Nutrition advice for 80-100 mile rides

nanas1

All,
In 2014 I am embarking on several 80-100 mile rides for charity, and want to know what kind of and volume of nutrition I should be taking for rides if that length.
I am a confident 50 mile rider at the moment, which I can complete with ease, so just wanted advice on what I should be taking to make the step up.

Regards,
Mark

supermurph09

Just repeat what you do on a 50 miler in terms of liquids but maybe have an extra gel or bar on top of what you would normally have for the last 20 miles. Starting the ride properly hydrated will also help.

imposter2.0

As above - just take a bit more of what you would normally take on a 50.

nanas1

Maybe then to elaborate, on a 50 miler, I have the following;
1 x bottle of Energy Source 2:1
1 x bottle of Electrolyte
1 x small tub jelly beans
1 x High 5 energy bar
1 x Nature valley Oaty bar
2 x isogels

MartinGT

Wow, that seems a lot!

Have a decent breakfast & evening meal too.

Then just add another bar and gel.

imposter2.0

nanas1 wrote:

Maybe then to elaborate, on a 50 miler, I have the following;
1 x bottle of Energy Source 2:1
1 x bottle of Electrolyte
1 x small tub jelly beans
1 x High 5 energy bar
1 x Nature valley Oaty bar
2 x isogels

Sounds excessive for a 50, tbh.

supermurph09

Do you find yourself eating all that? I'd ditch the jelly beans, I used to take haribo but if you have bars and gels, personally speaking you really don't need them. Lets say you average around 17mph that's about 3 hours for a 50 mile ride?? I'd say an energy bar after 1 hour, then maybe another after 2 hours, a gel if you feel you need an extra boost. If your 100 charity rides are sportives they'll most likely have feed stations, use them to refill your bottle rather than lugging 2 full bottles around, grab their snacks and just keep a couple of gels on you for emergencies.

mlgt

I wanted to ask about people using Jelly beans/haribos instead of bars and gels.
How do these differ?

Granted they probably taste nicer and more fun to eat.

What are the real energy/calorie gains? For my 50/60 mile rides I just wake up earlier and have a good breakfast and have a bottle of energy (powder) water. For my first few 50+ mile rides I would bring 2 snack bars. But over time I found I dont need them.

Usually drink every 10 or so miles (unless really hot) So at the end of the ride Im usually needing to use the loo.

nanas1

Supermurph09 wrote:

Do you find yourself eating all that? I'd ditch the jelly beans, I used to take haribo but if you have bars and gels, personally speaking you really don't need them. Lets say you average around 17mph that's about 3 hours for a 50 mile ride?? I'd say an energy bar after 1 hour, then maybe another after 2 hours, a gel if you feel you need an extra boost. If your 100 charity rides are sportives they'll most likely have feed stations, use them to refill your bottle rather than lugging 2 full bottles around, grab their snacks and just keep a couple of gels on you for emergencies.

Very rarely do I tan everything I take with me, the Energy drink is normally drunk on the way from the house to the garage and the electrolyte is drunk on the way round. It's quite hilly with us up North, so the average mph is around 15mph, there are about 20 Jelly Beans in thr tub, so not a lot really, but both the bars do get used, and maybe one of the gels, but just like to keep enough on my whan I'm out to makke sure i dont hit the wall and cramp up.
I know that there will be feeding stations on the sportives, but i need to train myself to do a few 80 milers in training to get myself up to the task.
Thanks for all the info so far though

jaxf

Blimey, that is more food and drink than I have managed to take on over a year, and I have done more than 56,000m of climbing (cycling is not my main, or second sport else it'd be 100,000m like my husband).

On a ride rather than a sportive, I don't bother with more than a swig of water and no food, other than lunch on a long day, more water if its very hot, but as I'm usually in the mountains, its not usually too bad.

On a sportive (usually about 140km), I make sure that I do drink 750ml of very dilute energy drink - less than a quarter of the strength it says on the directions. I'll try and down a bar, but I don't really like to.

Other than that, I really like my food, so I have a good meal the night before, and a decent breakfast. That has always been fine for me.

Apparently, men sweat more than women as we have subtly different body composition, so men need to drink a wee bit more.

No Sweat

What other people say they like to do is really neither here nor there...if you are confident on (and therefore I assume you feel OK after completing) 50 mile rides, then do more of the same for longer ones.
If you like jelly beans, donuts, fancy gels, or whatever, your insides will tell you what you need.
It's probably better to usually get home with some stores unused than 'bonk' 20 miles from home and struggle.
Might be an idea to ride a 65 miler as practice, rather than ramp straight up to 80 from 50 - I would, but then I'm me.....

simon_e

I'd vote for normal food - bananas, snack bars etc instead of processed, concentrated energy products.

