Flounce

Thanks OldTryGuy, that's helpful.

From the link you shared, order of digestion speed - generally speaking is :

water/juice > fresh fruit > vegetables > eggs=fish > complex carbs > all other meats.

didn't see an entry for bread, as in plain wheat bagels, but I'd hope that it digests fast.

unterhausen

i know I'm not the only one that can't tolerate pizza on a ride. I would be careful with that. For me, a tuna melt works fine, fries work fine. 200k's are good for experimenting.

the thing about eating real food is to not eat any more than your body wants at that time. I waste a lot of food on brevets. If it will keep un-refrigerated, I throw it in the front bag, otherwise, just throw it away. The tendency to over-eat should be resisted, one of my most unpleasant 200k's involved a really great deli sandwich that I didn't want to stop eating.

Machka 

See when I think of real food on a long bicycle ride, one of the first things that leaps to mind is something like a well-salted grilled chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat with veggies like lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. That goes down so well!

Then I think of things like grilled cheese sandwiches, French fries, perogies, dim sims, and French toast.

Around here, I can usually get a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich and an immense cookie of some sort in just about any Take-Away place ... that's a nice combination that isn't too large, and I can take the cookie with me and have it in my bento bag to nibble on while I ride.

clasher

I’ve had some decent rides fueled mostly by maltodextrin based drinks but I just love eating so I’ve settled on a mix of quaker breakfast bars and Pb&J bagels that are commonly found at the popular chain coffee places here. I’ve been lucky too with stopping for stuff like veggie burgers and fries. I tend to eat a lot of fibre so roadside poops do happen... I have a keen eye for construction site portopotties, and do carry a small pack of wet wipes just, handy not just #2. I work heavy construction and our breaks are about 2 hours apart so I’m used eating like that but on the bike I like nibble more instead of eating it all at once.

OldTryGuy

A favorite of mine if not riding hard is a 8" WHOLE WHEAT tortillas with creamy organic almond butter and creamy organic peanut butter spread flat in the center. Some strawberry preserves then fold. Bottom up, left side over to right, right side over to left then top down. Nice rectangular FLAT SANDWICH. Wrap in aluminum foil and you can fit 2 sometimes 3 in a jersey pocket so PLENTY OF ENERGY.

Nibble a bit and refold foil for further down the road. Don't forget organic lemon wedges cut up in water bottle to ad flavor and C plus when water runs out just eat the wedges. Very surprising how those pieces of lemon can ad a little energy.

Flounce

great idea!

Carbonfiberboy 

I've never eaten a full meal on any ride or brevet, except when bike touring. I also use the malto/whey protein and carry the powder in ziplocks. However, that's too much powder to be practical on a 400, so I'll eat "real food" occasionally on that for sure, and actually on many shorter rides. By "real food" I mean something that's very easily digestible, mostly carbs with a little protein, a little fat. So like a cheese, tuna, or egg salad sandwich. Hostess fruit pies are excellent then, but never in civilian life. Stuff like that. I know a rider who eats only Hostess cupcakes simply because they're a known quantity and available. Snickers bars are very good and easy to carry. Whatever it is, it has to be easily digestible and not involve sitting down. Cold legs are the last thing I need.

I used to bonk all the time, before I got the miles in. After 3-4 years of riding hard every Sunday, I stopped getting dropped and also stopped bonking. Bonking is really a symptom of lack of enough riding time to get good at burning fat. I've never bonked on a brevet because I didn't start that until I had maybe 50,000 miles behind me. So maybe it's more about training and less about food choices than one hears around the bike forums.

Another thing: I've seen many randonneurs whom I would call fat, just not to their face. That's from eating too much at one time, for sure. Only so much goes toward replenishment, the rest is stored as fat. Eating fat very easily goes to fat storage, while carbs are actually quite resistant to that. It's the metabolic cost thing. We never need to replenish our fat stores during a brevet.

Caffeine is good stuff. I carry some sort of caffeine supplement tab or capsule in a baggie. Much quicker than hot coffee and just as effective. Caffeine does not make you tired. You make you tired. Endurance performance is to some extent, an intelligence test. Caffeine decreases risk of bonking because its main effect on performance is to increase the oxidation of fatty acids.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9132918

I find 6 mg/kg a little scary. I would suggest not going above 3 mg/kg. Half that is quite effective. I agree that the limit should be lowered for safety's sake. Just as with food, a slow drip is most effective. I've experimented with adding Starbucks VIA to water and food bottles. Dissolves well in cold water. Works well if one can get the dosage right.

I used to ride with a woman who used Hammer espresso gels. She thought the taste was just flavor. She finally figured out why she rode so well when she used Hammer gels.

Somewhere I saw a document saying that too much coffee is detrimental to performance and therefore a lowering of the limit is not necessary, as the athlete will find increasing caffeine dosage to be self-limiting.

Flounce

Great thoughts, especially the part about getting enough miles to train your body to burn fat proficiently.

BTW, my favorite part:

“Caffeine does not make you tired. You make you tired.”

