Originally Posted by
unterhausen
Is "gainer" high carb? You can get away with eating just about anything on a ~200km ride. Although when I did a 200k on almost all malto/whey mix, I got nauseous with 30 miles left. Getting the salt mix correct in my mix was never something I mastered.
Gainer is usually 2/3 or 3/4 carbs, the rest is protein. So, similar to your usual bowl of pasta and chicken. From my experience, I learned that me personally can get away without a proper nutrition plan on a ride up to 150km top (though sometimes I reach a pre-bonk state even sooner). That's because I usually don't have a type of food at hand I could eat again and again while going, plus the need to eat something every 20 minutes sort of irritates me during a long run, I tend to start skipping it, or forgetting until it's too late. I thought about gainer because a) it's easier to consume - you just gulp it down, clean your bottle from remains, refill it with water and get back on the road and b) usually gainer has something they call "carbo matrix" which is a combo of fast and slow burning carbohydrates to maintain increased but steady (no sudden spikes) blood sugar level for a prolonged period of time. So I hoped I could just go for an hour on one such drink.
Originally Posted by
unterhausen
On one of my 1200km grand randonnees, I'm pretty sure most of my calories came from some form of chocolate milk and Reese's peanut butter cups. I switched it up by drinking cold cappuccino drinks in the mornings. At about day 3 the craving for real food became overwhelming. It was so hot I'm somewhat amazed that I got enough salt.
The problem with relying on a particular product you can't carry with you in required amount - you can't be sure you'll be able to buy it away from big cities. At least it's like this in our country (not a very rich one). In a small town, or village, you won't have that much of a choice, only a limited selection of basic cheap foods and sweets.