Anyways, while a bunch of my randonneuring buddies were suffering in the UK, I did another 400k over the weekend. This was more of a big experiment/testing phase to try new things and hoping to resolve my stomach issues as well as the recent spate of DNFs.
The ride itself was a front-loaded route with all the big climbs up front during the day, then turning into rolling hills in the middle and ending with a nice pancake flat through the night. Weather has been rather unpredictable recently and although the weather report gave it a moderately good chance of rain, but it didn't and was pretty hot throughout the day. There was a bit of headwind along some sections of the course but nothing too bad. Toughest section was probably the big climb during the hottest time of the day, with my Garmin reading over 40C (whether that reading's reliable or not is another thing).
To deal with my stomach issues, my strategy would be to front-load my nutrition as much as possible. We had a buffet breakfast at the starting venue, courtesy of the event sponsor, so that was great. Found a restaurant for brunch at a restaurant around the 70km mark, and that was great too. Instant noodles at CP1, then fruit cake at a quick stop around 150km. But by CP2 my appetite was noticeably degrading and I quickly turned to liquid nutrition. I brought a couple of energy gels specifically for this purpose. Then late at night, I found a McDonalds and, on a hunch, decided to give their chicken porridge a try. Very dilute stuff, might as well call it a liquid than a solid or semi-solid... and my stomach could take it! That helped tremendously for the remaining push to the finish.
Besides eating more, I also took Salt Stick tablets at regular intervals throughout the day (at least until my entire supply had run out). Seemed to have helped a lot with my energy levels.
I've also been using the Garmin smart alerts for drinks, and to drink more in general - though this is more "plenty of constant tiny sips" rather than "big gups at longer intervals". I think this also helped, though as a side effect I was making more stops (on average, once every 50km) for toilet breaks as well as refills.
Night time was my only bugbear for this ride. I didn't sleep-bank enough the past week, and thought I had enough sleep the night before, but apparently I didn't. Was hit by hard drowsiness during the last 70km push to the finish, and my usual strategy of taking 5-minute catnaps weren't working, so I was losing time stopping every so often to try and stave off the effects. I finished in 23h 10m, which I guess is still pretty decent for a 400k, but I would have finished a lot earlier if not for the sleep issues.
Afterwards, I was constantly sleepy, hungry and thirsty for the rest of the day. I wasn't fit to drive home immediately after the ride, and had to lay down and sleep for a couple of hours before I felt safe to drive. I slept for the rest of the day at home and, when not sleeping, kept eating and drinking, and eating ice cream. The hunger pangs continued on for one more day afterwards, but now I think my body's back to normal.
Incidentally, this was the first time I'm using the Garmin Edge 1040 Solar on a long brevet and I'm amazed by it's battery life. During the day, from 7am to 6:30pm, it had only drained from 100% down to 79% (iirc) and by the end of the ride was 53%. To me that's a huge difference, my previous Edge 1030 would have likely been drained to zero (or at least near zero) and require external USB charging during the ride.