As per the title really, I'm having a crack at the South Downs Way on the BHF ride on Saturday but curious as to what would be good food to take along with me. Or at least consume at the various stops along the route.
I did a 6 hour off road ride last week and hit the wall big time near the end, which is never a bundle of laughs. Thought I'd eaten enough but obviously not. I had couple of bananas, energy bar, few gels and stopped a couple of times to grab a bottle of Lucozade sport. I didn't run out of water, just energy.
I've never done anything near as long as this ride coming up so a bit of a leap into the unknown for me, and I really don't want to come to a nauseous halt somewhere along the way.
I was planning on the usual suspects of cake, energy drinks (powdered ones you mix with water) and the occasional banana. Probably not too many gels as they don't do your stomach many favours.
Any other recommendations really? I'm going to find it a very tough ride so appreciate any helpful suggestions.
Cheers
I make up soft tortilla wraps with bean, cheese, chilli and salad leaves as filling. Wrap in foil then put in a freezer bag.
Basically anything savoury that isn't too dry: pork pies, that sort of thing.
Eat early and regularly rather than waiting an age and stuffing yourself, it's better to push the point of depletion back than try and recover from it. You'll find your taste buds change over the course of the event, possibly, for me this happens around the 15-16hr mark but it's worth having as much variety as possible as you don't want to be carrying a load of food that you can't stomach.
It depends on your guts and taste buds to an extent but I tend to eat real food for at least the first half and use the gels and bars later in the day. Peanut butter sarnies, fig rolls, cereal bars, nuts etc. That and plenty of fluid obviously.
Good luck.
Flapjack is always good. You can make it yourself and chuck in lots of nuts and dried fruit. Just google flapjack recipe and add what you want.
Maltloaf works well, they now do a banana one too.
Take some savoury stuff too, as the sweet stuff gets too much after a while. Bagles are good if you quarter them, easy to eat on the go. Peanut butter is highly calorific and works well.
Make sure you take some sweets, jelly babies or similar. Great for saving you if you think you're going to bonk.
+1 for "real" food
Food.
eat what you usually eat on a ride, just more of it, a ride like that's not the time to try anything new that you might disagree with really
eat a little and often
energy bars, bananas, sandwiches for something more solid and savoury
try and lay off the cake and Lucozade Sport, that's high sugar crap that will lead to an energy spike and then a crash, and lay off the gels too if you can, stick to real food, but maybe take one for a last hill emergency
and dilute the energy drink so you don't get sick of that as well, or alternate with just plain water
bananas, home-made flapjack with loads of nuts and dried fruit, tortilla wraps loaded with peanut butter and jam
edit - as above, eat frequently
Regular feeding, eg at least once an hour right from the off.
I would eat peanut butter sandwiches, jam sandwiches, bananas, raisin cupcakes, and later on - jelly beans, jelly babies.
But the ultimate long distance solid food for me is bara brith. It's a welsh tea-soaked fruit loaf with no fat in it. Don't butter it, just eat it as it is and you get a tasty, easy on the stomach, sustained source of energy. I make mine with gluten-free flour too. Nom nom.
add some caffeine to the various real food + gels/bars suggestions. Was the 6 hour ride you bonked on a big step up from normal to? IME it's possible just to have muscle fatigue so no matter who well you've eaten you're muscles just aren't used to the effort (also often accompanied by cramps). So if you;d only usually ridden up to say 3 hours and you struggled on 6 I'd be dubious that any amount of eating is going to be enough.
peanut butter, nuttella and grape sanwiches. Alos mini pork pies, nuts and dried fruit.
In addition to what Fuzzywuzzy says, the usual recommendation for longer rides/runs/events is to try and get a training ride done that's about 2/3rds the distance of the actual event so for a 100 miler try and get a ride of about 60-65 miles. I don't know if this has any scientific basis or it's just a sort of perceived wisdom that gets most people through such events. Not much help if the event itself is this weekend!
Oh, try and eat the solid food at the top of climbs - you need your body focused on the climbing not on digesting food. My strategy is along the lines of something sugary near the base of a climb ( a jelly baby or two) as they are easily taken then something more substantial at the top once I've got my breath back but before any technical ground if possible. Gels take a little while to kick in so you need to know that time for you personally, let's say it's ten minutes so if I think I'm going to need a boost then I'll take the gel ten minutes before I need it and get it washed down.
I'd highly recommend the feed zone portables book, it gives you a lot of easy to make and eat whilst riding type recipes. the only downside is the slightly weird ingredients and imperial measurements it uses.
