Originally Posted by
veganbikes
People have made good suggestions about the heat and not being down totally to nutrition. However in terms of nutrition I like the SIS Isotonic energy gels a lot especially on hot days as they can be taken without water. I also highly recommend Nuun tablets for water as sometimes you cannot drink anymore water because it lacks the other nutrients that your body won't get from just water but have lost. I have also in the past used powdered coconut water but at that time they didn't have them in tablets so the powder tended to get outside moisture and turn into hard chunks (which were quite tasty but not what I wanted in water) Anything where you can get hydrated and replace things is important.
I was drinking mostly mixed up gatorade powder with added sodium and potassium salts, or water with just a Nuun tablet, or purchased powerade with nuun a tablet dropped in. Had a couple incidents of actual or near vomiting from straight water a few years back when I first stated doing distance rides and so have been very wary since then - I'll drink water early in the morning, but later on the volume of what I drink is augmented, followed with a little yet-unmixed water mostly to rinse the other stuff out of my mouth or get solid food down.
Someone I was planning to do a moderate ride with at the end of August was recommending coconut water, might have to try that sometime.
For actual food, certainly gels like the Clif Gels or GU are great for quick energy and chews like Clif Shot Bloks or ProBar Chews or if you are into it Floyd's of Leadville CBD chews are quite similar. Though if you want more food I have found the Clif savory pouches to be great and fairly easy to put down. Many pro cyclists also use homemade rice cakes (or soigneur made) with different things in them. They are generally easier to digest and if you size them right can work well while riding.
I'm going to have to try the actual gels or shots I guess. The rice cakes are an interesting idea, I so rarely even eat white (vs brown) rice that the stuff is like candy.
One other good thing is different more odd flavors can be nice. One of my favorite snacks while touring or longer easier paced rides is the Sahale Snacks nuts It isn't one flavor or texture and the Thai Cashews for instance also have soy sauce and spice with the sweet and your palate will thank you for that because it is a delicious shock from eating just sweet stuff a lot or more plain flavored stuff. However sometimes plain flavors can be easier to get down in the heat.
Lots of coffee in the 4am range didn't quite have the intended result before setting out, which lead to being a little wary of strong flavors though yes, some kick can be nice. Had a bag of wasabi and soy almonds waiting at home it took real willpower not to dig into in advance, but did bring some more mild ones along and realized that by late afternoon any effect of the flavor and fiber would be safely later so nibbled on some at cool-down stops.
Keep as cool as possible and drink plenty of fluids and stop if you need to. Ain't no winning if you bonk out or feel like hurling at the end. The only podium you should care about is the
Camelbak water bottle holding your water or drink mix equipped water. In summer time sometimes I will wear my sun sleeves which are usually cooling and when I go to bathroom I will usually get them nice and wet while washing my hands for extra cooling (I try to avoid wasting drinking water) or I might wet them beforehand. I also will wear a cycling cap and get that wet as well to keep my head cool.
I ended up buying gallon jugs of water at my rest stops, so would often take the stale water left in bottles and pour it on my long sleeves. Rinsed out my headsweats in a water fountain when I found one (learned yesterday I've now ridden by another water fountain at an absolutely heat critical stretch no less than 3 times without seeing it, though at least this time my planned stops provided more than enough water to actually drink). At one point in the afternoon an office park had sprinklers carelessly covering the trail, decided not to ride through the way a guy who passed me did (remembering the time when pouring water over my head just caused it to end up in my shorts) but after walking around went back and carefully drenched my sleeves and headsweats in one.
Maybe I should have taken advantage of the river people were swimming in, actually had an extra pair of bike shorts along, and guess I could have changed to them in the wheelchair-sized outhouse, but didn't think of it at the time. Was definitely eyeing the town pool I rode by on last month's century.
I wrote some code a while back to extract my rest breaks from a gpx file and going through them, was surprised to find that a lot of my late afternoon critical energy/heat shade breaks in the afternoon were a lot shorter than I expected - 5 to 7 minute range. The overall total of non-riding time was insane as it always has been, but those specifically were less a factor than I'd expected. The stops to purchase water, refill bottles, mix drink power, etc always seem to eat up lots of time, everything from waiting to get across intersections to wander store aisles trying to find something suitable to trying to find a trash can for the empty gallon jug.