Re: just how much food is needed to ride?
RE/> but on the other hand, i don't want to under- eat and bonk on a 8 mile ride, when i am still only
> 4 miles of an 8 mile loop.
I'm guessing that this varies from person-to-person and maybe even at different for an individual
depending on how much riding they've been doing. Seems like marathon runners and, I guess, a lot
of cyclists have developed their ability to burn fat on-the-fly at much, much higher rates than
normal people.
But I'm no athlete - never have been, never will be.
My experience is that somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours out I could use some food - like a handfull
of grapes or a cookie.
When I used to ride a *lot* harder than I do now, I'd start eating about an hour into a four-hour
ride. Just a grape here and a grape there...it was sort of interesting to feel the sugar hit my
system...sudden increase in energy and all that.... But as far as *needing* to eat (i.e. starting to
feel lousey form lack of food) it always seems to me like 2.5-3 hours before my bod runs out of
readily-available fuel.
For me that means I almost never eat anything on my usual 2-3 hour rides.
On a weekend ride, when I'm out for six hours or so, I eat my usual breakfast of a bagel with butter
and plenty marmalade and then stop for lunch.
Water, OTOH, seems like a much higher priority for me. I take in about a quart on a 2 hour ride if
it's not too warm. In the summer, I trade the two old Gaterade bottles I usually carry for a 3-liter
HydraPack. I can really feel a difference in performance between drinking plenty water and not. On a
2-hour ride it's the diff between feeling essentially the same during the second hour and feeling
steadily worse.
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PeteCresswell
