Hillclimb food

daveydave43

Hi
'Tis the hillclimb season, so thought I'd have a go at an event in Derbyshire on Saturday. First time, so i was wondering what might be the best plan with regards to food intake, the night before, and on the actual day.
The climb itself should take between 7-10 mins, i guess, so is there any point in loading up with pasta, or can these types of carbohydrate still be used at near max power?
FWIW i've got a ready supply of bananas, couple of gels and an energy bar ready to go for the run up to the event, (should be riding in the early afternoon, not got the time sheet yet)
Hydration, i plan to sup on a High5 energy mix drink beforehand


Cheers

p.s. oh, and if any else is entering the BUCS hillclimb at Curbar Gap, say hi

Bronzie

daveydave43 wrote:

is there any point in loading up with pasta

None at all - just eat normally the day before - you will have enough energy within your muscles to fuel yourself for a 10 min event.

Just make sure you don't eat within 2-3 hours of the event or you'll be gagging on it.

BeaconRuth

daveydave43 wrote:

Hydration, i plan to sup on a High5 energy mix drink beforehand

Competely agree with Bronzie but you needn't drink energy drink before, either - water will be fine to ensure you're hydrated. You don't need to worry about having a full tank of petrol before driving a handful of miles - similarly you don't need to worry about your carbohydrate stores in your body being stocked up for a 10-minute effort. A car doesn't go faster over a short distance because the fuel tank is full.

Ruth

jibberjim

I completely disagree with Bronzie and Ruth.

You should eat as much as possible the day before, really carbo load, every extra gram of carbs you can store will be stored with 3 grams of water really adding the weight, if you can att 250grams of glygogen that's another kilo.

Then on the way out, eat, drink, really go for it try to make sure your stomach is full and your bladder is full too, that's another couple of kilos added there.

Done right you can probably be 3 or 4kilo's over what you could've weighed just by changing your diet. Of course all this food and the stored calories will be of no advantage at all in the hill climb, but the extra weight will slow you down.

Rubbish for this event of course, but think about next year and the easy gains you'll get simply by not being silly and saving yourself 4 kg !

daveydave43

fairseedoosies :P

no point in carbo loading, dont eat near to the event
JJim, hope you don't mind too much if i eschew your advice, although your logic is admirable.
didn't know the fact about the 3g water for every g of glycogen, though, cheers

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

jibberjim

daveydave43 wrote:

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

I'll be watching the national championships...

I only do 1 hill climb a year, the club one, I'm too fat to enjoy it.

celbianchi

daveydave43 wrote:

fairseedoosies :P

no point in carbo loading, dont eat near to the event
JJim, hope you don't mind too much if i eschew your advice, although your logic is admirable.
didn't know the fact about the 3g water for every g of glycogen, though, cheers

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

Yep - nationals for me on Sunday, off number 139, right at the thick end of it. Hillclimb number 10 of the season.

shockedsoshocked

celbianchi wrote:

daveydave43 wrote:

fairseedoosies :P

no point in carbo loading, dont eat near to the event
JJim, hope you don't mind too much if i eschew your advice, although your logic is admirable.
didn't know the fact about the 3g water for every g of glycogen, though, cheers

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

Yep - nationals for me on Sunday, off number 139, right at the thick end of it. Hillclimb number 10 of the season.

Braver man than me! Did you do Carlton this year?

Sheptastic

daveydave43 wrote:

fairseedoosies :P

no point in carbo loading, dont eat near to the event
JJim, hope you don't mind too much if i eschew your advice, although your logic is admirable.
didn't know the fact about the 3g water for every g of glycogen, though, cheers

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

I'll be there with University of Worcester CC, going off number 30.

105 mens entries- not a bad turn out!

Mike67

Did my first (and second and possibly last ) hill climbs last weekend.

Can't say I enjoyed it that much (why can't I breathe :? ), but it was a new cycling experience to say the least.

All I can say is mucho respecto to anyone racing up Curbar Gap, I've ridden up it in training and couldn't imagine going up it full pelt.

Sheptastic

Mike67 wrote:

Did my first (and second and possibly last ) hill climbs last weekend.


All I can say is mucho respecto to anyone racing up Curbar Gap, I've ridden up it in training and couldn't imagine going up it full pelt.

brilliant.. :shock:

celbianchi

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

celbianchi wrote:

daveydave43 wrote:

fairseedoosies :P

no point in carbo loading, dont eat near to the event
JJim, hope you don't mind too much if i eschew your advice, although your logic is admirable.
didn't know the fact about the 3g water for every g of glycogen, though, cheers

Anyone else hillclimbing this weekend?

Yep - nationals for me on Sunday, off number 139, right at the thick end of it. Hillclimb number 10 of the season.

Braver man than me! Did you do Carlton this year?

Yes, Carlton was on the programme again. Was worse than ever, heavy rain, thick mist and freezing cold. Did you see the 2 page spread in the Gazzette? Did no warm up just rode up and down the road at the bottom for 5 mins before. Was the only time in about 35 hillclimbs that I have done that I came close to packing, I actually began to pull over just before the walled section but Dawn was descending having finished her effort and the vocal encouragement made me carry on.
Was 5th - I think I am destined never to win on Carlton - it's just that smidgen too long for me. I'll have another crack next year as I turn vet next season and I think if I ride close to my pb up there I should be able to claim the vets record.
I'd like to bag the win on it, but it keeps evading me.

Rapha

Some caffeine will help you, something like X'treme about 1h30-1h before your start would be good. Also don't starve yourself beforehand. The BUCS HC is relatively long so you need plenty of energy and if your muscles have limited stores they will try to use less carbs and more fat

Sheptastic

i'm surprised there is nothin on cycling news about BUCS HC...

really good event IMO, well run and a good turn out too.

My race went well except doing the 1st half in the big ring... dont think it affected my time which was 6.45 putting me towards the bottom of the top 1/3.

I havent hurt like th in a long time, double and tunnel vision were pas de cours today, iot reminded me of the last 2 mins of a rowing 2km. pain when road racing and TTing seems different. Perhaps its that there is no opportunity for recovery, it oxygen debt then lactate lactate lactate.

Needless to say i collapsed into the verge as was the vogue with the riders around me 8)

daveydave43

Same
bit of a wait till results...

I posted a 6.28, and passed my minute man, so im happy with that (I think he was from W'cester? No. 13? Solid ride from him. ). Also got the fastest time of the Lboro team this year, which I was very surprised at.
Had awesome support from Ed, our chairman, who was about 200 meters from the finish banging together some forks and a spanner; just kept shouting to keep going
Did anyone else see him?

And, yeah, i collapsed aswell... HR monitor says i was at 99% of max :O

Sheptastic

It was my team mate Fraser, poor lad had to go up curbar gap as his first road competition! he did great, he's got a brilliant attitude and will get stronger and stronger.

Think you said hi to him after, i was the guy taking pictures (should be on fb soon)

I heard some noise coming from a bunch of lads toward the finish, thought it was a cow bell!

daveydave43

Ah, the noise was Ed rattling a steel wrench between some fork blades.... helped spur me on anyway.

Yeah, I saw Fraser when i was heading back up; he seemed tired
Congrats on 36th, Shepp, 6.45 is a quick time!

Will you link the photos into BUCS facebook, for general viewing?

Sheptastic

They're the 1st pics on the fb page. No guarantees they're any good!