Nutrition for a 50 mile bike ride

blatchcorn

I am an injured runner, currently cycling to keep up my fitness. I did a 48 miler in 3 hours yesterday - I took with my a bottle of zero electrolyte drink and 4 jelly babies.

I wanted to know whether this is too much or too little carbs for the length/duration of the ride? How would you personally fuel for a ride between 45-55 miles long?

vorsprung

48 miles in 3 hours isn't a long or fast ride. Unless it was across Dartmoor.

For a 3 hour brisk ride I'd probably take more than 4 jelly babies. Maybe a couple of small cereal bars? With pretty much nothing to eat, me myself personally speaking would slow up a bit in the last hour/half hour.

If you are already a runner and used to going 3 hours without much to eat / drink then 4 jelly babies and a bottle of electrolytes probably seems ok!

Also it depends really on what sort of terrain you are covering and the weather. On the flat with no wind 48 miles in 3 hours would be a easy paced thing. With a stiff breeze and plenty of hills it would be a challenge. The more taxing the ride is the more food input would be required to keep your speed up.

Zoomer37

Personally id go with at least another 3 or 4 jelly babies and i see how that feels.

If your still struggling after that then it may be worth bringing out the big guns.

Chocolate HobNobs..

blatchcorn

Another thing I was wondering was whether sports specific nutrition is more effective than normal junk food for energy?

danowat

A 50 mile ride at high intensity (TT) would be, for me, 1 lt of electrolyte energy drink with a sachet of gel mixed in.

For a "normal" ride / audax / sportive type ride, I'd generally wing it, maybe carry a bottle of drink and a couple of flapjacks or a bar of something.

Last winter, I've done some pretty quick reliabilty rides of 50 mile on nothing but the breakfast I ate beforehand.

lemoncurd

What colour were the jelly babies?

Green ones are best for endurance, red for speed.

crumbschief

Tom Baker,best.

Slack

I agree with what Vorsprung.

Depends on what intensity the ride is at. If you're climbing alot of hills in that 48 miles, then you will have periods of relative high intensity, which will mean more calories are burned, so you might need to eat something to keep you topped up.

However, if the 48 miles is over rolling/flatish terrain, then 48 miles in 3 hours is low intensity for a seasoned cyclist, meaning less calories are burned, so less important to bother taking on board food.

You're going to have to trial and error it, to see how your body copes and how you feel. You could also base it on time (rather than miles), and assume that your body should have adequate glycogen stores for 2 hours - so if you're out for 3 hours, then consider eating something halfway through. Not sure that 4 Jelly Babies is enough in this scenario though.

But, if you are only crusing along, on a relatively flat course for 3 hours, I wouldn't bother with any additional energy products, as it better to get your body to adpat to going without for this intensity of exercise.

Pokerface

I may be mistaken, but don't your muscles store enough glycogen for a good couple hours of riding from your meal the night before?

At any rate, I regularly do low intensity rides (16-18mph avg on flat terrain) of 3 hours on just a cup of coffee and 2 bottles of water with me. Gels in pocket just in case but rarely need them.

For hilly or more intense rides, I fuel up more in advance. Just depends on my goals for the ride.

blatchcorn

I live in Cornwall so all my routes are quite hilly - there were one or two monsters on the ride.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4682557
You can take a look at the elevation change here, I consider this hilly - or am I just being a wimp?

I would still like to know whether jelly babies are just as good as the scientific stuff like ride shots?

mididoctors

thats hilly

jgsi

50 mile nutrition guide:
Cornwall - 3 x pasty
Devon - 4 x cream tea

up here its bacon oat cakes x 6

simon_e

blatchcorn wrote:

I would still like to know whether jelly babies are just as good as the scientific stuff like ride shots?

Yep. For a hilly 3 hour ride I'd only want water and a couple of fruit/cereal bars if I've eaten something (usually porridge or a banana) beforehand.

With branded energy products you are paying for convenience and marketing. Those 'shots' things are a particularly expensive way to consume sugar. Jelly babies, bananas, fig rolls, dried fruit, cereal bars (Geobar, Nutri-grain etc), flapjacks, mars bars, jam sarnies, malt loaf... all can supply you with energy on a long ride. Ideally you should aim to keep the fat level low as fat inhibits digestion. A good night's sleep and low fat brekkie e.g. porridge, eggs, muesli with fruit will set you up nicely.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12777117
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12788369
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/nutrit ... fuel-29335

Arghyrou

Zoomer37 wrote:

Personally id go with at least another 3 or 4 jelly babies and i see how that feels.

If your still struggling after that then it may be worth bringing out the big guns.

Chocolate HobNobs..

Hahaha. + 1 for the hobnobs, big boys only

briantrumpet

vorsprung wrote:

48 miles in 3 hours isn't a long or fast ride. Unless it was across Dartmoor.

More or less what I did yesterday (42 miles of Exeter to Tavistock in 2h42) - I took 3 apples and two bottles of High5 4:1, but didn't eat the apples, and about a bottle & a third of the drink. But it was followed up by a nice chicken & pasta lunch. (I came home the easy way via Brentor - Lydford - Okehampton, BTW.)

Unless I'm cycling relatively hard for more than about 3 hours I'm not too worried about solids - I'm finding that a decent energy drink (after coffee and a large bowl of muesli for breakfast) will be sufficient. I've just started mixing my own energy drink using stuff from MyProtein and fruit juice to keen the cost down - works out about a quarter of the cost of the propriety stuff.

elmsallmissile

JGSI wrote:

50 mile nutrition guide:
Cornwall - 3 x pasty
Devon - 4 x cream tea

up here its bacon oat cakes x 6

Yorkshire it's a Growler (pork pie)

stevewj

1 bottle winter training formula and three fig rolls. Have this on my three weekend rides (both sat and sun) having had a bowl of porridge - never got near blowing up.

SBezza

For 50 miles, probably nothing unless racing. I just eat a snack or meal before the ride. I will take some food with me, but generally don't eat it. I tend to only take water as well. 50 miles to me would be under 3 hours however (nice training distance after work 8) )

If I was doing back to back rides I would try and eat though, as you want to keep your glycogen stores up as much as possible. If this ride was followed by a day off the bike, then you will likely replenish most of the glycogen before your next ride. It really does come down to how you feel, and of how your training is composed

As for hilly or not hilly rides, I doubt the calorie expenditure would be much different, you may use more going up the hills, but you rest a fair bit going down them. I can do a flat ride with similar powers to what a hilly ride would take for not too disimilar speeds, obviously the flat will be faster, but not by a great deal. Other factors are at play, other than just the hills.