Ok not really scientific – but in the last four days done the same hilly 60m road ride down to Goodwood in different directions. Had one bottle of water with me on the bike a banana and two SIS gels. Stopped once on first ride and three times today due to the heat for refreshment.

Experimented with skimmed milk during the ride for a change. Tasted great but not sure of the energy effect if any. A litre disappeared today at mile 40 in a few seconds. But a few miles later and legs were shot on any hills – a real bonk! Hmmm….

Struggled on but dropped down to spinning low gears and a very gently pace. Very big hill at mile 59 so a bit concerned. Stopped off at a Tesco express (mile 55) and downed a lucozade pink (normally avoid like the plague) and some volvic. Bingo….legs back and final hill was nae bother.

The power of lucozade, I wonder?

The power of sugar!

round the corner chocolates made…

I almost said that too!

Normal drink for ride or other sport is simply squash/juice heavily diluted with spot of sugar and salt.

Why not dump a couple of your gels into the skimmed milk to give you an “energy milkshake”. Should also help with recovery due to the protein 🙂

You carry milk on a ride to drink in this heat? Yuk

😀

(Tesco Midhurst and the Lodsworth Larder to be precise!)

Neither are ideal. Milk on such a hot day, barf city. Lucouzade packed with sugar for short term hit only.

Water and gels. Even flat coke is better than lucouzade. Or of course an ice cream 8)

You need the best of both worlds the slower release from the proteins and fats in the milk and the more instant boost from the lucozade – so you’ll get better results if you mix the milk and lucozade together, give it a good old shake to make sure its mixed properly.

What about full fat milk ? any thoughts, I did a milk round for a farmer in the late 70`s when green top was still around, I used to drink a pint of green top full fat non-pasteurised a day, I was proper little racing snake then.

Milk mid ride? Bleurrrgh! I be getting a second look at it..

Isn’t chocolate milkshake meant to be really good for recovery, and presumably a mid-ride fuel? The normal Mars type is supposedly just as good as the For Goodness Shakes type.

Skimmed milk?!? What is wrong with you? Next you’ll be telling is you prefer decaff coffee, non alcoholic beer and fakeon.

If you’re going to take all the good stuff out of something don’t expect it to work right.

Fat’s useful for long slow rides but skimmed milk must be better for faster ones. Not that I can imagine drinking it whilst riding, great for recovery though.

Isn’t chocolate milkshake meant to be really good for recovery, and presumably a mid-ride fuel?

Recovery and fueling on the go are very different things. One is converting stuff to be used immediately the other is about replenishing what you have used over time. It takes time and energy to convert food/drink some are faster like Sugar and others are slower. Plenty of good reading on the subject.