what to eat before, during and after rides? endurance rides

kevcampbell · January 2011

hi all

after some kind of injury i suffered with my heel it has been about 1 month since i cycled, and the other day i cycled back and forth to a place i kept visiting, which was about 17 miles in total for that day, but this year i am looking to eat much better because this year i want to take part in longer, tougher endurance type rides such as over country parks and forests and even just to cycle to town to get something and just come back home again or continue to ride

what i am going to tell you is what i ride and a rough explanation of what i eat for riding too, including foods i have only just started to eat that i have never eaten before and foods i have not yet got to

so my bike is a b'twin rockrider 5.2, i will soon be upgrading my tyres to maxxis 2.35 high rollers, even though it may not be of much relevance i thought i would mention the tyres for some reason

when riding i carry along a 650ml bottle of water on the bike

usually most mornings i will start my day of with a large bowl of semi skimmed milk and master crumble oat cereal with raisins and almonds which can be bought from lidl (link provided). I am considering switching from semi skimmed milk to low fat yoghurt? for some days, am i right in considering that? or is it better to stick with milk and have low fat natural yoghurt separately with something else? if so when and with what should i eat the yoghurt with?

i was also meant to mention that i usually drink about 250ml of 100% orange juice in the mornings for a nice vitamin c boost

and i have also lately been having white thick kingsmill toast in the mornings, sometimes if i have not had breakfast or shortly after i have had breakfast, usually with flora light spread, which apparently is high in omega 3?

but i have heard it would be a much healthier option to switch to having granary bread and olive spread? not sure how that would taste but should i seriously consider that switch?

recently i have also been trying something new, rye crispbread with sesame seeds with soft cheese spread, sometimes with a slice of tomato on top, usually i have about 4 of them

and sometimes before and other times after a ride i will eat a huge bowl of pasta with an entire tin of tuna with some cucumber added in which is lovely if you have the right appetite

and i do not have these much but i am looking to increase my intake of tinned sardines, which i usually buy from aldi, which are in sunflower oil, i heard they are also great as a portable food to take with you to eat out while on a ride to refuel?

it would also be a bonus if i could not increase my endurance levels but also increase my weight, i would like to gain about an extra stone possibly, not looking to gain it quickly, i can wait, but thought i should mention it

this is not for competitions or anything, i am more a lone rider that likes to go out every now and again during the week to new and old places, but seeing as i have visited most places around here many times i am looking to head further away from where i live, which is why i need that endurance and other things

i hope people can reply because it took me ages to write all this

thanks for reading, even if you do not reply, as it was a long post

kev

robertpb · January 2011

Why do you need to increase your weight, how heavy are you and how tall.

kevcampbell · January 2011

hi i am 6 foot 3 and roughly about 11 and a half stone, need some more muscle on me :P

kevcampbell · January 2011

damn most of you 177 people :evil:

springtide9 · January 2011

I think the problem is that it's not that clear the question you are asking.

Have you read the sticky? (and links from the stick?)

Mountain Biking Diets:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12631060

Diet does play a role in your fitness, but training, training and more training is the way to increase your endurance.
It also depends on what you are wanting to achieve; is it to just generally increase your endurance/overall fitness or do you have a goal in mind?

kevcampbell · January 2011

hi there, thanks for replying

what needs improving in the post to make it clearer, just wondering as i may edit it so people can understand it better

but yes endurance i am looking to increase and i am also looking for help on what foods to eat, so one of the questions i asked were should i replace semi skimmed milk in my cereal with low fat natural yoghurt on some days for a healthier option, and what would the benefits be of switching to granary bread and using olive spread instead of flora light. would the changes make a good enough difference to consider switching? and basically what should i eat, how often, when and so on, drinking is easy, i just drink water every day and always have a bottle out with me on the bike

anything you need clearing up though please ask and i will do my best to explain myself some more for anyone

springtide9 · January 2011

Your diet looks pretty good to me.

