There’s some suggestion that having protein in your carb drink whilst doing very long rides can help. I’m planning to do the Ridgeway double at the end of the month, so I’m wondering if it’s worth a try.

Any experiences? And please don’t comment to say ‘just eat pies/jam sandwiches/normal food/etc’ I’m aware of these things and I do include them when I want. I’m specifically interested in whether carbs+protein feels any better than just carbs for very long rides.

Tommy Tank in your bottle?

My brother the ultra runner takes a surprising amount of protein on during a race, so I guess it’s a thing.

The high-5 protein drink is not disgusting. They class it as a recovery drink though – not sure if it’s what you want to be drinking out & about.

The theory as I understand it is 3:1 for reco, 4:1 for endurance fuel. Their 4:1 is now branded as both recovery and fuel during.

Hi again molgrips 🙂

FWIW, yes, I find it works well for me if I’m refuelling while riding. If I was doing something like that event then that’s what I’d do. Not sure if there’s any performance benefit but it helps with not feeling empty, IYKWIM.

4:1 for endurance fuel

You need to look at that in the context of everything you consume during the event obviously 🙂

I enjoy chocolate milk while I’m riding. Obviously depends on ambient temperature though.

it helps with not feeling empty, IYKWIM.

I do, I’m also concerned with the state of my stomach. Real food is great psychologically but one can’t always eat much, and a lot of things can be hard to digest and give me indigestion. I’ll still have some, I’m sure.

Chocolate milk may well be purchased en-route.

Been using 4:1 for long rides for years, it definitely works better than pure carb drinks for me.

Recently I met a German doctor outside the cycling cafe in Chipping, he was sitting eating a plate of seven fried eggs. He said eggs were the best recovery food, being full of fats and protein. He certainly looked very fit and muscular.

Real food is great psychologically but one can’t always eat much, and a lot of things can be hard to digest and give me indigestion.

That. I find fuelling for longer rides (in excess of 12 hours) quite difficult as I reach a state of being hungry/low on energy but being unable to eat much.

Recently I met a German doctor outside the cycling cafe in Chipping, he was sitting eating a plate of seven fried eggs.

Wouldn’t fancy cleaning his cage out 😐

I remember a few years ago doing the pedal for Scotland Glasgow-Edinburgh ride at a time when I wasn’t riding much in the way of distance & they had loads of milk at all the stops – seemed slightly unusual at the time but it was cold & went down a treat, felt completely fine the next day – it was either that or all the Guinness I drank later that night…

What doesn’t help apparently was my cousin eating about 5 bananas in the space of a couple of hours & finishing the day wearing one sock due to “unforseen stomach problems” 😆

I had some of the High 5 4:1 Glucose/Fructose with whey protein. Didn’t realise it had the whey protein in it when I bought it.

It’s a bit of a strange consistency, you can tell there is more than sugar in it.

Anyway, its only given me stomach pain. Could well have been the fructose though rather than the whey protein. Regardless, it was grim stuff to drink so I binned it.

That said, I’d happily drink a bottle of the milkshake style protein drinks like Goodness Shakes or SIS Rego or even a bottle of Yazoo from the newsagent mid ride if that’s what I fancy. Generally though, unless I’m racing I don’t use gels or energy drink cos normal chewie bars/sandwiches/fruit loaf just tastes better and does the job well enough if you eat as regularly as you need rather than as an afterthought.

Even if you get on with it, it won’t be a silver bullet – you’ll either be fit enough or not; and you just manage accordingly.

A work colleague of mine who is a mental fell runner and racer often recces a race and plants tinned mackerel on his route. I often put a tin in my backpack on longer rides. It really does work. Spicy tomato is best!

If you are thinking about it then try it first, ideally on a long ride. You don’t want to find out it makes you sick. Not sure on the drink aspect but on long rides I do try and get some protein in. Find that eating sweet and sugary stuff does me no favours after a while. But I tend to go down the normal food route for these as it is partly the savoury side that helps.

I do occasionally drink the 4:1 stuff, I find it marginally nicer than other energy drinks and it always comes in those bottle bundles.

What the thinking behind including protein?

I’ve tried the 4:1 & found it pretty grim to be honest..

Stick a couple of small(ish) pork pies in a Nutri-Bullet, top up with gravy until you have a bottle full, blend until it’s runny.
Ride like a beast, drink your special drink, ride like a beast again.
Job jobbed.

HTH

I’m desperately trying to get the image of a steak sitting in a bottle of coke out of my head… Nurse, make it stop! 😆

I’ve experimented a fair bit with the 4:1, and so far i’m not 100% convinced about a performance boost on the long ride itself, but i do think it helps stop your body eating its own muscle mass during multi day events or hard blocks of daily training.

In one off events i’ve found 4:1 from the start just means i’m getting less carbs and run out of energy faster. Now i tend to mix it 50/50 with 2:1 to create 9:1 from the 3rd bottle onwards, which still adds up to a surprising amount of protein over a long event.

