high calorie food?
 

For long rides/training, I've been eating some made trail mix with nuts, dried raisins, and m&m candy. I don't know what the deal is, but lately, I've been hitting a wall on my long rides. I think maybe the calories aren't there, or maybe I'm not chewing it enough for it to be digested in time, but anyway, I'm trying something else. For races, I've used gels because they're easy. For a a 3 hour race, I might bring a 5 serving hammer gel flask (400 cal), with a nice abundant breakfast and a couple of spare gel packs. But for training, I want to be more cost effective yet still have a little bit of convenience. A banana is only about 70 calories and a pb&j sandwich isn't very convenient in my opinion. Clif bars seem pretty good though, with 250 cal/bar. I'm wondering if there are other options that are good for training rides.

Here's what I do. Several other folks on BF have adopted this method and had good results.

I buy maltodextrin in 50# sacks from a homebrew supply house. I put the bag in a garbage can to contain the mess. I mix the malto in a big container about 7:1 by weight with chocolate flavor Optimum Nutrition whey powder, which I buy in 10# sacks online. 2 cups of this powder mix will make a drinkable substance in a 24 oz. water bottle and supply 750 calories. Or a weaker mix for shorter rides. The other bottle contains plain water. I use Endurolytes to supply electrolytes as necessary. I've been doing this for over a decade. It works and for bike food, it's cheap. Never barfed it up.

You can obviously try it with smaller quantities before going for the 50# bag.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, about one an hour.

Subway Oatmeal Raisin Cookies supply about 200 kCal each with 30g carbs evenly divided between sugars and complex carbs. 8g fat and 3g protein just to even out the glycemic curve. If you start showing the early signs of impending bonk, have an extra cookie and decrease the time between cookies. While the cookies have some sodium and potassium, I also add a pinch of Morton Lite Salt (50/50 sodium chloride and potassium chloride) to my water bottles if I'm going to be out more than a few hours.

Dates dates, and more dates also sugar in the water... High carb ftw

More likely it's your fitness isn't quite there. Provided you've eaten properly the day before you shouldn't need any food on a 3-4 hr ride. It won't hurt and will help restock your reserves for the next day but it's not going to make a big difference in your performance on the ride.

As far as what you're eating, you could ditch the fat and just stick with carbs. You've got plenty of fat on your body and don't need to eat any more during a ride. You'd never digest it in time anyways. Stick with dates, bananas or any other high carb food.

Sounds like a sugar crash to me. On a long ride I would stay away from sugar and plan on eating more substantial food in the first half of the ride. Do you eat a substantial breakfast? My long ride breakfast has been a "pancake" that fills an entire frying pan made from a cup of flour and cornmeal, 3 eggs, lots of fruit and nuts. PB & honey sandwich (often with cheese) in my pocket. Energy bars for later in the ride. Eating early is always good. Once you are far enough gone, your body can no longer accept anything, good or bad. If you leave early and on a light breakfast, a big meal the night before will help.

Your trail mix sounds good for the last hour, but you need a lot of more real food beforehand.

Ben