Rollfast

Edible and tasty.

schoolboy2 

As a bike tourist, every ride was long and had a meal (lunch) in the middle of it. Of the many fine (and some not so fine) meals on the road, the one that stands out was some rustic gumbo, dark brown and rich with flavor that I had at some crossroads cafe between Cleveland and Silsbee Texas. From my journal for that day: "For lunch I stopped at the Country Cafe, a small restaurant at a crossroads. I don't think they see many cyclists here and I really stood out in my black lycra leggings and shorts with my red, white and blue jersey. I had their Gumbo which was quite different from mine. It was a rustic stew of chicken and shrimp in a dark brown sauce and tasted fabulous. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I inhaled it." I would eat that stuff any day.

dennis336

Well, on my last weekend solo ride, I had the most delicious, extra-large, cold and crunchy dill pickle. I don't know why, but I still keep thinking about that and how I can tailor my future long rides to go by a deli that sells them. Really hit the spot on a hot and sweaty summer day.

Dill pickles aside, generally, I don't eat hot meals during rides, although, I have one fund-raising ride I've done several times that has a great, all the fixin's, baked potato stop. Although lately I've been having post-ride cravings for a Tortellini Zingarella meal at a local Italian restaurant.

Aside from that, I've got a pastry shop that I go by on one of my loops that has a great bread pudding.

livedarklions

Generally, I think there's an inverse relationship between the fanciness of the place and the quality of the gumbo--that sounds amazing.

Gotta ask--why is someone from Sonoma biking in that part of Texas? Isn't that like going to Nebraska for the wine?

schoolboy2 

I agree about the inverse relationship between the fanciness of the restaurant and the quality of the gumbo.

I was cycling in east Texas as part of the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route. It took 15 days of cycling to cross Texas from El Paso to Deweyville on the Louisiana border. Much as I love cycling here in Sonoma County, I also love to ride in other parts of the world. There was an unexpected beauty to the Texas countryside, especially the vast undeveloped lands of west Texas.

livedarklions

I'm guessing you didn't do that in August!

Sounds fascinating, I would expect to learn a lot about the area.

Welcome to BF, newbie! Looking forward to your posts. Sounds like you've done some cool stuff.

Cougrrcj

Some almost 40 years ago, when I was on a spur-of-the-moment cycle trip to visit relatives 450 miles away, I usually simply stopped at roadside produce stands during the day, and a Micky D's or Burger King at night. But the ONE mid-ride meal that stands out the most from that trip is when I was riding between Kenosha and Madison... I was riding some lettered county road (Wisconsinites will get the reference) at around one in a hot afternoon... I stopped at a greasy spoon/diner I stopped in for a 1/2-pound patty of a cheeseburger, and a homemade lemonade... The owner and a 'regular' were intrigued when I said that I was from Cleveland and had already ridden that morning from Kenosha (almost 70 miles away) and couldn't believe that someone would willingly ride a bicycle that far in a day -- one of my shorter days on that trip! They plied me with a couple of cold brewskis to hear 'my story', and upon leaving, they wouldn't accept payment for the meal (or beers)... Luckily, I had another 15 miles or so to go into a strong wind before reaching my aunt and uncle's place to burn off the alcohol buzz...

livedarklions

In that era, you probably seemed like a unicorn to them. Did you have to ride through Gary, Ind. on that ride? The mills were still open then, and the air was really bad!

bobwysiwyg

Though a Michigander, I get the reference to lettered roads in Wisconsin. We vacation each year in the far west U.P. of Michigan. Wisconsin just around the corner. We sometimes go to dinner or brunch at the Little Bohemia Lodge. We would drive there and back over roads labeled YY or WW, or some such. Often wondered what the reasoning and rationale for that was.

Back to the original topic.

Cougrrcj

My old man was from that area of the U.P. Bessemer. We'd camp at Lake Gogibic when we'd go up there for a visit...

KraneXL

The best meal would be a meal replacement or protein shake. When food is in your stomach you need full energy to digest it. Both of these can be out of your stomach in an hour. If you split the difference (exercising during digestion), both will suffer.

Nevertheless, if you're intent on solid food I'd choose chicken or fish. Beef would be the worst and last choice. However, if you must again, at lest go lean...very lean!

dbursell

Good tips!

livedarklions

I was really explicit in the OP that this wan't a request for advice--it's the first sentence! I do very long rides and eat pretty much whatever I want during them without ill effect, and with more energy after the meal/break than before it. I was really trying to guage whether I'm an outlier in this because I see advice like your's all of the time, and I suspect that unless you're trying TDF times on long rides, it may actually be BS for a lot of people.

If you read through this thread, you'll see a lot of people describing stopping for fairly elaborate meals during rides and continuing on with the ride. I haven't seen a single one say anything to the effect of "and I slogged my way miserably for the rest of the ride", or that they in any way regretted the meal.

