What do you eat, before a ride?

[mongoose]

Hi, i am not a racer, but i bike a lot, i ride 2 or 3 times a week, 25 miles, for those that ride this much or more, what do you eat the day before, or don't you alter your diet, and just ride, yesterday at the 18 mile point, i ran out of gas, and had to push it to make 25 miles, i had plenty of water, just struggled, to finish. i had no breakfast, just got upshowered and rode.

 

[Ted B]

Originally posted by mongoose
...i had no breakfast, just got upshowered and rode.

And therein lies the cause of your trouble.

A 25 mile ride isn't very demanding...unless of course you begin with a blood sugar deficit. Next time, consider ingesting about 500mL of a sports drink when you awaken if you are just going to roll out of bed and go.

 

[Sidmyre]

no food = suffer

food = good

seriously, get some suger in the blood stream.... get on a good start by eating right, I eat 3 bowls of frosted mini wheats + Orange Juice, nutrigrain bar, and a banana.......and that gives me lots and lots of energy for the rides I do ..

I know you mentioned that you had water but just to reiterate


WATER WATER WATER drink plenty of it, or gatorade or whatever sports mix drink you can get ahold of.

 

[txbuckeye]

Peanut butter and Nuttella sandwich and a banana does it for me.

 

[gclark8]

Aussie kids need their toast and Vegemite!

 

[mongoose]

Originally posted by Sidmyre
no food = suffer

food = good

seriously, get some suger in the blood stream.... get on a good start by eating right, I eat 3 bowls of frosted mini wheats + Orange Juice, nutrigrain bar, and a banana.......and that gives me lots and lots of energy for the rides I do ..

I know you mentioned that you had water but just to reiterate


WATER WATER WATER drink plenty of it, or gatorade or whatever sports mix drink you can get ahold of.

thanks for the reply, do yo mean you eat all of that before a ride? how soon then do you start your ride? i thought your body used a lot of blood to digest your food.

 

[Ted B]

As a general rule...

The more intense the riding effort, the less you will be able to comfortably digest.

The more fat/protein content, the more difficult to comfortably digest while riding.

The shorter the time between your eating and riding, the less you should eat.

This is why I suggested that if you are going to roll out of bed and get on the bike, you want to hydrate yourself and raise your blood sugar quickly. A liquid is the best way to do this. If you have an hour or two before you get on the bike, eat something that is easily digestible (e.g. rice based cereal, banana, etc.).

 

[Brunswick_kate]

About 1 cup of yoghurt fuels my morning ride of about 10 kms. I've learned the hard way that any ride on an empty stomach makes me very ill and too much food isn't much better.

 

[ejglows]

I mix All-bran, yogurt, and fruit salad for breakfast about 1 1/2 hours before my ride (about 250 cals) and a BIG cup of coffee AND plenty of water...no fuel= no go.

Thinking about it... I mix just about all my foods....

e

 

[mongoose]

thanks everyone for your replys, gave me some good ideas, this morning, i had orange juice. then rode, at 8 miles, had a power bar, and my ride went much better.

 

[TrekDedicated]

Most of you will probably shutter... lol

Since I work everyday, I ride afterwards.

I usually eat rice with carrot,peac, onion pieces and orange chicken and if I'm still really hungry I eat a chocolate chip muffin. This is done between 1-3pm, I ride around 530 pm. I think it gets the job done, I always feel great on the bike.

I do drink lots of water through out the day as well.

 

[ric_stern/RST]

UK adults need their toast and Marmite, which is much better than that Vegemite rubbish ;-) And two espressos

 

[Ted B]

Originally posted by ricstern
UK adults need their toast and Marmite, which is much better than that Vegemite rubbish ;-) And two espressos

Espressos? Why play around with the weak stuff?

I fancy a few good slugs of coca tea. (burp)

 

[pcs_ronbo]

PRE RIDE: peanut butter crackers (prepacked kind, with barely any peanut butter) + DIET COKE + WATER cut 50/50 with Gatorade.

Keep up the Gatorade/Water mix for whole ride. I do 1 water bottle every 45minutes.

 

[steve007]

Breakfast 7.30am: Pasta - not overcooked + chopped egg. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Chopped Banana + Honey. Coffee.

Pre-Ride(30 mins before ride): Banana.

During ride: Water,PowerGel,Power Bar,PSP22.

After ride: Banana, High5 Protein

 

[Randybaker99]

Originally posted by Ted B
And therein lies the cause of your trouble.

A 25 mile ride isn't very demanding...unless of course you begin with a blood sugar deficit. Next time, consider ingesting about 500mL of a sports drink when you awaken if you are just going to roll out of bed and go.

Ick, that would be nauseating to me!

I do understand your point though, that a sports drink is going to be the quickest fuel source, but I would think starting off with a bagel or a couple of pieces of toast, before the sports drink would lead to a happier stomach.

I gave up on the "get up and go" approach, I allow at least 30 minutes between getting out of bed and getting on the bike; I try to eat something right away to get the digestion going and the blood sugar up gradually. There are several energy or protein bars that I find to be very digestible first thing in the morning too - "Protein Plus" (by PowerBar), a Go Lean bar and Pria bars (also by Powerbar) are good for me. Cliff bars and Odwalla bars are much too sweet for me first thing in the AM.