Spoonrobot 

Koyote

I used to make my own powdered drink stuff. I lost the recipe years ago, but it was copped from one of the pro teams. I recall a large tub of Maltodextrin, some sucrose (or something similar), probably a touch of salt. Given that all of the ingredients were available in bulk, it was dirt cheap and probably pretty similar to the stuff you're talking about.

Jakedatc

Dates are about the same calories as a gel.. just take the pits out first I like Clif Bloks when it is warm, waffles are good ( can get a stack of them at Aldi for cheap).

Also I like to make the Cinnamon apple rice cakes from Portables book.

chas58

The Maltodextrin sucrose stuff kind of misses the point. You don’t want your blood sugar to spike, or to crash on a long ride. Eating/drinking a high sugar content beverage will do that. Great if you can keep it in balance, and you will be hurting if you don’t.

Personally, I like natural foods and complex carbs that will give me long lasting energy with minimal spikes and dips. If that doesn’t work for me, U-Can is an option. It is literally the only energy source available that provides the body steady flow of energy without spikes and dips.

Some of the things I like have been mentioned above.

• · RX bars
• · PB&J
• · fig newtons
• · Kind nut bar (or just a handful of nuts
• · Honey Stinger Waffles (too crumbly though) and trader joes mini stroopwafels (100 times better tasting)
• · apple – or apple sauce packet
• · Fruit from a road side stand (why gravel grind if you can’t stop at one of these???)

Good point. Chocolate milk really has a lot of the stuff your body is craving in a long ride – and is available at just about any gas station and mini mart.


There is a lot of science behind this that can be pretty important for an athlete to know. I’m not sure this is the place to do it – you really need to consult a nutritionist. Anyone can go work out hard for an hour with the energy readily available to your body. Much beyond that and you’ll need another energy source – whether it is from food, fat, muscle. The trick to an endurance event is keeping a good balance with your body’s energy systems.


Yep, if it’s a 60-90 minute ride sugar is fine. I can crash at home. ;-)

Spoonrobot 

I don't think someone capable of doing 4-8 hour rides is going to deal with blood sugar fluctuations very often assuming they eat a somewhat regular diet and eat at the recommended intervals during the ride itself.

I'm also not a big believer in the mysticism of UCAN. It's great if it works for you but it seems like most long distance cyclists get along fine without SuperStarch™. Although I will admit it's entirely possible that we're all missing out on the positive effects of SuperStarch® and just don't know it.

Then we have this.

Whoops

Has there been any additional research? This send-up of the UCAN sponsored study seems pretty incendiary but essentially correct. It hits quite a bit of the nutritional themes and personalities from a few years ago as well, funny reading:
The Carb-Sane Asylum: SuperStar(ch) -- Or does something stink here?

So kinda seems like it's magic pixie dust. Expensive magic pixie dust too. Powder is $4+ a serving and the bars are $2.75 each. Yikes.

wipekitty

I like the agave gummy bears that tend to be found in natural foods stores. They're super easy to eat while riding, and are easier to chew than normal gummy bears.

Some people swear by bananas. I hate bananas. If you can eat Cliff bars and not get sick, you can probably do things like trail mix, candy bars, and the like.

Please school me on honey. I've been thinking about it as an alternative fuel source on longer rides (and the local stuff I get is really, really delicious). How much do you use at one go, and have you found a good way to store it for eating while riding?

chas58

Local is good (story is that a lot of the generic stuff isn't honey, but some sweet syrup from china!). I tend to use honey because it’s in my cabinet. I’m going to try to eat “normal” foods when I can. It’s going to give a similar benefit to a gu pack. But making a squeeze pack is just a mess, so I just put it in my water, or whatever I’m drinking. REI has some small travel squeeze tubes (for shampoo) that can be used to carry enough for a day ride.

Honey is a sugar, so I’m going to tend to use it more shorter rides and not for a century ride. A “processed carb” in general is going to be worse for you than its natural equivalent. Some of the benefits compared to Maltodextrinare: Raw honey is unfiltered and unpasteurized, so it holds nutritional and health benefits. It contains 80 percent natural sugars, so it is a fuel for running/biking. Honey provides an easily absorbed supply of energy in the form of liver glycogen, making it ideal as a pre- and post-exercise energy source.

