TheCharm 

Good day all:

Just reaching out here to get any advice I can.

At the beginning of the pandemic-related slowdown, I started an intermittent fasting regime. I have been fairly consistently doing an 18:6 fast and doing my best to eat sensibly during my window. I had known about IF but I sort of self-discovered it by accident. On several occasions, I was running late for work and ran out and jumped on my bike for my 9 mile commute without eating and without taking anything with me. Turns out, I wasn't really hungry when I got to work and on a whim, I tried to wait until lunch a few times before eating and had no problems.

I read a bit about IF -- mostly Rhonda Patrick and Peter Attia. I know there is a lot that I missed - these two know what they're talking about, or at least to my mind they do, but much was above my head and I just sort of took in some information by rote.

In any case, I have lost 40 pounds since March, so things are working. Since I've been on a work-from-home status since March 9th, I committed doing "fake commutes" to ensure I could keep my fitness (and fun) up. I have been doing fasted rides and on the occasion that I've had days off or on weekends, I have been taking longer and longer fasted rides. I'm not doing keto on purpose, but sometimes I think I might be entered into ketosis just by virtue of eating keto-friendly food by accident. The missus tells me I have "keto breath" so maybe?? Anyway, I've been able to take about 4 hour rides without bonking or the need to take nutrition in. I carry some gels and Clif bars with me just in case, but haven't needed them.

With that background out of the way, to the point of my topic today:

I'm going to try and tackle an imperial century this weekend on which I've failed twice before. My fitness level is better than ever, and I think I am able to complete.

What I don't know is how to adjust my fast in advance of this? Off the cuff, I think that just continue my fast as usual, but pack food to break the fast on my ride. Seems sensible and straight-forward, but one thing I do note is that when I get home from a good 4 hour ride and then eat (sensibly, not gorging), I feel like sh*t. Very tired, and ready for a nap. I'm afraid this is going to happen. My planned ride should last about 4 hours after I typically break the fast, so I'll be a good distance from home when I eat.

Another strategy is to have some protein and carbs before I leave (fairly light, sensible meal) and then just feed as I normally do on a long ride. I'll be in populated areas so getting more food shouldn't be a problem, subject to COVID-related shutdown of places. Most should be open and I always travel with a mask.

I realize this is an extremely open-ended question and displays a good amount of ignorance on this subject. I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by despite current circumstances, but I mentally committed to completing this century this year, and I'm going to try my best to stick with it.

Any comments on strategy would be much appreciated, personal experience or blog posts, etc. welcomed.

Thanks much!

Iride01 

As long as you don't fast while on the bike, you should be okay.

Hydration and replacing some of the expended glycogen by consuming some form of carbohydrate are fairly important things during the ride. Otherwise, everything off the bike is more a personal preference. IMO.

There used to be a time when it was thought that eating lots of carbs and other special stuff prior to a ride was important. But there quite a bit of stuff that suggests it's not as big a deal as once thought. Since your body can only have so much glycogen saved up in it, it never made sense to load up on carbs before they were needed.

Myself, I frequently start a ride on an empty stomach, four to six hours after eating a normal breakfast. Sometimes I start a ride just after breakfast.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yeah, you may want to take a nap halfway through. An Imperial century doesn't really qualify as a long distance ride, but it is sort of at the lower edge of them. I can usually do one of those on any given day with no special training, just because I know how. It's all about eating and drinking. All the rest is between your ears, but those two things can be show-stoppers. You do those right, you finish.

What to do the morning of depends on your schedule. Forget your fasting regime. That has nothing to do with finishing a distance ride, other than prep in the weeks before, which is fine. If I have to drive some distance to a ride start, I'll eat about 400 calories of mostly carbs, some protein, 2-3 hours before the start. If that's inconvenient, then what you want to do is eat something like a Clif bar, say 200 calories of mostly carbs, about 15' before you start riding, no earlier. Some people like pop tarts. Whatever.

After you start your ride, the first 3 hours are the most important. Set your hydration and nutrition routine during that time, then keep it up. You want to consume somewhere between 150 and 250 calories per hour. My guess is that you'll be fine somewhere in the lower range of that. It's important to have a little nutrition every 15', right from the start. 30' apart is OK too, but 15' is better. You want to drink a little every time you eat.

If it's at all warm, you'll want some sort of electrolytes to go with your water. Hopefully you already have that dialed. You want to have to pee about every 3 hours. The first pee or two will probably be closer together, but it's the tail end of a ride of this length where you'll start to really dehydrate if you aren't careful, hence the pee schedule. No pee, sit and drink and take electrolytes until you have to. Doesn't matter how hot or not it is, water consumption will vary with temperature, but pee shouldn't.

Take some of your favorite butt cream. I take a 35mm film can of it. If you're not in a big hurry, it's a good idea to have a coffee and pastry stop somewhere around halfway, so take your mask. I'm partial to Dove bars for a middle of the ride snack.

That's all there is to it. Otherwise, just pedal.

Of course one is free to self-experiment and see what one can get away with in terms of hydration and nutrition. I advise putting that off until you have completed a few.

rubiksoval

Eat the night before and the morning of. You don't have to do intermittent fasting everyday.

Rides of that duration require lots of extra calories. Skip those and your riding suffers.

wolfchild

Eat a huge big dinner the night before. Start your ride fasted and see how far you can get. Bring along some energy snacks and drink just in case you run into a problem.

TheCharm 

Thanks all for the help. I rode this yesterday with success - 115 miles!

What I ended up doing:

I didn't ride fasted. Instead, I had some eggs and toast for breakfast - along with a small coffee and my usual liter of water. For the ride, I packed some overnight refrigerator oatmeal in almond milk, two peanut butter sandwiches, some dates, and two Clif Bars. I started out fairly slow, trying to manage my energy output, so for the first 30 miles or so, my average moving speed was about 10mph. I had a date about every 30-45 minutes and stopped at mile 30 to have the oatmeal. At mile 55, I had one peanut butter sandwich and a Clif Bar. I keep the date consumption at about the same interval for the rest of the ride.

I didn't eat the other peanut butter sandwich. At about mile 78, I stopped a bike shop to see if I could get some more water and got some sports/electrolyte drinks instead. They had some big brownies and I couldn't resist.

It was a perfect 82F day to complete this ride!

MinnMan

This strikes me as the "carb loading" strategy from the 1970s. Doesn't work for me. ymmv.

MinnMan

Seems like you did it right.

Personally, if I'm going to do a century (for example, yesterday), I make sure to have a good breakfast and that i eat some (not a lot) during the ride. A typical "good breakfast" for me would be a bowl of cereal (+ skim milk), a banana, and a protein bar (plus coffee, ofcourse). I also make sure to drink some kind of fluid in addition to the coffee, not necessarily caloric. On yesterday's century, I also consumed one probar "meal" bar (~350 calories), 1 gel (~100 calories), and about 1 1/2 packages of probar energy chews (about 100 calories/pkg). Also, one of my 3 water bottles had sports drink in it. For me, that was just about right.

I've also learned that I should NOT eat when I get home from a long ride, or that if I do, it has to be a small low carb meal. I make sure to drink some fluids. If I eat a big meal after a ride, that's a formula for a super-lethargic crash.