[Closed] Help me fuel for a 100mile ride please

Very rough rule = 1g carbs for every kg of bodyweight / hour.  2 gels = 40g carbs so not surprising you ran out of fuel.

Your bloodstream contains enough 'fuel' to last 1-2 hours, depending on how hard you're going, but you really need to start refuelling every 20 minutes to keep yourself topped-up otherwise if your blood-suger drops, you bonk / hit-the-wall/ fringale or whatever you want to call it.

You can chose how you take those carbs, either energy drink or solid food, but complex carbs / starchy foods are better than pure sugars.

Cheers.

6 hours on after the ride and I still feel crap  and have a headache

Big fry up in the morning. Big pub lunch. Couple of pints of beer. Big evening meal in the pub with more beer.

That worked for 100 mile days doing lejog.

Big fry up in the morning. Big pub lunch. Couple of pints of beer. Big evening meal in the pub with more beer.

That worked for 100 mile days doing lejog.

This

In all seriousness, ride slower. It's not a race. Backing off 2mph, at least one bottle an hour, and as much real food - flapjacks, sandwiches, as you can carry/fit in a top tube bag/buy in shops and pubs on the way round

What you eat before is much, much more important. With that in mind, my 100 mile fuelling is:

Big bowl of porridge or similar and maybe an omelette and hour or 2 before.

Energy bar 45 mines before the start.

2, maybe 3 gels to take as and when, always with 1 caffeinated one for the last 20 miles.

Something a bit more substantial around half way, Soreen is good, a pork pie works as well, as does a dirty pasty.

And that’s it, eat well before and you’ll get away without the real food if pushed and the gels are to take as needed.

Big fry up in the morning. Big pub lunch. Couple of pints of beer. Big evening meal in the pub with more beer.

That worked for 100 mile days doing lejog.

This

Spot the northers 🙂

Just practise eating on rides, museli bars, flap jack, bananas are good. Try using energy powder in water but run it about half the recommended strength then on the ride itself have a couple of energy bars and gels in you pockets. Use the gels in the second half but try to keep eating regularly. Something every 20 mins as suggested just vary what you eat

100 miles. say 4/5/60kcal a mile, so 4/5/6000 kcals = eat what the bloody hell you like! cheeseburgers and beer all the way round! 😆

Well fed and watered day before and a decent breakfast, ideally porridge type. On the ride eat proper food regularly - banana, jam sandwich, fruit loaf etc. Gels work for some, and are not required by most.

A recent ride of that distance was as follows:

Breakfast. Coffee and croissant. Too hungover for anything else.

Mid morning. Coffee and pastry

Lunch. Three course meal, one pint of beer and one pint of Cider.

Mid afternoon. Half pint beer.

Late afternoon. Half pint beer.

Evening after finish. Pasta salad and pint of cider.

You're welcome.

Just keep eating and drinking, pretty much whatever you like.

I've done a few solo 140 odd mile rides and shot blocks work well for me while I'm trundling along and you don't have as much sticky rubbish to deal with (puts me right off gels!)

I normally have a load of sandwiches on me plus the obligatory malt loaf, then I'll stop at a pub at about 80-90 miles and get proper minimum card spend tourettes at the bar, beer, coke, just about every flavour of crisps and nuts that they've got.

Tip tip: don't try and eat shot blox dehydrated 🤣🤣

A proper sit down meal would almost always be welcome but I've always been on a schedule to meet the family the other end.

as others have mentioned certain people get on better with certain types of food, so with the time/rides you've got left try experimenting with different bars/gels/drinks & see what works best for you. I can smash down sis go bars & electroyte for 10hours with no ill effects, while others would be pretty ill

in this mid to upper 20s heat I'd definitely suggest more fluid intake. that'll also make a massive difference to after ride headaches & reducing cramps. little & often during the ride. plan places to top up mid ride.

as obvious as it sounds, stay off alcohol at least the night before

I get the beer, sit down meals etc when you’re touring but if it’s a hard n fast 100 I couldn’t think of anything worse.

I usually go with SIS energy bars and whatever gells I happen to have at the time. No special favourites.

sometime I stop for a can of coke from a vending machine or garage but that’s about it can be a bit bloaty but needs must.

pusing hard and doing 20 mph average I just want gels, bars and water, absolutely no bulky food that needs to be digested or will sit in my belly.

sometime I stop for a can of coke from a vending machine or garage but that’s about it can be a bit bloaty but needs must.

Dilute it in your water bottle with some water 😀

Burrrrggghhhhh. Rather enjoy it and put up with the burps 🙂

Your simply not fit enough.

Note high 5 are isotopic so they dehydrate you.

Simply 4 bottles of water and 3 gels. Take the gels after 50 miles as your 3 egg omelette with ham for breakfast will carry you through to the 50.

