hueyhoolihan

you may have built up lactic acid in your quadriceps.

happend to me a long time ago, big time, when i lived in Boston. i borrowed a female friend's expensive bike, and rode it to Walden Pond from Harvard Square and back. my, oh my, did my quads hurt for the last 10 miles. almost unbearable. i was not really a cyclist and just over did it. afterwards, the pain was made less severe by a little bit of movement, like pacing around and the occasional expletive.

apropos of nutrition during ride...

i did about 40 miles on my SS today, with more than a bit of climbing, on one breakfast sandwich (aka
sausage and egg mcmuffin), cup of coffee with sugar, and lots of water. and it was very hot too. but i have to admit, i was experiencing an incipient bonk for the last five miles. i didn't do it to prove anything, just didn't want to take the time to stop. plus i had a lot of goodies at home waiting for me.

Doc V

I did a metric (66.5 mi) organized ride last weekend with 4220 ft of climbing at an average speed of 17.5 mph. I state this because context matters. For breakfast I ate a bagel with butter and jelly. During the ride I drank 26 oz of First Endurance EFS (at half strength, 24g carbs) and 1 gel (24g carbs) each hour. At the rest stops I ate a half of a banana (3 -15g carbs each). I had energy at the end just sore legs.

I like to shoot for 40-60g of carbs per hour. 40g is a leisurely ride and 50-60g for a fast paced ride.

T2theK

Really good info in this but it really comes down to the individual. I was in the same spot as you at the beginning of the year. Around mid February a friend told me I should get a road bike and start riding with his group. As I was a weekend MTB warrior I figured why not. Took me some time & research to find a good deal on a good bike. My training was more in the gym on an exercise bike since I could get a good hour in during lunch which helped with my goal of losing weight anyways. On the 3 weekends I had before the ride I broke the course down to 3 sections and rode each section over the weekends. That helped me with knowing the course and got me out on the road. On the ride I went through about 40oz of water & about 40oz Gatorade. At the 2 stops I took I ate 1/2 a banana, 1/2 of a home made date energy ball. Between the stops I ate the other halves of the date energy ball. I completed the ride with an avg speed of 18.5mph and felt fine. You also can't neglect post ride, I drank a muscle milk & a carb recovery drink (don't remember the name off the top of my head). When I got home there was the foam rolling of the legs (all sides) and icing them with ice packs. Next morning I felt great and like I was fresh to do it again. The biggest thing I had to overcome was the need to cut calories to lose weight, biking often and eating right has done that for me and I've lost 30lbs & 7.5% body fat.

rfmarotti

Reynolds 

+1. It has to do with experience IMO, new riders in our group eat a lot more at stops than the more experienced.

merlinextraligh

There are 2 reasons for that, one mental, and one physical:

1) you're smarter; you've dialed in what works for you with more experience;

2) you're stronger. The more fit you are, the smaller percentage of your threshold power it takes to maintain a particular effort. So newer, less conditioned riders are working closer to their limit, than better conditioned riders.

Working below your threshold power, you can burn more fat, conserve glycogen, and have less need to consume carbs, working at or above your threshold power, particularly over time, you have more of a need to consume calories.

Kevindale

I agree completely with this. It's adaptation. I just did my first metric century last weekend, after rapidly building up to 42-50 mile rides. On my solo training rides I'd pedal non-stop, pushing the whole way, and I could barely get off the bike at the end, my thigh muscles were so sore. The key is good stretching, and taking some breaks (even on the bike, with some stretching/coasting when you can). I took two brief rest stop breaks on the metric century, and my legs felt good. Not great, but good. If I keep pushing the miles I think by fall I could do a metric century with no leg discomfort, and handle a full century fine.

Nutrition/hydration is more about not bonking. I've done that once, on a very hot day. I didn't eat half of what I had in my jersey pockets on the metric ride.

Chandne

Fitness/engine matters. I have a friend (ex MTB racer) who can go on a 50 mile ride, climb 5000 feet at altitude on one bottle of water. He takes one or sometimes two, even on our "epic" mountain bike rides at altitude. We carry Camelbaks full of water and food and he carries no pack...just two bottles and some random bar or nothing. Most of us will go through three liters and he still has water left but is also much stronger so expends less energy. We always make fun of how little he drinks, and the guy is not super skinny like a climber either. Then I watched his heart rate on a tough (for me) ride where I was at 170-180 on most climbs and he was at 130-140. On flats, the guy is running 100. Heck, I can't do 100 BPM unless coasting at the beginning of the ride.

merlinextraligh

He's not expending less energy. If he weighs the same, and is riding the same terrain at the same speed, he's doing the same amount of work.

What he is doing is working at lower percentage of his functional threshold power, so doing the same work is less taxing for him.

Chandne

That's a better explanation.

Machka 

You will burn about 100 cal for every 5 km. If you ride approx. 25 km/h, you could burn 500 calories per hour.

The general recommendation on longer rides is 100-200 calories per hour (more if you can manage it on really long rides). If you were to eat 100-200 calories per hour on a 100 km, you'll be eating less than you burn, so you don't have to worry about gaining weight. But you'll still be getting enough nutrition for the ride.

Also, drink one 750 ml bottle every 1 to 1.5 hours while riding.

And consume electrolyte pills or food with electrolytes.