What To Eat Before A Century Ride – You’ve trained for a 100-mile bike ride, figured out how to do a long day, notified loved ones about your upcoming ride, but there’s one last important thing to iron out: what to eat for it The Next 5 – 9 hours?
Fueling a 100-year-old can be confusing, and while nutritional requirements are extremely personal, the following tips will help you create the perfect menu for your long day in the saddle.
What To Eat Before A Century Ride
Be sure to try everything you want to take into your life on shorter study tours. Even if it’s a meal you often eat off the bike, sometimes meals don’t go down easily when you’re trying hard. Use your training rides for more than just distance – use them to see how your body reacts to different foods and drinks.
How To Train For A Long Bike Ride
It is generally recommended that riders consume half the calories they burn per hour on the bike. Fitness cyclists (and if you’re a centenarian, well, you’re fit too) burn about 500-600 calories per hour over the course of a centenarian. This means that you need to consume about 300 calories per hour to stay on top of your glycogen stores.
Your body has enough fat to survive for centuries without calories, but your body does not have enough glycogen to run for more than 3-4 hours.
While it may seem easy to eat the recommended/desired number of calories during the ride, it becomes more difficult to hit the heavy bars at the end of the ride when you likely need those calories the most.
Setting an alarm for every 30 minutes can remind you to keep track of your meals and keep your gas tank full to avoid the dreaded tantrum.
Is Cycling Good For Weight Loss?
For those who have trouble eating solid foods, consider a calorie-dense drink like Hammer Nutrition’s Perpetuem*. This blend is designed for shelf life and has blending options depending on your nutritional needs. These calorie-packed drinks (up to 1,000 calories per bottle) are designed to simmer slowly throughout the ride, so be sure to fill up with plain water.
Simple sugars are your best friend in these trying times. Fruits, sugary drinks and gels are easily digestible and help revive you from your exhausted state.
While it’s easy to plan for centenarians to eat healthy, sometimes you have to do something to break even. If you reach for a high-sugar option like cola, offset the inevitable spike in blood sugar with a low-glycemic index food like nuts or peanut butter.
Having a high reward in your jersey pocket gives you something to look forward to during those tough home runs. A cookie, cookie, or pastry at mile 50 won’t derail all of your healthy efforts and may be just what you need to get you through the last few miles of a long day in the saddle.
Why You Shouldn’t Skip Breakfast Before Your Bike Ride
While sports nutrition is a quick and easy way to ensure you get what you need throughout the day, your tenth gel in one go can get old.
There are dozens of on-the-go snack recipes that include the perfect balance of carbs, fats, and proteins. A key factor to consider when planning your tank trip is food delivery. While a nice hot bowl of chili would be nice on a cold, wet ride, it’s not practical to throw in your pocket.
That doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your ride snacks—over the course of my cycling career, I’ve seen everything from Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits to baked potato wraps to pocket pizza.
The famous hydration company, Skratch labs, created with the help of Dr. Allen Lim and professional chef Bijou Thomas a cookbook called Feed Zone Portables*. This cookbook is full of pocket-friendly recipes to keep you full and focused throughout your journey.
How Long Should You Bike For The Best Weight Loss Benefit?
While the physical preparation for this journey starts long before the main event, the nutritional preparation should start about three days before it.
This is where the fun begins…carb loading! Every meal during these three days until your century should contain mostly carbohydrates.
Proper hydration is also important, although it’s not as fun as covering a plate of pasta. While staying hydrated is always important, it’s even more so in the days leading up to your age. Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.
If you live in a hot and humid climate, adding one of these glasses with a hydration mix isn’t a bad idea. I prefer the milder tasting options like Nuun* and Skratch Labs Anytime Hydration Drink Mix*, but there are plenty of electrolyte replenishment options out there.
Tips For Getting Into Road Cycling
We’ve figured out how many calories we need to consume per hour, but how does that transfer over the entire trip?
Suppose we plan to complete this century in six hours. That’s about 1800-2000 calories or a frozen pizza.
That’s a lot of food to cram into your shirt pocket, which is probably already full of extra layers, phone, keys, etc. There are numerous storage options such as top tube frame packs, handbags or even fan packs. Despite the initial jokes from my riding partners, I love a fanny pack on road trips. Being a mountain biker myself, I’m used to wearing a pack for long rides, and I couldn’t find anything better for my Pop-Tarts and Bobo Bars* than my fanny pack.
For those who prefer a minimalist approach and have a less fussy stomach, storefronts are a good option. Plan your route in advance so you can reach these gas stations and outlets when you need fuel. If you’re driving in more rural areas, these can be few and far between and not all of these smaller shops take credit cards, so bring some cash.
Best Energy Bars For Cycling: High Carb Snacks For On And Off The Bike
Finally, most organized tours of the century have good aid stations and these can be a good place to refuel. If possible, find out in advance where the aid stations will be and what they will offer.
Your legs and lungs are ready, your friends and family know when to expect you before they worry, and your pockets are full of your favorite snacks. It’s time to grab your riding buddies and destroy that century!
Kira Maike has been a cyclist since 2010. He started racing bikes in college at the University of Georgia, and after graduation he switched to mountain biking and headed out west. When she is not on one of her bikes, she is playing in the mountains with her husky, Semenuk. Bike Push is supported by our readers, we can take commissions at no extra cost to you. read more here
Have you ever experienced the dreaded knock on a long bike ride? We wouldn’t wish that on our worst enemy.
The Velo Orange Blog: Eat To Ride To Riding To Eat
If you haven’t yet experienced it in all its gory detail, it’s basically what happens when you don’t give your body enough fuel and it refuses to back-pedal.
Fueling your bike properly isn’t just about what you have in your pocket, it’s about knowing what to eat before a long ride. Before your next epic adventure, digesting this article may prevent you from hitting the wall and calling home for a lift.
An epic, long bike ride and food go together. Refueling before a long ride starts with the food you eat the night before. You need to plan a meal that contains low GI, slow-releasing carbohydrates that will not only give you enough energy for an epic day in the saddle, but also release it when you need it.
For a long day in the saddle, proper refueling starts the night before, not at the breakfast table. The types of food listed below will give you a good foundation for your epic adventure the next day.
The Best Foods To Eat The Night Before A Big Race
A word of warning though; when it comes to carb loading the night before, too much is just as bad as too little. Try to cram too much into your stomach and you’ll feel bloated the next day. Not suitable for sitting in the saddle for hours.
Pasta has long been the rock of carb loading for endurance athletes. Carb loading may be a bit old school, but it can have its place before a big ride.
The night before a big adventure is great because it slowly releases your energy. Pasta can be a big meal, so make sure you give yourself enough time to digest it and get the energy yield on the bike.
Rice is another good option the night before a big hike, and it even makes for a good recovery food at the end. The bronze car is an integral part of the pro team bus!
Things Definitely Not To Eat On Ride
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