What do you bring for a century ride?

A few more months will make it 1 year of cycling for me and I haven't done my first century ride.I haven't ate much during my previous rides ranging from 25-63 miles, but know that would be suicide on a 100 miler. Ideally I would aim to do 50 miles away 50 miles back from my house so not finishing won't be an option. At the same time, id be very cautious to stop somewhere to eat and fear something happening to it 50 miles away from home. If you had to pack for a century, how much food would you or do you bring?

 

I'm not a good reference point because I do not need to eat too much. I did 130 miles the other day and drank 3 bottles with 200 calories in each. I drank a chocolate milk at 65 miles and ate a Mounds bar. This is about 1000 calories and is a bit more than my normal consumption but I was riding hard. They key is steady consumption of fuel while on the bike. Riding several hours w/o eating and then pigging out is usually not the best approach. I did 197 miles recently but rode pretty easy and only had 4 bottles with my energy junk in it, two chocolate milks and 2 Mounds bars for a total of around 1600 calories. The slower I ride the higher the percentage of fat vs carbs being burnt. I would recommend pacing yourself on the Century and consistently nibbling whatever your heart's content.

 

I'm like Weatherby, a light eater/drinker on the bike. For 100 miles/5-6 hours I would stuff 6 gels and a couple energy bars in the jersey pockets and maybe a half-dozen hard candies. Plain water in the bottles, stop to refill once, maybe twice.

I would probably finish with two or three gels still in my pocket.

Eat as he suggested...often and in small amounts. Test ride the gels to see what your stomach can handle. They can be difficult for some cyclists to digest in quantities of three or more over a couple of hours. Space them out with energy bars or whatever other food source you like to eat.

Yeah...grosses me out! And yet that is exactly how the fellow that guy I ran into that was crossing America last Summer was doing it. At 120+ miles per day! He would leave the motel before sunrise and ride a few hours before stopping for a killer breakfast. Ride a few more hours and stop for a killer lunch. Ride until near dark to a pre-planned motel and sit down to a huge supper.

And he wondered why he was not losing any weight despite using 6000+ calories per day while riding!

 

A small tip....if you are not really familiar with the commercial powders and trying something new, keep at least one bottle with just plain water. When it is hot and also if the bottle solution has too high a concentration of carbs/sugars or too high an osmolality, drinking some pure water can right the ship and get any nausea under control.

Most online calculators way overestimate calories burned per hour when riding. Unless you are really hauling 25-30 cals/hr is more realistic than the often cited 40 cals/mile. For instance, Bicycling magazine has a calculator telling me I'd burn over 800 calories in an hour riding at 14 mph. This is pure rubbish unless that 14 miles is right up L'Alpe d'Huez.

 

I used to do the nutrition bar thing till I did a century with 10,000 ft of climbing. At mile 65 they pass out sandwiches. Man it was the best sandwich EVER! I finished with lots of energy so I tried it on my flatter centuries.

If I eat a turkey sandwich around mile 60-65 and I can actually lift the pace and sprint at mile 90-100.

So pretty much now I take 1 nutrition bars. Eat them at mile 30 then a sandwich at mile 65. I take cash for a healthy fresh sandwich if I can find one.

I also carry sport drink mix so 2 bottles and the rest is all water.

Figure I am a bigger 230 lb solo flatter century rider doing 100 miles in 5:45. A faster racer dude may need more or less food I dunno. But this works for me!

The 10,000 ft century was 7:10. I wouldn't know what the skinny guys eat!

 

I like turkey sammiches! I just had a tuna and was thinking, "Man, I wish I had made me a sliced turkey sammich with Swiss cheese, mayo, salt and lettuce on rye!", as I was wolfing it down.

I'm not above sticking a couple of cookies in a baggie for a long ride, but they have to be just the right mix of softness and durability to last through the miles in a jersey pocket.

Dried fruit is always killer on a long, hot ride and everyone can use a babnana or two over 100 miles.

Yes, I said babnana.

 

I get most of my calories from drinking while on a ride. I usually fill one with vitamin water/gatorade and the other with plain water. I typically don't even want to look at food while riding. I never "feel hungry", but have felt like the energy had been zapped out of me from neglecting nutrition on rides a few times. The 2 times I felt the worst when I took long detours on accident(say +15 to a planned 30) with only one water bottle on me and no food. One month in to cycling I planned to 25 and was stranded. Had a flat tire, a defective tube, and ran out of fluid.... Some how I got home the 15 extra a flat tire. Could have damaged the bike, but it was about survival that day.

