Training & Nutrition - what to eat so not to bonk

new to the training/nutrition section. so what do you guys eat the night before a morning ride? how about the morning of? carb-loading? i don't usually pay too much attention to training as most of my miles come from commuting 300 miles a month.

I wouldn't worry so much about what to eat before a ride and instead, concentrate more on eating during the ride. Eat before, yes, but on any ride of 2 hours or more, you should be eating approx. 250 calories per hour starting pretty much as soon as you start riding.

How long are you riding? What are you preparing for?

Koffee

Rat, I commute 60 miles a day 5 days a week, I also do Sunday morning social rides of anywhere from 1 hour to 10 hours. I have to have a good complex carb meal immediately after each commute, about 600cal. Usually a big serve of muesli in the morning when I get to work, and either muesli or pasta when I get home. I also have a shake consisting of 30 grams of whey protein in 500ml of skim milk and a banana every evening shortly before bed. If I don't have the shake I find that my legs are quite sore the next day.

If I'm doing a ride of 2 hours or more I eat about 300cal per hour in the form of yoghurt coated muesli bars (I love them) and drink about 30-40 oz of water per hour. The hydration is really very important if you're eating carbs on the bike, I have a 100oz hydration pack.

Also, check out Machka's website, she's the Godess of long distance cycling :D very inspirational.

How long are you riding? What are you preparing for?

Koffee

xc training for about 2 hours. i would go longer but my schedule really doesn't allow for more. :( the reason i'm asking is because sometimes i feel great and feel like i can ride forever, even after 2 hours. but other times after the first 15 minutes i feel i am really pushing myself.

I assume you ride first thing in the morning when you get up, and you ride for two hours straight?

If you're feeling not so hot, perhaps a higher carb dinner the night before- I always point the finger at pasta, since it's high in carbs and low in fat. You don't need to carb overload or anything. Half a cup of pasta, a side serving of a grain food, and plenty of veggies ought to do the trick.

In the morning, about 45 minutes before leaving out, I'd suggest a grain food, like a 7 grain bread, or a granola cereal (half a cup + 2% milk), or even a serving of oatmeal + a banana to keep your blood levels constant for the next couple of hours.

Just before you walk out the door, have 8- 12 oz of gatorade or orange juice- something along those lines that gives you a quick spike in your blood sugar levels and an initial spike of energy.

About an hour into your ride, have a power bar that spikes your energy high very quickly. I can't remember offhand, but I want to say Powerbar gives you a quicker spike than Clif... but I could be wrong. I can check into that, but I forgot all my nutrition stuff at my job. *sigh* (This weekend, my focus is on developing my pilates and kickboxing techniques, so I've left all my usual materials behind so I don't get distracted!)

Be sure to be drinking plenty of water throughout your ride. Before your ride, you want to have 16- 20 oz in your system anyway. By the end of your ride, I'd expect you to have consumed another 48 oz of water minimum. After your ride, make sure you get down another liter.

Try that and see how it works for you.

Koffee

I don't spend a lot of time planning my meals the nights before ride - I'm not really that organized. I do tend to eat a diet with lean meat, whole grains, and vegetables. Or at least that's what I tell people.

I can't tolerate much in my stomach in the morning, so I generally have a Clif bar and some Accelerade.

During the ride, I get my calories from Accelerade for most rides, though I might munch on a newton or half of a clif bar if it's a long ride.

Bonking happens when you run out of carbohydrate reserves. Your brain runs on carbohydrate, and if they are scarce, your brain pretty much shuts down your muscles to conserve carbs. Without carbs, your body can convert fat to glycogen, but only about enough to run your brain.

Even if you have very low body weight, you have big fat reserves, so to keep riding, you need enough carbohydrate. Most people can only deal with 250 to 350 calories per hour while exercising, and that's pretty easy to get with a good energy drink.

I've done centuries with eating clif bars, pretzels, bagels, and drinking water, and centuries with just a little solid food and a good energy drink. The second works much much better for me.

thanks for the info yall. although my GF's friend from out of town really wanted to play tennis this morning, so i drove them. man i am driving too much. i totally kicked their asses in tennis though cause they got tired early from eating candy the night before! Last night I had chicken and rice and a bag of baby carrots. This morning I had 2 strips of bacon, 2 eggs, 1 granola bar, about 2 cups of milk, and a handful of grapes. And while at the courts I drank my patented 9 parts water, one part apple juice mix. I find that if water is flavored ever so slightly, I am a lot more likely to want to drink it regularly. Man i felt great, and i didn't bonk. But it makes me wonder, that 'planned' meal I had last night and this breakfast really weren't that different from my usual diet.

could the entire aura of planning one's diet be a placebo?!?! :eek: Probably not, but it still made me wonder. That and i'm finally on SPRING BREAK!!!

For those with queasy stomachs that can't deal with energy-drinks or solid-foods while riding, I recommend... bananas... they pretty much taste the same going down or coming back up...

I found that my ideal breakfast has been a bowl of oatmeal, piece of fruit, water and toast.