I don't think the tweaks you are suggesting will make that much difference to how you perform. But it does depend on your level of fitness,,, where if you are at the top of your game - any small gains are worth it.

Probably what's more important is when you eat - pre and post rides etc.

I don't want to feel I'm just sending you the same link... but the link:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=40020
Really does answer a lot of your questions.

Diet is only one piece of the puzzle and IMO is less important than your training plan. Obviously this doesn't mean switching to eating 'fast food' compared to your current diet, but if you are comparing eating white bread compared to brown, then the difference will be minimal if say you only eat two slices a day etc.

Not sure I would (or could) eat tinned fish on a ride... Fruit and/or cereal bars work well for me. Usually looking for for something that isn't that dry and hence easy to eat.

What kind of training plan do you have (if any) and what are your goals? Setting goals I find helps a lot as you improve by pushing yourself.... and a goal gives you the reason.

kevcampbell · January 2011

thanks for the reply

if my diet is good at the moment and it does not need much changing, what about adding things to my diet, what could i add?

the other day i rode to lakeside, needed to go to decathlon, so i rode 9 miles there, which went smoothly and i felt great, possibly due to what i ate before i left the house? i had over half a malt loaf topped with 50% apricot jam, with half of the loaf sliced in to 3 pieces, earlier that morning i had oat crunch cereal, that was all i had before i left the house, and i think that was my main power food of the ride for that day, i also took out with me a cereal bar, a lidl linessa muesli bar which main ingredients were hazelnuts and almonds, and i had eaten the cereal bar about 2 miles before i got to my destination

after a while it was time to ride home, immediately i did not feel as energetic as i did riding there and once half way home i stopped and sat down somewhere quiet and ate my tin of sardines in sunflower oil

and after about 15 mines i was back up and off riding again and again immediately i kind of felt drained and felt like i had no endurance left in me, so it was a much slower ride home than it was getting to lakeside

once home i had a large bowl of pasta and that was about it but my goals are to be able to ride to and from long distances without feeling drained, i want to be able to keep my endurance up and not feel so drained

thanks for reading again

springtide9 · January 2011

Personally I think you will feel drained until your body gets used to the exercise.

The more you do, the easier you will get. It sounds like it's probably your fitness that is letting you down rather than your diet - but that is a guess as I don't know you.

After eating.. .. I tend to find that I'm good for a couple of hours. To build up your fitness, try get out as much as possible... but with rest days. On some of the days.. just go out for 15 mins and try and go as fast as you can. If you are not hot and sweaty when you get back.. you are not trying hard enough!

Start slow and build up... but it will be the pushing yourself that will make improvements (when you feel tired - that's a good indication that you've worked hard).

robertpb · January 2011

Never ever go out for 15 minutes and go as fast as you can, you need a warm up period and a cool down period.

To build up endurance you need to go for long rides with a HR of 75- 80%.

To build stamina it's 70-75%.

Once you have improved your fitness then you can progress to higher levels of exertion.

There isn't much in what you've posted about fruit and vegetables, you should be aiming for 8-10 portions, I average 11.

kevcampbell · January 2011

thanks for the replies

springtide9, hopefully that will be the case, the more i do the easier it will get

by the way went out and bought some granary bread and low fat yoghurt today, even though they may not make much difference, i guess it will be a healthier lifestyle too, i also noticed another bread called burgen soya and linseed, i heard linseed is good? and that is what is in this other bread i saw, would it be of more benefit to get that bread instead next time, rather than going for the granary? the burgen bread mentions something about low gi and slow energy release, so not sure what i should do between the 2, some opinions would be nice on that, and also there is linseed you can buy separately, apparently good to serve with cereal, but can be dangerous if you take too much, but one website i looked at suggests a 6g serving with cereal i think it said, but again, opinions would be nice, anyone here that has linseed with the food they eat?

robertpb, usually that is what i do already so i guess i may stick to what i do now in that case, to build up endurance and stamina i need long rides with a hr of 70 to 80%, what is hr though? i may know what it is when you mention it or i may not but i am not sure what it is with the letters hr, i know i am quite bad for fruit and vegetables, i have been eaten some more lately, like i have been having tomatoes with quite a load of food i have been having this week, mainly lunch, i also love myself some clementines from time to time and bananas occasionally, but i need to increase all of that as i think i am not eaten enough of it all, as for vegetables i usually have frozen garden peas or broccoli, cauliflower and carrots with my dinners most of the time depending on what dinner is

robertpb · January 2011

HR = heart rate.