I've tried gels before and they aren't for me. Maybe I just picked the wrong flavor, but I stopped eating after 1 taste. The try to bring at least 1 clip bar when I remember.

Calories burned during cycling is kind of confusing to me. As someone who is thin and can unwittingly lose weight, I track my weight at least once or twice a week. I've noticed that running 3-4 times a week(5 miles or so each) will make me lose weight. Too this day, I haven't lost 1 pound cycling.

 

It is confusing to lots of cyclist, many of whom are fat despite riding tons of miles. You can't out ride a bad diet. Cycling burns about half the calories as what many online programs tell you. Maybe less than half...depends on the ride speed.

If you use a power meter, calculation of calories burned is quite accurate. Here is some real data to support my point.........

127 miles in 6.5 hours at 210 watts average worked out to 4100 calories; however, the online calculators such as the Bicycling Mag one that I linked resulted in a gross overestimation of 7,041 calories.

197 miles in 11.5 hours at an easier pace of 150 watts worked to 5,578 calories burned; however, the online calculators such as the Bicycling Mag one that I linked resulted in a gross overestimation of 12,200 calories total burned for the ride. This is just totally wrong.

No wonder why so many cyclists are fat.

I hope this clarifies and eliminates the confusion.

 

That is EXACTLY what happened to that gentleman that was crossing the country while eating three huge meals per day plus snacks and energy food.

He told me he was doing 14,000 calorie days and he was baffled why he was not losing hardly any weight (he did lose a few pounds).

I didn't say a word...

I'm not sure many days on the Tour de France smoke 14,000 calories.

A racing bicycle is a VERY efficient machine! A rider has to really work to get the calorie count up and the excess pounds down. I don't think many experienced riders are in a state of denial or confusion as to why the pounds stop coming off or how many sammiches it takes to fuel their rides. IMO it's just habit, preferences and such taking precedence. Well, that and those 210 Watt average power output rides being damned hard work!

 

Intake is everything. I changed my diet to a balanced 1800 calorie day. I dropped 50 pounds without trying to lose weight or increasing my mileage.

I had plenty to lose but was not losing any by trying to ride more.

Funny though I see people taking in 3 or 4 gels on a 20 mile ride. Heck it takes me 10 to warm up. I can't even think about taking anything in after 20. On a 60 mile ride I take in one bar and lots of water.

 

I generally don't eat on a ride unless it's more than 50 miles. I've done 100 km on water and Powerade alone.

On my club's annual supported century, here's what I eat:

rest stop #1 at 32 miles, half a PBJ sandwich, refill water bottles.

rest stop #2 at 50 miles, a banana, refill water bottles

rest stop #3 at 72 miles, orange slice, another half PBJ, and refill bottles, one water, one Gatorade.

They pass out Cliff bars at the pre-start check in. I take one just in case. I've never finished one to date on the ride. Normally I'll have it back at the car. I might have a bite or two around the 90 mile mark, just to give myself something to look forward too. Those last 28 miles between the last rest stop and the finish can drag on.

But I have breakfast before the ride.

Here's the other thing about cycling: the better you get at it, the fewer calories you burn doing it. Weight can pour off in the first 6 months of riding. Six years later, you wonder why the scale is going in the wrong direction, even if you're averaging 150-200 miles a week.

 

That clarifies a few things, I don't pay too much attention to calories in/calories out. I use to walk 5 miles each way to work and have been into running for the past 8 or so years. Between high volume of cardio and stick figure DNA, I've never had trouble maintaining weight. I'm 29 now and have been pretty close to 165 since 20. I graduated high school at 6'2"/125. I was actually pretty glad that cycling hasn't caused me to lose weight. My diet is very inconsistent though and I should improve it. Weight is only part of the equation though, a crappy diet will have you feeling like crap..

Thanks for all of the tips, spring cant come soon enough!

 

I am trying to decide whether to have breakfast before the start of a 254 mile ride today. Fuel plan is 5 bottles with 300 calories each. 3 gel flasks. 2 mounds bars. 2 chocolate milks and a bag of potato chips if the mood strikes me. Since I'm only going to ride at 19 mph most of my energy is going to come from burning my own fat. ~75-80% will be fat This is hard to figure out but the key to eating the right amount in my opinion.

I like the half pbj idea. A whole sandwich is too much all at once for me

 

Food is overrated the most critical is water or isotonic. Id take 2 large bottles of 1 litre and refill them at least once. Drinking needs to be regulated - drink a little every 10-15 minutes at the most.
Carbs - depending on the intensity of the ride - even climbs can be taken easily and gently without too much effort. Id plan ahead peaks of intensity, before every such peak - choose your preferred carb source, my common are - banana [my best], date, or gel.