Carbonfiberboy 

The main thing is that whatever you eat, take small amounts frequently and consistently. It's easy to get distracted and miss a few little feedings and then have trouble getting it back again. I have my Garmin set to alarm every 15 minutes. OldTryGuy's little sandwiches are typical good things. You'll see the pros hit their jersey pockets from time to time, but realize that many of those bottles they get contain food. The car sends them what the car thinks they need at the time. If they're pouring water on their heads, that's water.

OldTryGuy

At 50mg of caffeine per Hammer Gel I can only imagine how awesome she might be using ClifShot Double Espresso or Chocolate Cherry gels with 100mg.

Machka 

Doesn't a cup of a coffee have about 100 mg of caffeine?

Maybe that's why Hammer Gels don't seem to give me much of a boost.

OldTryGuy

Here ya go......

https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/i...caffeine-chart

My favorite is down the list a bit, the Nespresso Kazaar, but that's for 1oz

aggiegrads

I would suggest this as well. My Garmin is set to alarm every 20 minutes. ~100 calories and wash it down with a gulp of water or light mix.

Eat your calories, drink your fluids, and "take" electrolytes. Trying to get ratios and amounts right for anything else is too much work. I have not had success drinking calories (high calorie mixes) or eating electrolytes (in very salty foods) in the right amounts.

aloKen

There's a shortcut to training your body to burn fat well: a low-carb diet. Some years I go low-carb for about 3 months in the winter/spring and then 2-3 days during the season. When I've done that, it's basically impossible for me to bonk; I never get low energy even when eating very little on a brevet.

Riveting

www.picklepower.com

kingston 

I had a 50 lb. bag of maltodextrin delivered yesterday.

gif4445

That's a good reminder. I tend to rush through even normal meals. Farmer by trade and many meals are rushed so I can get back in the tractor or combine. Wondering if that is a cause of some occcasional stomach upset?

GadgetGirlIL

What ratio of maltodextrin to water do you use? I have a container sitting in my pantry that my husband bought and never really used.

unterhausen

Don't forget a little bit of protein powder, but not too much because it will make you nauseous.
I use about 1/3 scoop with 5 scoops of carbs. It also adds flavor. GNC powder doesn't seem to go bad in the bottle like the unpasturized stuff does. Hammer says unpasturized is better, I say not getting sick is better.

GadgetGirlIL

20 oz bottle or a larger bottle?

I'm with you on pasteurization. Had food poisoning once. Will never forget that experience. Nor will my poor husband.

znomit

I take a stick of gum on rides. It gets the taste of sunscreen and sweat out of my mouth, and seems to stimulate appetite.
I generally now eat real food every 100km and have one bottle of sports drink between. Typically alternate between pies and sandwiches because they are quick and easy. I might have an energy bar of some sort between that if I'm hungry, or keep half a sandwich for later.

A small bottle of coke is better than a caffeine gel.

I suspect real food diminishes the after ride munchies which can put on more calories than you burnt off on the ride too.

kingston 

I use a recipe I got from @Carbonfiberboy

I fill little ziploc snack bags with 77g of maltodextrin and 11g of Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Protein (7:1 by weight) and put that in a 28oz. water bottle. I get the protein at costco where it goes on sale every couple of months.

Maltodextrin is 3.8 calories/gram and ON protein is 3.75 calories/gram so the little baggies are 334 calories. I carry a pair of little safety scissors, the kind preschoolers use, and snip the corner off the baggie so it pours right into the bottle with no mess. I try to drink one bottle between every control and I rinse the bottle out before I fill it so it doesn't get gross. My other bottle has half-a-scoop of gatorade powder.

GadgetGirlIL

Thanks! I'll give this a try.

Flounce

Update : based on the advice in this thread, I modified by nutrition for a short ride today - 62 miles - by switching to regular water (previously used exclusively powder based carb/protein in water mix) and small sandwiches wrapped in foil , one per hour. Half the sandwiches were sweet (while wheat tortilla , peanut butter, strawberry jam ) and other half were savory (seaweed paper wrapped around rice balls and tasty curry). Granted, it was a short trial, but I had far more energy throughout the ride than on my previous regimen. I couldn’t help but drop my buddies every time we came up on some hills, and had slow down every once in a while so they could catch up. No question I was taking in more calories than before and that my appetite felt better.

The real test will a double century I’m riding in two weeks.

jlippinbike

Don't confuse bonking with malnutrition or dehydration. These are three separate and distinct conditions and the causes for each are different. Bonking comes about from riding above your ability for too long which zaps your glycogen stores down to zero. Malnutrition comes about from riding within your ability, but not eating enough to fuel the length of ride you are undertaking. And dehydration comes about from not taking in enough fluids during your ride. Typically dehydration is a big problem on hot days when the sun bakes you on the roads. Electrolytes are lost, and if you do not supplement your electrolyte intake during your ride the body cannot assimilate liquids timely. All three conditions slow you down toward the end of a ride. The malnutrition condition is usually only a problem when a rider suffers from a medical problem known as Insulin Resistance. And since so many rando riders I know have guts, they typically suffer from Insulin Resistance.