going to be that i am cycling my Fixed wheel, the other bike is all the way up in Scotland and not possible to get down. I am hoping that the bike will have me so tired that my sleeping arrangement is not an issue! :roll:

How many days did you cycle in succession?

daviesee

FixedNewbie wrote:

Cheers for the advice Davisee!

I like the way you've broken your day up, some good refuelling time in there!

I am praying for it to be dry and sunny as i am kipping in a Bivi bag, spent the last couple of nights in the back garden trying to decide what clothes i can take and what is just going to be additional weight that I can live without.

I think my biggest challenge is going to be that i am cycling my Fixed wheel, the other bike is all the way up in Scotland and not possible to get down. I am hoping that the bike will have me so tired that my sleeping arrangement is not an issue! :roll:

How many days did you cycle in succession?

Fixed! :shock: Brave man!

I did it over 6 days continious on a road bike credit card style using a rucksack packed light, laundry as I went and with the luxury of B&B. The mileages varied depending on destinations, some days were long, some short.
I did Southampton up to Bath, along to Devon, down to the south coast through Taunton, back along and a detour round the Isle of Wight before returning.
The cider and cream teas were great, not together though
In Poole, the morning aftera lock-in seeing off a squaddie to Bosnia was not so pleasant :?

PS:- On the drive down I had a warm-up round the Lake District. All in all, a very nice visit to my sister who I just about bumped into :oops:

Moderation, moderation.......

onewallfree

I take sandwiches made with the really heavy German dark bread, cream cheese, plus a slice of cheese and one of meat. I find them ideal for the relatively low-intensity, all-day touring I do. They're heavy enough to give you a feeling of pleasant fullness and small enough so that one won't make you feel too full to ride, and take a while to digest so they don't screw up your blood sugar levels like sugary stuff can.

They're nice and small, too: that dark German bread is about 5 times as dense as the typical British or American "toast" bread, so they don't take up as much room and don't get crushed as easily.

A few cereal bars, nuts and chocolate or sweets go in my pockets, too, for the soul as much as for the belly.

FixedNewbie

daviesee wrote:

Fixed! :shock: Brave man!

I did it over 6 days continious on a road bike credit card style using a rucksack packed light, laundry as I went and with the luxury of B&B. The mileages varied depending on destinations, some days were long, some short.
I did Southampton up to Bath, along to Devon, down to the south coast through Taunton, back along and a detour round the Isle of Wight before returning.
The cider and cream teas were great, not together though
In Poole, the morning aftera lock-in seeing off a squaddie to Bosnia was not so pleasant :?

Moderation, moderation.......

Yes, i Think i may be in trouble after a few days on the Fixed! :oops:

Your tour sounds lovely. I am trying to keep all my kit under 6kg which should help with the hills. Ill drop another post after my trip with a few pics and list of my kit - see if anyone is interested!

Cheers for the heads up on the German Dark bread onewallfree, will be sure to keep my eye open for some of that. I bought a bunch of energy bars from the army stores today so i hope these will be a good start in the mornings until i find somewhere to really fill my boots

Chocolate bars on the end of a stick eh - make you work for them!

I fully intend to be ordering the fatty, heart attack on a plate foods at every pub for my evening meals and since its holiday i may as well follow that up with a wee single :-)

Hmmm roll on Friday!!

FixedNewbie

Good afternoon all.

I just wanted to thank you for the advice. I ate salted nuts and bananas while on the bike plus a few lucosade's and found i had no problems with energy, infact, i managed Wales in a day and Ireland in a day too - first ever 100+ mile days.

The trip was great fun although next time it might be worth the outlay for a sat nav - Ireland has no signposts and Wales have them but turned the wrong way round!

Cheers Martin :-)