Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Hydration/nutrition advice for metric century

First attempt, 35 miles is previous personal best. It will be a supported ride, likely hilly. Advice welcomed.

Ride your speed and don't push too hard too early. Drink something every 15 minutes at a minimum to keep hydrated. Eat something small every hour. Fig bars, 1/4 of a cliff bar, apple, banana. You don't need too much because your body may not like it. Use the same foods that you do on your other rides or workouts. You never know what your body will tolerate with change of foods and you don't want to find out while on your bike in the middle of nowheresville.

+1 Just ride what you know you can do. Most importantly have fun.:thumb:


Ride your speed and don't push too hard too early. Drink something every 15 minutes at a minimum to keep hydrated. Eat something small every hour. Fig bars, 1/4 of a cliff bar, apple, banana. You don't need too much because your body may not like it. Use the same foods that you do on your other rides or workouts. You never know what your body will tolerate with change of foods and you don't want to find out while on your bike in the middle of nowheresville.

If you can ride 35, you can ride 62. Enjoy the rest stops. :)

When drinking, I tend to stay with sports drinks instead of plain water since my body needs the nutrients. I usually have one GU pack every hour of riding. I stop every 20 miles or so (2 rest stops normally) for refills and to stretch the legs. Paceing yourself is the most important. My first race out I tried to keep up with the Jones and bonked pretty hard near the end. If you start to feel bad sit for 15-20min at a rest stop, it'll do wonders.

Have fun.

I like to eat half a Clif bar every 30 minutes, and drink often. Stay hydrated.

just dont do what i did on my first metric. i felt very strong at the start so i stayed with the front pack. at about the 20 mile mark there was a big climb and saw everybody stand on it and i followed. i bonked half way up. i did make it up but i had hurt myself so bad that i only had enough brain power to follow the wheel in front of me. after about 15 minutes i finally came back to earth but i never recovered from that. it was a quite painful learning curve. my average speed for the metric was 2 MPH slower than my first 100 mile century. 14.5 compared to 16.5MPH

Ride your speed and don't push too hard too early. Drink something every 15 minutes at a minimum to keep hydrated. Eat something small every hour. Fig bars, 1/4 of a cliff bar, apple, banana. You don't need too much because your body may not like it. Use the same foods that you do on your other rides or workouts. You never know what your body will tolerate with change of foods and you don't want to find out while on your bike in the middle of nowheresville.

+1 on all of the above. I'll also add the following:
I find that on long rides that the energy drinks start to taste too sweet. I therefore tend to alternate drinking energy drinks and plain water. I also like the taste of the Cliff bars so I'll keep one with me. Even through you may be supported sometimes they may have snacks that just don't work for you. During my last Century ride they had Cliff shots available however they were Pina Colada flavored... a flavor that maybe nice on a tripical evening, but not something that I'd want to consume while hot sweaty while riding hard. If you have a snack that you know you will like the taste off, then you'll be all set. I ate some food (fruit and finger sized peanut butter sandwitches) at the rest areas, but I find that eating small bites every 20 minutes or so keeps me feeling more full of energy.

Happy riding,
André

...... Use the same foods that you do on your other rides or workouts. You never know what your body will tolerate with change of foods and you don't want to find out while on your bike in the middle of nowheresville.

Also use caution on quantity. I rode a Century this past week end. I used Cliff Shot Blocks every 30min. I've never had a problem with them on shorter rides (read smaller quantities) but at mile 90, it wasn't pleasant.


....I find that on long rides that the energy drinks start to taste too sweet. I therefore tend to alternate drinking energy drinks and plain water.

+1 Either Altenate or Dilute.

As everyone said, stay hydrated and have fun. You'll be fine!!

i usually carry 3 bottles for longer distance. bottle 1 is always water only and i drink that first. then the other 2 are half water and half whatever sports drink i have. this keeps the sugary taste down. also if i dont water down the sports drink, i drink them faster. i personally dont eat anything for under 65 miles. 80+ ill eat a couple cliff bars and fig newtons. my calorie intake is much lower than what others recconmend, but for a typical century i take in about 1100 calories which includes liquids and solids. i usually dont eat any energy shots or stuff like that. it gets expensive if i am eating them all the time. its all about what your body requires. my first metric century i felt like i ate a ton, but i wasnt in my right mind either.

