7 weeks ago I bought a road bike and I've been stepping up my daily rides from the casual 10 mile hybrid and mtb rides I used to take to longer rides at a decent pace (currently 20-35 miles at 17-21 mph). Until yesterday, My post ride ritual was to simply drink a big water or iced coffee and grab a shower. Not surprisingly, if I had an especialy hard ride, I walked like a zombie for the evening and woke up the next morning tired with sore legs.
So yesterday, I had a big ride (set a new personal record for the 40K and pushed a fast 35 miles in the wind) I thought I'd try adding a few carbs and calories (milk and cottage cheese) to the post-ride ritual and sure enough, my legs felt fine within an hour and this morning I woke up ready to ride again.

What do you eat or drink after a ride?

A tall glass of chocolate milk seems to hit the spot

I eat whatever is in the house. Yesterday I got back around 2pm and was starving since I didn't bring any food for a 40 mile ride. After burning 2000 calories, I had a clif bar and a big frozen pizza from trader joes (about 1000 calories). Then I just sat and did nothing for a few hours. I was beat. Lesson: always bring food on the ride~

Drinking recovery drinks, and eating carbs to recover after a 25-35 mile ride is a significant reason that a lot of cyclists are fat.

Go out and do a hard 100 miles, and if you're going to do it again tomorrow, you need a recovery drink or some carbs to take advantage of replinishing glycogen stores.

1-2 hour ride, particularly if you don't have a big ride the next day, just eat a normal helathy diet.

I like a protein shake after any harder ride (yes even 1 hour races). It helps with my overnight recovery so i can train hard the next day. I do not drink a protein shake after a 1 hour recovery ride, 2 hours ez, or even some longer easy ride. 3 hours at z2 is a point where i feel like it's worth it (generally between 2150 kjs and 2960 kjs)

So your advice would be for a 49 yr old novice road rider to jump right into doing centuries at a race pace after months of doing easy 10-15 mile casual rides?

FWIW, I weigh daily (I'm on the tail end of losing 150+ bs), and I typically weigh 1.5-2.5 lbs more the day after a big ride if I don't eat anything right after the ride. After yesterday's ride, I was down a half pound. I'm assuming that giving my body a few carbs and calories (a modest amount - 150-200 calories and 8 or 10g carbs + still kept to my daily 1700-1800 calorie/100g carb standard) meant my body wasn't hoarding water to repair tired muscles.

I think he's saying that this stuff shouldn't be a concern until you're doing rides like that. And on top of that don't make the mistake of confusing lack of endurance/fitness with nutrition problems. If you have nutrition problems they're likely more big picture oriented than just post ride. Sounds to me like you're tired because you need more miles not more calories.

I generally don't need anything other than water after a ride that's shorter than two hours. After most longer rides (3 hours, 60 miles +), I like chocolate almond milk, scrambled eggs, toast with jam and lots of coffee. Typical breakfast stuff. Sometimes pizza hits the spot as well if I'm really hungry. I've been spotted wolfing down microwaved Giordano's at 10AM after a particularly long ride.

There's no question I need more miles. But in the meantime, since I am seeing pretty predictable weight spikes and muscle pains after big rides, I'm thinking anything that lessens that will help me get those extra miles and hours.

There is presumably a middle ground between casual rider and pro racer, and I expect to be in that middle ground for a while.

You said you've lost a ton of weight. What does the rest of your diet look like?

I target 1700-1800 calories and 100g of carbs a day. I try to burn at least 500-600 calories a day riding or walking. Lots of salad, veggies, and meat. If I have an especially big day, or if there's a holiday involved (ie. drinking), I'll allow myself an extra 200-300 calories and an extra 30 g of carbs.

BB

I don't pretend to be a nutrition expert, but I've recently taken some classes dealing with nutrition and learned a couple things. The main thing that helped me is amounts of nutrients to eat after riding. The material I was reading recommended you eat something that's approximately 3 grams of carbs for every 1 gram of protein, within a half hour of exercise (I've also heard within one hour). This surprised me, as I expected them to recommend much more protein, but apparently eating food with the 3 to 1 ratio will replace you blood glycogen levels, helping you to have energy for the rest of your day. In addition to that, since you have enough carbs, you won't be converting protein into energy, and any protein you do consume can go towards muscle repair and manufacturing all the enzymes you need and all that. They say that you really don't need an insane amount of protein, just a healthy amount and enough carbs to go with it so that you aren't wasting your protein on energy.

In addition, what others have said about making sure the rest of your diet looks good is really good advice too. Your body stores glycogen that you use as energy in various places (liver, muscles), and eating healthy is the best way to properly stock up. You'll definitely feel the difference out there on the road.

