So my new schedule is 6am to 6pm. This means I have to leave for work around 3:30am to get in on time in order to take a shower after the 25 miles in. This also means I will be getting home around 8 - 8:30pm. So I will probably be heading to bed shortly after that. So I am kind of baffled at how to eat healthy doing this. Especially at night since I know you arent supposed to eat to close to bed. Should I maybe eat dinner at work before I leave?

Wow, that is a nasty schedule. You may have to eat all your meals at work - 5:30 a.m., noonish and after 6:00. Is there any chance that you could ride faster? It sounds like your average speed is about 12miles/hr. Bump that to 16miles/hr and you would have more time to sleep in and/or eat...

Ride faster?

Is it a hilly 25 miles?

Are you really riding 250 miles per week? That would either mean you should be riding slowly or be in such mad shape you have no excuse.

Eat all day, is my advice. Three meals a day is no longer relevant when you're riding and working that much. You know about second breakfast, right? (parapharsing a certain movie/books, cookie to the first who gets it)

Second breakfast or elevensies? LOTR?

I am pretty sure I will be getting faster as time goes on. The few times Ive ridden in Ive done the ride anywhere from 1:35 to 1:50. 11 of the miles are on well travelled roads so I have to deal with traffic and stop lights so that slows me down. The more used to this route I get the faster I will get. I dont have a computer right now so I dont know how fast I am actually riding. The route isnt too hilly so I dont have any excuse for riding slow.

I havent done 250 miles of commuting in a week. I just started this a few weeks ago and was planning on getting there but wasnt going to rush into it and burn myself out. Now my shift has me work 3 days one week and 4 the next so I wont have an oppurtunity to go for 250 until i move back to 5 days in a few months. Im hoping I can get in at least a few weeks of full time commuting and that should get me into shape enough to consider learning to race.

Wow, with that commute, you should be reading Food for Fitness by Chris Carmichael. A scale is helpful to gauge hydration and if you are burning more calories than you are taking in. I also juice a lot of fruits and vegatables in the summer to pack in vital nutrients. This is how Lance started-good Luck.

What kind of bike are you riding? Road? Cross? MTB?

If it's not a Road bike I would really think about getting one. I ride a 1989 Peugeot ProBike-14 that I paid $10.00 for. I do 17 miles in 1 hr on the avage. On a MTB bike it takes me 2 hrs. on a Cross bike it takes about 1 hr 30min. So get a good cheap used road bike and ride it till it falls apart.

im currently riding a road bike. Even if I did the ride in an hour and a half I would still be cutting it close leaving at 4am and at best I would get home at like 7:45. So that only give me an hour / hour and a half before I head to bed.

riskus,
that sounds like a hospital shift. i work a 700am-730pm shift, but i only live 6 mi. away. as far as nutrition goes, my schedule goes like this:
lite breakfast before work- yogurt and fruit
10am early lunch - often rice or pasta (low fat sauces) with a veggie
1pm lunch - more of the same above
4pm snack- banana and a grapefruit
8pm after i get home snack - a couple of fig newtons.

listen to you body. eat slowly. enoy it, you've worked for it. splurge for quality organic foods too.

i also run 30 - 40 mi. a week when there's no snow. i try to drink a least 2 L water a day in cool weather and more during the summer.

the one thing that makes me sad about this is that I wont really have time to eat nice food at home. By nice I mean fresh cooked organic steaks, chicken etc because I wont have any time to cook when I get home.

now on the 4 day weekends on the other hand.............

I'm not a nutritionist but I think your concern about late night eating might have to take a back seat to getting some calories and nutrients into your body. Most of the negatives about late night dining have to do with a fear that the body retains more calories when it's digesting while sleeping and results in weight gain. If you're wracking up the miles you'll want to retain calories so no worry there. And there are recent studies that dispute that theory anyway. The other concern is gastric reflux from digesting food lying down. there are natural solutions, even lemon with hot water following the meal can help with that.

If you're not cooking-a-phobic you could do some prep on the weekends for your week of food. Buying quality meats, like lamb, chicken and beef, cubing them, marinating them and then freezing them in the single meal portions in freezer bags or tupperware can give you a good variety of stir fry meals that can be great on pasta or rice and with some salad or fresh vegetables.

My morning routine is almost a ritual of timing between showering, getting my clothes together and putting together my breakfast. Frozen organic fruit is often available and makes for great shakes for the morning. But eat a lot and hydrate or you'll pay the price. And have fun planning your meals.

I agree with buzzman. if you are riding 50 miles a day, I wouldn't worry about eating right before sleep. After a 25 mile ride, I would think that you would want to immediately get some carbs to refuel and some protein to rebuild your muscles so you can ride the next day. Geez... you make me feel really out of shape.

