Carb loading for LEJoG

neilrobins

I am starting my LEJoG in 9 days (11 day trip) and planned to start my carb-load this weekend but could do with some advice for best approach, cheers

amaferanga

I'd just eat normally, maybe fractionally more than normal so your glycogen stores are fully topped up when you start. No point in gorging on food - you'll just put weight on. Not sure what good carb loading would do anyway after the first day....

cougie

Exactly - bugger all doing anything now. It's not like it will be any benefit. Night before or maybe even the day before that.

Eat little and often on the road.

Good luck!

cyco2

neilrobins wrote:

I am starting my LEJoG in 9 days (11 day trip) and planned to start my carb-load this weekend

Highly recommended if you were to row a boat but not necessary for a bike ride. I have been searching and have found that about 5000 calories/day are needed. So, get it down the best way you can at the time. Fluids are also very important.

bahzob

In his book the, sadly late, great Laurent Fignon described how he used what he called "supercompensation" with great effect to win 2 successive Milan - San Remo's, probably a contender for the hardest single day of racing in the pro calendar.

Description here http://velorunner.blogspot.co.uk/2011/0 ... ation.html

As the comment to the above post mentions carb loading only really works if you do it the way Fignon did. That's why as noted by those above it's only really appropriate for massive single day efforts.

thegibdog

Not sure about carb loading but I found it hard to maintain my weight whilst I was training for my LEJoG so spent the week leading up to it eating as much as I could!

simon_e

9 days out? That's self-defeating IMHO. What I have been advised is that when riding hard or racing on several consecutive days, what & how much you consume each day has a big effect on the subsequent day's riding. Eat well in the morning, little & often while riding and eat well again in the evening (but not too late).

You don't need to drink huge amounts while riding (beer stains down your jersey aren't cool ) but make sure you hydrate well with meals.

High quality recovery drink/food helps (not necessarily branded products, when I get in from a ride I love blending a banana with soya milk). Energy-dense, unprocessed foods like homemade nut & seed flapjacks are terrific. Doughnuts & pasties may be tempting but they're not ideal. You could keep a couple of gels in your bag as a last resort, but they're not really 'food'. Mind you, neither are Snickers but a mid-ride bar perks me up if I'm flagging.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the experience.

neilrobins

I don't think it is self defeating just didn't want to start either too early or too late, sensible eating with a little extra to build up a reserve

bahzob

neilrobins wrote:

I don't think it is self defeating just didn't want to start either too early or too late, sensible eating with a little extra to build up a reserve

Sorry but just to correct what seems to be a misapprehension. (Sure others will correct if I've got it wrong)

There are 2 types of "reserve" that your body uses as fuel for endurance events
- Glycogen: carbohydrate stored in the muscles. One purpose of training is to increase the amount of this which is good as it means you can ride harder longer. Still even the best trained athletes won't have more than 1-2 hours worth of this stored. There is a reasonable body of evidence to indicate that "supercompensation"/carb loading can boost glycogen for massive single day efforts. (see my link above)
- Fat: Not as efficient a fuel as glycogen so if you use this you won't be able to go as fast. But you will be able to keep going, most folks have enough fat stored to do LEJOG several times over. There is a reasonable body of evidence to support "fat burning" training where you regularly ride hard several hours with little food, with supposed benefit of burning fat more efficiently allowing you to go faster/further.

Most exercise uses a combination of glycogen and fat, with the proportion of glycogen increasing in proportion to the intensity of the exercise. That's why if you ride hard you need to take on extra fuel in order to keep going hard. If you don't you won't stop you just go more slowly as you can only burn fat.

I am afraid that sensible eating with a little extra in reserve will not help either glycogen storage or fat burning efficiency:.
- The "little extra in reserve" will not increase glycogen stored, only training does this, and even then only up to a limit determined by your physiology/genes.
- Rather any reserve will just be added to your fat reserves, which you don't need. Indeed if training has resulted in more efficient fat burning there is a risk this may be compromised.

I think the best advice to things like LEJOG is keep doing light training right up to them, the logistics of last minute preparation and getting to them often means enforced time off anyways. Eat a balanced diet both in terms of food composition and cals in = cals burnt, which is also what you will be wanting to do during the event itself.