As i'm a bit skint at present I buy bags of Tesco Jelly babies for about £1.40 and worked out that 4 is equal to 1 gel. I just eat a couple every half hour or so. Not had any stomach issues whereas gels I find a bit hit and miss.
Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 4,468
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Those bags of jelly snakes are good too. Pretty sure 4 or 5 of them is about 40g carbs
I've been buying jelly babies on offer recently as well however none of them have made it as far as a ride. I think I have been putting on some weight lately as well, probably in no small part due to gnashing my way through 175g packs of jelly babies on indoor rides/at my computer afterwards.
I tried some harder gummies once and they were awful. Couldn't actually chew them and breathe at the same time which was no ideal.
jelly babies here recently, rather than any gels.
so my ligaments/ tendons seem to be fine...
so i went for a 100mile gravel ride
#idiot
bonked at the end and baerly got back home LOL
not a greatest of ideas after 2 months of not cycling and on a heavy 12kg bike LOL
so my ligaments/ tendons seem to be fine...
so i went for a 100mile gravel ride
#idiotbonked at the end and baerly got back home LOL
not a greatest of ideas after 2 months of not cycling and on a heavy 12kg bike LOL
you're mental.jelly babies here recently, rather than any gels.
so my ligaments/ tendons seem to be fine...
so i went for a 100mile gravel ride
bonked at the end and baerly got back home LOL
not a greatest of ideas after 2 months of not cycling and on a heavy 12kg bike LOL
Glad it's not just me who finds this with SiS gels!
Have to admit I've not regularly taken gels for a few years, when I did liked the High5 although quite watery compared to some I found that easier to get down.
Are those the 'wrapper free' things I see all over my socials recently? They legit don't go sticky in a hot summer pocket?
I'm getting more and more rubbish about eating when riding. Easy to get away with it on a social, but going to come unstuck at some point. Came close on the weekend - legs wouldn't 'wake up' after a rushed half a glass of milk & dry slice of bread at 8.30am running really late leaving the house - thankfully had a cafe stop at 12 and realised then although I'd a pocket of bars hadn't eaten anything and only a smallish lighter meal early the night before (6.30). I had a vegan sausage roll, brownie and a coffee. By 1pm I was totally flying, lots of power, felt really good finished strong. As it was my first real long ride since hols put it down to that, but just wondering if I was just under fuelled!?
Saw someone commenting (might have been Puck?) during the big gravel race on the weekend getting 120g carbs into bottle and avoiding eating. Wow that sounds a lot! Mostly sponsored athlete so no worries on cost, but wondering if my usual High5 tabs for flavour and salts might be an option to get some carbs in too. I never have an issue regularly drinking.
Same as @fez Jelly Babies are a good shout, don't tend to go sticky like Haribo due to the sugar dusting on them, it's just keeping them around long enough (with a 7.5 year old in the house & 2 adults who have sweet teeth) for riding...!
Maybe not the greatest, but a mega ride and the fact you could do 7+ hours and 90+ miles before bonking/hitting your limit with low recent fitness you did really well! You must have a good base, make sure you recover properly and get back riding more regularly, it won't take you much to finish similar & further/longer/harder. Well done!
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 4,468
- Location
- Gloucestershire
I've noticed my long distance riding improve MASSIVELY since fuelling 'properly'. I've never been able to sustain the sort of power I've been doing over 5+ hours before making a conscious effort of trying to get 50-90g carbs down me.
I'll always have two 750ml bottles with 90g of mix in (for longer rides), and normally a Gel50, or Precision Fuel PF30 or PF60 too. And other bits.
The other plus is I get home and I don't need to stuff my face. I'll eat, but I'm not cramming as much food down as quick as possible.
I'll always have two 750ml bottles with 90g of mix in (for longer rides), and normally a Gel50, or Precision Fuel PF30 or PF60 too. And other bits.
The other plus is I get home and I don't need to stuff my face. I'll eat, but I'm not cramming as much food down as quick as possible.
I can't ride for long.. 2ish hours in and I get quite a bit of pain/discomfort. I really need to book a bike fit and see what's up..
Its not even up for debate at this point. If you fuel properly you will ride way way way better. Even on shorter rides its worth doing IMO. Its not just the ability to go harder for longer either. As you said, if you fuel properly on the bike you aren't overeating off the bike. Before I got some vague handle on it I could easily be hungry for 2-3 days after a long hard ride. I would be tired and probably ate 2x the calories I spent on the ride over my normal daily requirements.
I'm sure I've quoted him on here before, but James Hayden who has won the Trans-continental race twice said something like "long distance bike riding (racing) is an eating content".
I reckon I'm better at eating than anything else
I'm a fan of a post ride milkshake for hard rides, though the most recent tub of High5 Recovery I got isn't as nice as the old formula. If there's a post-ride car journey, I'd get home and eat everything I could find, so a milk shake in the car helped me with the post-ride munchies that @fez mentions.
I reckon I'm better at eating than anything else
I'm a fan of a post ride milkshake for hard rides, though the most recent tub of High5 Recovery I got isn't as nice as the old formula. If there's a post-ride car journey, I'd get home and eat everything I could find, so a milk shake in the car helped me with the post-ride munchies that @fez mentions.to be fair, my full blast smart watch - garmin epix 2 lasts 12 ish working days so 14 days is not that impressive imo. I'd expect a month+
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Feb 2025
- Posts
- 157
- Location
- London
slowly ramping up the distances and ramping down on the gluttony. its getting easier. Starting to have a lot of fun. Love bikes, i remember now.
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 4,468
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Still don't really get Whoop's pricing model. I guess it's the opposite of Garmin's, where you pay a big lump sum and then it's free (forgetting the new Garmin+ thing)
Where as Whoop is 'free', and it cost £350 a year to use. But is that every single year? Ie if you've used it for 5 years, you've paid £1750 for it? (so far).
Seems a lot for something that doesn't do anywhere near as much as a smart watch.
Where as Whoop is 'free', and it cost £350 a year to use. But is that every single year? Ie if you've used it for 5 years, you've paid £1750 for it? (so far).
Seems a lot for something that doesn't do anywhere near as much as a smart watch.
I guess you're referring to the new top tier. Thus far I've paid about that much for two years at a time.
£230 or less for the middle tier, but you can usually get it for £180 per year. I've had mine and it has markedly helped me improve my sleep and overall fitness over the last 6 months, going from waking 4-5 times properly per night and struggling to get to sleep to having a proper night sleep every night, waking once. Noticing this is really helping my training having fresher legs, more impetus and more power across the board.
Used to have a Garmin that done a number of bits but it was all so fractured, the whoops interface is what makes it worthwhile imo. Plus it's nice having the small form factor as you don't notice it's there.