 

I think you're trolling us.

First you said in your first post that you never did a 100 mile ride before but then in your second post you just completed a 130 mile ride, so which is it, never did a 100 mile ride or have you done a 100 mile ride, and if you have done a 130 mile ride then you surly know by now what kind of food and how much to drink! Also I never met anyone that can ride 130 miles on just 3 bottles of liquid and a Mounds bar; then said you did a 197 mile ride just on 4 bottles, some chocolate milk, and 2 mounds bar...you would have been found almost dead on the side of the road from at least dehydration, LOL!! And now you're going on a 254 mile ride with just 2 Mound bars and a bag of chips to sustain you? LOL!!!!

So from Wednesday of this week to today you went from 65 miles to 254 miles. This can't get any funner.

This is where I exit this game and let the rest of you have fun with the OP.

 

Senile in your old age maybe?I know the internet is a great place for some to bicker and call someone a "troll" with nothing to back it up. Maybe if you learned how to read, you'd see you are confusing my post uawadall with the guy named weatherby.

Iv'e posted everything on this forum ranging from my first metric century, bike maintenance questions, first crash, etc...Think before you post, maybe the others aren't calling me a "troll" because they read before they type.

If thats still no good enough for ya, I am on starva....

 

Learn how to read? Ok, then explain what you said, on Wens of this week at 7:41pm your first post states: "A few more months will make it 1 year of cycling for me and I haven't done my first century ride." And of course that first post goes on to say you would aim to do 50 miles out and 50 miles back, would aim means you haven't done it yet. And then you ask what would you pack for a 100 mile ride, obviously you ask that because you haven't done so yet. Now that first post makes sense because your original question to start this thread was "What do you bring for a century ride?" However in post #4 and #9 suddenly you're whole hell of lot wiser and giving us tips yet supposedly you don't know what to bring on a 100 mile ride?

However, in your very next post on Thurs of this week at 3:26am, which is just a little less than 8 hours after your first post you state this: " I did 130 miles the other day and drank 3 bottles with 200 calories in each. I drank a chocolate milk at 65 miles and ate a Mounds bar." So now you're saying that either you have done your first century and the first post 8 hours prior was incorrect or the first post is correct and you're telling stores about what you've done on this day. But you don't stop there, you go on to state this: "I did 197 miles recently but rode pretty easy and only had 4 bottles with my energy junk in it." Which of course if you've already did rides of one at 130 and one at 197 then you should have a real good sense about what to take on a ride without asking us if you haven't been bonking which you never mention that you do on extremely low food and liquid intake.

Then on your post #14 dated for today at 1:57am you are going on a 254 mile ride with just 5 bottles, 3 gel flasks, 2 mound bars, 2 chocolate milks, and a bag of chips all the while averaging 19 mph.

So this means that according to your first post you went from never exceeding 63 miles before to doing 130 miles one day later then 254 miles 3 day later all the while hardly eating or drinking. Poster MPRE53 stated that he drinks 8 bottles of fluid on a 100 mile ride which is the norm for anyone doing 100 miles, you on the other doing 34 miles more than MPRE53 100 mile ride drank only 3 bottles of fluid and a chocolate milk.

Where am I misinterpreting what you said? Is the dates and times showing on my view of this website actually started a year ago and thus the web site is in error? Do you have problems with getting the English language down well enough to explain yourself? or are you a troll? I don't care about Strava, those can be faked, but if yours is not fake then why did you start of with your first post being so naive about what to take on a long ride when you have been doing long rides all along?

On a friendlier note, try using this calculator for figuring out how much fluid you should be taking in: http://www.camelbak.com/en/HydratED/HydrationCalculator.aspx Even if I make you a 18 year old female just 4' tall weighing 90 pounds and profiling you as a very light sweater, and doing the lowest intensity (which is no where near 19 mph avg), and outside temp of just 55 degrees you should be consuming right around13 1/2 ounces per hour, which of course at a low intensity it would take a lot more hours to complete a 100 mile ride then it would to complete it at moderate to high intensity to average 19 mph as you do, either way you're way under hydrating yourself.

 

Learn to read please...

My User Name is Uawadall, you are quoting many post by weatherby....#2,4,9,14 get this........ARE NOT MY POST. If you had a senile lapse and got confused, that be one thing, but trying to call me out for your lack of comprehension is ridiculous.

 

Froze, I read everything that Uawadall posted, and you are confusing Weatherby's posts with his. I think your confusion lies in the fact that both Weatherby and Uawadall have the same avatar.