Fuelling advice

Once I got used to riding 30
Once I got used to riding 30 to 50 miles. I could do 30 miles with only one 750mil electrolyte drink and 50 miles 2 drinks and a banana. Extend your distance and as you become accustomed to it you will need less fuel, but you will need something.

Everyone is different but general rule 750mil per hour also 50g of carbs. Carbs can be sandwiches, flapjacks or gels or any combination.

Kapelmuur wrote:

I heard an interview with Steve Cummings in which he said he only ever had water in his bidon and only ate ‘real food’.

It works for him.

Lot of nonsense. Reckon you’d be surprised what they’ve got in their bidons 

@ OP, so if you’re doing 30 miles in 1hr 40 then I’m guessing you can put out around 35 miles without food at the moment if you load properly beforehand. Forgot to ask your weight and calorie req. Anyway, you probably only need between 4 to 6 gels, or around 40 to 60g of carbs per hour, in the last two hours.

Try a slightly slower paced 50 mile, take 6 gels with you. Start taking one every 20 mins after around an hour and a half. 

Go from there. See if you need more or if that was enough. 

I used to fuel on 50 mile rides too. Now I just take around 700ml of water or some electrolyte crap in a bidon and go (the sweet taste gives a sort of psych boost). Blast it out quickly and just about feel hungry on the way back. 

I’ll do a 50 mile club ride

I’ll do a 50 mile club ride on a Saturday morning on two bits of toast and a cup of tea beforehand. Half way through I’ll have one of those Nakd fruit bars, drink maybe 750ml of water, and that’s it for the whole ride. 

I absolutely accept that this might not work for many.

As for the sports nutrition stuff; mostly pants. Graeme Obree broke records galore on jam sandwiches. And they taste infinitely better than energy gels…

The longest ride I do is the

The longest ride I do is the Manchester to Blackpool night ride which I’ve done twice averaging around 2h 50m for 52 miles. My winning formula is chicken fried rice from the village chippy about 3 hours before the ride. That’s a massive amount of rice and some protein (I give a lot of the chicken to Floyd, my cat). That and a 750ml bidon of fruit juice does me nicely. Your mileage may vary .

Over 50 miles of average
Over 50 miles of average terrain in average Scottish summer temperatures at an average speed of 18mph I’ll average one 750ml bottle of water with half a high five zero tab in it and a 100g bag of Tangfastics… Assuming I had breakfast.

No breakfast = more Tangfastics.
Over 20C = more water
More hills = more Tangfastics and more water
Stopping at a shop= clearing them out of savoury stuff

Tangfastics have the same or better nutritional value than most leading sports energy products. They also taste much better

“Little and often” would be
“Little and often” would be my advice and minimal gels etc as it’s mostly marketing cobblers. Eat and drink before you get hungry/thirsty. Don’t overlook water as just drinking isotonics can add to your dehydration. I rarely carry food for less than 60 miles but for longer I will go for one bottle of water, one of high 5 electrolyte, homemade ham and egg rolls (salty) and jelly babies for a boost.
It is a matter of personal preference (as you’ll struggle to consume what you don’t like) so experiment a bit. A bit of sweet and savoury is a good idea as just one type can get monotonous…..
Good luck !

I’m a fan of frusli bars,

I’m a fan of frusli bars, Soreen lunchbox loaves (like mini individual malt loafs but a bit less sticky), and jelly babies. I use an isotonic energy gel from time to time (SIS GO or High5 IsoGel; usually late in a long ride – I’m sure it’s 80% placebo but it does seem to give me a quick boost) – but prefer to use “real food” for the majority of the time.

For me, I prefer to eat often, so I try to have something every 20-30 minutes – a typical ride routine for me if I’m going at a reasonable pace would be either 4 jelly babies, one frusli bar, or one soreen lunchbox loaf every 30 minutes (sometimes 15-20 minutes if I’m going particularly quickly). I think I’m on the upper end of the range when it comes to how much I consume though, and I’ve been able to ease back on it as I’ve got fitter.

I usually have two water bottles with High5 Zero in them, how much I drink depends an awful lot on the weather but largely drinking to thirst (or ideally, just slightly ahead of it) works well for me. You don’t want to go crazy having huge amounts to drink (that can be dangerous, particularly if it’s plain water), but likewise you need to make sure you’re getting enough – listen to your body on that one, and aim to keep thirst well at bay. Remember, also, that you can’t process carbohydrates without water, so (unless you’re using energy drinks or isotonic gels – most gels are NOT isotonic), you need to drink each time you eat.

I’ll usually have a sachet of energy drink powder in my saddle bag in case I run out of fuel on the road – I can find some water to mix it with in one of my drinks bottles.

Here’s a blog post I wrote before Ride London 100 two years ago about what we planned to use then: http://markandaudrey.co.uk/teamsheep/2014/08/05/eating-while-riding/ – we ended up following that pretty closely and didn’t have any problems running out of energy (however as it was the 2014 edition, we did have problems as we didn’t take wetsuits and diving flippers with us 🙂 ).

It’s good that you’re thinking about this up front though, with some practicing you’ll have no trouble finding something that works for you – at the end of the day, the human body is pretty good at processing what you give it, so keep it relatively low fat, relatively high carb, and be sure to eat / drink enough, and you’ll be golden.