Generally though, unless I’m racing I don’t use gels or energy drink

This isn’t an organised race, but it’s a big ask for me and is going to require me to perform as well as I possibly can, so it might as well be a race.

The other option (besides shakes from newsagents etc) is protein bars alongside the carb drink. Might actually be a safer bet as they do tend to go down rather well in general. Probably cheaper too since I have a ton of homemade carb drink.

I find many of the protein bars a it stodgy and dry and therefore hard to chew when exerting myself. If you can recommend something better, I’m all ears.

I use 4:1 for longer rides and find it very good in keeping me going.
It makes a cloudy liquid and is initially pretty difficult to mix but does eventually dissolve.
It’s different to a purely carb drink but I don’t find it unpleasant. It’s kept me going when others have been flagging.
Mix some protein in ‘your’ carb drink and give it a try. If you’ve done the homemade carb drink, why not give a homemade 4:1 a go too. You know the ratio, how hard can it be? 🙂

Now i tend to mix it 50/50 with 2:1 to create 9:1

Erm – that doesn’t sound right. Mixing 4:1 and 2:1 is going to result in something roughly 3:1

Rachel

RW double is 14-18hrs of riding. You’d eat protein normally during that period so I’d eat some during the ride. Chicken fajita and chocolate milk from the co-op in Goring maybe.

These are a work of genius.
Worth throwing a few in your backpack for all your energy and protein needs.

Peanuts, cashews and rice pudding are another alternative

What the thinking behind including protein?

The thinking is that it helps sell more products

I milk the cows on my long rides to get milk, and eat bugs and insects because they are high in protein

Back in the day before marketing didn’t people do the TdF that is significantly harder than today’s on a cocktail of wine, beer and illegal drugs. How did they ever cope without the latest substitute product?

By that I mean every generation has something they think helps, probably reality it doesn’t but if it psychologically makes you feel better, and helps make someone else richer then where’s the harm

Completely forgot I added a pack of 38g protein cookies to my myprotein.com yesterday.

Topcashback are doing 15% for new customers for next 3 days, plus myprotein have “MYSTERY” promo code.

8Kg of peanut butter, cookies and iron tablets cost me ~£47 net with free delivery.

I mix my own drinks with 1 scoop of dextrose, 1 scoop of bcaa and 1 scoop of glutamine.

This gets all of your essential amino acids from protein to stop you burning muscle tissue for energy then take out either a protein bar or nuts for when I need a top up

Chicken fajita and chocolate milk from the co-op in Goring maybe.

That will probably happen too. I’m not planning to live on energy drink for an entire day 🙂

Re the thinking – there are studies showing benefits of protein intake for rides to exhaustion. You may have reservations about them – Joe Friel does, apparently – but the studies are out there. Go read some.

This gets all of your essential amino acids from protein to stop you burning muscle tissue for energy then take out either a protein bar or nuts

BCAA?

Mrs runs ultras – spends a lot of time working out what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat. You can only absorb so many calories in an hour – so no point eating too much.

It is interesting watching what they get through on long events – Torq chew bars / chia bars / nuts are quite popular. The mrs has been using Pip & nut squeeze tubes – they seem to be quite palatable.

She carries a bottle of energy juice (torq) and a bottle of electrolyte at the start of a race – tends to only refill electrolyte on the way, consuming calories as solids/pastes (not pasties, though pies are frequently seen being consumed by runners).

Erm – that doesn’t sound right. Mixing 4:1 and 2:1 is going to result in something roughly 3:1

RachelSo you would think, but they refer to different things.
High5 2:1 refers to glucose/fructose ratio.
High5 4:1 is 4 parts of 2:1 and 1 part of whey protein
So when you mix it 50/50 you end up with 9 parts 2:1 and 1 part whey

I do ultras, and generally make sure to get some protein in during the races. Ideally something savoury: I’m generally pretty gel-tolerant, but after 12 of the things you start to need something like a cheese and ham sandwich to settle your stomach 🙂

Personally not keen on protein bars, they all seem to sit like a lead weight at the bottom of my stomach when I’m doing exercise. As always YMMV and obviously you should try them or whatever else you decide to use in training before the big day.

My last experience of 4:1 was in a long distance sailing race.

It made me seasick and gave me explosive shits, not great when you’re wearing a wetsuit (thankfully I just made it back in time).

Now I just stick to sugary drinks (Orange juice cartons are a favourite as I can pierce the foil bit and drink it one handed whereas can’s I lost as many overboard as I drank!) and snickers bars (I find them less sickly than Mars, and anything biscuity is impossible to eat on a boat).

For cycling though I do tend to stick with real food, because its easily available from shops and just carry gells to avoid bonking at the end of a day if pork pies aren’t sustaining me. My usual lunch on a big ride is the £3 tesco meal deal with pasta and chicken, protein milk, and a big bag of salty crisps.