As I begin to ride longer distances (metric centuries), I am giving more thought to nutrition. I am told that what I eat the night before a ride like a metric century or a century is important.

I am a woman in my mid-forties. I am of "normal" weight, work out most days I'm not biking, and am pretty healthy. I rode a metric on Satuday and Sunday night started with symptoms of a head cold. It might be very coincidental but I wonder if maybe my body was depleted. What do you think?

Is what I eat the night before a long ride important? If so, what do you suggest I eat for dinner? I prefer not to eat red meat.

Thanks for any information.

pasta, pasta, and more pasta.

Eating well the night before a longer ride isn't nearly so important as eating well DURING a longer ride.

It is good to eat a decent meal the night before a long ride so you aren't depleted, but you don't have to overload yourself.

As for food selections for the night before, go with bland stuff that you are used to ... things you know won't upset your digestive system, such as chicken and pasta.

Even more importantly is to keep eating while you are riding. Consume about 250 calories per hour you are out there, and then every 6 to 8 hours eat a full meal of at least 500 calories, preferably more. On a metric century you won't likely be out there that long, but if you start increasing your distances you will.

Head cold is probably a symptom of your body being a bit overloaded due to your requiring more of it - i.e. when you start hitting the metric century+ mark (at least in my personal case) you can tax the immune system if your out beyond the 2-3 hour mark. Combine this with piss poor nutrition and your looking at a train wreck of the immune system, ending up with a bad/severe cold, or something else - flu, etc.

I'll second "pasta". Pasta, pasta, pasta. I've never felt better on rides than when I've had a big pasta meal the night before.

Pasta is great. Hold a spagetti dinner with everyone going. Have someone bring the garlic bread, another can bring brocli and another chicken ... mmmm I'm hungry now.

During the ride, granola bars, bannanas, snickers and apples are my favorite foods. Be sure to stay hydrated.

fitmiss,
As you know, nutrition is a very important topic and worth of serious consideration for most, if not all endeavours. This is true not only for sporting activities (such as helicopter jumping, skyscraper viewing and floor falling), but for everything. This is because we are what we eat.

I too pondered your question as I continued to lengthen my cycling distance from 1 mile to beyond 10, then 50 then 100 then 500. I said to myself "what do I eat.?" The answer was immediately self-apparent. I decided maintain my daily routine of great, healthy food, a few glasses of wine, no desert and plenty of water. Over the years and way too many century rides, this routine has served me well.

I hope this has been helpful. I have thousands of recipes that I have developed that give me the edge to consistently succeed in my club's cycling events. If you would like to discuss them, please let me know.

Deadly Smedley
Official BTCNJ Representative for the Internet

Carbo-loading with lots of pasta does work if you've done a depletion regimen in the weeks ahead. You can pack in an extra 500-calories of glycogen or so. Otherwise, just eat a normal meal, then eat continuously on the ride.

fitmiss: I hope you are NOT like my wife. She thinks that biking nice and slow should help her weight control program. WRONG. She also has your symptoms.
A long trip requires good nutrition as all the posters above said and I agree with all of them. Unfortunatly this will not make you skinny.
Now another subject.
I have lost a lot of weight by biking more intense. Century in 6 hours on lime stone trail.
My Diet for that:
Breakfast: Fresh fruit and Pancakes with slice of Ham.
One Powerbar/hour and lots of water.
Lunch: Subway with Pepperoni/Salamy and Veggies. (I need the salt)
Again One Powerbar/hour and lots of water.
Dinner: Salmon, Veggies, Pasta and bottle of very good red wine.

Next day repeat and another century.
With this diet I slowly lost 50 lb. out of 240 lb. over two years. I bike over 200 miles/week.( 63 years old)

Yeah, it just comes down to calories-in vs. calories-out. The fastest way to lose weight is to get into shape, 2-3 months. Then you can burn as many calories-out per hour as you can, like 600-900/hour. Do that 2-3 hours a day and you can easily lose up to 2-lb/week without any muscle loss.