Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Clyde Fuel

I was wondering what the typical clyde takes on a ride. I ride 25 miles on nothing more than a bottle of water. Should I be eating a snack, or drinking some kind of juice along the way? I get pretty tired by the end of my ride.

Also, is there a calculation for water needs (weight, mileage, temperature, etc.)?

Just curious if I am getting the proper hydration and nutrients during my rides.

I found myself getting dehydrated or feeling that way if I did not take in atleast 16 oz an hour. I feel much better at 20 oz and 24 oz when it's hot. Food wise, I have been eating the Kashi bars and some type of vegi (carrotts, celery) when I ride more than 30 miles. That is working for me.

I used to ride for hours with no food, just water and found the last bit of my ride was torture. I really slowed down and felt horrible. Now I use a energy bar or gel for rides more than 90 minutes and another bar or gel every 30 minutes after that. I used to be worried that since I was try to lose weight I was just packing it back on eating a bar or two on a two hour ride, but that wasn't the case. I think you'll find you'll be able to go faster and longer by actually eating something, and you end up burning more calories in the long run. Chris Charmicheal has a few good books about eating for the cyclist and using his advice of eating on rides of more than 90 minutes has really helped me. So I think time is more important than how far you ride.

Good, the Carmichael book was cited! Means I don't have to!:D

I used to ride for hours with no food, just water and found the last bit of my ride was torture. I really slowed down and felt horrible. Now I use a energy bar or gel for rides more than 90 minutes and another bar or gel every 30 minutes after that. I used to be worried that since I was try to lose weight I was just packing it back on eating a bar or two on a two hour ride, but that wasn't the case. I think you'll find you'll be able to go faster and longer by actually eating something, and you end up burning more calories in the long run. Chris Charmicheal has a few good books about eating for the cyclist and using his advice of eating on rides of more than 90 minutes has really helped me. So I think time is more important than how far you ride.if you are trying to loose weight though, keep in mind when you will have digested that food.

I agree we need to eat on longer rides BUT if the food is not going to be energy in your muscles until after the ride, then you ought to be thinking about recovery stuff, not fuel stuff.

I do 25 to 40 milers on the weekend and I bring one big water bottle, a 1 litre Nalgene to refill my water bottle at my turnaround point, and a couple of Clif Bars. Sometimes I'll bring an apple or a banana and only 1 Clif Bar.
This weekend I did 30 miles. I only had 1/2 my water bottle left by the end. I ate the first Clif Bar at mile 12 (I don't eat breakfast before I ride if I'm doing less than 50 miles.) I rode another 10 miles, then stopped and ate an apple. I had a big salad and a sandwich (on a bagel) for lunch when I got home.
For my daily commute (7.5mi each way) I don't eat anything special. A packet of oatmeal and a cup of coffee for breakfast when I get to work. My usual balanced lunch of whatever last night's dinner leftovers are. Maybe a piece of fruit in the afternoon before I head home. Always drink lots of water, especially after having a cup of coffee in the morning; gotta keep properly hydrated.

if you are trying to loose weight though, keep in mind when you will have digested that food.

I agree we need to eat on longer rides BUT if the food is not going to be energy in your muscles until after the ride, then you ought to be thinking about recovery stuff, not fuel stuff.

When I say you should eat on a ride, I didn't mean real food but a bar, gel, energy drink or some other simple sugar. An energy bar or gel is quickly absorbed. Eaten before you need it and not after is the key. If you bonk at 90 minutes eating a bar at the 89th minute isn't going to help, but at about 70 minutes it's going to give you the energy to finish the ride strong. Eating that 100 calories gel is going to help you burn 200 calories later.

When I say you should eat on a ride, I didn't mean real food...
I want to figure out how to mount a pannini grill on a front rack, and power it off a generator hub. :)

I can do an hour and a half or so on nothing but water. Beyond that, unless it's a flat, easy course, I start to burn out. FWIW, though, I almost never use commercial energy bars or power goop--there's too much next-to-free stuff already in my kitchen to spend money on that. Fruit, a peanut butter san on whole wheat or any of a half-dozen other things do a good-enough job.
As for knowing when to eat or drink, I don't think you can have too much water. I drink whenever i think of it, at least a big bottle an hour (I weigh 240, your needs may differ). If you're concerned about balancing caloric intake with output, there are a jillion places online that can help you figure the energy you're using. Then you just plan your intake to match it.

