SCTinkering

Background: I'm a 53 year old technically obese man that just happens to put anywhere from 125-180 miles in on a given week.

Equipment:
Bike- T-Lab X3
Computer- Garmin Edge 1030
Power Meter - Stages Left Crank (Shimano GRX)
Hydration Gear - 2 28 oz water bottles 1-Osprey Syncro 12 w/3 liter reservoir (also all tools, and repair gear for tires broken chain, etc.)
Extra compartments - Eliel Handlebar bag, Zipp Top Tube Bag
Cook Book: https://feedzonecookbook.com/portables/

I managed to get a day off on April 30th "to look after your own wellness". Since my wellness is Cycling I decided that I was going to do a self-supported Century (100 mile) as it would do wonders for my well being.

I did one last year too and despite my best effort and be mindful of eating and drinking, I didn't do so hot and I was just wiped out afterwards. Obviously I was going to have to change something if I wanted a different outcome.

I had some hydration issues earlier this calendar year. I'd finish a ride and my wife would say my lips are discolored plus even long after my shower my heart rate was higher than it should have been. Polishing off a liter of electrolyte seemed to address both issues pretty quickly.

I had been experimenting with Garmin Smart Drink/Smart Eat reminders on my Edge 1030 (I think it's on the 830 as well) and they had been helping with the dehydration issue and weren't too naggy on the eat reminders.

The short version of the plan was to pack a lot of food and liquid and obey every eat and drink prompt I got.

I knew what I was bringing for water & electrolyte as I only have the two cages and my Osprey. The Smart Drink prompt is for 100 ml. For me that's about three swallows from either source. For prompts that were just drink I would drink from my pack, which has enough for 30 prompts. The 28 oz bottles are just over 800 ml, so between them it was another 16 prompts. How many prompts I was going to was going to depend on the temperature during the ride and my power output.

The hard part was how much food to bring. The Smart Eat is for 100 calories a pop. So it was how much of WHAT to bring. I ended up bringing the following

(From the Feed Zone Portable Book all calorie counts approx.
• One Blueberry mini pie (190 cal)
• One Apple mini-pie (200 cal)
• One Sweet Potato & Rice cake (200 cal)
• One Date & Almond Rice cake (210 cal)
• One Sweet Potato & bacon rice cake (200 cal)
• Four Pizza Rolls (80 cal)

Premade stuff
• Eight gels of various brands all 100 cal each
• Three Picky bars all 190 cal each
• Two Rip Van Wafels 120 cal each

Gels went into the top tube pack, Wafels into the Osprey, picky bars into jersey pockets, one Rice cake in jersey pocket, the rest of the real food went into the bar bag.

Results
Per the Garmin
105.1 Miles
6h 35 min
3,062 Calories Burned
1,500 Calories consumed
2,900 ml sweat loss (doesn't account for the bathroom stop)
3,500 ml Consumed (prompted)
5,500 ml actually consumed 3l pack, 3x 828 ml bottles plus a bit more.

How did I feel through out the ride and after it was over? Well I could have kept going if I hadn't almost drained my re-filled bottles. I felt fine afterwards.

The over all conclusion is that the drink and eat prompts did their job. I never felt dehydrated, actually found myself drinking more from the bottles when eating the real food as it helped wash down the rice cakes.

That's my first hand experience with Smart Drink/Eat. I planned to eat, packed more than enough to eat at every prompt and did a good job of sticking to it. Oh and I'm also still a water hog, but I knew that.
What I left with

What I returned with. Empties up top.

Iride01 

Good for you. Changing something up and trying something new is sadly what many won't do.

That's a lot of stuff to have to drag along with you. Hopefully getting a few extra Carb Calories along the way periodically kept you feeling like you had some extra oomph for the climbs along the way. Also if you consumed a good bit of Carb Calories after the ride to help replete your lost stores, then you didn't feel exhausted afterward and into the next day.

You might experiment with putting most of your carbs in your bottles. I use Heed for my bottles and currently have been using about 150 Calories per 24 oz. bottle. Prior to Heed, I just mixed 40/60 or 60/40 water and crangrape juice or what juice was available. Heed seem to give me a quicker boost. I take a few gulps every ten minutes.

If I ever feel exhausted and drag around after a ride, I can always go back and see that I didn't hydrate correctly or consume carbs during and shortly after the ride.