IF you are still dead now after 40 miles it's mileage and fitness you are lacking. Just ride more so 3 days a week ideally over 8 weeks preparation.

The tour de broads is flat. I live here and have done it so nothing is hard or hilly.

More importantly just enjoy it if you are new to the sport or do the 50 if you feel unfit. There's always next year.

Porridge with berries is what I usually eat before a big ride.

During the ride I eat a couple of jelly babies every 15 minutes. I also take a caffeine gel with me just in case I am struggling.

5 bottles of high 5 energy source and about 4-5 gels and a couple of SiS mini bars have done me the last couple this yeast. But if I was cruising rather than riding hard it I'd mix it up with a couple of bananas, flapjack, mini sandwich. Nice easy to digest stuff and maybe a gel or 2. I like to have a bottle of high 5 and one of water on my long training rides too.

There's no way you'll burn 6000 calories riding 100 miles unless you can manage it at threshold.

You can't absorb calories at that rate anyway, you're looking at 200-300 an hour and no more than 90g of carb an hour, after that you're just pooing it straight out as the body can't process anymore.

The headache is due to dehydration, 2 bottles, even 750ml is not enough for what appears to be quite an intensive effort.

A decent tea will help massively, followed by a good breakfast and concentrate on consuming  up to 90g of carb per hour in easy to digest form, drinks are a good way, that and fruit such as cranberrys. Flapjack are all well an good, but they are hard to break down and it's doubtful you'll get any benefit from the first one until about 3 hours in.

If I go out for a ride of that length I normally just take one bottle and stop for a spot of lunch somewhere on the way, but I'm not usually trying to go at pace. How much you need to fuel depends heavily on how hard you are working. Not only do you get less efficient at harder work rates, but there is obviously less time for your body to extract energy from its stores, so its a double edged sword. Drinking is even more work rate dependent, due to sweating.

Most of the advice above is good stuff, but if you find you don't have enough energy / food / drink, slow down a bit if possible - it makes a big difference.

What steve_b77 says.

If you not used to riding long distances it can be a shock to your system.

when I started to do long distances I needed lots more food/fuel than I do now.

Get flapjack type food into you every hour, and half way around a cheese or similar sandwich to actually tell your stomach you’ve eaten ... last few miles sugary food will get you home; energy gels, packet of rowntree jelly etc

drink lots of fluid!!

I did 100 miles last Sunday, the temperature was about 30 degrees. I drank plenty of water with breakfast and 2x 500ml bottles in the first 50 miles, 2 drinks at cafe, and 2x500 ml in the last 50 miles. For long rides especially in warm weather I put half a rehydration tab in my water, seems to help keep headaches away.

In general when I do 100+ mile rides, I have something like chicken and pasta the night before, and then cereals/porridge for breakfast. If it’s going to be a ride without a cafe stop I’ll add egg on toast to my breakfast. On the ride, I usually need a snack (eg banana) by 30-40 miles. If there’s no cafe stop I prefer energy bars to gels but I take an emergency gel with me.

Love this stuff:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isostar-Hydrate-Perform-Lemon-Powder/dp/B000T92I84

Isostar powder. Not cheap so. And for 100 miles you need a lot of this. But you can take it with you and mix it with water on the way.

100 miles: go the first 60 miles really, really slow! There are always some extremely fit bikers which try to make you bike too fast. If you are not as fit yet take lots of isostar and bike slow.

Pasta the day before.

To start slow is the biggest challenge in my opinion.

Your simply not fit enough.

Bit rude that. A few years back i did a 60 miler for charadie. At the time i was lucky if out got out on the bike (mtb) once a month. Smoked (still do 🙁 ) and did no training. Stuck some slicks on my hardtail and put on a bigger front cog (was 1x9). I was worried i'd not be up for it but it was surprisingly easy. The fact it wasn't a race helped. As for fuel. I had breakfast and a sandwich after. Just go at your own pace and don't overthink it! Good luck

100 miles isn't very far really, especially on flat land.

Decent meal the night before, good breakfast (porridge), plenty fluids before the start, and a couple bottles of water (forget the electrolytes), plus 4 Snickers bars sees me good for a 200km (125miles) at audax pace over a mountainous route. It's even easier if you do stop for a meal about halfway.

Try doing some steady pre breakfast fasted rides say 20 miles in length, this will help to lose a bit of weight and train your body to use the reserves more effectively. Personally gels don’t work for me, it sends my blood sugars all over the shop. Bananas tick the box with a top tube bag with small portions of protein bars. No wrappers to faff with and easy to eat on the go. I combined this with longer training rides to complete the 150 mile coast to coast ride a month ago in a respectable time too. I lost 2 stone as part of the 5 month training plan. If you have weight to lose then this will have the biggest impact on the enjoyment of your ride.

