Author Topic: Eating during a ride.  (Read 2543 times)

ZeroBike

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Eating during a ride.
« on: July 07, 2013, 11:12:05 pm »
Do any of you guys eat during a ride to keep your energy up?

I'm thinking of eating dried fruit (natural, tasty, cheap eats)

I'm wondering how much and how often, any thoughts?


JimK

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2013, 01:55:57 am »
Oh yeah! Do I eat to ride or ride to eat? The jury is out!

I like to get a whole grain baguette from our local bakery and munch on that. Often I will take a little break every hour or so and eat a few inches.

Of course there are restaurants along the way!

Someplace I have read that folks generally cannot digest more than maybe 200 calories per hour. So it's not smart to eat more than that, to avoid indigestion. Also it is good to eat stuff that is relatively easy to digest. E.g. something like cheese is not going to be smart.

Seems to me that steady snacking is the way to avoid bonking. Of course riding slow helps, too!

Danneaux

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2013, 03:28:57 am »
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Seems to me that steady snacking is the way to avoid bonking.
Truer words were never spoken, Jim; agreed!

Yes, Zero, I snack throughout my rides. I take one of the first energy bars (and still my favorite) Tiger Milk bars, along with GORP (Good ld Raisins and Peanuts), along with dried banana chips, sunflower seeds, and the occasional peanut butter sandwich.

I'm a nibbler or grazer, and try to keep food of some sort going in.

I like to follow Velocio's principles and eat before I'm hungry, drink before I'm thirsty; both keep me from running into food/hydration debt. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_de_Vivie
http://outyourbackdoor.com/article.php?id=1187

If you do go into nutritional debt while riding, it is often referred to as "The Bonk" a feeling of being all-in and simply spent. It means a person forgot to eat along the way and ran out of fuel. Rest and some food and water will put things right, but it can surely leave one feeling flat for the rest of the day. Best avoided by eating and drinking as you go.

Best,

Dan.

JimK

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2013, 03:46:08 am »
This brings up another topic... I have just started mixing some electrolyte into my water. So far I am using Alacer Electro-Mix powder but I just got some Nuun tablets to try.

I can't provide evidence that this stuff makes a real difference. But I think that is mostly just because of my poor experimental technique, lack of extensive trials, etc. I will say that the stuff is quite inoffensive - that much experience I do have by now!

I'd be interested to hear other reports on electrolytic augmentation....

mickeg

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2013, 04:18:38 am »
When riding for several hours, I try to eat about 200 to 250 calories every hour or hour and a half.  Something like a half sandwich, energy bar or gel, granola bar, ice cream at a local store, potato chips, candy bar, etc.  If riding all day (for me, six hours or longer is all day), I try to have some food every hour, not less frequent than that.

I specifically try to avoid having too much food  at any one time, if I have a big lunch, that does not really help as much if I had kept riding and rationed out my calories better.  I am 59 years old.  I could handle bigger meals and more time between calorie intake when I was younger, but not now.  The exception is that I might have as much as 800 calories at the very beginning of a ride.

I am a regular coffee drinker, one water bottle generally has iced coffee in it for the start of a ride.

On a tour I do not bring powered energy drink mix but for long rides where I start and end at home I may use powdered energy drink mix for some of the calories, I mix it to half the strength that the instructions call for.


If I am traveling alone, I try to stop for no more than 5 minutes each time I eat, any longer and it is pretty hard to get going again.  But when traveling with others, the amount of time stopped generally is determined by others.

Danneaux

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2013, 04:45:46 am »
Hi Jim!

I use Gatorade as my electrolyte replacement, the powdered form cut by 50% from the recommended "dose" to reduce the sugar content; excess sugar is thought to interfere with water absorption, and I find this watered-down version to do me fine. I try to make every third bottle a diluted Gatorade one when it is hot and I am really chugging the stuff down (about 6.5l a day to as much as 10l while riding and another 2l in camp After, if it is torrid in the desert), otherwise I find I can get cramps in my quadraceps (thighs) if I get too much of only water.

I've tried a variety of other electrolyte solutions and have found some that worked as well but none that worked clearly better for me. As for premixed bottles of the stuff available at stores along the way (with the added benefit of being pre-refrigerated, yeah!), I like Propel, which has about half the sugar content of Gatorade, right from the bottle -- no dilution necessary.