That being said, I do different things after riding. One thing I really like to do is cook up a pan of rice, add butter and seasonings, then stir in some black beans for protein. I'll usually cook up an amount the day before so it's ready to be microwaved as soon as I get home, and then have that for the next couple of riding days. It sounds really boring, but with the seasonings it's actually really tasty. You can also use couscous or quinoa in place of the rice, as those grains actually have a good amount of protein even without anything added. Another favourite is a breakfast burrito, and maybe a soda. It's definitely waaaay overkill post ride and more than replaces any calories I use. They usually have egg, chorizo, potatoes, cheese, and salsa. You're definitely getting more than enough of everything, but it's extremely satisfying and I feel great afterwards, although it's probably not the healthiest choice for keeping weight down. Fruit also feels really nice post-ride, I'll often combine that with whatever else I'm eating since the fruit doesn't have any protein.

I know this is far from professional nutrition advice, but anything I wrote here is something that helped me so I figured it was worth sharing. Hope it helps!

Should have asked before but, how much do you weigh?

168 this morning. 165 is my goal, and I've been losing roughly a lb a week for the past year (2 lbs a week for the year prior to that).

BB

Your weight RISES after a ride? That's odd. Mine drops. For example, last week I weighed myself before a 3-hr Sunday ride: 227.

After the ride: 224, and that's with drinking 3 x 24 oz bottles.

Morning after: 225.

Average for the rest of the week: 226.

There's actually a really good piece in Bicycling Magazine this month about "recovery" needs. The vast majority of people do not need to do anything. It lays out the rides, distances, and efforts where you MIGHT need to do something post ride.

Good post.

Temporary weight gain (next morning) is a pretty common response to a big workout. Your body retains extra water and nutrients to fuel the recovery and repairs. Typically goes away in 24-48 hours.

So you're trying to fuel your body to build fitness and improve your cycling on 1200 calories a day essentially?

Interesting. I haven't seen it myself. Morning after is typically still about a pound low, and I drink lots of water.

I feast on the souls of those I've dropped during my ride.

Also, I have a glass of milk.

All that stuff said, my favorite post ride drink is a glass of whole milk with chocolate malt ovaltine.

Allowing for errors in measurement (bike apps are typically too generous, diet apps typically too conservative), I suspect the actual number is closer to 1500-1800. Fitness and weight loss has been my primary goal for 2 years, with cycling performance a secondary concern. So far so good, I feel and perform much better than I did 2 years ago, and my labs show dramatic improvements in my overall health.

But rather than a thorough analysis of my diet and weight loss, I really was just curious what most people ate or drank after a workout. I've noticed that eating something right after a ride seems to help me with fatigue and recovery, so I was interested in other peoples' experience.

BB

Outstanding!

Well as others said you're not at the point in cycling where you should truly need a recovery drink. You're problem lies in the rest of your diet. I lost 70lbs cycling and for me it was almost counterintuitive. I did it 2 different ways and found out quickly which worked better.

1. I dieted. I ended up with no energy and made very little improvements in my fitness and lost weight somewhat slowly. I would imagine given that my body thought it was starving that I was actually slowing down my metabolism.

2. I ate a healthy diet that fully fueled my cycling and workouts. I was able to put everything in those workouts and rides* to the point where I was more of a metabolic machine and lost weight faster. 6' tall and weigh about 159.

*there has to be intensity here for this plan to work. No 12mph, 5 mile joy rides on the MUP.

I didn't realize I had a "problem." I'm very happy with my progress (as is my doctor).

FWIW, I did a lot of 5 mile joy rides before I was doing (I realize this is a joy ride for you) my current 30 mile rides at 18 mph. I'm riding my first metric century in a few weeks, and plan to ride a few centuries and maybe a crit or two next Spring. But those goals don't happen overnight.

Given that I'm within 3 lbs of a long term goal, I'm not going to try anything dramatically different now. Once I've stabilized at 165 and have changed my goal to maintenence instead of weight loss, I'll be adding 200-400 calories a day and consider other changes. But for now, I'm staying the course.

In the meantime, I did notice that a few calories and carbs right after a ride seemed to help with soreness and recovery. Whether a "truly need" them is beside the point, but it sure does make me a lot more likely to get out tomorrow and take another 30 mile joy ride or maybe work one of my 8 and 10 mile sprint (20+ mph, all out and in the drops) segments I try to ride a couple of times a week.

Would you argue I SHOULDN'T drink a glass of milk or eat a yogurt right after a ride?