Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - What is a good breakfast before a double century?

I usually just have a bowl of cereal for breakfast before a ride, and then eat my nutritionz during the ride, but I feel compelled to have a decent breakfast before STP. I need something that won't upset my tummy:), and also give me some proper fuel. Any ideas? Thanks.

Huge thread on this topic a few weeks ago. Search on "breakfast".

Huge thread on this topic a few weeks ago. Search on "breakfast".

oh, I feel silly now:o

I usually have a big breakfast, but nothing out of the ordinary......but also depends on how early in the morning I take off.

I usually have a big breakfast, but nothing out of the ordinary......but also depends on how early in the morning I take off.

I'm leaving at 4:30ish:(

whoa. that's early.. i bet you get to hear lots of birds chirpin ;)

Fill the tank the night before...just top it off in the morning. Pasta and seafood is my fav night-before dinner...crab alfredo...yum. In the morning, just a big bowl of Grape Nut Flakes with milk and strawberries or bananas, nuked in the microwave till it's all warm and mushy.

I'm leaving at 4:30ish:(

I would eat pasta the night before and then a bowl of porridge and a Cliff bar before the ride. That is seriously early!

A can of Ensure Plus.

Then eat regularly throughout the ride ... 250-300 calories per hour.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beerimages/884.jpg

a double shot of EPO

All fine ideas, except the beer maybe. Just don't try anything new on the day of the event.

Me, I eat a big ol' bowl of Grape-nuts with Vitasoy in the morning of a big ride. Supplies a nice long burn.

I personally eat a stack of pancakes or three pieces of french toast or three waffles. I will throw in a cliff bar if the ride is going to be long. Often I'll eat that bar along the way.

To me eating cereal is a bad idea. The milk is upsetting for the gut. And frankly, the cereal for me doesn't last but an hour or so. I never eat cereal when I am going to exercise.

To me eating cereal is a bad idea. The milk is upsetting for the gut. And frankly, the cereal for me doesn't last but an hour or so. I never eat cereal when I am going to exercise.

Yeah, dairy upsets my stomach too, that's why I do the Vitasoy instead. I have to steer away from refined sugar also, so no waffle syrup, or donuts, etc.

Last year before my one-day ride, I had a single clif bar.

You really don't want a big lump of food in your stomach - it takes a lot of blood to digest it, which starves your muscles.

And, as a general rule, I see far more people eating too much food on long rides than too little. 250 calories (up to perhaps 350 if you're a bit bigger) is about all most people can handle during exercise. That's not that much food.

Weird, I just noticed this thread in the Road forum, but I didn't put it there. ??

I need something that won't upset my tummy, and also give me some proper fuel. Any ideas?Practice makes perfect. The faster you want to start the ride, the less you eat.

Lots of contradictory advice. I hesitate to say that means at least half of it is wrong, so draw your own conclusions.

You definitely want food in you when you start. You want the right type of food and in the right place.

For type of food, you want something that will stay with you (that leaves out sugar), something that isn't hard to digest (that leaves out fats—fatty meats and most dairy), and something that yields usable calories (that leaves out a host of things, like high protein and leafy veggies). High carb like pasta and pancakes is very good. (You don't need to avoid sugar or veggies; don't make them the primary component.)

For 'in the right place', translate to time. You want the food well clear of the stomach etc. before heavy exertion. Allow about two hours. You also don't want it fully processed, so no more than 8 hours (est.). If your heavy meal is the night before, then breakfast doesn't really matter. A sugar jolt is okay—try fruit instead of processed sugar. Or both, like a slice or two of pie.

My own self, I usually eat a light breakfast, but before a century starting at 8am, I'll put down a big plate of pasta about 6am.

This was interesting. I just took a short ride--27 miles or so. I ate only a clif bar before I left. I was riding to the beach where we were going to have breakfast. I was bonking within the first seven miles. I have to have food before I ride or I don't ride. I stopped at someone's house where I got a jelly sandwich. All was fine then. I just don't have the experience that it is a matter of what you ate the day before. I must have a good breakfast (lots of carbs) or forget it. And I've been riding lots of miles for many years. Pasta at 6 a.m. just sounds nasty.

I'm going to do a double Saturday. I'll have my normal breakfast an hour or so before the start. 3 or 4 egg whites and rice, cooked together. A bagel, a glass of orange juice, and some coffee. I'll spend the first 45 mins to an hour on the bike warming up, so the meal will furthur digest during that time. After that, I'll kick it up to a good, sustainable pace, and begin to nibble a variety of foods(liquid and solid) for the remainder of the ride. Like Ensure, clif bars(chocolate chip peanut crunch), dried apricots, bagels, pretzels, banannas.

Lots of contradictory advice. I hesitate to say that means at least half of it is wrong, so draw your own conclusions.

Or that some of this advice is wrong for half the people. Everyone's a little different so, indeed, draw your own conclusions.

Personally, my habit for long rides is, on the night before the ride, throw some scotch oats in a pot with water, bring to a simmer for five minutes with some chopped dried apples and cinammon. Turn off heat after five minutes, then go to bed. Wake up, reheat the pot with a bit of added water and have the oatmeal with a slight spike of honey. Ride easy to the start and be all warmed up and fed for the event.

Oatmeal.

I always mention the classic old road racer's breakfast of rare steak and rice. This is so counter to the current fads that I think it gets ignored as the rantings of a fool...

I see no difference nutritionally, between riding centuries and doubles. Just do the same for a double that you do for a single century.

I find it doesn't matter what I eat before a double, as long as I have something to eat, and it is not going to be something that bothers me. No left over Chinese food. ;) During the course of a double I am going to get into the cycle of eating and drinking anyway, so what I start with only stays with me a short amount of time. If it happens that I don't eat anything, I will start taking in calories as soon as I get rolling.

My nutritional goal for the start is to simply get me to the first SAG stop. What I eat during that first section will be based on what I managed to eat for breakfast.

not chilli

Sounds like some good variety! My own breakfast (tested on 20+ doubles):

2 Cartons of Yogurt (strawberry or whatever I can find)
1 Banana
1 Pack of Pop-Tarts

Then like Ronsmithjr says . . . start eating at the first checkpoint!

Rick / OCRR