Originally Posted by
Mithrandir
I'm going to be honest here. Under 30 miles, you do not need food. You may feel like you do, but you should be able to wait it out until the end; especially if you're only going 10mph average.
I've been doing my 35 mile rides this year with nothing but water. Haven't bonked on one of those yet. It gets tough, for sure. Your body screams for food, most definitely. But you'll make it just fine without. I've found, at least for myself, that eating food is greatly counterproductive to my goal of burning fat.
I don't bother to bring food unless it's a 35+ mile ride. I don't bother eating any of it unless it's 50+ miles (bring on 35's in case I have a major mechanical and lose lots of time fixing it)
I honestly have to disagree on this, especially if you are working hard. I do agree that what you eat the day before makes a huge difference but we should all be eating a well balanced diet anyway. If the ride is anything over 2hrs long it's a good idea to put something back in but just small ammounts to keep energy levels up. The body only stores so much glycerin and uses it's stores up in an hour and needs to be replaced to work at it's best, why risk bonking! I always carry some form of calories on a ride cause you just never know, plus if I don't feul on the bike I tend to over fuel when I get off it.