Unlike processed simple carbohydrates, honey raises levels of health-promoting antioxidants in the body, thereby boosting the immune system and acting as a preventative against many debilitating diseases. Honey also benefits the gastrointestinal tract and improves glycemic control. That is a way to get the benefits of quick sugar, without some of the drawbacks of a processed simple carb.

redlude97

Why does this matter on the bike? You want your energy sources to be already processed so they require drawing less water to the gut to digest taking away water from hydration needs. There is nothing special about the sugars in honey, they are simply a mix of glucose and fructose and are processed exactly like the sugar or HFCS found in most "processed" products.

gus6464

I've taken on long rides:

Pb&j sandwich
Sis gels (tropical tastes good and doesn't feel like putting dirt in your mouth)
Honey stinger waffles (honey and vanilla good stuff)
Kids apple sauce packet or two

Stuff it all in a hydro fanny pack and good to go.

Ohh and for the really long stuff go to REI or any camping store and get those squeezable little containers and put some pickle juice in it for an anti-cramp shot.

chas58

Good point. sugar is either Glucose or Fructose (or a combination of the two (sucrose - table sugar)). While there are some more subtle differnces, its still sugar.

Last night I did some hard training for about 90 minutes. I was burning 100% carbs (sugar). Simple sugars are fine for this I literally can not digest anything more complex than simple sugar - I would just throw up anything more complex.

But the OP asked about a century ride. My goal with a century ride is to keep my energy balanced. I don't want to bonk, cramp, or just feel exhausted. I don't want my blood sugar to spike or crash - so I'm not going to rely on simple sugar for a century. Its fine for a shorter ride.

So, Lets back up a bit. I want to keep my energy consistent. Managing both sugar intake and burn are critical I focus on 2 things:
1. Keeping my heart rate moderate, so that I maximize fat burn, and minimize sugar burn
2. Consuming foods that keep my blood sugar steady.

Heart rate is important. When I am sprinting or going a fast tempo I’m burning 100% sugar. So, no sprinting.

If lower it to a more fast endurance pace, I’m burning 53% fat and 47% carbs. That is good for a 3-4 hour hard ride
For a century ride I'll bring that down to a more extended endurance pace and I’m burning 66% fat and 32% Carbs.

Here we are talking about a century ride, so I want to keep my HR moderate to burn as little sugar as practical (and burn mostly fat). Along with that I want food that is going to last a while and not spike my blood sugar. That is complex carbs and protein. Generally, the more natural the food, the less it will spike your blood sugar. My body will absorb ~30 calories per minute from a simple sugar in a drink vs ~2 calories per minute from a complex sugar that is eaten. 30 cal/min is great for a short race, not so good for an endurance event.

chas58

Great advice. I just snuck off with my kids applesauce packet for the first time last year, and now its a regular goto.
Those REI bottles are great - but I've been seeing them much cheaper lately at TJMAX Marshals, Home goods type places (in travel section)

redlude97

That doesn't make sense in the context of honey, just because its natural doesn't mean its not just sugar

gus6464

Wasn't the whole this sugar is better vs this one debunked a while back? To the body sugar is sugar and doesn't matter if you are drinking agave nectar vs popping a sugar packet in your mouth as long as the sugar amount is the same?

redlude97

To some extent yes, except agave nectar is worse because its mostly fructose and your body can only process ~25-30g/hour, so you'd limit how sugar you can take in if you used it as your primary source.

chas58

exactly

Agave (and HFCS) is ~55% fructose, Sugar is 50% fructose.

redlude97

Agave varies from 55 to 92%, hfcs is 55 to 65% fructose. The ideal ratio of fructose:glucose for maximum uptake via parallel pathways is 33:66

rumrunn6

a late, great, endurance cycling, friend once told me about cutting PB&J sandwiches into quarters & eating them throughout long rides. unbeknownst to me, he passed away in September but in October I used two PB&J sandwiches in a mountain feed bag to get me thru an all day gravel ride. managing them was a little tricky, but I think I did OK. wrapped ea quarter in a sep. 1/2 sheet of paper towel & used 2 plastic bags, 1 for ea. sandwich. so long as I had water available, chewing & swallowing wasn't a problem. felt great all day. fwiw, at the 1/2 point I did have something else but I forget what. but the PB&Js lasted my whole ride. I'm pretty sure I would do it again, but all-day rides are rare for me

redlude97

PBJ work great, these make them a bit more portable

If you're going to throw them in jersey pocket keep them frozen and they'll thaw out by the time lunch rolls around

rumrunn6

oh yeah I've seen those

IronM

A couple of my gravel friends have taken to bringing along a ham & cheese sandwich. They're both very successful racers, so might be onto something. Myself - I haven't tried it yet, but considering how much better they do than I, it's worth consideration.

Spoonrobot 

It wasn’t a century but the last 89 mile Cohutta Death March there was a guy who’s only nutrition for the race was a gallon ziploc full of pizza. I thought that was pretty intense, even more so when he finished somewhere top 5 I believe.