jdotconnor

Short question:
What should try to eat the night before and for breakfast before my longest ride and what should I avoid?

I have a 7 mile ride to and from a 37 mile ride to make a total of just over 50 miles for a charity ride. It is Saturday morning and I plan on leaving the house around 6:45am. Being a stay at home dad I didn't quite get in longer rides to get ready like I wanted because of weather and surprise outtings my wife planned without including me. I have been doing 17 mile mid week rides and ~30 mile weekend group rides. I am not concerned with finishing, I just want to be nutritionally prepared. I'm used to mid afternoon and evening rides not early in the morning rides. I never eat while riding but plan on consuming 1 cliff bar and 1 pack of sport beans during the ride. Both of which I enjoy and know my stomach tolerates. Also I usually drink a 750ml of water an hour when it's this warm and humid.

Anything I SHOULD eat for dinner or AVOID. Also with breakfast, although I will be waking, eating and riding right away, the ride itself doesn't start until 8am. I have to get there and finish registering.

pdlamb

Food.

Try to avoid anything that gives you intestinal troubles (for me, that might include raw garlic or cantalope).

Thought it seems like a huge deal, it really isn't. You really don't need any special energy this or power that. Eat what you like. Take your time, make sure you drink and eat something periodically throughout the ride. Have a great ride!

Dunbar

If you are time crunched getting out the door I would eat protein at home and take some carby snacks with you to eat while you're checking in for the group ride (banana, Fig Newtons, Belvita, and granola bars are things I like.) Mostly you just want something you can easily stuff in your jersey pockets. If your charity ride includes food stops along the way that will make it easier for you. Dinner the night before won't matter from an engergy standpoint since you'll be fasted by the morning.

Trevtassie

If you have time in the morning, porridge is good, made with milk and sultanas. It's my go to breakfast when I'm touring. It has the benefit of being mostly low GI when made with wholegrain oats, but with the sugars from the fruit giving an initial high GI fast kick of glucose. Sometimes I make it out of muesli with fruit and stuff already in it. Either way make it with milk, but be careful not to burn it. A bit over one cup of grainy stuff to 3 cups of milk seems to work. You could make it the night before and microwave it maybe. Serve it with cold milk. If you have enough fruit in there it shouldn't need sugar.
The GI is the key to a good breakfast. GI or Glycemic Index is a measure of how fast a type of food is converted into blood sugar after you eat it. The slower the better generally for endurance and good health. Porridge is good because it has plenty of carbs for energy, but they are released slowly and evenly. Helps to live with a diabetic, you learn pretty fast what is high and low GI in practice, rather than what a book says.
Dinner before probably not critical, maybe not too much salt?

Bananas are a good low GI snack during the ride and you can throw the wrapper into the bushes. They make a nice reward at the top of a hill.

Trev

caloso

Normal dinner.

Normal breakfast. I will typically do a ride of that length on a bowl of oatmeal and a big mug of coffee. Personally, I'd error on the side of eating too small a breakfast and then supplement it by eating on the bike rather than loading up a gut full of food.

jdotconnor

Thanks everyone. Just what I was looking for.