What do you take for 4+ hour rides, when you know there is no cafe stop?
Yes, yes. Another how do I ride further thread 😉
Mini malt loaves, dried apricots, Eat Natural bars, Mars or Snickers, possibly some jelly babies.
An e-bike
Belvita breakfast bar, flap jack, Soreen, banana
A sandwich. Don't over think it.
Depends...
Is it hard ride/race....
Or just a nice long ride...
If it's rice, then sugary gel type goop... easy and fast to eat...
Normal ride = normal food...sarnies, pizza etc
DrP
Whatever you want to eat on a long ride. Prefer solid food over sports stuff, so chewy bars, something savoury as well.
Though why would you do a ride without a cafe? What kind of madness is that?
Though why would you do a ride without a cafe? What kind of madness is that?
Damn good Q. However on Monday we did 4+ hours round the Aberfoyle area with no cafe option. And Friday we did a 6 hour winter hill walking day. On both I didn’t eat enough. The latter was just not stopping in the weather - had loads in my rucksack; the former I just went out with outdoor provision bars which wasn’t enough. Today we are going out for another 40 mile gravel ride and I’m thinking what to raid as we ride past the coop, that is easy to carry.
DrP - definitely nice long slow ride. The word race doesn’t feature in my vocabulary!
Some classic suggestions above, though a lot of carb and sugar. No protein?
Some of the dried fruit/Soreen stuff is a non starter for me, as IBS + no cafe stop is a potential disaster!!! (Over share!)
Christmas cake.
Sandwiches.
It is quite useful to know the whereabouts of all the easily accessible apple trees on your ride.
We've pivoted away from "specialist" cycling products towards a mix of more ordinary food.
We make a trail mix with nuts, dried apricots/ cherries, mint imperials and wine gums/ jelly babies/ haribo.
Regular nut/ fruit bars - sweet and savory.
Pressed fruit bars
Those sachets of pulped fruit with a screw off lid
Ginger cake
Sandwiches
Etc etc.
Malt loaf, a banana, some nature bars and lots of SIS gels. Plus bloks for ad libitem continuous grazing (three packets). Eat something every 30-40min switching solid and gel, and eat a decent bowl of porridge with brown sugar before you go.
Good for 8hour rides. For longer I have a special mix of mashed rice and tuna plus semolina in freezer bags, but we won’t go there 🤣
Coke* and carbs
*your favourite variety
Isotonic carb drink (decathlon's powdered drink is really good) then mini malt loaf, some bananas, cerial bars/oat bars. Gels for emergencies
I'm assuming you are stopping to eat rather than fishing food out of your pockets whilst riding?
I have issues with gluten heavy foods (bloating) and can't eat nuts. I prefer savoury food so my go to lunches are:
Frittata - home made if I have time otherwise from Morrisons.
Oatcakes and Primula cheese.
Proper cheese sandwich but with Ryvita
Home made beef jerky
Home dried fruits - banana, apple, peach mostly
Jelly beans for a fast sugar hit if necessary.
cold pizza for me on long days out. and zip loc bags of mixed olives.
and liquorice.
Seems I'm over simplifying my ride eats, generally don't eat breakfast anyhow, if no suitable leftovers in the fridge I just pick up a couple of scotch eggs from wherever, maybe a wrap, have one late morning and the rest for late lunch. Never take any of these sports foods, sugery sweets etc, does me fine.
I seem to do a mix of everything suggested.
I carry a bottle of isotonic energy drink for sipping when eating isn't an option. At the start of the ride I tend to eat more complex carbs like cereal/breakfast bars, flapjacks or rice cakes. Towards the end of a ride I eat more sugary things so stuff like fruit, jelly beans and jelly babies. I always take a caffeine gel as an emergency get out of jail free card.
One of the best pieces of advice i was ever given for rides like this is to take food that you are going to want to eat and don't over think the nutrition profile. At the end of the day what you need are calories, in any form, if you like it and want to eat it you will, if on the other hand you don't fancy it, well it's not going to help sitting in your bag/pocket.
Newbie error: buy some "energy bars" from your local supermarket the day before and then find out on the ride that they are dry-as-dust inedible lumps of raw squashed porridge oats.
Porridge for breakfast.
Cheese and pickle sandwiches. Bonus points if using home-made bread.
Windfall apples.
We're now supposed to think of ourselves as 'athletes' needing 'sports nutrition,' mainly so people can sell us stuff. Outside of cutting edge competitive sport, you'll be fine on a couple of cheese rolls, flapjack, tangfastics and whatever else you can fit in your luggage of choice without it getting squashed.
*See also the 'stay hydrated or die' bollox designed to shift camelbacks and sports drinks.
First of all, I take food, not fuel. 😀 I'm typically out for 3 hour rides and wouldn't eat during that time. If it's going to be much longer then Peanut butter and honey rolls are my " energy" food, though I'll otherwise just take rolls with cold meat, cheese, coleslaw whatever.
Jelly babies for a short sugar hit.
Chocolate covered nuts and raisins.
I almost always have a pack of energy sweets or a gel with me too but they're always going out of date.
Maccy Ds - 99p cheese burger:
1200 calories all the basic food groups covered.
Hit the drive through nearest to the halfway point of your ride, spend the return leg trying to out run the shame...
A ~225g bag of jelly babies.
Food.
