Originally Posted by
LoriRose
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.
I've long since discovered that one can't get frostbit feet as long as the temperature is above 0° C. Sure feels like it, though. Not a fan of numb feet. A stopgap measure is toe warmers. I buy them by the case:
Amazon.com : HotHands Toe Warmers : Sports & Outdoors The real cure for cold feet in winter is winter MTB boots. I have a pair of Lakes. Wonderful but expensive.
I'm going back to my previous suggestion. I call it the drip method of feeding. No ups and downs, just constant carb calories coming in. The once an hour thing is hammering on your pancreas. For instance a Clif Bar: 250 calories but only ~43g carbs. I break them into 4 pieces and eat a piece every 15' minutes. Back when I ate solid food, I used to eat 6 of them on a double century plus rest stop food.
So that was a 4 hour ride: you were making good time, good for you. By the 60g/hour estimate, that would be 4 bottles of Ensure so you'd put 2 in your saddle bag. Don't get the Ensure Plus - it has more fat, which is what you don't want. My wife gets by on fewer calories, but you might need more.
As I ride, I look at the bottle - I always use translucent bottles - and see if I'm eating enough. At the rate you specify, a 480 calorie bottle would be gone in 2 hours or so. I'll guess that you don't really need that many calores - that'll probably get you 3 hours. So I'd look after an hour and make sure it was 1/3 gone.
The breakfast was light and then you didn't eat enough after. 400 calories is a number that's easy to remember for breakfast. Oatmeal is common: if you cook a cup of rolled oats, sweeten it up with lots of brown sugar, add butter and whole milk, you'd be pretty close. Half-and-half is extra marvelous.