That Century Morning Breakfast
 

I've only ridden two centuries, but I do habitually make 50 mile+ rides on weekends. My current fave is oatmeal with raisins. I also like raisin bread with peanut butter and cantaloupe and cottage cheese.

For the record,I also drink coffee, water and I take a big old handful of vitamins.

Lou

Pancakes, fruit, lots of it, water and juice I tend to do 50 milers but I have done a few centuries now

One of the bike mags recently had an article on "bonking." The author advocated cycling for an hour or two the first thing in the morning, and not eating anything before the ride. Then, upon returning, he eats a full breakfast. His theory is that he has no carbs to burn during the ride, so he is burning fat, the body's second source of energy.
I asked my doctor (a long distance runner) about this, and he said this approach should work to get pounds off. He also said that riding with no carb reserve boosts the body's metabolism, so when you get back and eat a full breakfast, you burn calories faster.

I posted my message twice. Sorry!

for a long ride -- century + -- i'll usually just have my regular breakfast. yogurt with fruit and a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter. i'll eat during the ride, of course, but i've never bonked on a century. i think people over-ritualize long rides, to be honest.

I resemble that statement!

I generally eat my usual toast & 2 eggs, maybe throw in an extra Nutrigrain or something.

FWIW, I've found that it's quite possible to over-do it, out of bonkphobia. Sticking fairly close to the routine that has worked on your 50 miler's is a good idea. It is important to eat at least an hour, preferably more, before le grande departe. If you're going to be riding hard, your legs and your stomach will be competing for resources, and breakfast will sit heavy for a looong time, so allow at least 2 hrs. After that, maybe eat a Powerbar/Nutrigrain/whatever 1/2 hr before the start. Then eat as you go. I think the target number you usually hear is around 300 calories/hr. I eat & drink by the clock. Drink ~15 minutes, eat every 45-60 minutes. If I'm still hungry or thirsty (which isn't often), I eat/drink more!

on my scheduled big ride I would usually have a carbo load lets say 3 to 4 days before the big ride, I would consume a lot of Pasta, less red meat and really lots of Pasta,

Ditto!! You and I think alike.

Incidentally, it is my understanding (from several articles I have read) that the concept of "carbo loading" is much more sophisticated and technical than having a lot of pasta a couple of days before riding.

Anyone have the inside dope on carbo loading?

hey lou,
up until the beginning of dec.. i was doing a couple of double metrics every two weeks or so.. but i never thought of changing my breakfast..
i also like oatmeal, mix it up with some apples and cinnomen , drink tons of water... at least an hour before the ride.

i find i am not hungry when cycling?.. too busy trying to keep up maybe? just get a little thirsty and have to remind myself to drink up. most hungry about two hours after the ride when i start to relax.. and that mellow felling starts to kick in..

My carbs of choice are oatmeal and fruit though I will add a moderate amount of protein(whey) and plenty of fat(nuts,cream,coconut).I also eat constantly on a long ride focusing on nuts,dried fruit honey etc.I would go easy on the caffiene as too much will cause you to lose vitimins,minerals and water .As far as carb loading the idea is to go though a carb depletion stage first which is suppose to allow you to store more carbs as glycogen than otherwise in the load up phase.

Just a little on "carbo loading"

http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

"Consume diet with 55-65% CHO. Carbo-loading is beneficial for endurance events lasting greater than 90 minutes. Generally requires taper in training 3-5 days prior to event and increasing carbohydrate by 200-400 grams/day to ?supersaturate? muscle and liver glycogen to extend endurance. Must also be consumed during and after competition for optimal endurance capacity and recovery. Body builders often need to be reminded that this is their primary fuel source for lifting, not protein. (3,16)"

Here is the first article I came across on carb loading.It explains the principal without getting overly technical and suggests a long ride to deplete carbs 3 days before event followed by 1 to 2 days of carb loading with tapered training.IMO each person is different but if you consume too high a carb diet for too long before an event without depleting carbs first you run the risk of fat not glycogen storage. http://hauns.com/~DCQu4E5g/Carb.htm

I don't do anything too special for a century ride. I do eat something - bowl of cereal, orange, and a couple of bananas. And I eat during the ride. How many times depends on how often I stop. I did one century with one stop though. So I didn't eat much on that one.

It's got to be PopTarts for me. One packet of two of them contains about 400 calories! :)

I've done a fairly strict ketogenic diet (read: low-carb) in the past 6 months and have read a very detailed book about it : The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald.

I ran into probs with spinning and long-time intense cardio and had to carb-load before/after the exercise. For a 1 hr spinning class 50 g extra carbs sufficed.

For REAL carb loading during the weekend it was necessary to deplete glycogen in the muscles by doing a full-body workout.
However, for me this didn't really work and I had to diet till next Friday to get back to the same old weight.. it showed that women have different requirements and use up less glycogen.

Yesterday I rode 140 K total of which the first 60 K were done without food in my system in order to burn fat. At first I felt lousy, but then I sped up.. (for the NLs it was a suprisingly hilly event), until finally my blood glucose levels fell too low again.. so I ate a banana, sipped from my home-brew whey-honey sportsdrink concoction and ate a boiled egg. I'm putting a lot more emphasis nowadays on adequate protein consumption... y'all seem to forget/not know that at least 15% of the energy consumption comes from protein. If not found in food supply then it will be taken from your muscles...


A propos centuries: next weekend I'll do my first 600K brevet since 1999, and I'm planning to bring along around 10 boiled eggs & lotsa honey & whey protein!


That's why excessive cardio eventually leads to obesity once you stop cycling/running whatever

Fietser Ivana, the weight training & long distance junkie

PS: long time no see... been busy travelling in the USA and then around the Mediterannee (F/It) as well as hanging out on BB-boards

From what I have read, this theory is absolute junk. The muscles tend to keep about 90 cycling minutes work of glycogen inside the muscles, so that is what you are buring during that morning cycle. Also to metabolize fat, you need a (protein or enzyme or something) that is released from metabolizing carbohydrates.

I think what is meant is if there is no readily available carbs in the form of glucose from recently ingested carb/food the body will turn quickly to utilizing a combination of glycogen and fat which will be tilted largely to fat at submaximal intensity.I agree with you though that completely depleting glycogen will do more harm than good if trying to utilize fat (though those with higher bodyfat seem better able to do this than those with lower bodyfat levels).

I am glad to hear this is okay. I have been not eating before my morning rides and then have a regular breakfast when I get home - usually Muslix cereal with some sort of fruit in it, a banana and/or apple and glass of milk or diluted juice.

When the summer rolls around, I eat tons of the seasonal berries. Raspberries are so good in Rasin Bran. Sounds weird but tastes great for me.

Anyway, I am going to continue the cycling minus breakfast in the morning for awhile longer and see where it gets me.

Justen