Best nutrition

adowling92

I go cycling as often as i can (weather permitting), and i was just wondering what the best drinks and food are to take with me. On a week day i tend to try and do 5/6 miles. But at the weekends i like doing longer rides 20-30 miles. But it takes me a while and my average speed is only about 13mph.
Are there any drinks or foods that i can take with me on rides. At the moment i just take asdas breakfast bars and apple squash. As i am asthmatic, i cant really push myself alot anyway, it'd just be nice to have a helping hand by way of drink and snacks.
Thanks.

chrisaonabike

Up to 30 miles, I don't take any food or drink with me. I expect I'll take some drink once the weather warms up, but for a couple of hours or so at this time of year, I don't find I need either.

I've done a few longer rides (40-45 miles) recently, and I take home-made flapjack and fruit juice.

adowling92

I want to do longer rides like that, just don't have the endurance or energy. I've been cycling for nearly a year now, i just don't seem to be progressing a whole lot

chrisaonabike

adowling92 wrote:

I want to do longer rides like that, just don't have the endurance or energy. I've been cycling for nearly a year now, i just don't seem to be progressing a whole lot

That's why I mentioned time as well as distance. If you ride for a couple of hours, at 13mph that's 26 miles.

If you eat a couple of hours before you go, do you really need to eat on the road?

I can't comment on the limitations you experience because of the asthma, since I know nothing about it. But a few weekday rides of 5-6 miles plus 20-30 on a weekend is sadly not going to increase your endurance all that much.

Not at all discouraging you from taking food and drink with you. But I can't see anything more than a muesli bar or flapjack or equivalent being needed on a distance of up to 30 miles.

Good luck

lc1981

On a ride of 5/6 miles, there's not really time to eat anything, and I would think that by the time you've started to digest it, you'll be home. You should probably always take some water though, to keep you hydrated. It's worth taking food on a longer ride of 20-30 miles, especially if you're finding that you struggle towards the end. You might also want to look into energy drinks that you can make up from powder at home, such as SiS GO. Since I started using it this year, I've not really needed to eat much on club runs, which are usually 80-100 km.

Gizmodo

As ChrisA said, for your current distance/speed you won't really need much nutrition as long as you have a good general diet. Water with your favourite squash for flavour will be fine for hydration. Bananas are good for cyclists, eat one 5 minutes before you go out. When you are going further then a banana is good to take with you because you can throw the skin into a hedge* rather than having to carry wrappers home with you.

You could try reading this http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/nutrition-store-cupboard-sports-fuel-29335/

*This may be considered littering in some countries/regions.

adowling92

Gizmodo wrote:

As ChrisA said, for your current distance/speed you won't really need much nutrition as long as you have a good general diet. Water with your favourite squash for flavour will be fine for hydration. Bananas are good for cyclists, eat one 5 minutes before you go out. When you are going further then a banana is good to take with you because you can throw the skin into a hedge* rather than having to carry wrappers home with you.

You could try reading this http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/nutrition-store-cupboard-sports-fuel-29335/

Ok, thanks for the advice!

adowling92

lc1981 wrote:

On a ride of 5/6 miles, there's not really time to eat anything, and I would think that by the time you've started to digest it, you'll be home. You should probably always take some water though, to keep you hydrated. It's worth taking food on a longer ride of 20-30 miles, especially if you're finding that you struggle towards the end. You might also want to look into energy drinks that you can make up from powder at home, such as SiS GO. Since I started using it this year, I've not really needed to eat much on club runs, which are usually 80-100 km.

would this do? http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/produc ... N3qu3fa5WM

lc1981

adowling92 wrote:

would this do? http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/produc ... N3qu3fa5WM

I've never used the "Energy" version, only the "Electrolyte" version. I'm not sure which would be best, to be honest.

adowling92

ill get some and try it, cheers.

Grill

Go with a 2:1 energy drink (if need be) and a couple of emergency gels. You're typical glycogen stores should last at least a couple hours and the drink will top them off. Gels are a good boost if you feel like you're close to bonking. I don't start to consider food until at least 3 hours in (unless I'm racing that is). If you really need food then your best options are a banana or medjool dates (super high GI).

stueys

Everyone's different, I assume that I'll burn 600-800 calories an hour. If I'm out for more than 2 hrs then I eat, if not then just squash or occasionally sis go is all I take. The thing to bear in mind is if you're. Going to need to eat the start early in the ride, not cramming at the end.