You need a HR monitor to use this information, so you could cycle to Lakeside and buy a cheap one from Decathlon.

PaulBarman · January 2011

master crumble certainly tastes good (esp strawberry crisp) but I doubt it's the most nutritious choice. Porridge & a yoghurt might be a better breakfast option. BTW the linessa 8 pack of low fat yoghurts from lidl are healthy and tasty. A bowl of porridge also makes a great pre ride meal, eaten 1 - 2 hours before you ride. I sometimes mix some nesquick in to liven it up.
I'd agree that bread with seeds in is good and linseeds are a particularly good source of essential fatty acids. It's not just burgen that has them, eg hovis seed sensations (purple bag) also has linseed.
It's best to avoid foods with a lot of protein or fat (ie tinned sardines) while you're riding because, as you noticed, they'll make you feel drained. Stick to carbohydrate (sugar & starch) rich food such as bananas, apples or any other fruits, cereal bars, sugary drinks, honey, sweets etc

kevcampbell · January 2011

thanks for the reply paul, i thought there were not gonig to be anymore

i agree master crumble is delicious, i can not eat strawberry though so not sure how that tastes, what kind of porridge would you suggest and would you say make it with milk in the saucepan? and as for yoghurt i recently bought a carton of 1% fat yoghurt, not that i need to lose any weight but i think i will go for the 0.1% fat option next time as i guess that would be thinner? i found the 1% fat yoghurt to be thicker than expected

i also agree with you about the bread, the granary loaf i have been eating lately seems to be filling me up more for longer lately which is great, i actually would have thought honey was bad for us, so does it actually do us good rather than bad?

PaulBarman · January 2011

I'm no porridge connoisseur so I usually get whatever's cheapest. My cooking method is to put half a mug of the oats into a pudding/cereal bowl, add water to almost half fill the bowl & microwave on full untill it starts to rise up to the rim of the bowl, then stir in a dash of milk to cool it down so I can eat it straight away. I don't suppose this is the traditional way but it's the most convenient for me.
The particular brand of yoghurt has more of a bearing on it's thickness than the fat%. I've found the 0.1% often have a lot more additives than 1% though.
Why would you think honey was bad?

kevcampbell · January 2011

ah, so just something like tesco scottish porridge oats would do the trick? do not have a microwave, when we did have one we rarely ever used it so we sold it on ebay

oh i see, well tomorrow i was going to buy a 0.1% yoghurt from aldi, same brand as the 1% one, but i may buy the 0.1% yoghurt from lidl instead in that case, it is that linessa brand again

guess i was not thinking right, i remember when i had a cold about a year ago i think it was i was drinking hot water with honey in, sounds disgusting i guess, not sure why i thought it was unhealthy, possibly due to it being something sweet and delicious and something i have not had in ages so did not think about it much

do you add anything to the porridge you have? would it be a good idea to add ground linseeds to it?

PaulBarman · January 2011

yup, oats is oats

i just add a little sugar or maybe hot chocolate powder or even some chopped fruit on occasion, a teaspoon of linseeds wouldn't hurt - they're one of the best sources of essential fatty acids, which are often lacking in modern diets.

kevcampbell · January 2011

cool, bought some today, 70p for a tesco value 1kg bag of oats :P

bought some honey too, i wonder if that would go nice together? i also bought the 0.1% yoghurt, was it just me or are lower fat yoghurts more sour than they are sweet? :P

what to eat before, during and after rides? endurance rides

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