Fuelling longer rides

One thing not mentioned in all the good fuelling tips already mentioned:

It's a good idea to know how you bonk.

Some people can barely turn the pedals, others just get a bit slower.

Doesn't seem overly related to body shape, diet, or fitness either.

Find out how well/badly you cope and let it inform your energy intake on bigger rides, together with ride profile and speed.

It depends on the effort level as well as the distance. If you're smashing stuff the entire time, you'll need more feeding, than if you're bimbling about. I use power meters to judge it with real numbers, you can do it by feel, after a while, but I find that the biggest problem with doing it by feel, is that adrenaline / endorphins can mask any running out of fuel feelings. A simple rule to stick with is eat little and often, drink little and often, don't wait until you feel hungry / thirsty because it's too late then.

My latest, and most inspired, answer to this is Sainsbury's rich fruit cake with marzipan and icing.  £2.50 for a big block.  Cut up into 14 two bite pieces, each wrapped in greaseproof paper.  Fuelled me for 220 miles on Sunday, with a ham and salami baguette, a pot of couscous, a couple of gels and some bits of flapjack.  Unlike most energy bars, it's easy to eat, moist and tasty. During the course of the day, I ate about 3/4 of the cake.  The plan is eat every 45 minutes at least, drink with food and in between as well.  Currnet favourite gel is Clif Mocha.  The lemon one is vile though. 

I'd second the comments around changing from looking at distance and instead focusing on time. Your body can only work to a certain level, this is a constant; the distance you achieve against that constant is affected by all manner of variables. 

Depending on your fitness / physiology, you are likely to have 1,500 - 2,500k/cals of readily available glycogen to fuel you starting out (someone with proper knowledge can correct me on actual numbers / terms but I don't think I'm too far off). You can realistically intake and absorb ~400k/cals of carbohydrates per hour.

Supporting the above, your body will have effectively limitless stores of fat, to fuel low intensity exercise.

The intensity that you ride at will determine not only how many calories you burn in total, but what percentage of that burn is glycogen and what is fat. I like to over simplify these things, so I look at energy use as being like a hybrid car. Cruising along you are happily powered by the electric engine (fat), but as soon as you press on at all, you engage the petrol engine (glycogen).

The point of all the above is to say that your fueling should replicate the effort you are making. If you are going out hard, you are likely burn through all readily available glycogen in a very short time, so you'll need to be fueling equally hard from early in the ride to cope. In this scenario, gels, energy drinks and other simple, readily absorbed fuels are best.

If you are going slightly easier, which I'd argue would be the case for any ride over say 2 hours, you can enjoy more complex, 'real' foods as to your personal preference. Bananas are not a huge step away from gels and energy drinks from a fueling perspective, but as already mentioned, fig rolls are a great balance between readily available fuel, and reasonable eating experience. I also love a good cereal bar. 

As also mentioned, a good caffeine gel / espresso is a great way to kick things along deeper in to a ride. I believe the caffeine helps your body access and use fat as an energy source at (slightly) higher intensities (which is rather useful when glycogen stores are skidding on empty), as well as being a general stimulant. 

It all comes down to what works for you individually.

I eat porridge for breakfast and drink a pint of beetroot juice before anything longer than 50 miles. Some hate the taste of beetroot juice, I love it, which is handy because blind testing showed it had a very positive effect on endurance due to its nitrate concentration.

I won't eat anything on a 50 mile ride, just one 600ml bottle with Bulk Powders Complete Hydration powder (which is tasty and has a great balance of energy and electrolytes). When bought online you can always get at least 40% off the full price, sometimes up to 70% off. The last lot I got 40% off and it worked out at 20p per bidon. That is cheaper than plain orange juice mixed 50/50 with water which is what most advocate as a 'cheaper' version of an energy drink. I also take a 600ml bidon of plain water.

Any ride over 50 miles I will take the same above, plus a small ziplock bag with another scoop of energy drink powder to top up. I will carry a few Naked bars and start munching on them from about 25 miles in. If doing 70+ miles I usually plan a cafe stop and have some real food and a coffee.

