cfforum

I am not normally a breakfast eater, so come Saturday mornings, I have to force myself to eat, and feel pretty lousy. I have been trying to eat more morning meals during the week, but just have a hard time with a big breakfast..ever.

I would love to hear what some of you are eating pre-ride, and what suggestions you might have.

Tomorrow I am going a bit of a different route...protein shake, english muffin and a banana.....man..just thinking about it I am already feeling full!


Thanks!

I've finally settled on the following, eaten at least 2 hrs. pre-ride:

Immediately upon waking, approx. 32 oz. of water & one emergen-c packet, 1 cal/mag supplement.

1 bowl hot cereal, which consists of 1/2 - 2/3 c. dry cereal (either Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Frina or Country Choice Organic Steel Cut Oats or CC Organic Multigrain Cereal (btw, these are much cheaper at TJ's than Raley's or Bel Air), or a combo of these); small handful of org. raisins; small handful of org. chopped roasted almonds (I buy plain almonds and then soak them overnight in water & a tbsp. of apple cider vinegar, then rinse, pat dry, and roast in the oven on 200 degrees with a sprinking of celtic sea salt 'til dry) OR 2 Tbsp. hemp protein powder OR 1 whole omega-3 egg and 1 egg white; 2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed. That does it.

Yeah, sometimes it does feel like a big lump in my stomach, but it passes (literally) by the time I leave for the ride.

Right before we start riding a take a couple swigs of my homemade recovery drink and alternate drinking it and plain water throughout our ride:

2 qts. water
1/4 c. lemon juice (Santa Cruz Organics bottled lemon juice is cheaper than buying whole lemons and juicing them!)
7 T raw honey
1 T organic molasses
1/8 t sea salt

This comes very close to the 30g. carbs, 10mg. sodium, 100mg. potassium ratio suggested on the CC website.

For rides up to 3 hrs. I don't take anymore food with me, but do refill the water bottles. Over 3 hrs. and I take something - finally landed on raisins and almonds as my snack of choice. Thumbs down to store bought energy bars, goos, gels, and the like - blech! I'm going to look into getting a gel flask for longer rides and putting my recovery drink "goo" in there so I can just pour it my empty bottle and top off with water.

I'm not hungry at all after our rides, but make myself drink plenty of water and take some L-glutamine while fixing lunch. About an hour or two after the ride I'm HUNGRY and eat, eat, eat.

Anyway, hope this helps a bit. I had to experiment A LOT before I finally landed on what works for me. Everyone is different. I hope you find something that works for you soon! It really does make riding much more pleasant.

P.S. I've also found that making sure I start hydrating and eating well at least two days before a big ride makes a positive difference as well.

Wow! That sounds like a lot of planning/experimenting before I could come close to being as finally tuned as all that...

I have a few different before ride meal options.

1) If the ride/run/walk will be early, and not too long. -- Eat nothing. This is the Bill Phillips - "Body for Life" plan. Eat about an hour after you are done working out. If I do this 2-3 times a week, I can loose about 1-2 lbs per week. But the ride has to be ~60 minute ride. Going hard is ok. If you ate plenty the night before (and emptied) this would even be a good plan for a race short race. Though hydration should be optimal. I've heard a lot of arguments against doing this option. (But it really works for loosing weight

2) If the ride/run will be easy but long - Eat everything. I'll fill up with pancakes, eggs, orange juice, and milk up to 1/2 hour before I leave. The workout will startout slow (110bpm-120bpm) and will not require nutrition for the ifrst 1-2 hours. (But don't forget to continue to hydrate.)

3) If the ride will be typical of a CycleFolsom "A" group ride of 6 hours or more - Be careful. (This is the unrefined section for me.) What "works" so far is a 20 oz serving of Perpetum followed by 1/3 C of cooked quck oats combined with a banana. I'll do this as little as 30 minutes before leaving. (For an equally intensive run, only the serving of Perpetum would be used.)

Ideally the first meal is done and emptied before a ride, but I don't rise early enough to accomplish that feat.