Fr the distances your doing though I don't think you'll need food. Try following the time compressed training guide for a bit of a training boost.

elderone

Maybe you could slow down a little and ride further to build up a base fitness which will then allow you to eventually go quicker and for longer for not much more effort.There is some exellent info on zone training on the forum and how it works and im sure you would benefit from it.
Always take a drink even if its water and say a banana,as its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
good luck.

nawty

I'm new to this cycling lark but I assume the learnings from running can be transferred so I'll talk about if from that perspecitve...

With regard to not making much progress, it is generally about training smarter, not more. For example, when running, plodding around for a couple of miles would be considered "empty miles" as it doesn't really do anything other than burn a few calories (which is fine if that's what you want but won't make you quicker or give you more endurance so no good for race training).

If, however I did a few miles at my aerobic limit (say 170bpm heart rate) then those couple of miles have improved my fitness and next time I go out I will be a little quicker at the same heart rate.

Then, to improve my endurance I will do a Long Slow Run (LSR) at the weekend which should also get quicker because of my aerobic training.

I think this has a direct correlation to your training, your 5-6 miles sound like they are empty miles, they're not doing you any good. However, if you were to attack a hill or two in that time and get your heart rate really pumping then you would be benefiting. You should also notice that your longer rides are quicker too.

The easiest way of doing this is with a heart rate monitor which are really great tools for 'zone' training.

team47b

Drink water, eat real food, fresh fruit and veg, all will help you to avoid additives which will aggravate your asthma.

MichaelW

For 5-6 miles , water is mainly for washing your hands after fixing a puncture. I just carry a 250cc bottle of water and rarely drink.
For 30 miles, I might finish a 250cc bottle but rarely a std water bottle.
For longer rides you do need to maintain hydration. It is always good to start fully hydrated so learn to "preload" in the hr before a ride.
Most of the cycling/hydration info refers to riding on the hot summer days that are typical of USA.

Water is best for shorter rides. If you want an isotonic, then fruit juice/water at 50/50 is OK.

simon_masterson

I won't tell you what your body needs, as I don't like it when people do it to me...

But my advice would be to avoid eating on rides shorter than an hour, as if you have a half-decent diet you should not need it. You are more likely to collapse from fatigue than low sugar within that duration. That includes energy drinks (which are just another source of carbohydrate) as well. I'm not a sports scientist and can't guarantee that you'll lose more weight or become more effective at burning fat, or anything like that, but I don't think that eating when you don't need to will do anything for you either.

For anything longer it depends on you, your ride and its intensity. If I go out on an intense 'training' (I don't have anything to train for!) run over several hours that ends up being 40 miles long, I will use an energy drink (made from bulk dextrose in water) and I may eat something. If on the other hand I were to do the same distance or the same duration at a leisurely pace (which I never do, so I'm not sure), I probably wouldn't need either.

As said above, I'm not going to tell you what should work for you. It has to be said that there is a psychological element to this; even if you don't actually 'need' to eat it might help with your resolve. This isn't a practice I would encourage but I cannot deny its presence as a factor.

However, I concur with others above that it's a good idea to have something with you. I wouldn't go for anything expensive just yet (i.e. buying boxes of gels or energy bars); I carry a bag of jelly babies in my back pocket myself. A bottle of water to sip is also valuable; you may not do enough to warrant significantly rehydrating, but a dry mouth isn't nice.

FlacVest

^What Simon said; it helps if you can figure out some numerical value of how many calories you've burned, and when you bonk. Then you have an estimate of when you need to eat, if you need to eat.

I have a HR monitor and although it's just an estimate, I could go for a ride and find out when I'd bonk, in a rough range. It used to be after 2000 estimated Calories, if I didn't stop and only drank water. That's about a 40 mile ride at a 18 mph pace, for me.

Now, I can easily burn 2000 Calories, due to simply improving my fitness over time. But your intensity will dictate how much energy you burn per hour, and if you're not pushing yourself to VO2 max heartrate or whatever, you aren't going to burn calories at a rate where you need to eat, given that you aren't out of shape.

As you ride, your body will adapt to store more USABLE calories, which is not fat on your body. Hence the losing of fat and the increased appetite you'll eventually have, along with muscle growth.

TLDR: Don't worry about food, but it wont hurt to bring something like a banana. I tend to just eat after a ride and whenever I feel hungry afterwards, as usual. Also, eating heavily while on a ride will divert blood to your stomach and away from your limbs, which is not what you want to do.