Absorption rate of 60g per hour is well documented, but are you sure about maximum burn rate of 1g/min? If 1g carbs is about 4 calories then that equals 240 calories an hour. Doesn’t sound like nearly enough.

If you’re carb loading then why not *eat* quality carbs and nutritional foodstuff rather than whack a sugar drink together?

I agree with Chevy…if you’re carb loading then it suggests it is pre-race, so eating proper carbs will have more nutrients and other good stuff in them. Why would you just throw liquid sugar down you?

Does anyone thing in their right mind I was sitting at home drinking SIS bottle after bottle to get to 600g? That would be 12 bottles btw. No. Theres plenty of good quality food going in, the SIS is used to top up. As has been discussed, I’d have to eat circa 4000cals to get 600g of carbs in. Thats a lot of food and bloating, helped by using just 3 x 500ml drinks which also has the advantage of being 0% fat.

Why would you just throw liquid sugar down you?

Why? Because it’s a hell of a lot easier than trying to eat and digest that much normal food – which probably isn’t even possible tbh.

If you’ve never looked at full on training for racing, then this conversation probably isn’t for you…!

If 1g carbs is about 4 calories then that equals 240 calories an hour. Doesn’t sound like nearly enough.

You won’t be burning pure glycogen all the time unless you are sprinting and you can’t do that for an hour.

As usual maximum tin foil hattery from YouTube it/Paton.

While I agree sugar is not what we as a species should be eating on a day to day basis.

It serves a purpose when doing hard efforts.

I train for road racing and TT and rarely touch energy drinks. Whether that’s long aerobic rides, high intensity intervals or racing itself. Eating properly most of the time with a balanced diet, i don’t feel that it’s energy in my system that’s holding me back….

There is surely a limit to how much glycogen you can load your system with beforehand, so you just have to accept you can’t totally replenish what you use in a hard long race?

Interested rather than having a dig at the OP or anyone that drinks energy drinks.

Realised I needed some quick energy whilst on the turbo this evening, jumped off, nicked a fondant fancy and a chocolate cookie out of the kitchen cupboard, back on the turbo and felt them kick in after five mins or so. Remotivated me enough to do a 20min core session straight after getting off the bike. Carbs are sometimes really necessary and in my opinion any carbs are better than nothing.
Now tucking into a big bowl of a Thai style chicken thing and whole grain rice.
I eat really well (loads of fresh, home prepared food) but also hit the sugary stuff when it’s needed.

There is surely a limit to how much glycogen you can load your system with beforehand, so you just have to accept you can’t totally replenish what you use in a hard long race?

There is, and carbo loading has been in and out of favour over the years. However if Kryton’s coach is who I think it is, then he doesn’t just make shit up, he follows the published research and gives it out when he feels there’s enough weight of evidence to be worth trying.

I train for road racing and TT and rarely touch energy drinks. Whether that’s long aerobic rides, high intensity intervals or racing itself. Eating properly most of the time with a balanced diet, i don’t feel that it’s energy in my system that’s holding me back….

I know the difference between being tired, being on my limit and being under-fuelled. The issue for me (I think) is that I’m naturally type II muscles i.e. a sprinter, and I think that makes me predisposed to using glycogen stores rather than fat – maybe because I like sprinting and I’m good at it so I do it a lot. But if I do that, and use the glycogen, then it stimulates me to eat it – so the fat stays the same. There’s also a lag so I continue to want it even if my glycogen stores are replenished. So I train for fat burning and I eat for fat burning, but then that raises the question – should I? Should I train for my weaknesses or my strengths? Am I wasting my time trying to get better at fat burning?

If you are a good fat burner then you may not burn through as much glycogen and are then able to eat enough to replenish through normal food.

It’s also worth noting that our guts are different. I can drink loads of energy drink and not get the shits or have any adverse affects. I’m good at burning carbs but also eating them, apparently. Others aren’t so good at eating carbs.

Some interesting points of similarity Molgrips.  Im also a bit type 2 coincidentally today pb’ing my sprint well north of 1200w. I read approx 7% lower on average on the turbo too 🙂

Through more carbs since xmas ive pb’d now on watts at vo2max and sprint. Last year we spotted a trend of low carbs being an issue for me as i have a w/kg paranoia.  A  bit of faith and im maxing my numbers.   Like i said ive put on weight although this week ive started longer workouts and im in deficit despite the high carb input so it may balance itself out.    But another effect it has is that i can jump off the turbo and not smash the cakes – im not hungry.

Am I wasting my time trying to get better at fat burning?

If you are a good fat burner then you may not burn through as much glycogen and are then able to eat enough to replenish through normal food.

Ummmm… ‘cycling is an aerobic sport, dammit’ so yes you should get good at burning fat and save your sugars for dropping those sprinter Watt Bombs!

Good work on the number improvements Kryton. Over what duration is the 1200w sprint max number?

@Kryton57 – My wife makes up these energy balls for me, hey are a mix of dried apricots, dates, variosu nuts, with a bit of apple juice and nut butter to bind them. whizzed up in magimix, shaped, into 1 inch balls and put in fridge to set. They basically disolved in the mouth but give a good boost. I don’t use them for racing but for training / general riding they are good, healthier and cheaper than gels IMO. haste and texture is like a high5 energ bar but without any preservaitves etc.

Interesting thread, seems to be a hell of a lot of food for only 6hrs training a week…
Everyone is different, I found that I have roughly 2000-2500calories in my legs on a given session depending on pre prep. No amount of carb loading / stuffing my face (whether with drinks or proper food) made any difference to that. A 3hr threshold (166bpm/250w) session would empty that completely, and without a gel in the middle I would suffer.

I used to look at previous race data at calorie burn / duration and use that to calculate roughly how many extra calories I needed to take in, and start early becayse as above I could only absorb so much an hour – about 1 bottle of drink and 2 gels upto a max of 3/6 after that I felt sick

I do tend to stick to proper food these days rather than energy drinks and gels, but then again my training has dropped right off from 15 odd hrs a week and a longer ride these days is 2hrs not like the 100milers I used to do 🙁

Interesting thread, seems to be a hell of a lot of food for only 6hrs training a week…

He’s only carbo loading for a few days.. he doesn’t eat 600g of carbs every day.