Originally Posted by
pepperbelly
Slower pace? I’m 65, overweight and out of shape. Basically I’m a sloth!😄
I am going to add carbs an hour or so before riding but I want to do good carbs. I have had several people mention oatmeal.
Slower pace meaning a pace that keeps your average HR during the ride in Zone 3 or lower. If you are in a group and trying to keep up with a bunch of Sepp Kuss wanna be's, then you are doomed no matter what you do or don't consume. Or even if you are solo and are that Sep Kuss wanna be.
A serving of oatmeal is only going to be 27 grams of carbohydrate. So only 108 Calories. So that won't really add much to a 60 minute or more ride. Also if your glycogen has been repleted during the time prior to that bowl of oatmeal, then it's likely going to just do all the bad things that carb's do for the body.
I have never been a fan of the idea of carb loading prior to a ride. Carb's are very easily converted to glycogen in the body and if glycogen is not needed, then carb's probably start getting changed to fatty acids for storage as fat. And we all have too much of that.
Since most of us will have carbohydrates in our diet in sufficient amounts the glycogen lost during the ride will be replaced before the next ride. Unless all the rides are very high effort and very frequent. Or a person is on a extreme low carb diet and might need to consider adding enough carbs to their diet to replace the glycogen lost during the previous rides. And IMO, the better is to start loading those carbs in after the ride, not just a hour or so prior to the next ride.
Personally, no matter what diet fad one uses, I think most will benefit from just consuming supplemental carbohydrates during the ride. And eat or drink them every 10 to 15 minutes in a small quantity that's easy on the stomach. For most rides you start expending glycogen anytime you get in the higher zones, especially if you exceed your lactate threshold and are anaerobic where only muscle glycogen can be processed fast enough to sustain you till it runs out. Carbs consumed while riding are able to be absorbed by the gut into the blood stream to be converted fairly fast to glycogen to replace what's lost. IMO and AFAIK.
And to me it would seem that replacing consuming the carbs while on the bike will mean that they'll be used for energy instead of stored. Once converted to fatty acids and fat, they'll be harder to get rid of. It's also unlikely you'll consume more carbohydrates while riding than is used for energy. If you do, you'll likely feel bloated or queasy while you ride and that'll slow you down.