120 mile ride

Originally Posted by sunnysang

Hello all. Tommorow i plan to do my first 100 mile ride (120 to be exact). I was wondering what kind of stuff i should eat tonite and tommorow morning prior to the ride. Also what should i take along and how much of it? Gels, bars, etc.... I rode 70 miles yesterday and barely made it home the last 5 to toal 75. I bonked around 68. What i took along with me was a 32 once power ade, 2 cliff bars, and about 5 bottles of water and i felt like **** the rest of the day, out of energy etc..

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming

Eat a lot, drink a lot and do it early. A big mistake folks make is to wait till they're hungry or thirsty during the ride to refuel. Start sipping your energy drink and nibbling on bars early on, that fuels you for the final miles.

I don't know anything about your weight, the nature of the course, the winds you'll encounter or how fast you'll ride it, but you'll need to eat a lot more than two bars and some power drink. I rode a 58 mile road race yesterday with hills but not too steep, I worked pretty hard and averaged ~ 20 mph, I burned over 2500 calories in just under three hours according to my power meter.

Even at a more sedate pace you can expect to burn twice that amount in a 120 mile ride. At 100-200 calories per bar or bottle of energy drink it'll take a lot more than you carried on your last trip to keep you from bonking. Your muscles can only store somewhere between 1200 and 2000 calories worth of glycogen depending on your level of training so there's no way you'll get there on stored energy. If it's an organized tour then you just need to refuel at every stop but don't stop for longer than necessary, warming up your muscles again and again after long rests really sucks. If it's an impromptu tour then carry some cash and buy food along the way.

I'll do energy bars, banannas and the like for rides up to 70 miles but for anything longer I like some real food along the way. I'm talking a good roast beef sandwich or something else substantial for 100 mile plus rides. Sounds crazy for folks used to power bars but it really helps me on all day rides to get some real food and some fat/protein along the way. I don't do this in long races where I'll be going real hard and have a tough time digesting heavier food but often do this for long training rides or century type social rides where the pace is easier, sort of depends on how intense you'll be riding.

Not much you can really do today but eat well and make sure you include a lot of carbs like pasta. At this point there's only so much additional glycogen you can store in your muscles and liver and you don't want to get totally bloated so just eat well, hydrate well and start nibbling and drinking as soon as you get on the bike tomorrow.

Good luck,
Dave

Originally Posted by sunnysang

i saw a guy on the ride yesterday take penutbutter sandwich, is that good?

Originally Posted by NomadVW

Be prepared to drink 1 bottle of water per hour (thirsty or not). Some kind of electrolyte mix even better. (edited to add, this is an "at least" depending on temperatures)

Be prepared to take on 1/2g carbs-1g carbs per hour (for me, it's usually a power bar every hour, and a power gel half hour later).

Yesterday I raced 156 miles ( 250 kilometers ). I've ridden dozens of centuries, and rides out to 200-210 kilometers. Nutrition cannot be understated. On top of this, your body is going to expect it in certain forms. It is always much easier to eat/drink on the ride when you're used to eating/drinking those foods and liquds on the bike. The one thing you don't want to find out ON THE BIKE is that your body doesn't digest a particular food that well.

Originally Posted by Sillyoldtwit

Geez Nomad, that's a virtual banquet! Last year going hard from beginning to end in the Fukui Mountainous 100 mile ride (see profile in "It's killing me"), I took in about a third of what you advocate.(max temperature 30C/86F) I think this is largely a personal thing, as I have never drunk or eaten much on long rides or runs. One has to find out for oneself what they need to take in for endurance events.
Sometimes after doing a hard Sunday ride of 100kms with some 12kms of climbing, I get home finding that I've only drunk half a bottle.
As I said along time ago in these forums; I used to occasionally fast for 24 hours and without taking in any solids, go for a hard hilly 10 mile run, and I mean flat out.

However, I wouldn't recommend that anyone copy me, find out what suits you so that you are not taking along a suitcase full of unecessary food and drink.
Having said this, it's too late for the OP to experiment, so he'd better pack his suitcase. TYSON

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming

I rode a 58 mile road race yesterday with hills but not too steep, I worked pretty hard and averaged ~ 20 mph, I burned over 2500 calories in just under three hours according to my power meter.

Originally Posted by Piotr

Hey Dave, so you were at Garden Creek Gap too?! What did you think of the cows! . BTW, I got 7th in the 3's and I'm really happy with that since I stuck with the best climbers in the canyon. Check out this video: http://gardencreekgap.blogspot.com/ . Those are the Pro/1/2's, they missed most of the fun.

Good advice on the fueling. My race was 83 miles and I ate 3 gels, some Jelly Belly's and 3 bottles (it was a little chilly at first). This was the longest race that I finished, so I loaded up for the 2 days prior - lotsa carbs. I probably gained 3 pounds during those days. Anyways, I might see you at High Uintas Classic.