long ride nutrition & IBS

[archibella]

Hey girls- I was wondering if someone could give me some ideas on what to eat for lunch... let me explain: I did one of the MS150's last year (first time) and was doing great until lunch. I tend to stay away from subs and heavily meat sandwiches because they never fail to make me feel sick, but I'd done 60 miles and I was pretty hungry, lol. I had another 30 to go! So I ate the provided sandwhiches at the lunch break. Sure enough, not 10 miles down the road I start feeling bad. That was the worst 30 miles I've ever done. The second day they offered peanut butter and jelly as an option during lunch(at mile 40 of the remaining 60 miles), and I was very, very happy. No problems there.

I signed up to do the ride again this year, and I don't want to repeat my first day experience... Will PB&J for lunch sustain me on a such a long day? This year the first day is just under 100 miles!!! If any of you have IBS and similar trigger foods, what do you eat? I talked this over w/my bf who's a pretty serious rider, and we decided I could do PB&J if I took in more energy at the rest stops. What do you guys think? Not sure how pb&j and something like ham&cheese compare, but what do I look for? how many carbs and how much protein?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[SadieKate]

What do you eat on your training rides?

[mimitabby]

Hey girls- I was wondering if someone could give me some ideas on what to eat for lunch... let me explain: I did one of the MS150's last year (first time) and was doing great until lunch. I tend to stay away from subs and heavily meat sandwiches because they never fail to make me feel sick, but I'd done 60 miles and I was pretty hungry, lol. I had another 30 to go! So I ate the provided sandwhiches at the lunch break. Sure enough, not 10 miles down the road I start feeling bad. That was the worst 30 miles I've ever done. The second day they offered peanut butter and jelly as an option during lunch(at mile 40 of the remaining 60 miles), and I was very, very happy. No problems there.


Any thoughts would be appreciated!

I think you could eat the PB&J; but have you tried stuff like Ensure? that's what my husband swears by on long rides.

[archibella]

hmmm... well, for breakfast before a long ride I usually have a pj&j, lol. Or a cliff bar+ a bannana. I do a saturday morning early ride where we only do 15 miles or so then have breakfast, and I eat breafast tacos (scrambled eggs, peppers, onions, tomatoes & hot sauce on homemade tortillas, mmmmm). Sometimes I keep riding after that and sometimes not. I usually don't eat a lot of meat except at dinner when I'm having some sort of main course. I don't get why meat that's just been cooked is fine, but cold cuts are my enemy... It's not the lactose (thinking cheese here) either. I do cheese and tomato sandwhiches all the time and am fine.

[Dianyla]

If you have stringent dietary requirements, you should plan to self-support and bring your own food as much as possible. If the rest stops happen to have something that is friendly to your body, great. If not, you can't rely on it. My ex had a list of food allergies a mile long and for him to chance it and hope that there was something that he could eat was asking for trouble.

I do think it's unusual for a rest stop to offer fatty/meaty food for a bike ride.

[Duck on Wheels]

IBS and other IBD's are pretty individual. My Crohns does better on ham and cheese than on pb&j, although pb&j can also be fine when I'm well out of my flare-up zone. I agree that you're best off taking your own food along. I can be pretty sure of finding bananas and water to refill, but other than that I feel safer knowing I have enough along of things that won't give me trouble.

[texas_emily]

I'd agree with your bf. Go for the pb&j and extra calories along the way. Dairy and caffeine trigger my IBS, so I try to avoid them as best as I possibly can. I've done 3 MS150s, and they tend to be fairly well stocked with foods that I can handle.

This year Clif bar was one of the sponsors for the Houston-Austin ride. Yeah for non-dairy energy bars!

[KnottedYet]

Gluten enteropathy here. I bring my own food EVERYWHERE, because it is extremely hard to be sure there will be something I can eat other than fruit. I generally assume I won't be able to eat anything, and plan accordingly. Then if there is something I can eat, it's like a special surprise!

[betagirl]

I second what Bikeless said. I can eat pretty much whatever if the crohn's is quiet, but if it's cranky I tend to bring foods I know to be pretty safe. There are rides where I am just not hungry, so for those I always make sure I have multiple packets of chocolate gu. I usually can eat a power bar also on those days. But anything other than that, it's tough. I do try to take any symptoms in stride that may happen on the bike. Cramps will pass if I just slow down or stop for a minute usually. There's usually a bathroom or at least a field within sprinting distance if need be :D

[Dogmama]

I dunno about PB&J - too much fat for my IBS. Obviously, we're all different.

Somebody asked about training ride foods - THAT is the time to experiment with what works for you.

I've been a CLif bar fanatic for years, but the ladies here keep talking Luna - so I tried a few. MUCH better for needed energy fast & they seem to stick around just as long as CLif. So...I'm breaking up with Clif.

[KnottedYet]

Clif doesn't mind much. (if you call Cliff Bar you get the real Clif's voice on the message system) Since they make Luna. So, if one breaks up with Clif and takes up with Luna, does that mean.... they've changed teams?

(sorry, couldn't help myself)