Originally Posted by
LoriRose
I eat plenty, including plenty of carbs. I'm not really trying to burn fat - I have some, but I am far from overweight.
I eat about 60grams of carbs about every hour as I ride, but it didn't seem like enough. I was hungry and wanting a meal. I haven't had any problems with eating then riding as of yet. Luckily, digestion problems have never really been a problem for me.
Something tells me it was the combination of cold and hungry that did me in.
It's curious. 60g/hour should do it. Many of us can ride a double century on that. What are you eating and how much, how frequently? How many hours were you riding - elapsed time? Chris Carmichael of CTS coaching advises about 30g/hour for a century ride, for instance.
Every endurance athlete wants to burn fat - not that we're fat, just as a long-term fuel source. Even the skinniest of us has enough fat to ride at least 3 TdF stages. Fat you burn is calories you don't have to eat on the bike. There's a limit to how many calories we can digest on the bike, hence the desire for fat burning. Similarly there's a limit to how many calories of fat we can burn an hour, and there's a limit on how many calories of carbs we can burn an hour. Combine those and we can put out more power over the course of a long ride than we can on only one fuel source.
Theoretically the cold can sap energy because we have to use some to stay warm. However my experience is that even in the cold the cyclist's problem is how to get rid of heat. If you experience cold, you're not dressed warmly enough.
The dark however is a major sapper of mental energy. I find it very hard to ride strong after dark. For one thing, it's dangerous to go fast!