One of the topics that was requested was that I write about diet / nutrition. It is a big topic - so, I'll focus on a single, cycling related topic at a time. For July; long ride nutrition.
You will know from a previous post (the perfect long ride), that my standard Saturday morning long ride to Mt Elisa return is about ~100-115km and takes from 2:45 to 3:20, depending on speed and how feisty the lads are! (Incidentally, I've also got onto Strava - so you can see the details of those rides...).
So, here is the run-down for this ride and then I'll follow-up with why....
Friday night:
I lay out my stuff (see the picture below)
(why: I don't like getting up any earlier than I have to and I don't want to forget anything....)
Saturday morning:
6:15am get up
6:30am leave the house
6:45am get to Cafe Racer
6:50am drink one strong latte with 1 sugar - (as an aside, they have really got their mojo back at Cafe Racer on Saturday mornings. The coffee comes hot, strong and fast!).
7:00am depart Cafe Racer
During this first part of the ride, bidon contains Nuun - a no sugar, pleasant tasting, electrolyte replacement drink - you drop one tablet into 1 bidon of water... too easy.
7:50am get to Patterson River - eat one small muesli bar
go through Frankston, up hard through the hills of Mt Elisa and then back to Frankston
8:40am get to BP in Frankston - eat another small muesli bar and fill empty bidon with water from the tap and pour in Gatorade powder to make a bidon of Gatorade
For the ride back to Melbourne, drink the bidon of Gatorade, as needed
9:45-10am - get home. Eat 2 bowls of breakfast cereal & turn on the coffee machine!
See the photo below of the night before.
Additional points:
I also carry some extra cash, just in case
I also carry a spare gel - again, just in case I'm feeling terrible, or something goes wrong.
So, I really don't consume that many calories / carbs on this long ride. If I roughly add it up, it would be about 130g of carbohydrate for the morning (50g from Gatorade and 60g from the muesli bars plus the pre-ride coffee (say, 25g)).
By way of comparison, in 3 hours of racing in an Ironman / half Ironman, I would target about 80g of carbohydrate ingested per hour (so, 240g in total).
Why:
On this ride, I want to train my body to get by on the minimum carbohydrates to still be able to push the watts required and not bonk, but to also teach my body to burn fat at high levels of output.So: I don't have that much energy in the early / mid parts of the ride (just 25g of carbs for the first hour or more of riding - and I'm drinking Nuun - a no-energy electrolyte replacement during this time)
Not having many carbs early in the ride, I'm teaching my body / muscles to burn fat more efficiently and to conserve the stores of muscle glycogen. I will then give my body Gatorade in the third hour of riding to ensure that when my muscle glycogen is running lower, I will top up my blood glucose and avoid bonking. It is a fine balance. I have had a few Saturday rides where I've stuffed it up. I remember one distinctly where I did not have enough carbs and I bonked outside the Mentone hotel and it was a solo ride home. I've also (often) absolutely limped home over the last 5/10km and I've finished the ride completely spent and absolutely on the metabolic knife edge of bonking. It is these efforts that help to make me a better competitor on race day and also teach me to have a good mind-body connection to monitor the early warning signals of when I'm starting to run low on gas and I can take action before it is too late...
Hence why I also carry the gel - and I'm not afraid to use it if the pace is extra high, or I've been doing a disproportionate amount of work on the front. I can also afford to get away with a very limited amount of nutrition in my pockets, because I'm going on the same ride every week and I know the distance, pace and duration pretty well. If I was heading off into the hills, for example, I would carry extra...
It has taken me a while to be able to go for a long ride with no breakfast. I know some people that have a full breakfast before they leave the house... but we have found, over a period of trial and error, that leaving the breakfast out (and the long stops in the middle of the ride) produces the best training conditions to be able to ride long and fast on race day......
Variations for Summer / longer rides / closer to race day....
So, what I'm describing above is the standard, winter long ride.
A few variations that I have for Summer....On the rare occasion I go to Portsea return - it is a massive day and just to get through, I need many more carbs - especially in the last 2 hours of the ride. So, I buy a Gatorade in Portsea and drink that all the way home. And at the Frankston BP, we get a 600m Coke..... you deserve a black magic at that point and the caffeine helps... I would definitely be targeting 80g per hour of carbs and training my gut to be able to ride with a full belly and also with a full load of carbs - this is excellent, specific training for the Ironman. Because gut training and being comfortable while riding / running is a key part of the success...
So, what could you try....
1. If you always eat breakfast before you ride, you could try going without for some time before putting in carbs. You could start out by trying to ride for 20 min before having a snack or a sports drink and then extend this by 5 min per week and see if it works for you
2. make a note of what you are eating / drinking and when and how you are feeling on the bike... can you feel a low patch coming on?
3. in the final part of your long ride, if you are slowing down and generally feeling bad, you may not be having enough carbs - so try to put a bit more in at the end of the ride - it could be in a solid or a liquid form - work out what works best for you
4. if you like going organic / natural: dried figs / apricots work well or those apricot delights
5. as you can see in the picture, I really like the kids muesli bars - they are a good size and usually a bit healthier - so, raid the kids lunchbox treats and give them a go....
Good luck and see you on the road,
Danger.
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