Yeah...lots o' water!! Also, any ride longer than about 35-miles, I bring food of some sort. I cannot bring myself to buy those energy bars at ~$1 each. I tend to like chewy granola bars or fig newtons. I would like to find something like a Pop-Tart but with fewer calories. Each pop-tart has 200kcals and there's 2 in a foil envelope!! I did a 67-miler last weekend where I ate 3 envelopes and 2 bottles of Gatorade. I consumed 1600kcals!! No wonder I didn't lose any weight this week!! :(

Try diluting your gatorade in water. about 50/50 seems to provide the same good and still allow you to drink more. It also seems to slide down the throat better than full strength.

Thanks for all of the tips. My ride takes about two hours. I am going to get a 24oz water bottle, a little gatorade and try eating a Kashi bar at the halfway point.

Over the last 2 years, I've done a lot of centuries as well as shorter, +/-1-2hr rides. I've experimented quite a bit to find what works best for me, and have settled on a few "givens":

1) Water - I used to take one bottle, and conserve it. This is stupid. For 1 hour rides, 1 may be ok if it's not too hot or the route is not too strenuous, but I ALWAYS carry two bottles now, and drink freely. I know where I can fill them up along most all my routes.
1A) If I'm doing a fair bit of climbing and will be out 2 hours or more, one bottle is water and the other is Cyclomax or equivalent.

2) Food - on short rides in the 1 hour range, I bring a couple of gel packs or a Cliff bar, just in case. I usually don't use them, but they are nice to have if I decide to extend my ride "on the fly". If I'm out for 2 hours, at least 1 Cliff bar (or equivalent) is a mandatory consumption requirement. Any ride past two hours and I carry enough to consume at least 200-300 calories every 45mins to an hour (depending on exertion level). Whether I'm feeling hungry or not.

I ride between 7-10 centuries a year, and I always finish strongest when I freely hydrate and consume easily absorbed "good" calories every 45mins to an hour. Liquid calories seem to absorb faster, so my choice of sport drink is important. Climbing, especially in the sun, flushes a lot sodium and potassium out of your body in your sweat, and it needs to be replaced. That's over and above what your muscles need to function under load.

That's what works for me, anyway.....

If the Kashi bar doesn't seem to work try something with simpler sugars in it. Kashi has a lot of whole grains and complex carbs, so it may take a while to break down in usable energy.

If the Kashi bar doesn't seem to work try something with simpler sugars in it. Kashi has a lot of whole grains and complex carbs, so it may take a while to break down in usable energy.

Chocolate covered raisins? (I'm just looking for excuses, aren't I)

a great food when you are active is a banana. It provides the sugar you need for energy and the potasium you need to help get rid of cramps.

On long rides I bring banana leather. (I have a friend who gets it for me from Trader Joe's. They call theirs, Nothin but banana (I think.)) It is just semi-dried banana. It is thin enough to go in my seat bag and dry enough to not funk up my multi tool.

This time around, I am not eating on rides at the moment. They are generally roughly an hour, or slightly over, and I'm hoping to burn some weight during the base-building period.

Once summer rolls around, I cannot get enough of the CarbBoom Apple-Cinnamon flavored gels. I kid you not it tastes EXACTLY like apple pie. Gu tasted not to my liking at all, and the Hammer gels were hit (fruit punch or something like that) or BIG miss (Tropical Hammer gel is something I'm still getting PTSD from ;))

Depending on the length of the rides in the summer, I would suck down a gel per hour, maybe a little more if it was longer. If it was very long, I would go with the Hammer powdered/drinkable fuels. Just mix up a bottle of really thick perpetuem and use it like gel, pacing your way down the bottle and adding plenty of water along with it.

This time around, I am not eating on rides at the moment. They are generally roughly an hour, or slightly over, and I'm hoping to burn some weight during the base-building period.



You shouldn't need to eat for a 1 hour ride. Drink, yes....

Figure you're only gonna burn somewhere between 500 - 1000 calories in an hour, and you're only gonna get close to the 1000 side if you REALLY push/climb/sprint extensively. I'll bet a typical flat or rolling 1 hour ride is in the 500-600 cal range. That's two Cliff bars.

Assuming you have eaten something "proper" in the few hours before you begin, your body typically has enough fuel floating around in your bloodstream and muscle tissue for a couple hours of exertion without you having to eat anything additional.

Another important thing to remember is that your body can only absorb ~250cal/hr MAX while you're riding, and that is assuming it is something easily digestible. Eating more than that is not productive, and can actually make you sluggish if it's just sitting there waiting to be processed.

Since you're burning more calories than you can replentish on long rides, they become a balancing act. That's why I like liquid calories on the longer rides - they absorb quickly and easily into something I can use right away.

For right now, in the sort of "base period" of building up some endurance and comfort on the bike, I figure keeping all calories out of my fluids, and not eating on these shorter winter rides is better all around. I don't need the calories, and I need to lose the pounds, which isn't helped by cramming stuff into my mouth while exercising.

