Eating before a ride

secretsam

How early/soon should you eat before a ride? ie how long does it all take to digest so you're getting some benefit?

RDB66

About an Hour Sam, it works for me if just setting out. Porridge is my Fav.
Energy bars, Gels etc take about 20mins to get to work in your system....So if you know you've a big climb coming up in say, about 5odd miles, get that Gel down your neck for a little boost up that climb.

secretsam

An hour? Right, about 20 mins to go, time to get my sh17 together ha ha

edhornby

bear in mind what your normal meal times are and think about how the bike ride fits into this schedule, so if you have breakfast early and then a snack about 10am then this needs to be done on the bike if you are riding at this point

drink lots etc the night before and before you set off

navrig

Porridge or muesli about 30 mins before starting.

secretsam

Ride was binned anyway as I had a last minute 'please help' call from the kids' school. Sigh. And the sun's out. Sigh again.

robertsims

Any ideas for a charity century ride that starts at 6am? Or is it just get up at last possible moment - keep eating in car and don't stop!

saprkzz

Depends on length and intensity of ride & time of day.

I try to eat main food like porridge 2 hours before ride and then a bannana about 20 mins before i head out. An evening meal around 2-3 hours with a snack like a bannana half an hour before i go out.

styxd

If you eat a relatively decent diet then you shouldn't need to eat especially for a ride. Just have your meals when you normally would. Its more important to eat after a ride I think.

simon_masterson

styxd wrote:

If you eat a relatively decent diet then you shouldn't need to eat especially for a ride. Just have your meals when you normally would. Its more important to eat after a ride I think.

This.

Unless you are going at flat-out time trial pace, you should be able to do up to a couple of hours, or even more, before breakfast; doing this and then eating a good breakfast (and a recovery drink if you've worked hard) will put the carbs where they should go.

During the ride if you want to keep your blood sugar level up you have to maintain it; or so is my understanding and corresponding experience. Taking in high GI carbs via fluid (aka 'energy drink') is a good way to do this. 'Eat before you're hungry' is a bit of a cliché, but nevertheless if you feel that sinking feeling in your belly it is too late.

MartinB2444

One advantage of having a nice fry up breakfast just before a ride is that you get to eat it again a few times going up the first hill

cyclingsheep

MartinB2444 wrote:

One advantage of having a nice fry up breakfast just before a ride is that you get to eat it again a few times going up the first hill

team47b

I always make a point of eating my porridge before I get on my bike :shock:

I think it's better to be sure that you have enough energy and avoid the bonk, I don't see it as a problem to eat 10grams of carbs every hour (diabetic) if you are not overweight (55kgs :roll: ) you will burn it off anyway.

Bozman

Poached egg on toast and a coffee about 2hrs before and a banana 30 minutes before i go.

chrisaonabike

RobertSims wrote:

Any ideas for a charity century ride that starts at 6am? Or is it just get up at last possible moment - keep eating in car and don't stop!

That's the only thing I can think of

Sure as heck not getting up at 4am if I can avoid it.

Joking apart, I've gone out on the bike about 15 minutes after a big bowl of cereal. I took it slow for the first few miles, but other than that it seemed Ok. I could never do that when I used to run - the sloshing about made me really nauseous, but I don't seem to get that on the bike.

al_kidder

edhornby wrote:

bear in mind what your normal meal times are and think about how the bike ride fits into this schedule, so if you have breakfast early and then a snack about 10am then this needs to be done on the bike if you are riding at this point

drink lots etc the night before and before you set off

Is half a dozen beers the night before about right? Seriously, unless you are doing enormous distances every day you shouldn't have to eat outside your normal meals.
A couple of hours of riding boils down to the energy in one typical chocolate snack bar And drinking a lot before you start sweating it out means you have to stop for a "piss".
LOL that got computer edited from PASS or a similar vulgar word, my fellow nuns

nickyboy zz

Al Kidder wrote:

edhornby wrote:

bear in mind what your normal meal times are and think about how the bike ride fits into this schedule, so if you have breakfast early and then a snack about 10am then this needs to be done on the bike if you are riding at this point

drink lots etc the night before and before you set off

Is half a dozen beers the night before about right? Seriously, unless you are doing enormous distances every day you shouldn't have to eat outside your normal meals.
A couple of hours of riding boils down to the energy in one typical chocolate snack bar And drinking a lot before you start sweating it out means you have to stop for a "wee-wee".
LOL that got computer edited from PASS or a similar vulgar word, my fellow nuns

Not so sure about that. Reasonably hard cycling uses 600-700 calories per hour. So that is one humungous choccie bar.

Up to 2 hour ride, decent bowl of porridge 1-2 hours before. More than 2 hours I take some bits of flapjack with me and keep topping up after I have been riding for a couple of hours.
Get well hydrated the night before (a pain I know cos u end up getting up in the night for a pee) and drink plenty before the ride. Also have a good slurp immediately before going out as this will minimise the fluids you need to take with you

stueys

RobertSims wrote:

Any ideas for a charity century ride that starts at 6am? Or is it just get up at last possible moment - keep eating in car and don't stop!

Food as soon as you're up and then energy drink in the car. Drinks digest a lot easier.

pottssteve

I get banging headaches if I don't eat enough. I have a massive bowl of rice pudding about an hour before the morning ride (500 cals) and then will also eat a banana and maybe a couple of biscuits over a 3 hour ride. That's about 1000 calories in total, and a 3 hour ride will burn around 2000 calories.

charlie_potatoes

Up to 2hrs is as far as I like to go without any additional carbs.
For a Sunday morning ride I will normally have two small bowls of porridge and a large bowl of cereal. All these about an hour apart and finished an hour before I set out. I always carry a couple of emergency gels but seldom use them.
My favourite during the ride is Medjool dates (recommended by someone on here) which are very easy to eat on the move and packed with energy and other good stuff. Also I will use carbs in my drinks bottle and if it's a club ride then there will be cake 8) .
A recovery drink when I get back and Sunday Roast about an hour later.

ednino

Personaly, if i eat before a ride it slows me down

I'd rather just have good proper meals at normal meal time