Training & Nutrition - Help point me in the right direction?

I have gone from 250+, to 213 in just around 4 months time being back on the bike.

Long story short...I weighed 180 for a long time till around a little over 5 years ago. I am nearing 40, slowing down and fattening up. Crash two years ago left me bedridden for a while and gained a whole lot of weight. At the time I crashed I was around 220.
I was getting no excersize to speak of, and now that I am on the bike, and only riding about 45 miles a week, I am shedding pounds like crazy...and it's great, but I need to change my focus a bit.

I have always been an eat what I want kind of guy. Even before I started riding again, I changed my diet just a bit to include more fruits and vegis, and smaller meat portions. I have a weakness for snacks, breads and pasta, but not overboard. I have noticed that as I am trying to increase my mileage from the 10-15 miles up, that I am running seriously low on energy. I am pretty confident that with the increased biking that I am going to have time for, that I need to change my focus from lose weight, to have energy.

I have found that if I try to eat while I am riding, that it leads to me getting sick later on. I can drink, but cannot do solid food while riding. It doesn't seem to bother me to eat even right up to riding within about 30 mins, but after I start exerting myself, it just sits on my stomach like a rock till I puke later.

What is a good resource to plan out what kind of foods I should be eating, and when, for maximum effect while I am riding, while also keeping my goal of getting back under 200lbs in mind? My current goal is to be able to complete a 40 mile ride, at around a 16mph pace. I am currently going around 15 miles at an overall average of around 11mph. I need to find a way to charge my batteries for past that 15 mile mark.

Thanks ahead of time,
Martin

Eat good carbs (oatmeal, fruit, PB&J. etc) before the ride. Hammer Gel works for me during the ride. Tastes good too. :thumb:
http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/hammer-gel.hg.html?navcat=fuels-energy-drinks
http://www.hammernutrition.com/images/product/assets/detail/hpr.jpg

To get past the 15 mile mark just keep riding. A riding partner or riding with a social group will help push you in a positive way..

I usually complete a 40 mile ride on an empty stomach, having carbo loaded the day before. I usually have a green tea & thats it, then go out riding. Fires the metabolism.


I have always been an eat what I want kind of guy.

Mental weakness. Start toughening up.

I have been having a bowl of Oatmeal, w/ raisins, and usually a piece of citrus or a bananna for b'fast, and normally take my ride within 30mins to an hour of eating b'fast. I am not shy to eat, I just don't want to counter my weight loss efforts trying to keep my energy levels high.

I was of the understanding that the Gel packs were more for long distance runs than for a few miles. I picked one up the other day to try it out, but haven't yet. Perhaps when the weather decides to cooperate I will give that a go about 8-10 miles in and see what it does.

OK, your riding and eating are battling each other. Either don't eat anything before you ride, or wait for 2.5 hours after eating to ride. The way you're doing it can cause a blood sugar crash on the ride.

To fix, don't eat before riding, rather in the last 15 minutes before the ride, drink one Ensure or similar. This means that you'll have to also eat while riding, but you'll have to learn to do that anyway, so try changing from solid foods to liquids during your ride. Hammer Nutrition has many good products for this purpose. However, some of the best long distance cyclists in the world use nothing but the Ensure you can find in any grocery store.

I think that for a 15 mile ride, you won't need to eat anything, but anything over that, you will. So buy a 6-pack of Ensure, just the regular stuff, not the Plus. Drink one before the ride, and put one in one water bottle and fill it the rest of the way with water. Put plain water in the other bottle. Drink food when you're hungry, water when you're thirsty. For those 40 mile rides, use 2 Ensures in your food bottle.