Originally Posted by
coasting
Do you do this and if so what do you do? Just eat a ton of pasta the night before?
I was thinking about this because I always get the eating totally wrong on long rides. i will always hit a rough patch around 80 mile and take a while to get back into shape after drinking some coke. the reason is I forget to eat because I don't like eating on the move so i don't keep to an eating schedule rather eat when I get a chance at a stop. If I stuff pasta down me the night before, will this solve the problem?
No, it is not necessary. Not only that, it's poor carb loading procedure, that's a fad thing that some people use to justify gorging themselves the day before a race. You'll often just end up giving yourself stomach problems.
Again, it's not necessary, but proper carb loading starts 3-4 days before. Adding an extra piece of bread, roll, or something similarly moderate to each meal. Maybe an extra 300-500 cal worth of carb each day. Nothing extreme to upset your diet, but enough to insure your glycogen stores are fully topped off. That's really even only done when coming up to a major race event, not generally done during training, and there is enough energy.
Eat a normal balanced diet the day before. Eat a decent breakfast, complex carbs. e.g. whole grain bagel w/ peanut butter, oatmeal, whole grain cereal, granola, etc which will give lasting energy. Maybe a banana with it for potassium and a good healthy glycogen spike.
The real key for longer events, such as bike rides, is feeding along the way. I like clif/lara/etc bars that are mostly fruit/nut/soy that don't melt and get gross throughout a hot day. If I was doing a 5 hour 100mile ride, I would take 4 with me. One per hour, and a spare in case something crazy happened and I was out there longer than expected and wanted a pick me up, but in theory wouldn't use it.
I would avoid coke while out riding doing physical activity, I would think the carbonation would seriously upset my stomach. *shrug* Gatorade/powerade etc would be the better choice with quick digesting sugars and electrolytes.
The bars + nuun/camelbak tablets for electrolytes have always kept me going.
Originally Posted by
ivan_yulaev
Hmm, I can't eat heavy foods in the morning. I usually show down like 6 small donuts or cookies or something. I find that simple carbs are easier to digest.
That aside, if you're doing a century, you will bonk at ~70 miles in without nutrition. Glycogen supply is about 3000 calories, this should give you 50-80 miles (or so), but I'd be surprised if anyone could do 100 without any sort of calorie intake, without bonking.
Ew. Nasty bad sat. fats, raw sugar, minimal if any vitamins and nutrients. You'll get a sugar spike and crash. Complex carbs are far better.
Breakfast I mentioned previously would be far better...