SCTinkering

Exactly. I actually did a couple of 25 ish mile recovery rides the two days following & didn't feel bad at all. Just goes to show that at least for me, I am able to do things like the Davis Double (200 miles in a single day) provided I eat and drink. I think a lot of other riders here could do the same, but it does required quite a bit of planning if it's self supported. Heck now I'm even kicking myself for skipping stops on the supported rides I did in the before COVID times with the hindsight of "Yeah I felt pretty crappy the day after." when I didn't need to.

OldTryGuy

Just a CONGRATULATIONS and

side note -- As you ride and experience various situations you discover what works and what doesn't. If a safety net is available, (a phone call for help), then experimentation can be a good thing. Looking at everything you consumed had me ready for a stomach pump-out and that only shows how different we all are. Before my cancer hit me 6 years ago I would ride a solo 100 miler overnight --- no stops on 2 bottles of water, a banana, pb&j sandwich, M&M's and gels.

Richard Cranium

Clearly - your current attention and focus is on your relationship to food. The details included in your post represent an over simplification of exercise nutrition and hydration.

In practice, cycling is one of the easiest exercises to fuel. And in your case, a self-regulation of diet should be as simple as paying attention to your own body's hunger and thirst cues.

In my experience the pace you choose for riding your century is the most important controllable factor in success. If you apply your attention to pacing yourself, and use a watch to time your rest periods judiciously - I think you'll find you already know how to eat well. You need to "read your body" as well as all the food labels.

Good Luck.


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SCTinkering

The fueling was the point, focusing on the nutrition part of this sub-forum with a thread of "BTW the computer tracks actual power/calorie output via power meter and provides a calculated prompt of when to eat & drink" with my outcome being I didn't feel worn out, or exhausted after 105 miles. Pacing is part of it by hydration and food were also key.

Honestly I've never see anyone else in this forum or on reedit post about their experience with Garmin Smart Eat/Drink. One of the post objectives was to get feedback from others that have leveraged this feature and what their results were.

The fact that I made a lot of what I took along was more of a footnote to say "Oh btw, you don't really need to rely on processed gels & bars." but then I really like too cook which I don't expect everyone else to share. More of a "Real food can be more palatable, but consume what works for you from a time & nutrition standpoint."

spelger

wow, that is a lot of food. back when i was doing centuries (20+ years ago) i brought 2 bottles of H2O and a sandwich bag of grapes, cherries, raisins, or cranberries. i was hungry when i got back.

guachi

The prompts for eating look to be roughly equal to the recommendations of 60g of carbohydrate/hour. You brought an astonishing 2930 Calories with you and ate a more normal 1500. Next time, just don't bring as much food.

SCTinkering

Yeah I was over packing because I didn't know if I was going to have an appetite for real food or not, so I packed gels in the event that happened.

CAT7RDR

Without the elevation gain, your height and weight and weather conditions, it is more difficult to wrap my mind around what nutrition and hydration needs you required. I tend to overpack on nutrition because I have bonked once recently and that could have been tragic. I find that just sensing cues is not enough.

I need to be at least sipping constantly and downing a liter bottle once every 90-120 minutes or so on warm days. I am 6'2" 200+ lbs and most of my rides are 100+ ft of climb per mile. I also consume about 300 calories per hour.

Congratulations on your self-supported century. I mostly ride solo and self-supported so I can appreciate the extra weight and planning.

PeteHski

60g of carbs/hour is about average for me on a fast century ride. I usually over-pack too, but not by that much.

This thread has reminded me about trying the Garmin prompts though. I may find them useful.

MinnMan

Good for you for completing your century. Doing centuries and comparable distances with some frequency obviously makes them easier. If you can up your frequency so that you are doing a few a year, they will be physically easier, but also the eating/drinking/planning becomes more automatic.

When I'm not fighting various injuries, I do about 15 centuries/year. They become sufficiently routine that I don't think much about them.

Have a good breakfast, including plenty of fluids.
Hydration depends on ambient temperature. if it's cool, I can do a century with 3 water bottles. The warmer it is, the more additional fluid I need. Usually, half the fluids are water, the other half, gatorade/powerade.
Personally, I don't need to eat anything until about the 50 mile mark. Breakfast powers me that far. Others will tell you to start eating sooner. This is a personal thing.
I'll have a substantial snack somewhere around the mid-point , probably at a convenience store- ideally this will be a banana, a protein bar that I bring along, and some chocolate milk.
After that, I consume between 1 and three packages of energy chews or gels while on the road home.
That's all.

YMMV, of course, but keep getting out there and getting it done.