Lack of energy on commute home

nibby

Any advice on either what to eat/drink etc for my commute home after a days work.

It's 20 mile each way and I'm fine and feel strong going into work.

Recently I've been knackered on the way home. Almost lethargic

I'm eating lunch around 1pm then just drinking water through the day.

Should I be eating something before I leave and what sort of time? food etc?

Cheers

meanredspider

What sort of work do you do? I used to do a similar commute and didn't really need anything heading home. You could try eating a banana an hour before you leave to see if it makes a difference. People often underestimate how tired a day at work can make you feel..

BTW - you'll probably get more answers over on Commuting Chat

markhewitt1978

I don't commute myself but I'm also tired on an evening. Even though I have an office job. Some of my friends go on evening rides but I can't face it. On the other hand I can get up in the morning and do a hours ride and feel great.

It might be just that you're a morning person and whatever you do you'll struggle in the evening so perhaps make the ride in your fast ride and accept going home is going to be a plod?

sloppyschleckonds

have a couple of rice cakes coated in peanut butter an hour before leaving for home

nibby

Cheers for the replies,

working in an office so sitting on my ar&& all day!!

I will try a few different foods an hr before and experiment a bit with that.

Might just be better of a morning as mentioned.

I'm a big believer in eating the right foods etc but haven't a clue what

I'm not concerned about old ladies with basket's and pink mudguards passing me I just hate it when I feel knackered!! :oops:

Cyclum

I commute and a day sat in the office is surprisingly physically draining. Assuming you leave around 5 then busy 4 hours without food is quite a long time if you're about to do some physical activity.
About an hour before I leave I will have a snack, normally a dried fruit bar/nuts (Nakd bars are good), and I make sure that I drink plenty of water. That seems to be enough to perk me up but without running my appetite.

whoof

I notice you said that you feel strong on the ride in in the morning. If this also means you are riding relativey hard try taking it a bit easy on the way in and see if you can feel stronger on the way home. As other have said a mid-afternoon snack (breakfast cereal?) would also be a good idea.

nibby

Just bought some malt loaf and a banana so will try that an hour before.

Good idea re taking it easy on the way in, yes I tend to hammer it because I feel strong so will reverse and experiment.

I know I cant go full tilt each day and normally plan recovery rides etc but last night for example I thought I would take it easy and average say 3.5 mph lower than my morning commute which should have been easy spinning and it was but I had zero energy.

If that granny with her basket did go past me I would have felt too weak to react

I'm thinking of maybe seeing if anyone recommends a nutritionist to help me with a eating plan.

drlodge

I've had the same issues, althought its 35 miles each way for me (don't do it often). 3 factors I think
- the return journey is normally into a headwind
- its at the end of the day when you've done a full days work and ridden in, so energy stores are somewhat depleted
- you're hungry...I now have a good cooked meal for lunch and eat in the afternoon around 3pm-4pm (fig rolls, cereal bars, biscuits, whatever I fancy).

Also don't over do it on the way in or going home, treat it more as a long distance ride...endurance pace.

LegendLust

nibby wrote:

Just bought some malt loaf and a banana so will try that an hour before.

Good idea re taking it easy on the way in, yes I tend to hammer it because I feel strong so will reverse and experiment.

I know I cant go full tilt each day and normally plan recovery rides etc but last night for example I thought I would take it easy and average say 3.5 mph lower than my morning commute which should have been easy spinning and it was but I had zero energy.

If that granny with her basket did go past me I would have felt too weak to react

I'm thinking of maybe seeing if anyone recommends a nutritionist to help me with a eating plan.

http://www.optimumnutrition4sport.com/

davep1

drlodge wrote:

I've had the same issues, althought its 35 miles each way for me (don't do it often). 3 factors I think
- the return journey is normally into a headwind
- its at the end of the day when you've done a full days work and ridden in, so energy stores are somewhat depleted
- you're hungry...I now have a good cooked meal for lunch and eat in the afternoon around 3pm-4pm (fig rolls, cereal bars, biscuits, whatever I fancy).

Also don't over do it on the way in or going home, treat it more as a long distance ride...endurance pace.

^^^this!

I commute, but am lucky (?) enough to only live 7 miles away from work. I normally go out into the countryside though so usually do an hour or more each way; but if I am late or tired I have the option of making it a 25 min journey. I am much more of a morning person - at the weekends I can get up at 6, do a couple of hours have a flapjack and do another couple of hours, which I wouldn't be able to do in the evenings.

I've been looking into heart rate training, and although there are lots of slightly different approaches from differing experts, the one that is making most sense to me at the moment is alternate easy days with hard days. I am taking it to mean easy both directions, although I may give it the beans on one of the four trips. This approach means at or under 70% for easy, at or over 80+% for hard. He is quite a moaner about being strict on the easy, even saying to walk up hills if your heart rate goes over the 70%. He says the easy can be very long, 2-3 hours, and it will be boring and require concentration and discipline to keep it easy. I'm only in week 1 of this approach and finding it hard, my thighs feel pretty much like they have just finished a hard effort all the time, but am hoping it will improve.

