surgeonstone

https://www.runnerspace.com/video.php...w&video_id=961

surgeonstone

I am, love them.

surgeonstone

Regular dinner the night before, breakfast of french toast, coffee. water bottles with juice or sweetened tea, PB and j- 1/2 at hr 3, 4, 5.

downtube42

Walk into a convenience store about every 90 minutes, buy whatever food looks appealing, eat it, and move on. A handful of cycling gels in your pocket to get you through anything in-between.

I like rice-crispy treats, donuts, Hostess Cherry fruit pies, bananas, cheeseburgers, chocolate milk, mixed nuts, pringles, and coffee. YMMV.

I've gotten into trouble by not eating enough, but never by eating too much. I keep trying though.

dahut

Here is Andy Schlecks daily food intake during the TdF....



Be inspired.

and1homer

THIS!!

Seriously, this is almost exactly what I do. I take Powerbars instead of Clif, and I do eat a carb and lean protein dinner the night before - I like fish or chicken and rice. All in all, this works really well for me. I have done a handful of centuries now and this is great advice.

hyhuu

The post was on Road Cycling and within the context of what appeard to be a supported century ride. I'm all for rando.

hybridbkrdr

Thanks for giving me a visual. I'm too lazy to read sometimes. hahah

idc

I'm always curious to know how "regular" they are with all that intake, and all that time in the saddle. Do they use laxatives, etc?

The century I did was well supported so I just ate plenty at each stop and kept up with water + gatorade. My favourites were bananas, pb&js. Not a huge fan of granola bars or packaged/processed stuff, but I did also have some oreos, fig newtons, etc. No issues. I generally eat a lot anyway, I have a fastish metabolism.

I didn't "carb-load" the night before, just ate a decent sized meal and made sure it had some lean protein.

dahut

Interesting question. The TdF is, what, 150-170 kilometers per stage on average? At their speed, "all that time they spend in the saddle" equates to 3-4 hours per day. And it is a hard core race, not a leisurely mix of participants. So I gather they don't worry too much over bowel regularity. At least little is mentioned along those lines.

Now taking a whizz during the race... well that is different. Much ado is made of that!

banerjek

That really isn't much aside from the 1/2 liter of olive oil. Many couch potatoes consume way more than that caloriewise. Just looking at the food, it's pretty obvious that the amount consumed during breakfast and the ride is relatively little.

Jakedatc

From the pre-post race pics at meals that i've seen everything is usually eaten with a big ass bowl of pasta on the side. breakfast and dinner. looks like a big pile of rice next to the straight pasta in the back. Things i've read with a quick search is 4-6000 cals per day for them. one thing said they try to do 400cal per hour on the bike.. which for a 5 hr race is 2000cal so 2000 cal per "meal" instead of normal people's 2000cal per DAY recommended

kimconyc

Um, you must not live in the U.S.

Jakedatc

Recommended.... not actually done. I guess i should have left out "normal people" how about healthy people?

I might try Dr Lim's Rice cakes. I found a video with his recipe that they make. sushi rice, scrambled eggs, ham/bacon. turns into kind of a savory rice crispy treat. Said you could do fruit and honey too which would be a nice change to have a few on a century and mix it up.

timtim2008

how is pizza the night before?

dahut

In moderation, fine. Better would be chicken, pork or fish, potatoes, rice, brown bread with butter and lots of green veggies, lightly cooked. No need to stuff yourself. For breakfast have an English muffin with jam, a boiled egg and some coffee.

Here's the way I understand this stuff - - -

The idea of stoking, "carb loading," has merit. You hear a lot about it with runners. But endurance cycling is a little different. It becomes as important to eat ongoing, throughout an event like a century, than to load up the night before.

To keep it short, your muscles burn glycogen, derived primarily from the carbohydrates you consume. This fuel is stored in the liver. But complex carbs like pizza crust, loads of pancakes, etc., take a long time to be converted into glycogen; only so much can be stored in one night. It is of limited value to shovel in mountains of pizza or pasta the night before.

But simple carbs like potatoes or rice convert sooner, which is why you see them prominently on Tour riders menu's.
Ditto for pasta and fruitcakes. Since the body can only absorb 250-400 calories per hour, anyway, even too many of these "good carbs" can be wasted.

This is where the bike helps you - remember, on a bike you can carry sustenance foods with you.

The rule of thumb is to eat lightly of the right foods, throughout the ride. So eat the night before, what amounts to a normal healthy meal. Have a neat breakfast, as described, an hour before starting the ride.

Then replenish (carbs mostly) as you ride, starting after about the first hour to one and one half hours. Continue to take in carbs throughout the ride, until it is finished. About 2-4 grams of carb per hour / kilo of body weight is recommended, when you are in the midst of the ride.

Then cool down with a moderate carb/protein drink. Chocolate low-fat milk is a long time favorite.

If you've read this far, well... thanks. I'm sure I missed something, but you get the idea. Just remember, it's the long-haul carb replenishment that will carry you the distance, not gorging yourself in some Roman feast the night before .

Machka 

Probably not before the ride ... but after, pizza is good.

Machka 

The TDF and the local century are two completely different things.

Machka 

Presumably the OP has already completed the century successfully, but we may never know.

However ... for future reference ...

• Eat normally in preparation for a ride.
• Eat a decent breakfast of about 500+ calories
• Consume 200-300 calories per hour while riding, on rides over 2 hours, from sports drink, foods, etc. ** Note, the fitter you are, the greater the chances you can get away with less food, but make sure you've got food available just in case **
• Drink one 750 ml bottle of water and/or other liquids of your choice (sports drink, fruit juice, pop, etc.) every 1 to 1.5 hours. More if it is particularly hot or windy.
• Ensure that you consume electrolytes - in pills, in your food choices etc.

If a person burns 500-600 calories per hour, consuming 200-300 calories per hour puts that person into a deficit ... and that's OK for many people because most of us have about 2000 calories in storage.

From my experience, at some point around 6 or 7 hours of riding, I need to eat more than 300 calories. I need to eat a meal with 500-1000 calories. I suspect that's when I've burnt through the calories I have in storage. Once I've eaten a meal, I'm good to go for another 4-5 hours before I need to eat another meal.

On very long rides, all that eating becomes a bit of a pain ... a necessary evil.

If you can complete a century in less than 7 hours, you probably don't need a mid-ride meal. But if you're out there for longer than that, it would probably be a good idea.

botto 

Machka 

You do know that your average energy bar is 200 calories, right? And a McDonalds meal runs around 1000 calories. Just a tiny bit of a difference.

botto 

whoosh.

banerjek

I frequently have pizza before (though I probably should have gone a bit easier on the crushed red pepper before that century I did this past weekend). But then again, I don't eat it because it's fuel -- I ate it because it tastes good. Same goes for the beer I had that evening. The reality is that you can have just about anything the night before a recreational century.

When I'm doing solo centuries, I often stop for burgers, burritos, peanut buster parfaits, or oysters (if I'm along the coast). I once had a bacon double cheeseburger with fries in the middle of an organized double century -- the other riders thought I was nuts. So long as you aren't pushing yourself, you can eat what you like. Even if your body can't absorb this stuff, it's good for morale and tastes a heck of a lot better than the normal crap you have when riding. If you are pushing yourself, you'll puke.

DScott

For most rec riders, "carb loading" the night or two before a long ride is just a joke. Eat what you normally do, then supplement on the bike.

As I said, more of whatever works for you on a 50 mile ride will work for 100 miles.

dahut

Agreed. It was just given as a frame of reference, something to plant in the old brain beside junk food smorgasbords.
Take it easy.