Food and drink.

MiniMalts

I cycled 40 miles the other day and I just hit a wall and couldn't go any further. I set up camp next to a loch thinking a good meal (steak and tatties) would see me right for cycling home the next day but it wasn't.

What foods are good to eat to keep you sustained when doing long distance rides?

Twentytoo

Whilst no expert I would say that at 40 miles then you should look further back into the day. It's not a huge amount. I'd be thinking how long have you been cycling; How many miles do you normally ride; Had you done a lot the previous day; Were you hydrated. I could have a bowl of porridge and ride 40 miles and not be overly exhausted. There's a lot of factors that are involved.

MiniMalts

I've done more than 40 miles in the past but the bike only had me on it. The other day I had camping equipment and some food etc etc.

Twentytoo

I'm guessing there could be a few pounds to pull there

MiniMalts

Plus. I need to be able cycle for several days in a row, not just one.

MiniMalts

Twentytoo wrote:

I'm guessing there could be a few pounds to pull there

Not really. I bought the lightest I could afford and kept it to a minimum.

Solis

Porridge

whoof

A great deal of it comes down to how hard you were trying and how you've previously trained your body to access fuel.

Your body stores energy in the form of glycogen in your muscles and liver and there is enough for about two to three hours of reasonably hard work. Even the thinnest person has 10 times this amount of energy stored on their body in the form of fat. The harder you try the larger the proportion of glycogen will be burnt in preference to fat. Also if you have not got a great fitness base of relatively steady riding your body will err more toward the easy option of glycogen at any pace. Once you run low on glycogen you are always playing catch up.

You're touring, slow down look at the scenery and the endurance will come with time.

Personally typical food for in a day (on a 1 -2 week camping tour) would be something like the following (this would probably be in France hence the croissant)
Breakfast: Bowl of cereal, two petite pane au chocolate, milky coffee and juice .
Dinner: Bread, cheese, yogurt, fruit.
Tea: most likely one of the following:
Pasta and vegetables, bread, salad
Spanish omelettes, bread, salad
Chickpea, curry, rice, salad
Wraps filled with vegetables &rice and salad.
2 vegi burgers and salad.
Followed by some desert like a tiramisu or a mousse

Between meals I carry a banana and some small buns with me to snack on and I also would stop for a cake or ice cream most days. I've never run out of energy touring and usually come back a little heavier.

mercia_man

Lots of good advice above from Whoof. It's important to keep your energy levels topped up while riding, which means snacking throughout the day on things like bread and cheese and fruit, and make sure you drink enough water. When I go touring, I mix up a big bag of dried fruit (raisins, figs, apricots etc), nuts and seeds. This makes a great energy-boosting snack on the road or as part of your breakfast.

For evening meals, I rarely bother with meat. I base my meals on carbs from bread, pasta, couscous, rice or potatoes with a vegetable sauce. And I normally try to have some protein such as a tin of sardines, cheese, smoked salmon or pulses like chickpeas.

Here is the recipe for my most commonly eaten evening meal cooked on a single ring gas stove with a billy and frying pan/lid. I always carry the ingredients with me so I never get caught out in an emergency.

Fry up chopped shallots (smaller to carry than onions) in a little oil (I carry olive oil in a plastic screw-top container although you can also get enough oil to do this from a tin of fish or shellfish). Add finely chopped red pepper, courgette, aubergine, garlic and tomatoes with dried provencal herbs. Cover until it cooks down to a mulch. You can even get away with no oil if you use enough tomatoes. Add a good squeeze of harissa (a North African spicy red paste that comes in a tube like tomato puree). Put to one side and cover while you prepare your carbs - couscous is the quickest. I fry the couscous first for a minute in a tiny bit of olive oil, add about the same quantity of water as couscous and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the water is absorbed and the couscous is just starting to stick to the pan. Put to one side covered for about four or five minutes while you reheat the sauce. Fluff up the couscous, pour in the sauce and use plenty of bread to mop up.

You can do variations of this, such as using curry powder instead of harissa and adding pulses or tinned fish or shellfish to the basic sauce. And I always wash it down with a bottle of wine.

MiniMalts

whoof wrote:

A great deal of it comes down to how hard you were trying and how you've previously trained your body to access fuel.