Kellogg's company (the people who have made corn flakes for breakfast for ages here in the States) came out with a powdered protein mix to add to water a few years ago. I got some free samples in a pink lemonade flavor to try. It wasn't an electrolyte, but powdered protein, supposed to serve as an energy boost, according to the literature: http://www.specialk.com/protein-water-mixes Whatever it was supposed to do, it didn't seem to agree with me. Looking at the contents ( http://www.specialk.com/protein-water-mixes/pink-lemonade/ ), I'm not really sue what it was supposed to do. It has about 30 calories, is mostly polydextrose, some sodium, and whey proteins. It is sweetened artificially, and I think that is why it didn't "feel" good to me. I don't do well with artificial sweeteners and do much better with genuine refined sugar or honey as the lesser of available evils for making things sweet. Aspartame and such just leave me feeling kind of uhhhhhhhhh and "off-kilter" for the rest of the day, and corn syrup-as-sweetener just tastes a bit "off" to me as well, so I avoid it whenever possible.

Best,

Dan.

ankaradan

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2013, 10:25:57 am »
I usually try to take something for a lunch stop, sandwich/cake sort of thing; just to ensure I get a decent rest. Otherwise I snack on nuts and dried fruit, especially dates, figs and apricots. At this time of year fresh cherries are in season so these go as well, delicious and refreshing.

I've looked for, but not been able to find, electrolyte type mixes here, so stick to water; unless, of course, I can find somewhere selling cay (tea).

honesty

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2013, 12:58:14 pm »
This weekend gone I used the Hgh5 electrolyte tablets in my water and had a large bag of mixed (some yoghurt coated) fruit and nuts. Seemed to work rather well. The one problem I have been getting, cramp in my thighs, I never had, so something worked...

Andybg

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2013, 03:41:26 pm »
Fruit and nuts if I am feeling healthy or gummy bears if i am feeling decandent. If i am riding more than 3 hours and dont start eating hourly after the first hour and then hourly I definetly bonk.

Never mastered the skill nor desire to eat and drink on the move so normaly stop at a reasonable photo opertunity around the hourly mark.

Andy

energyman

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2013, 07:33:23 pm »
Bacon Sandwich when a suitable cafe found - not the correct thing I know but they do taste & chew beautifully.  Then one just has to remember that a raging thirst follows shortly afterwords.

Danneaux

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2013, 07:44:48 pm »
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Bacon Sandwich when a suitable cafe found - not the correct thing I know
I try to tell myself the caloric demands of cycling simply burn up the "bad stuff" that would otherwise coat the inside of my arteries. I click my heels three times for luck to make it happen as well!  ::)

In reality, I almost never eat at McDonald's, but often on the morning of a 300-400km day ride, I'll stop by early to pick up one of their breakfasts. At such times, I usually get the sausage and egg McMuffin sandwich, the fried potato hashbrowns, and a decaf coffee with lots of creamer and sugar. By the time I've downed it, my hands are shaking and my tongue is coated with grey stuff, but I feel like I've ingested rocket fuel. The lot gives an initial boost then seems to burn slow and long, and I can get by much of the rest of the day by simply supplementing it with GORP and the occasional energy bar as I ride along on the bike, avoiding stops that would pull my average speed down.

A *very* different diet than I usually do, and different also from what I do when on-tour, but it seems to work in these circumstances.

Best,

Dan. (...who is glad he doesn't have x-ray vision of his arteries, which probably look liked clogged sink drains)

ZeroBike

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2013, 08:29:30 pm »
Thanks guys.

I'm definitely bonking after about 2.5 hours.

I tried the dried fruit and nuts today but I don't think I ate enough, I definitely felt better but I still felt like my energy had gone towards the end.  I think I'll aim to eat more next time.

triaesthete

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2013, 08:46:58 pm »
These days I use a mix of raisins, cashews, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. This seems to work better for me than pure carbohydrate sports drinks. It always tastes nice and doesn't need lots of water to wash down. It also keeps well for another day if not used up and means I can have an emergency stash on board.

As a treat on long rides I get a big pack of croissants and keep them in my bar bag so they are easy to eat on the fly. Very nice to eat  and I can go for 6 or 7 hours on these and the mix  above without any shop/cafe replenishment stops. This is aided by Thorns thoughtful provision of 3 bottle cage mounts which allow easy carriage of about 2.2 litres of water.

The lower carb content and the significant fat and protein components seem to give me better, more stable blood sugar levels and reduce the need to urinate all the time and then drink lots to replace it.  I also get to the end of a long ride feeling nicely tired but not feeling hollowed out, depleted and starving. I also have better energy levels next day.

This would not suit racing or training rides but makes long range exploring a pleasure when used in conjunction with stopping to smell the flowers, very low climbing gears, highish cadence and a B17.

Happy days
Ian
 

Danneaux

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Re: Eating during a ride.
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2013, 11:55:28 pm »
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This would not suit racing or training rides but makes long range exploring a pleasure when used in conjunction with stopping to smell the flowers, very low climbing gears, highish cadence and a B17.
Aw, Ian, you've described my perfect day on a bike, right there in one well-crafted sentence.

All the best,

Dan.