I'm normally a bike commuter, and I've recently started doing some longer (25-35mi) recreational rides with the goal of eventually doing a century. I've started reading up nutritional stuff for right before, and during the ride, and everyone seems to be into Gatorade, power bars/goo etc. I was wondering what folk's recommendations, and thoughts are on just going simple with water and things like fruit, raisins, nuts, granola, dark chocolate, or home-made energy bars?

I'm asking because I personally like to eat more "simply", and steer away from things with a bazillion ingredients... I'm also cheap.

Eat whatever doesn't make you barf. IOW, experiment. Water is good. Fig Newmans are a fave. Chocolate not good. Homemade bars good.

Bananas and pb&j can work well

Water, dried fruit (including raisins), bananas, nuts, granola, sandwiches are all fine. Better than fine, in fact. The only real (as opposed to marketing dept hyped) advantage of the sports drinks/gels etc is that they are convenient, and make it a bit easier to guage that you're taking in the right sort of amount. And real food doesn't rot your teeth quite as fast.

He is cheap - better scale it back to Fig Newtons. But yes, Newmans are awesome on a long ride.

It varies a lot and on the type of day... Chocolate milk, makes one man vomit allover and other happy!

I must say though, fig newtons aren't exactly "simple" just check out the ingredients... those sugary goos are "simple" by that criteria.

Usually fruit is good, like apples, bananas and oranges. PB/J also gets a thumbs up. Usually not too hard to stomach, but for 35mi all you might honestly need is an apple or something light. Chew throughly.

1+

Bull semen for extra testosterone.

If you are doing a century and don't plan on finishing within the top people who may be trying to race the 100 miles you can eat whatever foods you want as long as you don't get sick. The advantage of bars and gels is that they digest faster so if you are in a race you can accelerate without your food kicking you in the stomach for overdoing it.

You can eat whatever foods you can tolerate and if you plan on doing a century I would highly suggest bringing food that are tried and true. Meaning only bring foods on your ride you have previously tried and felt good using. I prefer bananas, cottage cheese, and diluted juices such as apple or cranberry. Don't bring any juice that is very low glycemic. Orange juice is the worst on ones stomach.

I can't imagine eating cottage cheese while riding.

What? You mean you don't carry a spoon? LOL. Cottage cheese? Truly, truly weird.

Considering that I don't stop to eat while I ride, even if I did carry a spoon it would still be really hard to eat.

I'm going to try it tomorrow. See if I can ride no hands up a hill long enough to get the cottage cheese out of my pocket, open the tub, eat it with a spoon, replace spoon in pocket, replace top on tub, replace tub in pocket. Perhaps not while taking a pull, though.

Maybe in a baggie and squeeze it out like a gel pack?

AS much as I like cottage cheese, thinking about doing that on the ride I have planned for the morning makes me retch...


Besides, I like tuna fish with my cottage cheese.

Have a friend who once got more spaghetti than he could eat at a lunch stop, so put it in a baggie in his jersey pocket. Ate it with his fingers during the rest of the ride. Kind of messy. OTOH, we're still talking about it! Both simple and cheap - yesterday's spaghetti. Don't wear gloves.

Panini have a fine pedigree. Make them from most anything, stick in jersey pocket, eat after the climb not before. But really, if you're riding all day, panini are killer. Everything you need.
https://www.squidoo.com/Panini-sandwich-recipes
etc.

I think ravioli would be good, I know people who stuff their jersey w/ pierogies... then there is duck meat!

fig newmans don't have a lot of sodium. i like bananas and pickles. yummy in my tummy. i tried clif bars, the "sustained energy" granola-type ones, but they were less appealing during the ride and i couldn't swallow them well. i remember the shot bloks were good, although expensive.

You can eat whatever foods you can tolerate and if you plan on doing a century I would highly suggest bringing food that are tried and true.You can take dried fruit , bananas, nuts, granola, sandwiches are all fine.

i prefer real food.

my favorite to have in the back pocket for a ride like this is a jam and peanut butter bagel, cut into quarters and wrapped in foil.

yesterday i rode 42 miles. fired in half the bagel after 20, the other half at 30. the tank was far from empty at the end of my ride.

if you're finishing rides with that incessant, bottomless hunger then you're not fueling right on the bike.