But et well beforehand and you won't need much. 4 hr ride I would only take some snacks. Only if its all day do I take food then its sandwiches / pies / cakes
Pork pies, chocolate chip brioche buns and peanut butter and apple turnovers, a bottle of rioja and or money for the pub.
@ahsat
The 'feed zone portables' book is really good.. Nice little recipes in there...
I've a spare copy if you're anywhere near the south coast.. you can have it!
DrP
I always make Elvis sandwiches. Crusty cob filled with streaky bacon, peanut butter and apricot jam. Also date and coconut chewy bar. They gave me the recipe at the Marquis Drive cafe and I make a pile of that with added cherries and sultanas.
Another good one is boiled new potatoes with some olive oil and salt in a ziploc bag.
I like mini pork pies. Quite moist, fit in a pocket, stronger than scotch eggs. Plus they work as normal food as well.
The problem with scotch eggs is that they are quite a lot to eat at once and don't really handle being half-eaten. I've had the mini scotch eggs but the ratio of breadcrumbs:filler isn't great.
Pub
Chippy
It's like you didn't even read the OP. Awfy short of pubs and chippies in the Hielands, as you know!
I did, it said no cafe stop 😋
Seconding mini pork pies. Densely calorific, salty and tasty. Perfect after 3 hr stint. Combine with a snickers for turbo boost.
I wish I could find my thread from years ago where I listed what I ate on my WHW ride. It was seriously a lot.
Doing the Lord of the loops peak ride mid lockdown involved a very heavy rucksack.
On a related, but tangential, note I bought a standard sized baguette today and just discovered that my son has eaten it for lunch with his tomato salad. All 24 inches or whatever is was.
We tend to eat stupid amounts in my family.
Mini Melton Mowbrays, your favourite hard cheese, boiled eggs. cake, marzipan. dried fruit and nuts. Wash it all down with full fat milk. Don't be surprised if you put on weight during the ride, but at least you won't bonk. If it's just over 4 hours then the eggs and cheese will probably be enough, the rest is for proper long rides.
Chocolate spread sandwiches!
Or
Ham and cheese sandwiches sometimes you just want food. Mini pork pie third'd
And Haribo obviously
Strawberry jam and cheese sandwiches - blimmin' brilliant 🙂
Also a few slices of flapjack if you like that sort of thing, and a bag of jelly babies for emergencies.
I do like bananas, too, but carrying the peel around until you can get rid of it can get messy so I tend to avoid them.
Thanks all. I have a lot of respect for those who can do 3 hours without food, but both me and my Mum suffer low blood sugar levels (not diabetes, been checked several times!) and it just doesn’t work for me. Some good ideas here (thanks for the videos and links), and I am definitely already onboard re the pork pies.
Out for 5.5 hours on the gravel bike today, with 4200+ feet of climbing. Ate a lot more than I can do (bars, nut butter sandwich, bananas), and tried hard to watch my HR and ride every hill as ‘easily’ as possible. Have come back feeling significantly less trashed than I could do/have in the past. And that is on top of Fridays winter hill today. Thanks for all the advice stw - some way to go, but maybe the Badger Divide is going to be an option.
can't find the original thread, but for some reason found the list on another thread. This is the second most I've eaten during a ride:
coffee
scone and jam
two cheese ham and picked onion sandwiches
2 chocolate pancakes
honey roast cashews/peanuts
jelly babies
toasted pitta bread
Baton de Berger Salami
tin of Soup
Squeezy fruit purees
1 litre Apple Juice
1 litre grape juice
4 cans of Pepsi
1 can of Irn Bru
8 bananas
Packet of fig rolls
2 Ambrosia rice pudding
couple of slices of smoked ham
packet of wine gums
lots of water
oh and a couple of boiled eggs
I have a lot of respect for those who can do 3 hours without food
Why?
Exercise if fun, eating's fun. Embrace it 😉
... both me and my Mum suffer low blood sugar levels
You're probably aware of this already if it's something that affects your daily life, but in my experience what you eat off the bike is just as important as what you eat on it. It's easy to say you can eat this, or that, and you'll be good, but there's a certain amount of conditioning that enables people to do that. It may come naturally to many people - they're probably people who naturally have a better diet than me. I've become comfortable with doing endurance rides over the years. It wasn't always that way though and I still suffer if I start loading up on sugary foods day to day. When that happens it can take me weeks to readjust.
On a four hour ride I would take two banana's and some flap jack or similar, bottles would have fairly dilute Torq energy powders...I'd probably have a gel somewhere in case it goes wrong.
Up to say 6-8 hours it'd be the same but more of it. I'm impressed with those that can get pizza and boiled spuds in there jersey pockets!!
If rides go past about 7-8 hours savoury becomes necessary.
It’s very valid butcher. I eat pretty healthy off the bike. I could do with every ride having a mid avocado and poached egg, to avoid the sugar highs/lows. But less practical in a jersey pocket. In some respects the nut butters, bananas, a cheese sandwich and pork pies are the best for me. Though still need for some flapjack in there when the sugar is too low!
Even today I was having to hoover up some clif blocks 4 miles from home as I felt I was blowing up. This week we walked 1.5 miles before dinner and I had to get an emergency twirl from the Coop! I hate how bad the lows can be, and with little warning. But I am used to it (most of our bags have an emergency chewy bar in them); but it’s why eating properly on the bike has clearly become key for me to be out longer.
