Originally Posted by
Fredo76
Most young bodies store enough carbs (glycogen) for about 3-4 hours of hard exercise, without eating. I don't know how age affects this, but I suspect not much. Bonking (running totally out of energy, i.e. 'hitting the wall') happens when those stored carbs are depleted, in people without their fat metabolism already trained.
You could certainly experiment to see if a couple of eggs before riding lessen your soreness, but I suspect it comes more from oxygen debt during more intense portions of your ride. I would be interested in your results.
Otherwise, you could just regard going without food beforehand as a bit of beneficial stress. My 65-year-old body can go two hours on an empty stomach without any problem, and I think a banana, for me, in the third hour is psychologically comforting, but not really necessary.
Well trained athletes on a normal or high carb diet can store about 2 hours worth of glycogen for "hard exercise". Varys from person to person, and how hard you are going, but the dreaded bonk during intense exercise comes in at 1.5-2 hour range.
Low carb people, like the OP, are in a glycogen depleted state all the time. Very little stored glycogen. And if the OP is not truly keto and fully fat adapted , he will have even bigger energy issues - and eggs won't help.
I often ride with a low carb guy. He bounces on the edge of eating a full keto diet, he isn't really fat adapted, and he refuses (well used to refuse) to supplement with carbs. Things would often go very bad for him at the 45 min to 1 hour mark of intense rides. His blood sugars would drop into the low 60's and the man would nearly collapse. Nor was he good at sustained low intensity efforts - he was not efficient at burning fat.