the day before a ride

cannyscott wrote:

i have my first centry of the year coming up . I would welcome any advice on what i should eat the day before the ride and on the morning of the ride. obviously i dont want to eat to much before i ride so what would be the best thing. thanks

I agree with PJH - that's what I do. Previous day - big meal, Pasta/Rice/Cous Cous, usually with salad. Morning of event - porridge + fruit.

As for not eating too much before riding - the thing to avoid is eating too much too close to riding. I have a ginormous bowl of porridge (etc.) but that is always about 3 hours before an event start. I agree that you don't want your meal sat like a big lump in your stomach when you set off. Give it time to get into your system - get up in time for an early breakfast and don't eat fatty stuff that takes a lot of effort to digest, fry-ups for instance!

Here's another tip. It's concerning a personal subject and not one that gets mentioned much - bowels! Too many times, I'd be hanging around just before an event waiting for that lovely pasta meal from the day before to complete its digestive transit. Usually it just didn't happen. So, I'd set off and about 30 minutes of vigorous exercise later - buggeration! Cue desperate search for public toilets or a quiet secluded spot.. Finally it dawned on me to give it more time. I couldn't change the start time of the event, but I could change when I ate the food. Instead of eating the big pasta meal about 19:00 the day before the event, I now have it about 15:00. The extra 4 hours means that the morning of the event, I'm raring to go, and after that I'm raring to go on the bike ! Just have a light meal in the evening. You'll be having porridge early next morning won't you, so you shouldn't need more than a snack to see you through.

A few more tips...

Lay off the caffeine the night before, or you might struggle to sleep with pre-event nerves.

I used to drink a lot of tea the morning of an event, but after having to take 15 pee-stops in one winter audax, I gave up doing that!! Now I just drink water beforehand.

Make sure that you are well-hydrated. You probably want to drink enough water the day before that you need to get up once or twice during the night. Not so much that you can't sleep properly though, or you'll be shattered before you even start the event.

Enjoy the ride!

Mettan wrote:

In addition to the above, have a complete rest from cycling in the preceding 3-4 days to the event - you'll want your muscles to be as fresh as possible and topped up with energy - there's nothing worse than starting a long ride then realising after 25 miles "sh*t me legs ave gone........."

Ooh - I forgot that one!

It's a nice day here in West Yorkshire, but I'm doing the very hilly Kirklees sportive tomorrow so today I'm taking our advice and I am just resting, eating and drinking.