I'd treat your current level of performance as a positive OP, you can already bash out half the distance at too high a pace so by reducing your avg speed and being a bit "strategic" you can cover 100 miles...

How many days do you have till the event? I'd plan them out now, along with at least a rough diet.

Rest is as important as exercise, so I'd let that tough 50 settle in for today and most of tomorrow at least, have some protein, chicken, milk stuff that's going to help your legs recover. You've just given your body a bit of a shock, it will need a couple of days to recover.

The advantage of the current weather/time of the year is that you can get out for (relatively relaxed, ) solo evening rides, maybe do a couple of hours every other evening between now and the event, concentrating on controlling the pace, and allowing yourself little bits of recovery (not stopping, just managing effort) along the way... You're basically trying to get your body used to metering out effort.

And get used to spinning up climbs and settling into a comfortable rhythm with a sustainable HR on flat sections, worry less about speed and more about conserving energy while making progress.

Ideally if you have a HRM you'll be able to gauge what level of work you can operate at comfortably at, do you know your avg HR during that recent big effort? It's a good indicator of what you can sustain, whatever you did for that ride is too much, so dial it back. Basically Just practice operating at a more sustainable work rate...

In all seriousness, ride slower. It’s not a race. Backing off 2mph, at least one bottle an hour, and as much real food – flapjacks, sandwiches, as you can carry/fit in a top tube bag/buy in shops and pubs on the way round

This, assuming you're not a racing snake.

I'm currently sitting in a beer garden with a pint and a packet of peanuts, 65 miles into an 80 mile ish ride. I've drunk a bottle of water every twenty miles ish, I had a cereal bar at about 30miles, stopped for a sandwich, packet of crisps and a coke at 45 miles and had cereal and a banana for breakfast

Similarly, I've done rides where I don't really want to stop, like Ride London, with jersey pockets full of cheese rolls and cereal bars.

Unless you are riding on the rivet, you do not need gels or 'sports nutrition'.

Hi all thanks for the replies .

So I've been building up the mileage and have about 4 weeks until the event.

I'm that time I've also got a week in Lanzarote with the family at an all inclusive place !!

I don't really feel as though I'm going that fast at an average of 16.8 mph.

I will try taking a bit of malt loaf and stuff with me on the next ride.

One thing that I'm confused about is that people say that when you have expended all food reserves your body will start burning off fat. It doesn't seem to be happening for me .  Is there any way to try and help it ?

One thing that I’m confused about is that people say that when you have expended all food reserves your body will start burning off fat. It doesn’t seem to be happening for me . Is there any way to try and help it ?

haha

That's fun. Yes - the body keeps the fat as emergency thing ... and doesn't like to burn it!

Help it: think only way is to get really fitter. More muscle mass needs more energy?

But complex issue!

Perhaps you need a new bike 😋

As above eat well before hand. Keep eating as and when you can and make sure you stay hydrated.

Best thing to do is draft other people and never go on the front. If you are on your own slow down and wait for another group so you can sit on the wheels of others.

If you are feeling good with 20 to go you can take a turn on the front. Drafting saves around 30% energy give or take.

Your goal this year is to finish. Next year its to beat this year's time.

Maybe the bike is wrong?

So I’ve been building up the mileage and have about 4 weeks until the event.

I'd try and stick to sensible length rides for the most part, distances that you can recover from within 24hrs and try to "taper" the effort/mileage in that last week, beware of over training.

I’m that time I’ve also got a week in Lanzarote with the family at an all inclusive place !!

All inclusive places do tend to do plenty of (quite tasty) healthy food too so you can eat and enjoy your holiday, have some treats, just maybe just go easy on the carbs. Does the hotel have a gym? Can you take trainers go for a couple of early morning runs while you're there? You can almost certainly squeeze in a few laps of the pool each day, you can slow down but try to maintain some level of activity...

I don’t really feel as though I’m going that fast at an average of 16.8 mph.

Well you are, it's a respectable pace, certainly over the 50 odd miles you did it, but It's not a pace you can sustain for 100 miles, the simple evidence is that you're bolloxed after half the distance you want to cover, and in the time you have to prepare you're not going to double your endurance or shit out five stone. So something has to give and the obvious thing is avg speed.

You need to reduce the work rate, maybe target 15mph avg with a view to dropping it lower if necessary. And have you got a HRM? HR is almost certainly the metric to focus on not avg speed.

Maybe couple of weeks from now see if you can do ~70 miles at 15mph avg and have something left in the tank by the end, that would definitely indicate you're on target for the century (at about that pace) another two weeks on...