Today we did 80 miles, with a cafe stop (limited COVID-19 menu) so had a ham and cheese toasty and a cappuccino. I took three Naked bars but didn't touch them, just the energy drink and water. Topped up at the cafe stop and didn't need anything else. Average speed 18.5mph, so not dawdling and could have carried on and done much more. So it really is horses for courses.

What I do when I get home though is make my own protein smoothie immediately. Today that was a scoop of Bulk Powders pure protein powder (salted caramel flavour, hhmmmmnnn), a handful of frozen mixed berries, three scoops of Greek yoghurt, a scoop of rolled oats, milk and a dash of honey, all blended up. Delicious and a great start to muscle recovery and carb replacement, which meant I didn't need to eat again until dinner at 7pm (finished ride at 1.30pm)

Top tip is a can of coke and a mars bar if you do bonk - that has got me back firing on all cylinders within 15mins of crawling into a convenience store/ petrol station on one of those days where everything just goes to pot...!

PP

I like real food myself, bananas in BananaGuards, homemade flapjacks and brownies, for the longer ride a cheese and pickle sarnie, with mayo and spring onion if I'm feeling flash.  On an especially long day I might have a bacon and brie sarnie before I set off, mmmm.

A coldish can of coke, kept in a neoprene coozie is a wonderful pick me up.

And jelly babies for emergency energy.

I only ever put water in my bottles.  A couple of them are insulated.  Filled with cold water and left in the fridge for a few hours or overnight really makes a difference on the very hot days.

Of course you want to be drinking and eating before you really need to...

It's interesting that there's a clear split here between those (like me) who use bananas, fig rolls and a mix of juice and water and those who prefer / use specialist nutrition. 

I wonder if it's an age thing?  My cycling pre-dates Veloforte, TORQ, Lucho Dilittos and the like - though I do use them for longer rides (100+ - and miles not km).  I don't eat at all on morning rides of up to two hours...  

Perhaps there should be an age icon next to our names... adding some context to people's point of view.

Chris 54 and 1/4. 

Big fan of the humble fig-us roll-us over here!

You won't find a better carb/£ ratio, they are stocked everywhere and there's naff all difference between 'branded' and own brands too. 

Of course if you're feeling flush.. my very fav cycling bars would be VeloForte ones.. which everyone should try (get a mixed bag of them as they come in handy sized chunks).

Stop for a good feed at a pub or cafe half way round

Its worth noting that fueling seems to be related to fitness as well.  The fitter I am the longer it seems I can manage before bonking without food.   Last year when training for Ride London, I went through a series of horrible bonks at the 55 mile mark, that I eventually resolved by sub-hour (45-50 mins) munchies, mostly bananas and cereal bars.

This year I havent done so many 50+ mile rides as yet this year, but have better general fitness thanks many many Covid turbo sessions, and touch wood, although my fueling is probably lighter than last year, no bonks have appeared (yet).

As others have said though - eat regular and early, bonking really really ruins a ride.

If I'm doing a shorter ride of less than 40km I usually get by just on water. 

For longer rides up to 100km, I usually take a couple of bananas and use the hydration tablets in my water

I'm still trying to work out the right amount to take for 100-mile rides as I tend to take what I can fit in pockets and saddlebags. Usually a couple of bananas, some gels and a load of small flapjacks or a cereal bar that I can nibble away at every 30 minutes. I usually try and make sure I know where there is a village shop or garage along the way to top up on food and water at regular intervals. I don't mind carrying a bit of excess around with me but I'm trying to work out the right amount so I'm not overloaded.

I once did a 100-mile sportive and somehow missed a water stop and it wasn't a nice experience to be struggling along country lanes with no shops on route for well over an hour with no water which made the rest of the event a struggle.

Since then I've always taken the opportunity to stop and top up the water bottles whenever I can. 

Fueling is quite a personal thing, it depends how many calories you burn, what you can digest etc etc.

I generally ride for between 1.5 and 3 hours, my fuelling is pretty much the same for every (hard/fast) ride - flapjack about an hour before the ride then I have an energy every 40 minutes. On rides over 2 hours, I'll have a small flapjack/energy bar/cereal bar every 40 minutes (after the first hour).

