fishymamba

Hey guys! I have a big ride tomorrow: 70miles and a bit more than 10,000ft of climbing.
I was just wondering what my calorie intake per hour should be. I am going to be riding pretty slow to make it all the way. I am just not sure of how much food to take with me. Right now this is what I have:

2 Clif Bars - 240 cals each
3 GUs - 100 cals each
Two bottles of GU Brew - 250 cals each
I also have electrolyte tablets(NUUN Cola flavor) but they do not provide any calories.

I am guessing this is going to be enough, on my usual 60 mile rides I am usually eating only one clif bar and sometimes a pack of GU with one bottle of GU Brew.(With lots of water of course)

But I think I will need to keep track of how much I eat to finish! Just looking for some advice! Thanks!


BTW I am 16 years old and weigh ~122 lbs

valygrl

Probably OK, but it doesn't hurt to have too much - unless there is somewhere along the way to buy stuff, in which case, take advantage of that. You also might want to bring plain water, and take the 2nd Gu Brew in powdered form.

I'm so jealous you get to climb this time of year. Snow here means flat rides only.

ericm979

Look at it on a per hour basis, not per mile. You'll be burning at least 500 cal/hr, probably more. You can't replace all of that because you can't digest that many calories while exercising. Most people can handle 250-300 cal/hr without getting ill. So bring enough food for 300 cal/hr and bring a bit extra in case you're delayed for some reason (like the group ride I did saturday where we spent 45 minutes or so attending to a motorcycle crash that happened right in front of us). It's far better to end the ride with an extra bar than to spend the last hour of the ride bonked and wishing you were dead.

There's nothing saying that you have to use pre-packaged sports food. I have brought bagels and sandwiches on long rides. Bars and gels get tiresome after a while. Pretty much anything you can fit in your jersey pockets will work but avoid meat and large amounts of fat.

It's a good idea to have one bottle of water and one of sports drink. If you just have sports drink you either won't drink enough water, or you'll drink enough but get too much sugar in your stomach, which slows water absorbtion. If you want to drink two bottles of sports drink during the ride fill a small zip lock bag with one bottle's worth of powder and mix it when you stop to refill your bottles.

sprince

Assuming a maximum calorie absorption rate of 300 per hour, you should be just about right. For me to do > 10k ft climbing... 2 liters of whole milk, 1 large pizza, 6 beers and an oxygen tank.

Carbonfiberboy 

And let us know how it went! That's a lot of climbing per mile.

fishymamba

Well just came back, had to cut the ride short
30 mph headwinds really slow you down. Still got in about 60 miles and a little more than 7K ft climbing.
Ate every thing I brought. I did not bonk, but the wind just killed me, I am completely exhausted right now.

I hate wind, I only weigh 122lbs so I am pretty easy to blow around.

Gonna have to try this again next week!

Thanks for the advice guys!

fishymamba

I started with one bottle of GU Brew and one bottle on water. When the GU Brew ran out I replaced it with NUUN which is an electrolyte only supplement.

fishymamba

Another question guys: My legs are very sore right now, what can I do to speed up recovery?

ericm979

Go for an easy ride. It must be really easy. 9 year old girls on "my little pony" bikes should be dropping you. Do it on a trainer if you can't resist chasing down other riders (or if you have hills).

Self-massage with "the stick".

Stretching.

bwrench

Is that sort of like "a little of the dog that bit you"? I find that the quickest way to get rid of sore muscles is to do some light exercise too.