Century Rides - What are you eating?

Just love all butter flapjacks from Spar shops, I've tried loads of other brands, but these are the very best.

depends on your body. Some people prefer solids, some prefer gels.

I tried solids during my training and I shatted bricks in the middle of the ride.

Tried lots of combination, my stomach can only tolerate gels and bananas and nothing else.

Yeah keto is legit. Old news in running circles but judging by the responses to Kiwi then I guess cycling is a bit behind the curve.

There's a guy cycling the length of Norway, or Sweden. Forget. But he's doing it on zero carbs. Maybe even finished now. Think he lost around 14 kilos last I heard.

Couldn't find a link on Google, heard about it from GCN.

Like Kiwimike says, you can go without any  food if you're adapted and used to it. You can adapt without the super low carb / high fat diet, just increase the length of your rides without food over about 6 weeks. I've just come back from a metric century with 1000m of climbing in under 3 hrs after work with no food taken. I do race Centuries (150 - 160km) in about 4 hrs, I don't recommend doing that on no food regardless of how well keto adapted you are. Personally for a race day century like that I eat a bowl of porridge or eggs on toast a couple of hours before hand, take a couple of bananas and an energy bar on the ride, and a couple of gels. For drink I'll normally take 2 bottles, one with part strength energy drink in it, and the other with just water. High caffeine gels do seem to give a bit of a boost when you're fading a bit, but I also like the type that I get. I'm likely to come back with some of that still on board. 

My phone always comes with me. I don't use a Garmin for navigation - actually, I don't use a Garmin much full stop, so my phone's there for Strava. Also, snaps and it holds my debit card/money.

In terms of food, it's usually cereal bars or similar. Gels come out to play if I'm pushing for the 5 hour mark or it's particularly hilly. There's almost always a cake stop factored in too. Never carry a saddle bag either, everything goes in my back pockets even if I'm doing 150+ miles. I hate saddle bags.

Dried mango.  And dried mango.

Any fruit bars and a couple of those watery gels as a very last resort.  Then grab what I can from the food stops.

I did that 300 miler Newcastle to London 24hr thing last year, I didn't carry much at all in my pockets as the food at the stops was bl***y amazeballs!

I took a leaf out of Team Sky's book after reading what Ben Swift eats on a ride. Normal food, fruit, cakes etc. mixed with gels. Nothing but gels for the last hour if I recall correctly. I've tried it on a few rides and it works really well.

Cannot stomach nothing but gels and bars for a century ride.

I've never really tried gels or sports drinks; they tend to make me thirsty, which is a feeling I dislike. Same goes for chocolate bars.

So far the following regimen has worked for me:

• Breakfast cereal pre-ride, with or without coffee
• While riding, one bite of granola bar every 45 minutes
• With each bite, wash down with water

I finished a 200 km audax this way, never really feeling hungry.

I'd probably reserve the chocolate as a post-ride "recovery" treat since I'm not so concerned about thirst in my mouth by then.

• Porridge an hour before you go out, with a good strong coffee.
• 1 bottle energy drink, one plain water, backup packet of energy drink powder, maybe a 'salts' tablet as well.
• A solid food snack (Bannana, honey and peanut butter in a toasted sandwich is a good combo)
• One or two gels (one of which is caffeine) 'just in case'.  Usually use one of these if I've eaten about an hour or so ago and there's still at least an hour to go.

For me what I eat before a ride matters too. Ideally I need to eat something with some fat (eggs are good) at least an hour and a half before riding. If I eat less than an hour before a hard ride I go into the red quickly whatever I eat en route.

Keto diet is the way to go for endurance, but you probably won't believe it unless you try it.

I take my debit card and stop for some proper food. It's not a race. (unless it is of course)

I take my debit card and stop for some proper food. It's not a race. (unless it is of course)

malt loaf, bananas, choc raisins, apple rings for me - an emergency energy bar if things aren't going to plan - no fan of gels 

find the day goes better if have a sort of proper hot meal stop preferably somewhere nice  - will save the pint until nearly home though and then some more

I've found that too much caffine messes with my stomach and can bring on a bonk (and honk). 

At the TOC the other week I took, two bidons with the zero non caffine tabs in, five non caffine hi-five gels (these for me seem to go down easier than other more jelly gels), a banana, and four Myprotein Energy Bar - Berry - 12 x 60g bars, which are oats, honey and berries, not too dry and seem to go down well. 

I did feel a little bulky, but it fuelled me well enough for the 84 miles at pace. I did have to stop for more drink near the end, but if I'd have taken 800ml bidons that wouldn't have been needed. For once I got my fuelling pretty much right!

For long rides I feel much better with some "proper" food, not just cake/ bars/ gels.

Couple of bananas for the first hour or so, couple of ham rolls, and then cake/ bars etc.

My bike handling is rubbish, and I find getting stuff out of jersey pockets while riding at any speed difficult, so I tend to have a bag on the top tube with bite sized bits of cake in it, so I can nibble on the go.

'nothing' - becasue I've Keto-adapted to burn through the ~40,000 calories of fat onboard instead of the measly ~2000 calories of glycogen 

Did 110k on Saturday and came home not feeling hungry. Previously I would have need a lot of Cake mid-ride and would have stripped the kitchen bare of white bread, peanut butter and sweet yoghurts.

Off to do www.themightycorinthian.com on Saturday - 301km in the Lakes. Not a gel, bar or carbo drink in sight.

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/endurance-riding/century-ketogenic-diet...

Snickers

High 5 gels + caffeine

Toast with jam (Bagel tastier!)

SIS Electrolyte in one bottle (has carbs)

SIS Hydro + caffeine in another bottle (no carbs)

Some combination of those. Going full solids is really bulky. I'd usually eat the solid stuff and Elctrolyte stuff first, then go for the gels and caffeine drink after for a faster kick. Also feels good to lose the bulk and weight, though gels can be a bulky too.

I can't just take one single thing. Feel like I can't face it, so try to mix it up. Haven't bonked on the bike, as I seem to always take more than I need, but I have bonked when running long distances when trying to go as minimal as possible. F'ing horrible. Your body just shuts down, and you're stuck hours away from home, in the freezing cold and wet. Have to sit for a few then jog and repeat. 

Lots of runners going to low carb now for distance worka and training their body to use fat instead. Not sure if that's big in cycling yet. Still pretty new to this.

Soreen malt loaf sliced into 6 or 8, and buttered. Reassemble and slide it back into the loaf wrapper, it fits into a jersey beautifully, and a slice can be accessed on the move and eaten every half an hour to an hour or so. Delicious, and squidy!

If it's one of my own rides, I normally factor in stopping for a sarnie midway through.

If it's an event I'll get a decent feed at a feed station - whatever they're offering.

I get some porridge in before heading out, and normally carry a couple of bars and bags of sweets for a sugar hit, and some powders for when I refill bottles. I tend to find if you make some of it 'recovery' stuff (protein) it staves off hunger better, and I get home with food to spare.