Regardless of distance/effort, I have an electrolyte tablet in any bottle of water I have - assuming it's going to be hot enough to sweat. I used to really suffer from dehydration and terrible headaches during and after cycling, the electrolytes stop that.

50 miles is going to be 3hrs ish, so 2x750ml of (insert sport drink of choice, I prefer torq energy) and stick some bananas as you seem to like them in the back pocket and away you go, and eat / drink frequently and early, your consuming for the future not the now, so if you're thirsty or hungry you should have drank/eaten about 20-30mins ago.

if you take it easy and work up the speed you'll do fine. 

For rides of 40 miles or less I dont eat, over that I eat fig rolls (they taste like camel poo so there is always an open pack in the pantry because there is no way a normal person could enjoy eating them, not even my calorie hoover of a daughter).  A fig roll washed down with a sip of water every 30-40 minutes keeps me going, cheap and a nice mix of fast and slow release energy.

I'd ignore the fancy sports drinks and energizing bars and use water with added apple or pineapple juice and a couple of bananas.  If you want to eat litte and often, you can cut the bananas into two or three.... fig rolls are a particular treat of mine too. 

There's no real need for 'performance enhancing' fuel stuffs until you're doing much longer / faster rides... save your money (and spend it on new gear!)

As said below, much depends on your own physiology and training, and the terrain, pace and temperature of the ride, so its trial and error.  The main thing is to keep hydrated, so consider a drink which will also provide a bit of fuel as well as electrolytes and see how you get on.  Keep some cereal bars or gels in your pocket if you need them.  You will get to know your own eating plan, and the signs of when you are getting low on energy. 

The 'calories burned' reading on Strava/Garmin will give you a very rough idea of what you might need to replace what you've used. 

There are so many variables as our bodies all work in different ways that there isn't one rule to fit all apart from if you are eating, do little and often.

Take me, for example, I'm overweight, have plenty of energy already stored on my body as fat that I don't really need to consider much in the need of additional energy intake while out on a ride, certainly up to 75km as long as I am riding in zone 2 and aiming to burn fat.

However, if I am riding at a higher speed or climbing more than is normal I will look to put some additional energy into my system, as much for the psychological benefit than anything else, usually with malt loaf or a peanut butter sandwich.

However, due to the extra fat my body carries, I sweat more due to the added insulation, so maximising my water intake is far more important than food alone.

I'm sure there will be someone along in a minute to tell me I'm doing it all wrong, but this is what works for me and by that you too have to undertake a certain amount of trial and error into what works best for you, as one persons regime is right for their unique body make up, but isn't neccesarily right for you.

One thing I will say though is keep to real food wherever possible. Gels and energy drinks can work wonders, but they also have a reputation for playing havoc with your stomach especially if your body isn't used to them. They are also bloody expensive for the return the give you.

Personally. (and this is all based on your own preference) If im doing anything under 50 - Ill do a sis gel at 15 to 20, last one being at 30 or 40 miles.

Anything to 100, ill keep the same regime, but Gel at 30 miles, and at 60/70 miles ill take a caffiene gel, which really boosts. Ill also stop for something solid, like a flapjack & crisps, and the most important bit - A lovely cold full fat/flavour Can of Coke.

This won't help you much but it really is a case of trial and error until you know what foods and how much works for you. My tips would be (but only from my own experience) 

1. Think of the ride in terms of time rather than distance. So if 50 miles is going to take you say 3 hours then break that three hours into 3 x 45 minute eating slots (4 if you eat at the start or end)

2. Know the terrain you're riding. Don't eat something 2 mins before starting a big effort up a climb

3. As said previously, little and often beats one big meal. I personally eat dates as they are small portions and have massive amounts of calories for their size. Pitted and dried of course

Most folks will tell you, "little & often" that way there's always something in the tank. Cuz when you bonk out, it's very hard to recover from if not almost impossible. Just eat a tracker bar or similar with dried fruits and nuts in it every 5 to 10 miles after you pass the 20 or 30mile mark and supplement it with dried figs or apricots