=- Curt

I've always found a lot of good information here:

http://www.cptips.com/

There is a pretty extensive nutrition section, although I have not yet ... err.... digested it all..... yet?

take a look.....

My long rides usually start around 5:00 AM or 4:30 AM sometimes. So, I eat the night before, sleep for five or six hours, and then when I wake up, I have a glass of water and maybe a banana until I've had the all important pre-ride BM. When I'm done with that, I'm off on the bike, and usually eat at least a cliff bar and maybe another piece of fruit in the first hour for breakfast. I've also learned that when I need extra water, or know I've just got up and need to hydrate well, I'll take a plastic throw-away bottle (bottled water) with me that I can drink and then toss in a garbage can somewhere.

I for one hate gels and never use them...except when I've ran marathons, but really enjoy the Cliff Blocks. Gels simply make me want to throw up when I eat them. I'm a cliff bar hold out as well, but do like the functionality of a powerbar that allows you to stick to your top tube or stem if you don't finish it all before the next hill, descent, sprint marker, or riding buddy's attack.

Dried fruit is my other personal favorite when I ride....usually apricots. I love the Mangos at Costco but they have so much sugar on them I eat like candy, and can never save them for my rides. That is the extent of my diet....the only other thing I do consistenly is drink a diet poison every afternoon. Hmmm...it's that time now.

I'm not normally a big breakfast eater either but I have a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel and two cups of water(I do try and drink more water a couple of days before the ride also) . I have a very sensitive stomach so I don't experiment too much. If you do experiment, I'd suggest going on a shorter ride that day in case your stomach gets upset.

My main concern on the longer rides is to keep topped off as much as possible. I usually put about 10-12 fig newtons in a small sandwich bag and munch on them as I ride. I used to carry a Clif Bar or two on the rides also but found them difficult to tear open and chew will riding so I've switched to putting 2-3 gel packs(Cytomax) in a plastic flask and gulping that as I ride. At each rest stop I always fill up my bottle so that I'll be hydrated as much as possible. I don't like running out of water during the ride. I usually carry water and cytomx as the drinks.

On the hot days, I usually put a frozen Gatorade in my car so that when I return, I have something cool to drink after the ride.

[quote="Mark"]Dried fruit is my other personal favorite when I ride....usually apricots. [/quote]

This gave me a thought. Trail mix. I went the store and bought some dried apricots and bananas, almonds, peanuts, etc...in bulk...and mixed all up and put it in a baggie and carried it in my jersey pocket. It was great. Easy to snack on as needed...just left the baggie "unzipped" and could grab a few as i rode along. And it is foods I already like which helps! javascript:emoticon(':D')


[quote="ozlee"]On the hot days, I usually put a frozen Gatorade in my car so that when I return, I have something cool to drink after the ride.[/quote]

I do this for my bottles on my ride...keeps them cold for 50 to 60% of the ride, and melts enough during the ride fast enough to get drinks as often as I need it.

Keep these ideas comin!!

Here is a trick we used alll the time in growing up in Las Vegas that I haven't seen out here. Simply take an old cycling sock (or new it doesn't matter) and put it over a frozen water bottle. Soak it wet when you leave for your ride. I don't know the science and someone else probably does, but it works like a swamp cooler and will keep your bottle frozen and cold for almost 1/3 of the time longer on real hot days.

Depending on your water bottle cages...this may be difficult to get your sock and bottle in the cage, but in the old days, it would fit just fine.

Mark, that is gritty old, pre indexed-shifting, no helmet, tube sock wearing, clipped in advice from back in the day...you just made my entire month.

Go 7-Eleven!!

Info to ... chew on?

http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/nutrition.html

http://www.cptips.com/toc.htm#nuttips

http://www.cyclingforums.com/articles/b-15.html

Lots of info in common across these which is a good sign.

I do love trail mix as well, I have tried it during the ride and salt and sweet of it was great on the turn around. M&M's with raisins and peanuts..... yummy.