I'd eat between 3 and 4 personally, but that just fits with the schedule where I work.

meanredspider

DaveP1 wrote:

I've been looking into heart rate training, and although there are lots of slightly different approaches from differing experts, the one that is making most sense to me at the moment is alternate easy days with hard days. I am taking it to mean easy both directions, although I may give it the beans on one of the four trips. This approach means at or under 70% for easy, at or over 80+% for hard. He is quite a moaner about being strict on the easy, even saying to walk up hills if your heart rate goes over the 70%. He says the easy can be very long, 2-3 hours, and it will be boring and require concentration and discipline to keep it easy. I'm only in week 1 of this approach and finding it hard, my thighs feel pretty much like they have just finished a hard effort all the time, but am hoping it will improve.

I'm a great advocate of this approach - I genuinely believe it works - though the sub 70% can be hard - partly because it doesn't feel like you're "training"

nibby

Quick update....

The banana and 2 slices of malt loaf (not butter I'm hard!!) did the trick.

The old lady with the basket was dust!! I even turned and looked into her eyes for 5 seconds as I went past her.

RESULT!!

meanredspider

nibby wrote:

Quick update....

The banana and 2 slices of malt loaf (not butter I'm hard!!) did the trick.

The old lady with the basket was dust!! I even turned and looked into her eyes for 5 seconds as I went past her.

RESULT!!

She'll be posting on here next

Good to hear that you're back on form

nibby

On a more serious note..

Thanks again for all the replies, some good advice.

I'm going to try and be strict with the hr stuff and stick to both easy and hard sessions.

I will keep eating an hour before leaving as I should have been doing this anyway I suppose and see how it all goes.

I'm still thinking of getting some expert advice though re nutrition. I know the basics and eat fairly healthy stuff already but would be nice to see if any positive changes can be made.

Thanks again

nibby

LegendLust wrote:

nibby wrote:

Just bought some malt loaf and a banana so will try that an hour before.



http://www.optimumnutrition4sport.com/

Thanks for the link. Have you had any experience with them?

LegendLust

nibby wrote:

LegendLust wrote:

nibby wrote:

Just bought some malt loaf and a banana so will try that an hour before.



http://www.optimumnutrition4sport.com/

Thanks for the link. Have you had any experience with them?

Yes. He's fantastic.

davep1

meanredspider wrote:

DaveP1 wrote:

I've been looking into heart rate training, and although there are lots of slightly different approaches from differing experts, the one that is making most sense to me at the moment is alternate easy days with hard days. I am taking it to mean easy both directions, although I may give it the beans on one of the four trips. This approach means at or under 70% for easy, at or over 80+% for hard. He is quite a moaner about being strict on the easy, even saying to walk up hills if your heart rate goes over the 70%. He says the easy can be very long, 2-3 hours, and it will be boring and require concentration and discipline to keep it easy. I'm only in week 1 of this approach and finding it hard, my thighs feel pretty much like they have just finished a hard effort all the time, but am hoping it will improve.

I'm a great advocate of this approach - I genuinely believe it works - though the sub 70% can be hard - partly because it doesn't feel like you're "training"

It really doesn't. I'm now playing a game with myself where I see how far up a hill I can get before the hr alarm goes off. I'm hoping in a week or two that I can get all the way up some. And I've let old-basket-ladies pass me, saying to myself "I bet they aren't in zone 1"...

meanredspider

DaveP1 wrote:

It really doesn't. I'm now playing a game with myself where I see how far up a hill I can get before the hr alarm goes off. I'm hoping in a week or two that I can get all the way up some. And I've let old-basket-ladies pass me, saying to myself "I bet they aren't in zone 1"...

Stick with it. Where it really helps, I've found, is your endurance at speed. Relative to my peer group, whilst I'm too big to be properly fast up hills, I find I can maintain a fast pace for much longer on long rides and often find myself taking the lead on long group rides or putting in good average solo speeds. I've also noticed a divergence in my average speed (as it goes up) with my average HR (where it's going down).

dazzTurning

nibby wrote:

Any advice on either what to eat/drink etc for my commute home after a days work.

It's 20 mile each way and I'm fine and feel strong going into work.

Recently I've been knackered on the way home. Almost lethargic

I'm eating lunch around 1pm then just drinking water through the day.

Should I be eating something before I leave and what sort of time? food etc?

Cheers

Try eating more and see what happens, no point in asking if it will help.. just try it!

It may also be a mental thing.. Your tired from work, the thought of having to self propel yourself home maybe on your mind.. Try an experiment and get the train in, eat loads and then ride home... how does that feel?

Tjgoodhew

I have started riding home a bit more from work - my ride home is about 45 miles and havent practically got the time to do both ways as with traffic it tends to take about 3 hours.

I also do an office job and again i generally feel pretty drained at the end of the day.

To give me enough energy for the ride home i have a lot of fruit throughout the day. Maybe an apple and orange before lunch and then nectarines, cherries and grapes after. I will also snack throughout the day on a small bag of cashew nuts. I will drink a lot of weak squash and treat myself to a bottle of full sugar coke.

It may not be scientific but i have found this to put me in a good place and i can usually ride home with plenty of energy in the tank