I think people generally overestimate how much they need to take in on the ride. If in fact you have around 2000 calories in your system, you don't really need to eat until you hit 2-4 hours of moderate to extreme intensity.

<snip>Another important thing to remember is that your body can only absorb ~250cal/hr MAX while you're riding, and that is assuming it is something easily digestible. Eating more than that is not productive, and can actually make you sluggish if it's just sitting there waiting to be processed.I was talking about this earlier in the week. Before I quote you, are you confidant on that ~250cal/hr max. (I'm not saying are you sure it is 250 not 255 but are you sure on the ballpark?)

I was talking about this earlier in the week. Before I quote you, are you confidant on that ~250cal/hr max. (I'm not saying are you sure it is 250 not 255 but are you sure on the ballpark?)


Pretty sure.... I'm not a nutritionist, don't play one on TV, and didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express. :D

I think I came across it in an article I was reading online somewhere. Maybe attached to the Furnace Creek 508, or something like that.

Ahhhhh...... here you go (http://www.the508.com/insight/bornintake.html):

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How Much To Consume

With some allowances provided for very large athletes the human body can only return (from the liver to muscle tissue) about 4.1-4.6 carbohydrate calories per minute, or about 250-280 calories per hour. When an athlete consumes more than 280 calories per hour from carbohydrates during an event, the excess remains undigested in the stomach, or passes unused into the bowel, where, in the unmincing words of Dr. Bill Misner, “they accumulate in gastric or intestinal channels in 100-degree temperatures and putrefy in time.”

Yes, you may be burning up to 800 calories per hour, but your body cannot replace that amount during exercise. Trying to replenish calories at the same rate as depletion only causes problems. Instead of having more energy available, you’ll have a bloated stomach, and perhaps even nausea and vomiting. You’ve seen it happen, but it’s not a necessary aspect of intense competition; more likely it’s the result of improper caloric intake.

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And from here (http://www.the508.com/insight/bornmistakes.html):

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Improper Amounts of Calories

Too many endurance athletes fuel their bodies under the premise, “If I burn 500–800 calories an hour, I must consume that much or I’ll bonk.” However, as Dr. Bill Misner says, “To suggest that fluids, sodium, and fuels-induced glycogen replenishment can happen at the same rate as it is spent during exercise is simply not true. Endurance exercise beyond 1–2 hours is a deficit spending entity, with proportionate return or replenishment always in arrears. The endurance exercise outcome is to postpone fatigue, not to replace all the fuel, fluids, and electrolytes lost during the event. It can’t be done, though many of us have tried.” In other words, your body can’t replenish calories as fast at it expends them (ditto for fluids and electrolytes). Athletes who try to replace “calories out” with an equal amount of “calories in” usually suffer digestive maladies, with the inevitable poorer-than-expected outcome, and possibly the dreaded DNF (“Did Not Finish”). Body fat and glycogen stores easily fill the gap between energy output and fuel intake, so it’s detrimental overkill to attempt calorie-for-calorie replacement.

Keep this in mind if you’re doing ultra-endurance events, especially if you’ve had to “alter the game plan” and are unable to stick to your planned hourly calorie intake. For example, let’s say you’ve been consuming an average of 280 calories an hour but the heat or other circumstances (such as climbing a very long hill) prevents you from maintaining that desired hourly average. DO NOT try to “make up lost ground” by consuming additional calories; it’s not only unnecessary, it may very well cause a lot of stomach distress, which will hurt your performance. Remember, during periods where fuel consumption may be less than your original hourly plan, body fat stores will effectively fill in the gap, thus eliminating the need to overcompensate with calories.

Recommendation: Intake of 240–280 calories per hour, on average, is sufficient for most endurance athletes. Lighter weight athletes (<120–125 pounds) may need less, while heavier athletes (> 185–190 pounds) may need slightly more. Experiment in training to determine your specific requirements, using 240–280 calories/hour as a base to work from. If you fall behind on your average calorie intake, do not consume excess calories to bring your average back up.

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I can tell you for sure that any full-blown eating I do on extended rides turns the ride into a suffer fest. I work best when I eat 200-300 cal/hr for the duration of the ride, while drinking water freely.

My morning ride of 25 miles is done with no food prior just water. I do have a few bars in the bags with my tubes if needed. I feel great before, during and after. I eat within 30-45 minutes of getting home. Once I get beyond the 25 mile mark I do carry a fuel supply ( fruit, bars, fig newtons ) consume while I ride. One of my favorites is soft pretzels, common here in Philly and a diluted Gatorade solution in the water bottle.