As for eating healthy, quickly, the key is all in the prep work. If I had a super-duper-fancy rice cooker (or at least one with a timer) that would have the rice done by the time I get home and all the meats and veggies cut up and stuff, I would toss together a stir-fry in my wok in about 5-10 minutes. You can set up your schedule like that to come home, cook, eat, clean up, and prep the next day's meal while you digest a little, then go to bed.

buy a slow cooker for beans and roasts/chicken dishes. chop chop in the morning, toss all in the cooker, turn on low, and once back home, good eats. for your long shifts you might want one with a timer start.

prep big on the weekends.I mean big. you want to be eating nonstop, once you get that basal metabolism all kicked up....


So, eat all day long at work if you can possibly do it...bring sandwiches for snacks, and something more substantial/healthy for your a brunch break around 9-10, and a dinner break.
12 hour shifts i think gets you two half hour breaks graranteed by law, with a few exceptions, of course. check the OSHA/Labor law postings at your workplace.


bring in a load of healthy snack foods for around work; dark chocolate, raisins, almonds, etc. and keep in locker. pack fresh snacks every day- apple, mini carrots, etc....

summer is coming, buy organic greens at the weekend farmers markets, toss a big, 3 gallon bucket of fresh greens and keep crisp in fridge; every morning, grab a big bag, throw some carrots, a tomato, etc, and a little soemthing extra, and just eat out of the bag. caveman salad.

you have four days off a week? cook then and reheat. I get home around 10 p.m. and try to eat light, after chowing down at dinner time 6-ish at work.

consider eating fruit while riding? Heck, I'd be chowing down and chugging down a home brewed latte out of a thermal cup if i had that early and long of a ride.

this is why we work 12 hr shifts! i've got 4 days off without taking vacation - no rat race for me thank you.

i cook enough food the night before a cluster of shifts to last me those days. the rest is easy and requires no cooking - veggies, fruits, yogurt etc.... i love my crock-pot in the winter months. you can cook enough chili and stews to last you for days. rice and pasta can also be cooked in large batches and keep well in the fridge. i refrain from eating a meal before bedtime because it gives me bad indigestion and affects my sleep. try eating a couple of hours before you leave work and give yourself a healthy, lite snack before bedtime - i have no problems with a couple of oranges and a banana an hour before bed. all this requires thoughtful planning and a desire to cook from scratch. get yourself a new cookbook if you need motivation like this one....

some sauces can be a bit heavy, but you can adjust the amount of olive oil accordingly. although with those kind of miles your commuting, you need the olive oil. double the recipes and freeze the rest for later. i will spend hours cooking with the hi-fi cranked and a couple of glasses of vino for the soul.

PACE

Wow, this REALLY makes me want a cookie.

Great. Just made a batch of chocolate chip cookies last night for my sick toddler (bribing him). Left them at home. Wanted to steal one.

:: Drooooollll::

12 hours at work + 3 hours commuting + 8 hours of sleep = 23 hours.

That leaves 1 hour for everything else. I'd kill myself. I need 3-4 hours a day of relaxation/leisure time.

i get my 3 - 4 hours of leisure on my bike each day =D

I just road the route on my off day with my nice road bike and averaged 17mph over 57 miles. I wish I could do that on my commuter.

I'm slightly in your same situation, but half the commute.... but hilly! I have 2 jobs, so I am usually going from the first job to the next immediately. I leave out by 3:45am also. I've shaved down my commute from about an hour and twenty to an hour and one minutes in a month- partly because I've dropped quite a bit of weight! I found it difficult to eat, but what I did was haul a whole boatload of food to work and I leave it at work. I eat whenever I get the chance. I always always eat before I leave out- we're both from VA, so we know about these rolling hills. They can be back breakers. I also carry gatorade on me in case I lose energy halfway through my hill riding to work. I eat small snacks throughout the day (bagals, powerbars, spaghetti, etc.). When I'm doing my final push home, I get a little bit of energy drink in me before I shove off. I usually get in anywhere between 7pm and 815pm, depending on when my second job ends. *sigh*

You have to find the time to eat- I find that small snacks throughout the day help me best. Trying to find the time to sit down to 3 full meals in a day is impossible.

Koffee

Unfortunately I cant really keep anything at work. We dont have lockers or anything like that. All I get is a small 3 drawer filing cabinet to keep stuff and its full of work crap. Yes I know this sucks. So I really have to lug everything in everyday so it makes it even worse.

What kind of energy drinks are you using?

I use gatorade. I actually got powdered gatorade to keep at work in a drawer. I can't imagine anyone trying to use it in a drink.

Check around work. There has to be a place where you can stash some stuff that you can toss in the microwave. Keep in mind, you can microwave just about anything these days. Bring a tupperware container, fork, knife and spoon, and a few boxes of some stuff you just add water to and microwave, and you're good for the week. Get a handful of powerbars to keep at work, and those will be handy snacks for you. Then the only thing you need to bring in are small things like bagals- those weigh next to nothing.

Don't give up- look into all your options and talk to your boss too.... they may have some ideas or a place where you can stash your food.

Koffee