hey all, i ride a daily commute of around 25kms, and go for at least one lengthy ride on the weekends, around 80-100kms and am about to do a 160km ride in 9 days from now.

on the weekend just gone i did a 100km ride, no problems, but i found myself fade rapidly at the end due to not having anything to fuel me. i've been told every half hour is a good rule, so on a 5hr ride, i'm looking at carrying enough for 9 boosts? i normally take bananas and a few barley sugars (little sweets) on my weekend rides, but obviously this 160km will be a different beast. so if i jam 4 bananas in my jersey, and 5 leppin/hatever sachets as well, would that be a pretty standard set-up?

don't want to carry too much, but as saturday proved, as i approached three hours and had nothing but a couple of sweets which i inhaled in a second, the hunger took the wind out of my sails!

I don't eat much of anything for 3 to 5 hour rides, maybe a couple of cliff bars or bananas, unless you haven't eaten in 12 hours then you might get into trouble. For 5 to 10 hours or more I eat a regular lunch meal (subway or something that I find along the route). Sometimes it's 2 hours into the ride sometimes more. It depends on what you body can handle. I can't handle to many protein bars anymore I have to have real food. Some can't handle real food and live on boost or heed or something. I would carry what you think you'll need and plan on getting something along the way and try to see what works for you, each person is different.

A general rule around here is 200 calories every hour after the first 2 hours or so, but again, each person is different so find what works for you. For me, that doesn't.

thanks Canopus, it's always different from person to person i know. i should add i'm trying to do this ride in the fastest time possible, so i'll be fighting the urge to kick back at a cafe on the way! its an early start, but i don't like riding on a full stomach so its hard to gauge where i'll be at after breakfast!

Fig Newmans or Fig Newtons. Clif Bars. Hammer Gel in the 6 oz. flask. HEED in the water bottle. Or two bottles of Ensure in one bottle, plain water in the other. Whatever you do, test it on a training ride before doing something long and competitive.

For a hard 5 hour ride (10k' of climbing) I'll have two bottles of HEED, some gel from a flask, two or three clif bars, and a bagel with cream cheese. That's after a good sized breakfast, and there'll be a recovery drink, another bagel and lunch afterwards.

Bring an extra bar just in case. The weight will slow you down less than running low on fuel will.

Don't over-do it on the clif bars like i did... still have a box around here, yech. I've tried eating these fruit2go things... decent. Shots are good. A lot of this stuff is so bad for your teeth. The best thing is not to let yourself get too hungry, keep snacking on tiny things stashed about the cockpit. If you don't keep glucose flowing you'll want a big meal and that will slow you waaay down. I've been trying to get some of the hammer perpetum to try... after a few hour you need to eat proteins otherwise you'll turn into a noodle.

If you want to ride hard then you should aim for consuming 250-300 cals/hr. If you don't want to stop clif bars are compact and convenient. You might get tired of eating them but they should work fine for your. Bananas are easy to eat but at only 100 Cals not very practical.

I usually just eat porridge for breakfast but if I want some extra calories I'll have french toast and maple syrup. I don't have have any problem riding just after breakfast, especially with a 5 hr ride which wouldn't be at a high intensity.

I used to eat bars during fast riding and believe me, they are a pain. More often than not your mouth would be too dry to wash them down, or you would end up drinking even more water than needed (If you have to stop in middle of a bike ride to piss, you know you drank too much). It was such a pain that often I would skip feeding and end up paying for it later.

Gels are optimal. Best bang for the buck is to buy the big bottles and decanter into the smaller containers. That way you can dial in the exact amount of calories and be more consistent to boot.

Hammer nutrition has 26-serving bottles (650ml). If you use a referral number on your first order (mine is 166280) they'll give you a 15% discount (and me a credit ). Their Insurance Caps (vitamins) and tissue rejuvenator (anti inflammatory, think natural Motrin) are superb.

It depends on what you like. Some people like high tech energy replacers. I just eat food. Depending on availability I will eat bagels, peanut butter and jelly, fig newtons, apples, oranges, bananas, water melon, dried fruit, cookies, candy .... I think you get the idea. I know some people who can not handle any solid food on a ride and they eat energy drinks or GU.

Also it takes some planning. I don't need to eat if I am riding 50 miles. After 60 miles, I need something. On longer rides, it is best to eat before you are hungry at about 40 miles and about every 20 miles thereafter.

I start eating after hour 1 and try to ingest something every 15-20 minutes after the first hour.
At hour 1 I will usually have something more substantial like a pb&j sandwich or bar.
I then get into Powerbar gummies and will eat a couple every 20 minutes or so.
At hour 2 I will have a gel and repeat this pattern for the full ride.
I also aim to drink at least one bottle per hour but often drink more than that depending on water stops as I do not stop to eat on a ride only to get water or take a leak.

Outside of gels/gummies I also eat fig newtons, almonds or other nuts, trail mix and any other easy to eat food.

Eat? We are supposed to eat?

Now you tell me.

You're being a smarty pants

guilty

i definitely know i NEED to eat when riding. turn to custard if i don't. it's just trying to find the balance between strapping a bbq grill to the handlebars and fishing around my pockets at 100kms and finding nothing but lint!

I really like stomping the miles away as efficient as possible, which requires you to have a solid refueling regime, but this is is why I love touring and my square rando front bag.

Last 55-mile day trip started with an empty bag and ended with a bag full of food from the side of the road markets. Counting the stops I probably averaged less than 10 miles an hour but boy, did I eat well

Jelly Babies, Gummy Cola bottles, tins of Pepsi... dark chocolate gives a nice kick at the end of a ride

Forget the pepsi, red bulls. Once I did a mountain climb on a six pack. The energy crash people talk about is a lie; you are just lacking the discipline to drink them at the same rate that the body is using them

Oatmeal creme pies. 'Nuff said.

Haven't had these in a few years. I think I just came twice thinking about them. Definitely picking some up next time I'm at the store. Now to not crush them in stuffed jersey pockets.


Long rides I usually take in ~24oz cytomax drink per hour for first 2 hours, after that same drink + 1Gu per hour and that tends to do it.

well i thought i might as well post my findings after the weekend. 3 litres of water, two squeezy glucose things and two bananas was all i needed for the 5 hours. the water was a mix of a sachet sport drink and just straight water. so i had a squeezy, a banana and two clif bars in reserve when i finished. pretty pleased with that, didn't fade at all. so i think my requirements are not as bad as i had projected.

I microwave a couple corndogs, remove the sticks, and stuff em in my jersey pocket.

Now that's good eatin'.