Thanks cookeaa much appreciated

Not 100 miles, but 100km solo today in the heat and slight head wind. 15mph average. HR always below threshold (zone 2 for most of the ride).

Couple of muffins for breakfast. 3 litres of water, 2 cans of full fat lemonade and two ice lollies during the ride. Was fine.

YMM(well)V.

I think it was the two ice lollies that helped you lol

Fuelling with carbs means you need a fuelling strategy.  You need to realistically assess your energy demands and replenish.

The "science" behind these strategies (and the billion dollar business of sports nutrition) is barely science (associative rather than causative studies) and usually ignores the gut distress, peaks and troughs, and off-the-bike consequences of a carbs and glucose fuelling strategy.

Many people can reasonably adapt to fat burning in as little as 10 days, which makes 100 miles a doddle.

The studies that investigated non-carb fuelling strategies and demonstrated superiority of carbs used non adapted subjects.

Try doing some steady pre breakfast fasted rides say 20 miles in length, this will help to lose a bit of weight

Not as much as some post breakfast harder rides.

3 things - the headache is probably dehydration. It’s very hot at the moment (assume it’s the same where you are) so I’d have rinsed through those 2 bottles and it wouldn’t have been enough. I did a push up morning on the mtb a few weeks ago and had a headache the rest of the day. Drank 4 or 5 pints of water once I was home and eventually got on top of it and the headache faded.

With road biking it’s not seen as cool to ride with a back pack - but assuming you aren’t racing I’d take the bottles and a hydration pack - that way you can get 2 or 3 litres of water in the bag as well as the bottles. Maybe use energy / electrolytes in the bottles and pure water in the bag.

Im not massively up on nutrition but is the done thing still to eat a big pasta meal the night before?

I’d then have some kind of oat based breakfast and then make sure I had suitable snacks as I went along. I’ve never cycled much past 50 miles on the road (and fuelling never been a problem)  but I think I’d take some energy gels / a banana or 2 / soreen mini bars. I’m not a fan of a lot of energy bars as I find them really stodgy to eat.

Do you stop for lunch in this ride - or is it non stop? I haven’t looked it up but assume it’s a sportive rather than a full race?

Lastly it sounds like you need to get some decent mileage into your legs in the next 4 weeks. Going on running training the first 2 weeks are the ones to get the biggest miles in, then taper down so you don’t do too many the week before so your legs are fresh.

"the headache is probably dehydration"

This is probably a non-medical diagnosis and neither is anything I write.

The human body is made up of homeostatic systems.  We self-regulate.   The self-regulation is intrinsic, automatic and beautifully capable, until it encounters an external influence beyond its scope of control.  We are evolved creatures of exercise.  We are not evolved to drink gallons of liquid while exercising.  What has worked for me is to do as little out of the ordinary as possible to my body and let it sort it out.  YMMV.

That said.

Humans do not get through as much water exercising as the drinks companies tell you.  Sometimes, overdrinking is the cause of headaches as a precursor stage to EAH (exercise associated hyponatremia).  Low intensity exercising adults (females particularly) who hydrate excessively can put themselves in a life threatening condition (EAH) which cannot be corrected orally; this is suspected to be the single largest cause of collapse and death in marathon running (it isn't the elite who die, it is the punters who go slowly, don't sweat that much and over-hydrate).

When cycling, a little sweat goes a long way for body temperature regulation because of the general airflow.  So hydration guidelines for runners (what the drinks companies sell) are inappropriate.

When you're hot, drinking doesn't make you cooler.  Sweating does.  If you're hot on the bike (and not thirsty) tip that bidon of water over your head and down your back.

Drink to thirst unless you are one of the truly rare people who lacks a sense of thirst.

To confirm if a "drink to thirst" strategy is working check your urine colour - clear to straw; not yellow.

Last bit: hydration isn't necessary to sustain performance; all those hydration/performance tests were done in the lab with inadequate airflow and therefore inadequate temperature regulation.  temperature determines performance.  Keep your temperature regulated and you will sustain performance even having lost a lot of fluid - often this is more comfortable on the gut that shoving a mathematically formulaic volume of fluid back in the system.  Even dehydrated athletes can sweat.  There is a phenomenal wealth of BS around these subjects.  Suggest referring to Tim Noakes book "Waterlogged" for a review of forty years of science in this area.

88 miles yesterday to and from a spot of social ride leading - granola and coffee for breakfast, peanut butter flapjack and tea at first café, small slice of lemon cheesecake and tea at second café stop, Pimms flavoured scone with Pimms clotted cream and a cappuccino at third stop, 3 bottles of High 5 Zero as well.

Probably not very sustainable thinking about it!

Tim Noakes a purveyor of nutritional woo himself. I would be careful citing him as the scientific rigour is no longer there.