mid ride blahs

[crazycanuck]

Hey guys,

Hoping you can help me out with this question. It seems to be that in the middle of a long bike ride I run out of oomph for a bit. When I say Ooomph, it feels as if the engery has been sucked out of my body but it comes back at a medium rate. The zing returns & i'm like new again. Time frame-about 20min. (same for off road as well)

I am taking in the recommended grams of carbs/hr (55g)& the correct amount of water but it still happens. I don't want to be on a 60km ride & suddenly lose the group again.

What exactly am i doing wrong? I've read many of the older threads on hitting the wall but am not sure if it's that or something else. (The older threads gave me some good info & if you come accross a particular thread that has the exact same question, please let me know. I'll do another search)

Any ideas???

Thank you

C

[Wahine]

CC - How long are you riding when it sets in? Is this consistent? What changes do you make when you start to get your ooooomph back?

This sounds like a nutritional issue, but I'm not sure I have a suggestion. If you give us a little more info, I might be able to come up with something better than...

Try changing what you eat. You may need a faster acting/more easily digestable form of carb. I prefer gels, but there's lots of options.

My nutrition schedule is usually one gel 15 min before riding if I haven't had anything to eat in the last 1.5 to 2 hours. Then I'll have another after 20 min on the bike and then every 40 to 45 min after. I also drink gatorade on long rides (not my favorite drink, but it's what they give out at IM so I have to get used to it).

I would also wonder if you're not getting enough calories back in you, soon enough after a ride and if this is affecting your glycogen stores. This might mean you run out of muscle glycogen sooner than you should and it takes a while for your liver to release glycogen to "catch up".

By the way, this is all speculation. I really don't know all that much about nutrition. Just thought I'd share my random thoughts based on my tri experience.

[crazycanuck]

Hey wahine,

I have to say it varies on the ride but i'll give you the example from yesterday.

Yesterday it was about 40km into the ride. I just felt it wasn't there ya know & slowed down quite a bit. Prior to that I'd had three power gels & my electrolyte drink. I felt fine after I stopped for a few minutes & had more than enough energy for the final 20km. I thought about carrying a bannana then decided not to.

After the ride, I stopped for brekkie-toast w jam & a coffee. When I rode the final few kms to the pilates studio the energy was there then it wasn't.

This has always happened to me no matter when I ride. I have the energy, lose it for a bit, gain it back, slowly lose it then have almost too much energy. Does that make sense?

I'm off to re read Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook

About glycogen stores..any info is cool..
Thanks

C

[Grog]

Hey CC -

Let me chime in. I'm no nutrionist, but spontaneously I thought:

3 gels and a sport drink for 40 km? Isn't that a lot of sugar? Any reason why you have so much? I wonder if you could actually be crashing from too much. In 40 km (1h30m max?) I would perhaps have two gels, or one gel and one drink. Or, in that specific case, one gel with a bottle of water/drink mix, holding on until breakfast, then not much besides water... (And probably no coffee if I was going to ride more than a few kms after breakfast...)

And then the toast & jam with coffee, that takes some energy to digest as well... Coffee can play nasty tricks on you.

One component that's missing is how hard you were working during the ride. Were you giving all your spare change? Or just riding along?

Keep us posted with your experiments...

[solveig]

I think Grog may be onto something. I haven't experienced this on the bike as much as in regular life, but it sounds like the sugar rush/crash cycle. Also, it looks like you're eating plenty of carbs but not a lot of protein. From what I understand, you wouldn't need much protein during the ride for rides of the length you're describing, but you might need more post-ride and in the rest of your daily diet. I consciously upped my protein about 2 months ago, and that, along with less sugar, has leveled out my energy rush/crash cycles as well as my moods.

Good luck!

S

[DeniseGoldberg]

After the ride, I stopped for brekkie-toast w jam & a coffee.

Did you eat before your ride? Or were you only relying on the gels? And toast w/ jam sounds like just carbs...

I always eat a balanced meal (protein, carbs) before I ride (not right before I head out of the door, but within a reasonable amount of time). I drink water and Gatorade during my ride, and I usually use bars to refuel.

--- Denise

[Wahine]

So, I did a little literature search this morning in some sports med journals and checked out some abstracts. The conclusion is..... inconclusive.

But...

What I can say is that everyone on this thread seems to be on the right track. One of the more recent findings in sports physiology is that there is a protective mechanism in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that anticipates a blood glucose catastrophe and will refleively decrease power output.

So, if you strech this a little, well maybe a lot, and yes I am stretching, about to tear something even...

Here's my new thought, your blood glucose is dropping but rather than falling into a full bonk you end up in this state of reflexive decrease in activity due to protective mechanisms in the CNS. Now, If you've taken in a lot of easy to digest glucose and quickly stored a bunch of it because you didn't need quite that much *and* your thyroid is not able to easily help manage metabolism because of other factors. I think your body can't equilibrate the level of glucose in your blood stream easily. Because of how and what your eating as well as hormonal issues.

My newest suggestion is to eat complex carbs with a balance of protien and fat an hour, 2 might be better before a long ride, this may help to even out your glucose absoption. Then carry on with the usual recommended intake for you during exercise. Also, think about any meds you might be taking and how they affect your metabolic rate, you may need to change your med schedule. But that's something you have to talk to a doctor or pharmacist about.

CC - I hope I didn't upset you by bringing up the thyroid thing in this post, but I really think its a factor.

[crazycanuck]

Thanks ladies,

I'll post more later but just letting you know-prior to leaving home I had toast w jam & a banana

The 60km ride took 2hrs 27min. In my water bottle it was 2 water mixed with about 8g of powergel sports drink. I had two power gel's per hour.

I'm going to have to find out more about metabolic rate as i've no clue...

I plead ignorance when it comes to my thyroid. My dr's main concern was me taking the medication & nothing else..I've never discussed this with him as i just started increasing my km's..

i'll sleep on this & see what my thoughts are in the morning.

C