Energy Drinks DO work

StanwaySteve62

Well for me they do anyway.
I'm pretty new to road cycling (this year) and now am quite happy to pop out for 35 miles or so and also have done a 50 and a 60 non stop at around 16.5 mph avg.
On a weds night I do an 18mile ride with the bike shop and avg 18 mph so think I'm not too bad a rider for my age and weight (48 and 17stone)
Anyway, all these rides I tend to have at least one of my bottles mixed with SIS pssp and have good glass full 30 mins before I start. ( not the 18 though)
Well yesterday I'd ran out of powder and just had some juice in the bottle and after 20 miles had that 'empty' feeling, lucklly I had a Jordans breakfast bar in my pocket which gave me just enough to help with the 15 miles home
It was bloody windy and had to fight hard for the last few miles to keep my avg at 16mph.

I did have a recovery drink when I finished courtesy of that Zipvit sample box and felt fine after a few minutes but was a tough last 15 (for me anyway)

Buckled_Rims

Energy drinks do work, there's no doubt about that. But, on shorter rides even you can train your body to do without them. It think its both physical and psychological. Indeed there's a training regime that suggests that if you train first thing in the morning without breakfast your body responds receiving energy from the bodies natural reserves. Someone will have a better explanation then that.

However, what it means is if you constantly rely on energy drinks and gels, you don't fully train your body to use it's own natural resources. Of course it's tough to start and you'll bonk, but who said it was going to be easy :?

StanwaySteve62

Maybe i was having a bad day. just that yesterdays 35 was harder than last weeks 60
On the 60 I took 500 ml before the start, drank another 800 ish by 30 miles had a gel ( the first I'd ever had) at 20 miles and eat a zipvit bar at 40. and just sipped at my second bottle during the secnd half.

Buckled_Rims

This has been bugging me for the last 30 minutes

I've did a search and this is the article I remembered. This will explain it better then my last post.

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/training/article/training-running-on-empty-18071

It sounds unpopular