100 miler coming up

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s0ck

s0ck

Soldato
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Doing a 100 mile cycle this weekend, looking for some tips on what/when to eat before and during?

I stayed away from sugar on my last big cycle but now I am thinking of dumping some sugar on a bowl of porridge before hand. Thoughts? I would like to avoid a spike/crash scenario but I might really need those carbs...

Edit: Damn, can someone move this to Sports?
 
100 mile in one day is fairly tough going depending on conditions. We did a 76 miles with 3 or 4 fairly big climbs against 20mph winds, and that took us nearly 11hrs inc breaks. It was fairly depressing towards the end, and one lad nealy fell asleep on his bike he was that drained :o

In terms of food - Pasta the night before, toast & poached eggs for brekky & porridge. I really rate Torq bars. They helped me a lot, and tasted 100x better than the junk the others were eating. Jelly Babies worked well too
 
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TheDean said:
100 mile in one day is fairly touch going depending on conditions. We did a 76 miles with 3 or 4 fairly big climbs against 20mph winds, and that took us nearly 11hrs inc breaks. It was fairly depressing towards the end, and one lad nealy fell asleep on his bike he was that drained :o

In terms of food - Pasta the night before, toast & poached eggs for brekky & porridge. I really rate Torq bars. They helped me a lot, and tasted 100x better than the junk the others were eating. Jelly Babies worked well too
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I did the Great Weston a few months back and stupidly didn't eat properly the night before or the in the morning. Combined with the rain and wind, it was proper soul destroying!
 
Be careful not to eat anything your aren't used to, especially energy bars etc as your body may not like them and it will make life worse for you
 
Jelly Babies, use them on a long run and its the only thing I find to give me the extra bit of ooomph
 
The biggest battle will be in your head for the last 30 miles :(

Bring some bananas for the last 50 miles to see you home.

Good luck :)
 
Pasta the night before. Porridge with some raisins in for breakfast.

Take with you pockets full of nice carby cereal bars, whatever drinks you like (I like weak squash) and some money to buy some more food or drink if you need to.
 
On 100mile rides I would use flapjacks, malt loaf and bananas. For a quick energy fix you could use some kind of gel but as mentioned if you havent tried them it might be best to avoid as some do give pretty bad gut rott. Use jelly babies or jelly beans for a quick sugar fix instead. Keep the the fluid levels up too. Last thing you want is to dehydrate.

Have fun!!
 
I rode from Berwick to Newcastle Quayside in a day, roughly 100 miles. We had a full English breakfast on the morning, stopped for a high energy meal at lunch, then fish at chips at the coast. Easily burnt off a hell of a lot of calories. The guy who was cycling with us is part of a cycling club, riding 50-75 miles some days just for fun, said we could eat pretty much anything high in carbs without a worry as you'd be burning it off very rapidly.

We had a bunch of breakfast bars, muesli bars etc to snack on as we went. Camelbaks are also a must!
 
Liquidfox said:
We had a bunch of breakfast bars, muesli bars etc to snack on as we went. Camelbaks are also a must!
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Hmm. I don't have a camelbak...

Stupid question but how often do you drink? Last time I tried not to drink too much because I didn't want to be stopping to go to the toilet. In hindsight I won't be doing this again but roughly... a gobfull of water/drink every 10 mins maybe?
 
Camelbacks aren't needed at all - you dont want any weight on your back or extra on bike. Just 2 bottles then refill whenever you get the opportunity.

I've done a few 100 mile sportives, and my biggest tips would be:

Eat a 1000 calorie breakfast, ideally at least 2 hours before you start riding. This can be quite hard to force down early in the morning. I try and force down a few slices of toast with a tin of beans, then have a little rest followed by a big powl of porridge, a banana and a flapjack.

Drink a small amount every 10 minutes - go off your bike computer as it gets hard to judge time. The drink carb powders are good and an easy way to keep your energy topped up, but dont use this ride as the first test of them, as they can make some people feel sick.

Start eating early in the ride and eat every hour or so. What you eat isn't that important as long as its carb dense, but as mentioned above, dont experiment with new stuff on the long ride. Personally I don't get on with gels and stick to flapjacks and bananas, along with a pocket stuffed with dried apricots which you can snack on easily.

Pace yourself - if you wear a HR strap this is much easier, but basically you'll be on your bike between 5.5 and 10 hours depending on the route etc, so maintain a pace that you can keep up. There's nothing worse that killing yourself in the first 30 miles!

Enjoy the sufferring - there's no point feeling miserable if the weather turns - just embrace whatever the day throws at you. Cycling is a sport that you often enjoy more retrospectively!
 
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Oh, and don't eat too much solid food right before a big climb. When your work rate gets high, your body will concentrate on pumping blood to your muscles, and wont have the spare energy for digestion which could leave you feeling sick as the food just sits there.

Try and eat when you know you're going to be at an easier pace for the next 20 mins
 
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