I use a version of the Team Sky chef's rice cake recipe. Kept the pedals turning during the MacRide in April.
About 8000 cals of Mini pork pies, flapjack squares, peanut butter sarnies, jam sarnies.
I like a bar bag stuffed with all my own food, stop at taps around quarter, half, three quarter way points,
Electrolyte tab only in every other water bottle.
Pace. The fun starts at Amberley 😉
Thanks for the suggestions!!
The fun starts at Amberley
I hate that bloody hill!!! Must admit it's going to be tough for me, partly as I live a couple of miles north of Ditching Beacon so can pretty much see my house from the top. By the time I've got there my body will probably be telling me to stop and go home to bed.
crisps, preferably McCoys S&V and Stella Artois!
Painey, Ditchling is three quarters the way, nearly done. You'll be fine 🙂
One sausage every 5 miles.
Every 17th mile make an omelette..
hth
DrP
[i] DrP - Member
One sausage every 5 miles.
Every 17th mile make an omelette..
hth
DrP[/i]
There! The STW resident GP has prescribed sausage and omelette, for everyone. For he/she, will fear no pig or egg!
(Business must be slow, these days)
Yay!
😀
Don't forget to pack your sense of humour and some smiles, too.
Best tip is to cycle well within your physical ability, this means you wont burn energy so qucikly and avoid the wall. Eat normally there is no silver bullet. The wall means you burnt energy beyond what your body has traiend for. SDW is a great ride, go slowly
Done it 4 times.
Lessons learnt? Hydration - no matter what you eat, if you don't drink properly you'll blow up at about 45 miles
Generall, you can only convert about 4000 cals to energy on the ride, so eating more than that is pointless
Eat pasta tonight about 200 grams, Eat porridge 3-4 hours before the start
Did I mention you should drink?
Good luck
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches ftw
I did the SDW a few weeks back on 10-11 bottles of High 5, 10-12 gels (I forget exactly), a pack of Wine Gums and a small cheese sandwich (only because it was pissing me off in my pocket, didn't actually want it). Would probably leave many folk shitting through the eye of a needle mind...
^was going to say that, my arse would be in tatters!
I'm always amazed how little some people eat on a long ride. On a short ride (<30 miles) I'll have nothing Longer than that and I'll eat everything within sight
[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/on-saturday-i-went-for-cycle-ride-and-extended-picnic-ineats ]Chubby[/url]
Couple of sandwiches. Some energy bars. Jelly babies. And energy drink. That would probably do me for about 10 hours. Good to have a bit of a mix. Some sweet, quick fixes along with savoury goodness.
a) Train yourself to know how hard you can push it eating minimal amounts
b) DO NOT PUSH IT
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If you are riding tomorrow, this means start off really easy, and get easier. On these kinda things, you see people hit the 1st hill like they are leaders in the TDF racing for 1st place. DON'T DO THIS! Do not cycle so hard you break a serious sweat or loose your breath. No hard efforts. Take it easy, eat real food you like eating... sarnies, jelly babies, sports drink in bladder. If you feel ok at 5 miles till the end, you can drop the hammer and waste yourself. Not before.
Josh Ibbet's bike for his SDWD record back in 2011. everything handy!
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http://bikemagic.com/news/josh-ibbett-reveals-his-south-downs-double-secrets.html#nutrition
I copied Josh's lead with the gels on the top tube. Worked really well, firstly because they're accessible, and secondly they're a good visual cue to eat.
Any who, how did it go OP? I saw Ian Leitch did it in 7:03, barely need to eat anything 😯
Was a great day out yesterday, crossed the line in 10 hours dead (not including stops for food) so pretty happy. Filled my water bottle up at pretty much every stop and mixed energy stuff into it, kept the camelbak loaded just in case too so could have gone a lot lighter. Tried to keep off the gels due to previous issues and had the wife meet me at Devil's Dyke for some extra grub. All in all the miles flew by quicker than I expected and the legs never really gave up on me. Rode every yard of the trail without ever having to stop to put a foot down, was quite pleased about that.
Must admit I've been knackered ever since though but really enjoyed it. Well, maybe not that climb out of Alfriston but I knew what was coming there. Saw a couple of unfortunate people getting put into ambulances so hope they're OK. One near the dyke that required the air ambulance. Very much hope he's all right.
Anyway, thanks for the helpful suggestions. Genuinely very useful as it was a bit of a step into the unknown for me!
Cheers 🙂
It is a cracking ride, I'm very jealous!