You've all convinced me now.

After tomorrow's ride, it's beer and chocolate milk. Together.

That's a really bad combination. Beer and milk of any sort. Yuk might need a recovery drink for the recovery drink.

Endurox R4

https://www.hamiltonbeach.com/chocolate-stout-float

You're welcome. :thumb:

Not that they are bad, just that they are unnecessary. Water, juice, food, it all serves better than any replacement drink. The human body doesn't need a chemist to figure out how to work, it already is the chemist.
Having said all that, chocolate milk is my fave.

It during the ride that these products seem to help.
A caffeine gel especially.

When I ride 25 or less miles water is fine but when I ride a century these products are a help.

Less than 25- nothing is needed. Above I have one bottle water, half frozen and 1 bottle OJ with a little sugar added to keep it tasty as ice melts.

Because you do it does make it "the right thing to do?"

Sports drinks are designed to help you sure you can by on bread and water.

Hmmm . . . I know several vegetarian or vegan riders and all are very careful about getting adequate protein. One woman I know swears by soy or almond milk, soy protein blend, natural peanut butter and banana smoothies for recovery. I use something similar except I use whey protein (I'm not vegetarian and obviously not vegan). Get a moderate amount of protein, carbs, electrolytes and adequate fluids and you should recover just fine. If your nutrition is good and your recovery is slow, you might want to take a look at your training schedule and sleep patterns (overtrained or under-rested).

For a while it was a small can of Fanta orange soda but I got sick of it and not enough fizz for me in it. I want my throat to hurt while I drink soda.


Lately it has been Squirt soda imported from Mexico. Lots of fizz but I'm getting sick of it also now. I'm just bored of soda I think.


I will switch to choc milk for a while but not the common supermarket garbage. I like Avalon organic made with homogenized milk. It's good stuff.


I don't buy gels or energy bars or any of that stuff.

I guess it all depends how hard you ride.

Not really. The body can handle almost any endurance activity for an hour without input. We are an overfed, overhydrated bunch these days that seem to forget no chemist or physiologist can outdo the precise, everchanging adaptive responses of the body to stress. Obviously, when going into the s second, third and fourth hours something is needed. Under an hour and a half, not so much.

But its not about what the body can manage without or endure. It's about what is optimal and best for the body.

Milk, it does a body good!

Bah. That's the sportsdrink/energy bar companies talking.

Either ovaltine with fairlife fat free milk or, if I have them, Bolthouse farms Chocolate Protein Plus. I'll usually have a siggi's yogurt as well and then some fruit.

ON Whey and BCAA's after rides.

Yeah, better drink Kumis instead, to be safe.

Speak for yourself. I have pores like garden spigots. I'll go through 1.5-2 26 oz bottles in an hour or so and as often as not be dehydrated afterwards. Water is always my problem on longer rides.

This is going to date me, but I was sometimes given flat warm coca-cola. And it actually worked! But, hey, we weren't even required to wear helmets so I'm sure the previously mentioned liquids are better choices...

why not cold carbonated coke? Nothing really hits the spot the same way other than maybe a cold beer

Maybe it was just an old-soigneurs-tale, but the flatness and room temp was said to speed up the recovery, plus prevent a brain-freeze headache and gas. Agreed on the cold coke being super tasty though.

Sweet tea with a touch of salt.

I'm lactose-intolerant though I can drink Lactaid milk. A lot of protein powders are whey protein and not true whey isolate, so lactose there too. I have been searching. Maybe if I cannot find a true whey isolate, I'll try to find a casein protein powder. Lots of those protein powders have tons of carbs and a million calories for lifters trying to pack on weight and muscle. We need a lactose-free protein powder for runners and cyclists.

why? Its not like you need a lot of protein after a ride, and the carbs to refill glycogen stores is arguably more important. Just use less than what a lifter would use if thats what you are after.

I used to pound down the whey and milk-based products as a lifter. These days, milk protein is a total inflammation bomb in my system, which results in tendonitis, achy joints and saddle pain.

Food for thought.

Oh, and look into pea protein.

I read a study that looked at the effect of protein consumed after various activities. They found evidence it helped repair muscles for cyclists more than any other activity. So it is like you need a lot of protein after a ride (if you want to repair your muscles).

where is the study, how many g/kg do they recommend? Just because they found it helps does not mean you need alot.

I don't know where I read it. It was a year ago or so. They were testing the effect of protein shakes specifically. They said they couldn't measure a benefit for other sports, just cycling. So you do need a lot (if you want to repair your muscles).

I don't always drink protein shakes because sometimes I don't want to repair my muscles.

Thats simply not true. For example this review paper outlines the role of protein consumption in resistance training etc. https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/arti...1550-2783-10-5

So go ahead and find the paper that says only cyclists benefit from protein.