Your body stores energy in the form of glycogen in your muscles and liver and there is enough for about two to three hours of reasonably hard work. Even the thinnest person has 10 times this amount of energy stored on their body in the form of fat. The harder you try the larger the proportion of glycogen will be burnt in preference to fat. Also if you have not got a great fitness base of relatively steady riding your body will err more toward the easy option of glycogen at any pace. Once you run low on glycogen you are always playing catch up.

You're touring, slow down look at the scenery and the endurance will come with time.

Personally typical food for in a day (on a 1 -2 week camping tour) would be something like the following (this would probably be in France hence the croissant)
Breakfast: Bowl of cereal, two petite pane au chocolate, milky coffee and juice .
Dinner: Bread, cheese, yogurt, fruit.
Tea: most likely one of the following:
Pasta and vegetables, bread, salad
Spanish omelettes, bread, salad
Chickpea, curry, rice, salad
Wraps filled with vegetables &rice and salad.
2 vegi burgers and salad.
Followed by some desert like a tiramisu or a mousse

Between meals I carry a banana and some small buns with me to snack on and I also would stop for a cake or ice cream most days. I've never run out of energy touring and usually come back a little heavier.

So how do I train my body to burn it's fat stores rather than the glycogen?

I'm 21 stone, I took up cycling to help lose weight, I certainly don't need to be adding any more. :O

MiniMalts

Mercia Man wrote:

Lots of good advice above from Whoof. It's important to keep your energy levels topped up while riding, which means snacking throughout the day on things like bread and cheese and fruit, and make sure you drink enough water. When I go touring, I mix up a big bag of dried fruit (raisins, figs, apricots etc), nuts and seeds. This makes a great energy-boosting snack on the road or as part of your breakfast.

For evening meals, I rarely bother with meat. I base my meals on carbs from bread, pasta, couscous, rice or potatoes with a vegetable sauce. And I normally try to have some protein such as a tin of sardines, cheese, smoked salmon or pulses like chickpeas.

Here is the recipe for my most commonly eaten evening meal cooked on a single ring gas stove with a billy and frying pan/lid. I always carry the ingredients with me so I never get caught out in an emergency.

Fry up chopped shallots (smaller to carry than onions) in a little oil (I carry olive oil in a plastic screw-top container although you can also get enough oil to do this from a tin of fish or shellfish). Add finely chopped red pepper, courgette, aubergine, garlic and tomatoes with dried provencal herbs. Cover until it cooks down to a mulch. You can even get away with no oil if you use enough tomatoes. Add a good squeeze of harissa (a North African spicy red paste that comes in a tube like tomato puree). Put to one side and cover while you prepare your carbs - couscous is the quickest. I fry the couscous first for a minute in a tiny bit of olive oil, add about the same quantity of water as couscous and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the water is absorbed and the couscous is just starting to stick to the pan. Put to one side covered for about four or five minutes while you reheat the sauce. Fluff up the couscous, pour in the sauce and use plenty of bread to mop up.

You can do variations of this, such as using curry powder instead of harissa and adding pulses or tinned fish or shellfish to the basic sauce. And I always wash it down with a bottle of wine.

Thanks, Sounds tasty.

Solis

.[/quote]


So how do I train my body to burn it's fat stores rather than the glycogen?

I'm 21 stone, I took up cycling to help lose weight, I certainly don't need to be adding any more. :O[/quote]


However you exercise you will be burning both, you can help shift the balance from glycogen to fat by eating a low carb diet and cycling at low intensity, though in practice I would suggest don't get too hung up about it and just exercise as much as you can, as at the end of the day the more you do the more calories you will burn and the more weight you will lose.

whoof

So how do I train my body to burn it's fat stores rather than the glycogen?

I'm 21 stone, I took up cycling to help lose weight, I certainly don't need to be adding any more. :O

The quote thing doesn't seem to be working.
By riding and building up the distance. You don't need to necessarily change your diet or ride really slowly. When you do ride just make sure that most of the time you're not really trying hard. That way your body will get see cycling as 'normal' and the proportion of fat used as an energy source to glycogen will increase for a given effort. But it takes time and there are no quick fixes.

MiniMalts

Great, thanks guys.

andymiller

whoof wrote:

The quote thing doesn't seem to be working.

It got messed up at the previous level with a forward slash in the wrong place.

You need

[quote]

before, and

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after.