Yea, anywhere between 90 minutes to 180 minutes expect to bonk... unless... you ingest sugar water and plenty of sugar containing simple carbohydrates, gels, lara bars, candy.


I will have a 90 to 180 minute timer made so I can wear it and it will alarm me to the dangers of bonking that lurk so incessantly and diabolically. That vile thing. Who knew?

No open food or beverages allowed. And I was wrong. She had the short ribs.

Isn't it that just like a significant other---keeping us on our toes! Short ribs, damn, that came out of left field!

I hope you had a beauty time together walking memory lane of your childhood, as well!

She's an Irish immigrant (now American citizen), meat and potatoes girl, so not completely surprising.


Thanks. We did. Saw that the house where I grew up is under contract. We looked it up and saw that it has been totally renovated inside. Quite shocking to see the way it looks now. They even ripped out the bar and glassware cabinets in the basement. A friend of mine painstakingly restored the bar area before my mom sold the house in the early 2000s. I sent him a link to the listing so he could wee what they did. But the tree outside is still going strong. It was planted the year I was born--1965.

I've wondered about the cyclists who boast of running off fats rather than carbs. I happen to eat a high carb diet, but think whatever works for you. If you have an easier time riding while eating more fats instead of carbs then I won't yell at you to switch to carbs. Whatever feels best for you. I might experiment with fats since I leaning more towards slow distance riding.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I used to be able to go for 3-4 hr bike rides without taking much more than water with me and maybe a bar but this year I have ramped up my intensity and miles and if I don't have a nibble or shot of sugary drink every 20-30 min I do good to get a 3 hr ride in without calling for the missus to get me. This year alone I have dropped a little over 20 lbs so I would guess by body is wanting me to stay a clyde.

It's not about what you eat, it's about what energy system you engage when riding.

MOST people are interested in losing or at least controlling weight, therefore, fat cells are important.

Most of what you eat goes one of 5 ways:
1) burned for energy immediately
2) used to build or repair muscle (proteins)
3) stored as glycogen in liver or blood (replenishing / topping off to ~1500 to 2000 cal)
4) converted to fat and stored in adipose tissue (sugar and fat)
5) excreted / expelled as waste

Eat a lot of sugar? a little 1, 2, 3 - a lot of 4. By the way, after a couple enzymes, all carbs are sugar.

Eat a lot of protein? a little 1, 3, a shot of 2, less of 4, and the rest goes out as 5.

Eat a lot of fat? a little 1, 2, 3, some 4, and a lot of 5.

Bike time? Hopefully a lot of 4, less 3.

I'm not interested in losing weight cause I have none to lose lol. Perhaps it's not best to burn fat for my rides?

Yeah, the "fat adapted" believers seem to assume everyone else was s looking to lose weight.

I lost 40 pounds just by riding a bike and eating like I always have. Calories in and out are all that matter.

One thing about fats is really helpful on the bike: it is more than twice as dense as carbs as an energy source. 1 gram of fat is 9 food calories, while carbs/protein are 4 food calories per gram.

Just based on being weight weenies... fat is where it's at!

your body is already carrying an essentially unlimited supply of fat to burn. Substituting fats for carbs is going to end very poorly on the bike

From personal experience... no it does not end poorly.

Burning 1000 to 1100 calories per hour I am not going to be able to pull enough out of storage to meet demand.

Pulling out of storage is about 200 per hour, eating is another 200. So to do long rides, say a metric century with 1K of climbing 4.5 hrs, I am going to burn ~4500 to ~4900 calories, 1600 of which are going to come out of fat storage and food, and the rest from liver/muscle glycogen storage.

that leaves 2600 calories that must come from glycogen storage.
To get the 1600 in food I eat mostly nuts and dried fruit suspended in grass fed tallow, (pemmican, but no actual dried meat in it, I don't tolerate beef protein on rides very well. Beef jerky is out as well) and lara bar for some variation.

Near end of ride I like to stop a fish taco place and have two of the grilled fish tacos with a side of beans as a refueling stop.

Been doing that same ride for about 2 months now, continuing to make gains on every ride.

so you're refueling....with carbs

There are some carbs, yes. Unless you are going to suck eggs, it is hard to get a "pure" fat and protein diet on the bike

But the carb load is around 55g, or 220 out of 1600 plus calories. Most of that is from the Lara Bar and the corn tortillas. The dried fruit I use is no sugar added, and there is not much of it, it just helps to hold the nuts/fats together.

Far far less than I would if I used typical biking bars and sucked down sports drink. That would be more like 400g of carbs.

IF you look at the typical "food pyramid", I have reversed it with fat and carbs being swapped, and protein just about the same.

What really matters is that you didn't "fuel up" for your rides with 1000 calories of sport drinks and energy bars.

Depends. You can burn far more calories than your body can store as glycogen and digest from eating on the bike, combined.

Therefore, if you want to perform strong on long rides, the fat adapting and a solid base will be important for you too.

Not to lose weight, but just to be strong and fast past say 60-70 miles of your ride / race.

Then you have to eat to replace, but it can go to fat storage and glycogen replenishment, where it will be available for the next day.

Even a stick thin 18 year old has a couple kilos of body fat so the body can regulate (even out) food in vs energy out.

It's a question of accessibility. The body carries around the fat supply, but can only access it at a "slow" rate. Slow being basically your upper z1/lower z2 power.

Over that, and you're burning sugar from glycogen and/or intake.

your numbers are way off btw, unless you are putting down 250w(1000 cals/hr) in which case you should be finishing a metric century in under 3 hours. You are burning probably half the calories that you think you are and a much higher ratio of it being body fat at the intensity your time and distance are suggesting, unless you want to post your HR zone distribution

my point is that dietary fat consumed during a ride minimally contributes to the rate limited fat metabolism, which is why replacing carbs during a ride with fat is a bad idea if you are working at an intensity requiring blood glucose supplementation

so z1 to z5: 2,22,32,35,8

Remember I am 47 yo male, 215Lbs, max HR 170 as tested.

I'm interested in doing my first century in autumn. And I seem to gravitate towards long and slow as opposed to short and fast. I see a lot of people advocate for high fat for endurance. That's why I'm quite curious about it.

No, but I did drink Gatorade and eat stroopwaffles while i rode. I also ate some caffeine laced energy gels because they are yummy.

I don't bother with fat or protein while riding (unless there's a lunch stop). Riding diverts blood to my muscles and slows digestion. Peanuts and bacon mostly just sit in my gut until after the ride.

Instead, I drink Gatorade. It has glucose and dextrose. Glucose gets into my blood very quickly, straight out of my stomach. Dextrose takes a little longer to processs, so it helps maintain steady blood sugar level. I mix my own Gatorade. The amount of sugar is nowhere near 1,000 calories. I probably ingest 250 calories for every 1500 I spend while riding. That maintains a steady supply of sugar for my muscles. I never deplete my glycogen and I never bonk.

how did you test max hr? do you mean lthr?

Tested doing wind sprints on a trainer. It is pretty much on the "average" max heart rate chart.