I think I am one of those rare people who can eat whatever they want while exercising. I have yet to find anything that bothers me. My only problem is that I probably consume to many calories. I have gained weight during organized rides.

Drink plenty of your prefered fluids. Personally I keep one bottle full of water, one bottle of straight gatoraid. I drink all of my water then half the gatoraid, top off both bottles with water, then I go back to drinking water using the gatoraid as a back up. I find that if I drink too much gatoraid I get sick and frankly it tastes terrible after awhile.

Food wise you need to eat in moderation to keep your energy levels up. I keep a cliff bar and an emergency goo with me. Most of the time I don't have to touch them but they are there if I need it. On supported rides I do best with actual food food. Bananas, PBJ, grapes, and oranages work best for me.

Pace yourself and enjoy the ride :thumb:

Thanks to all for the advice, the metric century was a blast. Beautiful day (80 deg), beautiful countryside, altogether pleasant and memorable. Based on advice here, and from some corroborating friends, did one bottle water, one diluted gatoraid, and ate a gel every hour on the hour. Half a banana, half an orange at the rest stop. No other solid food. Finished pretty strong but tired. Now dealing with seriously painful leg cramps, post-ride, so clearly have some hydration/nutrition tweaking to do, but I am looking forward to the next big ride! Scot

did one bottle water, one diluted gatoraid

I mean I kept one of each bottle on board and topped off at both rest stops.

Scot

Congrats...you originally posted your best distance was 35 miles/58 km, so you almost doubled that!

just did my 1st metric century on the 25th :) highest i'd done prior was 41miles... I finished strong (other then the fact that i lost 3 spokes durring the ride DOH)... rode with some friends that agreed to take it easy and enjoy the ride... for most of the ride we could comfortably hold a conversation... don't know how the finish would have looked had we pushed harder up front :)

I tend to drink a lot... prob because I spent 6 years living in the tropics and have experienced 1st hand what heat exhaustion will do to ya...

i'll admit it... i'm a MTBer at heart... I roll with a camelbac... I just don't drink enough with a bottle...

so I had a 70oz bladder with water... and 2 large water bottles filled with HEED... it's nasty but a friend turned me onto it... no preservatives in it = it sits better in your stomach... take a swig of it ever 10 to 15 min... water about ever 5-10... about an hr in I ate a granolla bar, 2nd hr a 1/2 bannana, 3rd hr we hit the big rest area... bannana and a PBJ... 4th hr was the end of the ride so i ate everything in sight at the end ;-)

also took an asprin before the ride and 1/2 way though... they don't bother my stomach and figured it'd be good to have the anti inflamitory in my system... friend of mine (60y/o hard core rider) recomends popping a tums ever hr... the antacid to help with what you eat and the calcium is good for ya while you ride somehow...

next time I ride a longer ride i'll do what another friend recomends (racer buddy)... eat potatos... basicly steam some red potatos, cut em up put them in a bag the night before, the day of toss em in the microwave to heat... the steam keeps em moist, they are easy on the stomach, and an amazing energy food biggest thing I found is try to ride how you plan to for the big ride.

congratz on the ride by the way... was it a tour de cure ride by chance?... plans for a longer ride?...

... and 2 large water bottles filled with HEED... it's nasty but a friend turned me onto it... no preservatives in it = it sits better in your stomach... take a swig of it ever 10 to 15 min...

congratz on the ride by the way... was it a tour de cure ride by chance?... plans for a longer ride?...

Thanks. No smaller charity ride. Have century planned for September. I'll look into the HEED.

Scot

:) i got a century ride planned myself in oct.... i'm SO looking forward to that... need to pick up a brooks saddle soon so I can get it broken in properly for it haha