Fuelling on day rides

iain_j

Despite doing touring for a few years now I feel I've never sorted out my fuelling properly and usually end up suffering with dead legs and stomach cramps towards the end of a ride, even on shorter (60-odd mile) rides.

I have a big pasta or rice meal the night before, and cereal or porridge for breakfast. During the ride I'll snack on bananas, flapjacks, cereal bars, slice of fruit cake etc, about one an hour of riding, and have about 500ml water per hour's riding. I sometimes start out with energy drinks in my bottles but once they're gone it's back to water for the rest of the day. I'll stop once or twice during the day for a light snack - sandwiches, baked potato, beans on toast, that sort of thing.

I don't push it hard on rides, despite a liking for loads of long and/or steep hills! It's frustrating though that beyond about 60 miles, sometimes sooner, I don't feel low on energy so much but I get really heavy legs and I'm labouring the pedals round and it kills the enjoyment of the ride, and I sometimes suffer with stomach cramps too.

I don't feel like I'm not eating enough, but maybe not eating the right stuff? I've read about calorie intake and % from carbs etc, but it goes over my head and I can't translate that into what to stock up on at the local shops and cafes!

FixedNewbie

Hello

Your food does not sound too far off to me. Do you have a heart rate monitor? It would be worth seeing what your average heart rate is?

I recently did a couple of days at over 100 miles each (whoo!) and both days i felt fine where as previously 60 odd miles had me very tired. For me it was mainly down to trying to keep my heart rate in the 150's and fuelling. I ate lots of salted Peanuts, a good few bananas, plenty of water and where ever possible a bottle of lucosade - it has something like 26% glucose syrup which is quick energy, i think that combined with the slow release of the peanuts prevented any major sugar highs and lows.

I asked a similar question earlier - Touring and Fuelling strategies- which has some good advice in it!

cheers

iain_j

Thanks, i haven't got a HRM, I get obsessed enough already with the numbers on my speedo

I'll have a look at that thread. Peanuts wouldn't be all that beneficial for me on a ride though, I'l allergic to them!

andymiller

You'd be surprised at the amount of carbs you can get through. According to my HRM (which may of course be telling me b*llocks) a big day's ride would comes out at about 7,000 calories - so a good three times normal daily calorie intake.

iain_j

Is there a ballpark figure for, say, calories per hour or per mile?

andymiller

Yes, somewhere. A Google search might come up with something.

samyarwood

The stomach cramps are probably too much food! Get your HRM - I bet with your penchant for steep, hard hills you're going into the red too much. Some strength and lactate threshold work in the week would probably help a lot in the long term with the heavy legs.

iain_j

I looked on google for calories burned cycling, it gave all sorts between 400 and 1000 per hour, but it's more than I expected. Weak legs would suggest not eating enough, but stomach cramps suggests too much - which way do I go!

amaferanga

Not eating enough would eventually end in you bonking, a feeling very different from just getting heavy legs.

I actually agree that you may be eating and/or drinking too much. With regards drinking 500ml an hour - do you do that because someone told you to or is that what you have found you need?

I guess a good way to see if your food and water intake is about right is to weigh yourself in the buff before and after a ride. If you weigh more after then I think that'd suggest you're drinking too much.

iain_j

I forget where I read the 500ml/hour thing but I do feel dehydrated if I have significantly less than that on a long ride. TBH it's not often I stick to that amount right throughout the day but the closer I am to it, the better I feel.

I've been googling again, and as for stomach cramps (which I was getting moreso than heavy legs last Sunday), this site suggests:

Abdominal cramps are usually the result of:
1. Pushing too hard after eating
2. Pushing beyond your training limits - your body saying "Hey, slow down"
3. Electrolyte imbalance (usually later in the ride and in hot conditions)

I don't think it's down to #1, I don't push hard anyway but especially not after eating. Not #2 either, I get it when riding at levels I should be used to by now. #3 sounds promising though, especially as last Sunday's ride was a hot, humid one. As I said I've tried sports drinks, the powder-in-bottle types, but it was hard to say how much effect they had as I ended up having plain water the rest of the day because I couldn't feasibly take the tub of powder with me - how do you get round this? Are there any decent ones available in, say, single-serving sachets?

Not eating enough would eventually end in you bonking, a feeling very different from just getting heavy legs.

I'm familiar with that. I've had the bonk once or twice and recognise the signs. What I've been getting doesn't feel like that, it feels like I'm riding with the brakes on.

amaferanga

You might want to try Nuun tablets then.

iain_j

Thanks, I'll give them a try.

cavasta

I tend to drink Lucozade sport on touring holidays and day rides, usually stopping off at shops along the way to top up when I'm getting low. It can work out fairly expensive, ranging from about 90p to £1.50 per bottle, depending where you buy it from (expensive village stores or Tesco). As an experiment on my recent LEJOG I tried a day on water instead and felt a difference for the worse. Maybe it was all in the mind (or legs). Or maybe eating more would have countered it but for some people liquids can be easier than solids to stomach, especially on long hot days. Having said that, on a tour each day I'll get through 3-5 bananas, just as many Frusili bars (or equivalent), jam butties at lunch time, the occasional can of coke, muffins as and when I spot them (or when the mood takes me), plus muesli or porridge for breakfast and whatever's on the menu at the local tavern in the evening. General advice seems to be a little often, eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty. Virtually the first thing I do when I reach my day's destination is to have a banana, a cereal bar type thing and finish off my drink or get a can of coke. This will put me on till the main event in the pub later on. For efficient recovery it's reckoned to be pretty important to eat within the first 30-120 minutes of finishing a day's ride.

pimptovimto

I'm a fan of lucozade sport as well, Esso have a sale on at the moment buy 1 get 1 free.

sampras38

amaferanga wrote:

You might want to try Nuun tablets then.

I'll 2nd Nuun tablets, although if you are using them (1 tablet for evert 500ml of water), make sure you're getting ample carbs from elsewhere as they are only for replacing electrolytes and contain no carbs.