The people I know who do long time trials don't do anything special, just eat well the day before and then have real food, little and often. If you're not even riding at race intensity then there is even less need for dedicated sports nutrition but if there is an energy drink you find pleasant and palatable then have that as well as water. Flapjacks, cereal or fruit bars, peanut butter or jam sarnies cut into small squares, jelly babies, fig rolls, malt loaf... After a few hours you may have had enough of sweet stuff and start craving something savoury.

buckles

For 80-100 miles I would have 3 x eggs scrambled on 2 x toast with plenty of butter, and carry 2 x Flapjacks 2 x bananas and water. That would either be a club run including a cafe stop with a bacon sarnie or a solo 80 without cafe stop. For the solo ride without the cafe stop I would just have a bit more food for breakfast, maybe an extra slice of toast or some bacon and sausage.

Not sure how I'd fit any more food in my pockets as I need one for spare tubes, wallet, keys and phone...

littledove44

I hate gels, and bought energy bars taste almost as bad IMHO. I make my own, using this recipe. A few squares of this and watered down pineapple juice will keep me going for hours.

simon_e

littledove44 wrote:

I hate gels, and bought energy bars taste almost as bad IMHO. I make my own, using this recipe. A few squares of this and watered down pineapple juice will keep me going for hours.

Mmm, that sounds nice!

Which reminds me - Hugh F-W was making fridge flapjacks (unbaked, dairy free) on telly the other week, the recipe is online: http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/fru ... flapjacks/

The only energy bars I like are Torq bars. They're full of fruit, I have to ration myself if I take one on a ride or it disappears at the first opportunity.

kajjal

It depends on your bodies needs and what size you are. I generally eat one or two muesli bars an hour as needed on rides of over two hours. Other riders can go for longer without eating anything / eating less. That's all I have apart from water. Gels and other heavily processed stuff is not for me but a few gumi bears never hurt any one

nanas1

Kajjal wrote:

It depends on your bodies needs and what size you are. I generally eat one or two muesli bars an hour as needed on rides of over two hours. Other riders can go for longer without eating anything / eating less. That's all I have apart from water. Gels and other heavily processed stuff is not for me but a few gumi bears never hurt any one

Thanks for the info mate, I will be going into my 2nd year of cycling in 2014 and am training hard, I'm 5'6" and around 95kg, so I'm no lightweight.
I too try to stay away from the gels as they give me terrible wind, funny but uncomfortable. Really liking the homemade bars idea, will give them a go and cut down on the streets, not been a fan of a banana, but maybe better get a taste for them.
I've also been told almonds are a good thing to take out with you on a ride

littledove44

The nice thing about the recipe I posted above is that you can easily vary it based on the nuts you prefer.

Having done several batches I can offer a few tips.

Buy toasted nuts if you can. The flavour is better.
Don't chuck away the water you use for softening the dates. It needs to be mixed in to make it all bind.
Leave out the salt.
The cooking temperature is wrong. It should be 160C.
Cut it in the pan whilst still hot. Easier to get out that way.

For those who check energy content I can tell you that the final product contains around 4 calories per gram.

milese

You sound like a marketing mans dream. Ditch the branded sport specific bits and replace them with:

Bananas
High Juice squash / Ribena
Cereal bars
Malt loaf
Jam Sandwich
Dried Fruit

You cant really worry about eating too much of that stuff, and can buy it from any shop you may pass on the way.

kajjal

nanas1 wrote:

Kajjal wrote:

It depends on your bodies needs and what size you are. I generally eat one or two muesli bars an hour as needed on rides of over two hours. Other riders can go for longer without eating anything / eating less. That's all I have apart from water. Gels and other heavily processed stuff is not for me but a few gumi bears never hurt any one

Thanks for the info mate, I will be going into my 2nd year of cycling in 2014 and am training hard, I'm 5'6" and around 95kg, so I'm no lightweight.
I too try to stay away from the gels as they give me terrible wind, funny but uncomfortable. Really liking the homemade bars idea, will give them a go and cut down on the streets, not been a fan of a banana, but maybe better get a taste for them.
I've also been told almonds are a good thing to take out with you on a ride

I am about 100kg but over 6ft6 so not very aero dynamic

Grill

Milese wrote:

You sound like a marketing mans dream. Ditch the branded sport specific bits and replace them with:

Bananas
High Juice squash / Ribena
Cereal bars
Malt loaf
Jam Sandwich
Dried Fruit

You cant really worry about eating too much of that stuff, and can buy it from any shop you may pass on the way.

This is good advice.

I think you're eating too much as I did 135 miles today on less, but you are heavier than me so you'll need a bit.