I've just registered for a 160km sportive in September, which is much further than I've ridden before. I take it the best way to prepare is to ride increasingly longer distances on the run up to it?
What would you do for food/nutrition over such a length ride?
Thanks
Yep, build up your distance. I did 100 miles for the first time last year, and the longest I'd done previously was 62 miles. By the time it got to the last 20odd miles I was dying, but I think that was as much to do with the heat and my lack of food as it was to do with the sheer distance.
Foodwise, I had:
Porridge and toast for breakfast.
Some high energy, high protein broscience milk drink before I started.
3 sachets of High5 energy drink, and I wish I'd had 4.
A couple of bottles of water with electrolyte tabs.
Several energy gels.
Two chunks of flapjack.
A banana.
A cake at one of the stops.
In retrospect I really should have taken a lot more flapjack and another sachet of energy drink, because by the end of it I was knackered and my stomach was going mental for want of something to do.