deacon mark

Interesting what you call a long ride 30 miles? What is a long ride for you? If you are reasonably trained and it is not hot 30 miles requires nothing. No fluid or food at least for those trained. Well trained cyclist can easily ride 50 miles with no food or even liquid. I wonder about your dietary habits the day before you ride. I generally ride or run daily so I have a tolerance and it requires I still eat good after to replace. Personally I would just not do the baby food thing at all. It sort of defeats one of my purposes for riding in that I like to eat and eat good food. Eating baby food to ride just seems to not sound real appealing to me. I went out this morning and it was chilly at 46 degrees and I road 52 miles on no food or liquid at all. Was not thirsty when I came in and in fact not really hungry.

70sSanO

Starts with baby food.

Ends with a diaper.

It’s the circle of life.

John

jjames1452 

I appreciate the no advice on cramps and letting me know I'm not a trained cyclist. Any advice on chronic glute pain. I figured it best to go to the source.

MattTheHat 

I would normally let a zombie thread like this die off, but I can't resist replying to this.

Suggesting a reasonably trained rider doesn't need water in 50 or even 30 miles is...I'm looking for a nice word here...let's just go with incorrect. 30-50 miles with no food, absolutely not an issue for most riders. But not hydrating? Even at 25 MPH, that's exercising for two hours without taking a drink. No thanks. Doesn't sound smart at all, no matter the temperature.

deacon mark

You should check out what exercise physiologist say about hydration. The body does know when it needs liquid and a trained athlete can push many things that while optimal, may not need to be done. As a life long runner and marathoner numerous runners have completed a marathon and not drank or drank very little. Running a 3 hour marathon is way more intense than any 3 hour bike ride of any kind. In training and how a person trains they easily have no need for liquids at all in 2 hours whatever the distance. Not to suggest this is the best practice but certainly done all the time and not dangerous. Taking liquids because of sweating and depletion also requires the need to replace electrolytes. Just drinking plain water can actually be dangerous if you keep drinking without replacing sodium and potassium. It is well documented in medical literature. I am also willing to stand by the " nice word" it is correct to do this if you are use to this and many cyclist and runners are very much.

The one thing that does make a difference is that in the very hot and dry climate yes no question you have to take water and replace sometimes at amazing rates. It is stupid and dangerous to ride in the heat and not take liquids. Riding in the cold at 30 degrees I don't sweat and I don't want to sweat and lose very little liquids. Zombie thread but still fun to discuss we just differ very much.

Carbonfiberboy 

I ride with a very strong rider who, in PNW winter temperatures of 45-60,, will ride 60 or so miles on half a bottle of water and suffer no ill effects - still strong to the end. He's been doing this for a long time. Riders, and I assume runners also, get faster when slightly dehydrated, up to about 2%. I always drink to thirst. That's why we have thirst - to tell us when we need water. It's "that word," to pound water when not thirsty. When I was a teen it was common knowledge and coach's advice to never drink during a game. Gives you stomach cramps, don't you know? Then, as usual, culture flipped the other way and it was 8 glasses a day and everyone carrying water bottles wherever they went, and "drink before you're thirsty" was normative advice for all athletes, and that was also "that word."

One would hope that now we can pay more attention to science than to all the nonsense so prevalent in our culture. But as we have written on our shop wall, "Hope is the fatal flaw."

jjames1452 

Tonic water has quinine in it. I tried those little bottles of Canada Dry before a ride for a while.

No diuretics. I do have kidney stones.

I believe I will be cooking potato and sweet potato chips this Fall.

jppe

I tried tonic water and it just sit on my stomach well.......especially without gin!