recovery drinks - food

Anyone recommending anything (legal..) ?
When I ride 2-3 hours a day, if I try to do it for 3 to 4 consecutive days (particularly now that the weather is changing for the better), I feel so tired during the day.

Well a real training plan would be in order. NOt a recovery drink.

Carbs are important. Use sports drink and food during the 2-3 hour rides, then eat more carbs (with some protein if you like) within 30 minutes of finishing the ride.

Part II is you're likely doing too much too soon. Depending on your age, fitness, and mileage base, riding 2-3 hours a day every day is hard. 10 hours or more of training a week is plenty for many of us, and may be a lot more than you need right now.

Recommend you vary your rides. Do one or two longer 2-3 hour rides each week, maybe one day of climbing or speed work, and a couple of short, easy recovery rides.

Above all, listen to your body. If you're tired during the day, back off the effort. If you keep hammering when you're already beat, you're not going to recover and build fitness. Diet and recovery are just as important as training to reach your goals.

SHAKLEE makes excellent sports supplements.

"Performance" is great during the ride and

"Physique" is the best post-ride product I've found.

Eat a low GI complex carb meal two and half to three hours before the ride.

Eat high GI foods at the end of the ride, once within thirty minutes of completion and again within two hours of completion.

I eat barley and egg for low GI and dates, bananas, fruit, bread and jam, for high GI

Supplements are great, food is better !

Shaklee products ARE food. The "Performance" product (derived from real food) was developed in support of the Daedalus Project, in which a human powered aircraft was designed to fly across the Aegean Sea. One of the problems was finding a strong enough athlete to pedal at the required effort for 4 hours, and then finding a way of keeping him energized and hydrated. Fig bars wouldn't do it, but Shaklee's product was successful. Nothing wrong with a little science, working together with nature.

Here's a little more info about the project, taken from this website:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Pho...87-0014-8.html

"To celebrate the Greek myth of Daedalus, the man who constructed wings of wax and feathers to escape King Minos, the Daedalus project began with the goal of designing, building and testing a human-powered aircraft that could fly the mythical distance, 115 km. To achieve this goal, three aircraft were constructed. The Light Eagle was the prototype aircraft, weighing 92 pounds. On January 22, 1987, it set a closed course distance record of 59 km, which still stands. Also in January of 1987, the Light Eagle was powered by Lois McCallin to set the straight distance, the distance around a closed circuit, and the duration world records for the female division in human powered vehicles.

Following this success, two more aircraft were built, the Daedalus 87 and Daedalus 88. Each aircraft weighed approximately 69 pounds. The Daedalus 88 aircraft was the ship that flew the 199 km from the Iraklion Air Force Base on Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, to the island of Santorini in 3 hours, 54 minutes. In the process, the aircraft set new records in distance and endurance for a human powered aircraft."

yeah, supplements are great, just don't try and live on them !

If you look around, you see a lot of people who look like they live on twinkies and beer. They'd probably be better off living on supplements.

nice to know someone can afford too !