Carb loading
 

Do you do this and if so what do you do? Just eat a ton of pasta the night before?

I was thinking about this because I always get the eating totally wrong on long rides. i will always hit a rough patch around 80 mile and take a while to get back into shape after drinking some coke. the reason is I forget to eat because I don't like eating on the move so i don't keep to an eating schedule rather eat when I get a chance at a stop. If I stuff pasta down me the night before, will this solve the problem?

If I'm doing an organized century, I don't really eat much extra the night before. I do eat a fairly big breakfast (1+ hour before the ride) and then eat quite a bit by the mid-point of the ride.

If you are like most Americans you are getting plenty of carbs. Your problem is your nutrition while you are riding, stuffing yourself the night before isn't going to help.

I usually do a nice pancake breakfast in the morning and eat on the ride about every hour with my food bars.

No, it won't. Between liver and muscles you can only hold about 2 hours of glycogen 2.5 if you're well trained. If you stuff yourself for dinner then it'll just get turned into fat, and the reason you bonk in the first place is that you can't burn fat fast enough to provide all the power you're needing.

Hmm, I can't eat heavy foods in the morning. I usually show down like 6 small donuts or cookies or something. I find that simple carbs are easier to digest.

That aside, if you're doing a century, you will bonk at ~70 miles in without nutrition. Glycogen supply is about 3000 calories, this should give you 50-80 miles (or so), but I'd be surprised if anyone could do 100 without any sort of calorie intake, without bonking.

I've done 100+ mile rides on water. Many times.

It is a personal thing and you only realise how your body works with trial and error and see a pattern develop. I know at 80ish I will feel like crap, not bonk but I know what the lead up to it feels like. I'll need a quick pick-me-up at that point. Coke has never failed to provide that.

I've done 100+ mile rides on nothing. Ha. Beat that.

No, it is not necessary. Not only that, it's poor carb loading procedure, that's a fad thing that some people use to justify gorging themselves the day before a race. You'll often just end up giving yourself stomach problems.

Again, it's not necessary, but proper carb loading starts 3-4 days before. Adding an extra piece of bread, roll, or something similarly moderate to each meal. Maybe an extra 300-500 cal worth of carb each day. Nothing extreme to upset your diet, but enough to insure your glycogen stores are fully topped off. That's really even only done when coming up to a major race event, not generally done during training, and there is enough energy.

Eat a normal balanced diet the day before. Eat a decent breakfast, complex carbs. e.g. whole grain bagel w/ peanut butter, oatmeal, whole grain cereal, granola, etc which will give lasting energy. Maybe a banana with it for potassium and a good healthy glycogen spike.

The real key for longer events, such as bike rides, is feeding along the way. I like clif/lara/etc bars that are mostly fruit/nut/soy that don't melt and get gross throughout a hot day. If I was doing a 5 hour 100mile ride, I would take 4 with me. One per hour, and a spare in case something crazy happened and I was out there longer than expected and wanted a pick me up, but in theory wouldn't use it.

I would avoid coke while out riding doing physical activity, I would think the carbonation would seriously upset my stomach. *shrug* Gatorade/powerade etc would be the better choice with quick digesting sugars and electrolytes.

The bars + nuun/camelbak tablets for electrolytes have always kept me going.

Ew. Nasty bad sat. fats, raw sugar, minimal if any vitamins and nutrients. You'll get a sugar spike and crash. Complex carbs are far better.

Breakfast I mentioned previously would be far better...

I have pasta with no sauce the night before a big ride. morning I will usually make some egg whites, little bit of cheese and wrap it in a tortilla. like mentioned earlier, you need to make sure you are giving your body the nutrition during your ride. I think a lot of cyclists wait to long before drinking water or having an energy bar. If you are dying of thirst during your ride, then you are already dehydrated and you have waited to long. Be sure to load up on water the night before and morning of as well. I like to have 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of gatorade on my bike while riding long distance. water helps with the initial thirst and the gatorade helps me prevent cramping.

Furthermore, I can't imagine having to drop a duece in the middle of the ride from all that pasta.

None of this is rocket science. It's all been figured out long ago. See http://www.hammernutrition.com/downl...nghandbook.pdf to get started.

Yeah, but your 100 mile ride is around 4 hours, right? Most of us non-racers need 6+ hours. I would think that would be a major difference. It certainly seems that way for me.

I'd be willing to bet that his 100 mile rides with no food weren't 4 hours. Ride at a low intensity, and you don't need to eat as much, in part because you're utilizing fat stores. Ride at a higher intensity, and you can't use fat as much, and you're more dependent on muscle glyogen, and carbs

cant do solid foods in the morning of a race or long/hard ride.

usually do like a coffee drink with some skim milk and sugar (like a frappucino).

maybe a larabar, but thats iffy.

The whole carb loading thing is misunderstood by most people. The attached link is a pretty good explanation of the various protocols.

http://www.active.com/nutrition/Arti...ing.htm?page=2

The original carb loading protocol with severe carb restrictions several days before an event has a bunch of problems, not the least of which is that it disrupts your training, and therefore would only be useful for an event you really wanted to peak for.

The "Western Australian method" makes sense. But its really nothing more than do "openers" the day before the event, and then eat with a bit higher percentage of carbs the day before the race.

None of this is a license to stuff yourself just because you can label it "carb loading"

I've never found "carb loading" to be the answer for energy. Simply being well hydrated always does the trick. I used to do the pasta thing, now I eat a light dinner, light breakfast and tons of water/electrolite drinks before.

How quickly you run out of glycogen is a function of how hard your are riding. If you want to extend the distance you ride without food just ride easier. At lower exercise intensites your body will use a higher percentage of fat. As the intensity increases and you ride closer to threshold the % of glycogen usage will go up and you'll burn through your reserves faster.

So, if you don't want to bonk at 80 miles you have only 2 options: eat more during the ride (250-300 Cals/hr) or ride slower. Carbo loading can be effective for races (probably more useful for marathons) but isn't necessary for long endurance rides.

edit: I started typing, went for coffee and then repeated what others have said.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...o/e4b22e68.jpg

eat 70% carbs by calories every day and you won't need to carb load.

+1 on reserves, on definition of carb loading including the depletion stage.

I don't do depletion - 2 hours is enough for me. I focus on eating enough carbs and such the day or two before a race. What I eat the morning of is really more to control hunger - it's not truly fuel for the day.

I've done long rides (70-80 miles) using only a bottle of sugar soda (200 cal or so), and drinking it in the last 30-45 min of a 5-6 hour ride. But I feel better if I eat and/or drink regularly on longer rides. I'll use a sugar electrolyte, and on really long rides I'll buy peanuts or some kind of fat. I had Pop Tarts the last couple 6-7 hour rides I did.

cdr

What Merlin said. A nice endurance pace, 5.5-6 hours for rolling 100 miles, no food necessary. Only burning 500-600 cal/hr. I did a 4.5 hour moderately hilly century, and ate 4 Clif bars and a bottle of Perpetuem. Burnng around 800-900 cal/hr, and a much higher ratio of carbs.

This. And the fitter you are, the faster you can ride below you anaerobic threshold, therefore burning a lower ratio of carbs.

I think this practice has generally fallen out of favor and has not always been shown to be effective in some studies.