I sort of fell into long distance riding last year, never really intending to start, so I hadn't researched what I was "supposed" to do. I now am averaging about 1000 miles a month having made up my rules as I've gone along, and find that when I encounter "should" or "must" advice on the subject, much of it indicates that how I'm doing things should make it impossible to do things like ride 168 miles in a day on a hybrid.

I've done some of my best riding right after a big plate of fatty barbecue and peanuts, and I'd rather eat my tires than drink a protein shake.

KraneXL

Point taken. Consider the listings my meals and ignore the suggestion.

livedarklions

Cool, thanks!

Can I take that as an indication that there is someone in this world who actually enjoys meal replacements and/or protein shakes, or is that going too far?

I-Like-To-Bike

My most tasty "meal" was on the train trip towards home after the bulk of the ride.The bike portion of the trip was an 168km ride along the Moselle on AutoFrei Tag in 2002. The bike trip was preceded by a 5km ride from my home to the train station in Waldorf (near Heidelberg,) a 4 hour train ride to Trier, with a train shuttle to Schweich, an all day scenic bike ride among thousands of other to Cochem and a local train to Koblenz. The meal was a big bag of Erdnuss Flips (peanut flavored doodles) with a six pack of German beer bought in the train station in Koblenz. Finished the wonderful meal before the train arrived in Mannheim, from where I rode the final 20 km to home after midnight. A wonderful day with a wonderful ride and meal!

Riveting

The don't serve "hot dogs" in RI, they serve wieners (preferably with chili sauce, onions, and celery salt).

Regardless of the length of the ride, a big meal for me is eating an entire Clif bar. Or if the ride is supported, a whole PB&J. I don't think I've ever had a bite of "normal" food on centuries, double-centuries, or triple centuries. Though I do recall once eating one of those taquitos on a 7-11 rolling cooker. Never again.

livedarklions

Well, to be fully accurate, I went to Olneyville, so I actually had New York System hot weiners with all that stuff ("all the way"), except they call it weiner sauce. I ate 4 and had some coffee milk before I commenced on the 84 mile trip back home.

luddite_68

Don't really eat meals during a ride, at most 1/2 pb&j. After a hard metric or imperial century... I CRAVE a cuban sandwich.

livedarklions

I've had one on a long ride. It was perfect.

u235

I'll eat any meal mid ride as long as it ends with or includes at least one chocolate frosted creme filled donut and a coffee.

UniChris

Absolutely no argument with what works.

That said, I've found a trail segment I usually hit right after lunch to be particularly challenging to get through - in fact on my 2nd most previous serious ride it was where everything pretty much fell apart and while sitting on a bench my goals changed from accomplishing a round trip to just making my way slowly to the outlying train station in a relaxed survival mode.

Successfully completing that ride as a round trip this Monday, I made a point to eat only half of my chicken & mayo deli sandwich before the hard part, and the other half a couple miles later in easier terrain. I can't prove it made a difference (in fact an incompletely healed injury that since resolved was an equal contributor to the failed ride), but being aware of the potential issue of lessened energy while digesting protein and fat, and specifically planning what I needed to do in terms or riding and for how long, and how that fit in with eating did seem to help a lot.

That said I think it's also true that most aren't doing peak athletic performance efforts most of the time on most rides, but just cranking out moderate effort hour after hour. Hard parts are hard when they catch unprepared, on top of other challenges.. Things like planning and pacing and strategic rests level out the challenges.

livedarklions

This is pretty much the direction I don't want this thread to go because I think the topic has been talked to death, but I don't find that having a stomach full of solid food hinders my peak performance in any way. I'm not a TDF rider eating only what I can consume while pedalling, but I am capable of cranking out miles at about 22 mph in the flat on an upright bike and climbing hills on the large chain ring, and have done so for hours on a stomach full of hot dogs and coffee milk on one occassion, a huge barbecue combo plate that included brisket, ribs and turkey with sides and a bunch of peanuts on another, and last weekend a bowl of clam chowder with 2 rolls, a short rib panini, a pear tart and two cookies. At 57 years old, I guess it's theoretically possible I could be slightly faster if I ate less/differently on a ride, but I just don't see it.
I don't question your experience as to what works for you, what I always challenge is the explicit or implicit assertion that it is therefore true for everyone. I may be an outlier, but I just don't find it ever to have been true for me that I couldn't do something because I was too full, and I make no effort whatsoever to do the kind of planning you describe. That said, I have no idea how riding a unicycle 100 miles compares to riding 168 miles on a bike.

superpletch

while on Pacific Coast tour my brother and I decided we got about 50 mpb.........(miles per burrito)

we did stink up the motel room though

jeffreythree

Around here it is Mom's Cafe in Aubrey. A bit to close for me except to hit it before the last bit home on the tail end of a long ride, and quite a few bikes are pulled up for brunch every weekend. Pimento cheese on fresh bread with sweet tea really hits the spot after riding around the local lake, ~75 miles.