Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
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!
Elapsed time for the ride was 5hrs. I averaged 17km/hr on strava, but, remember, I had to walk for 20 minutes.
Before I left for the ride I ate 3 eggs and a cookie (about 60g carbs).
After about an hour and 15, I had a granola bar, which was 21 grams of carbs.
An another hour and 15 I had two more cookies. So 120 grams.
An hour later, one more cookie.
20 minutes later is when the brain fog set in.
It wasn't too cold, around 5C. Just my feet were numb. I was fine unless I stopped moving. When I took 10 minutes halfway to stretch and eat I got cold fast.
I think you are right about the dark. My mind was playing tricks on me as I was straining to see. Most of my ride was lit, but there were unlit bike paths as I was approaching the end of my ride where things just got funky! Luckily, the last bit of my ride is through downtown which is very well lit.
I am very disappointed as my goal was to do 100km before the winter and now I can't see that happening after the way my body responded last time. I'm a little nervous to do another long ride.