What to Eat on a Century Ride?

[itself]

Hi all!

Well, as I am preparing for the Tour de Tucson, I am trying to figure out what will work for me on the ride as far as food. I have a really hard time digesting stuff on rides, so peanut butter and honey are out.

I am beginning to think that I may have to live on protein bars and bananas, unless I can figure out something. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know.

Thanks!

[Becky]

The short answer is anything you can keep down.

I have to eat solid food on long rides. Shot bloks only go so far, and start making me nauseous after awhile. I like Clif bars, fig newtons, and fruit if it's available. I've heard of people using boiled potato slices, but never tried them myself.

What have you tried so far?

[Veronica]

Experiment as you do your training rides.

Veronica

[Eden]

What do you normally eat on rides - what's worked on your training rides? Eat that - eat more of it, in small quantities, often. If you find solid foods to be hard to digest (not sure why protein bars should be any better than peanut butter....), make sure your bottle has some liquid nutrition in it -but find something and try it *before* your ride, as you never can tell if you will like it or if it will work for you until you try it, and in the middle of a century is a bad time to find out that your sports drink gives you terrible gas or tastes horrid or is intolerably sweet when it gets warm.

Everyone is different, so its hard to give specific advice. What works for me, may not be right for you (I, for instance, cannot tolerate bananas on the bike - they give me stomach cramps). That said, what does work for me personally has two components - it depends on how hard I'll be riding - the more strenuous the ride, the fewer solids I can tolerate. For races I rely mostly on liquids and gels. For longer more steady rides I usually take some sort of salty nutty kind of bar(s) - I particularly like Odwalla sweet and salty almond bars. Sometimes I take a little jerky - a tiny bit of protein with a wallop of salt calms my stomach and is a welcome relief from sweet, sweet, sweet. I always start with a bottle with calories and a bottle with only electrolytes.

[maillotpois]

And remember if you go the liquid nutrition route (which is largely what I do) that for organized rides you almost always have to bring tour own along in baggies. Tour de Tucson is no exception - I don't remember what the drink mix was they have there (and it varies year to year) but it was never something I had trained with so I always brought my own.

[marni]

I can't answer if you are pushing for speed, but having done several centuries, or century+ rides which last an average of 6 hours each start to finish, I do know that if I try to subsist on nothing but short ride, gus, gels, protein bars and electrolyte drinks. I need some normal type food somewhere along the line. For me a peanut butter made with low fat peanut butter and whole grain bread, cut into bite sized chunks, along with a baggie of dried fruit chunks ( banana, apple, apricot and dates) which I can suck and mouth to keep myself busy and slivating.

Just a thought- when in doubt, the best food is the least processed,closest to real food you can find if you are accustomed to it throughout your diet.

[ny biker]

It takes me closer to 9 hours to ride a century and I can do it on gu, gatorade and water. Usually I have to limit myself to those three things because my stomach won't tolerate anything else.

It really is a personal thing that you have to figure out during training.

[itself]

Thanks gals! The pretzels and fig newtons are great suggestions. I use Ultima Replenisher electrolytes, no cramping and has worked great.

I am hoping the Marriott or a restaurant will be open early enough in Tucson that I can get some pancakes before the start.

I will go to REI and pick up a couple of some different gels to see if they help. Thanks again for the help!

[nikkoblu2]

I can't answer if you are pushing for speed, but having done several centuries, or century+ rides which last an average of 6 hours each start to finish.

OMG! Six hours isn't pushing for speed??? Thank you, NYbiker for saying that it takes you closer to 9 hours to do a century.

God bless you Marni if you're doing it in 6 and not pushing for speed.

I rode 48 level miles yesterday (24 into a headwind) on my new road bike - it was 3:30 of actual ride time and the entire ride took 4:10. I wasn't really going for speed, but I don't think I could have gone much faster if I wanted to.

I know I completely deterred from the thought of this original post...sorry about that.

[Catrin]

6 hour century? You ROCK! As for me....the one ride on which I've hit 70 miles so far took me 6 hours.... I know this isn't the purpose of the thread but I couldn't resist

Still hoping to ride a century in 2010. For me, I have found that a combination of Cliff bars, Shot Blocs, Heed, Accelerade and a peanut butter - banana sandwich does me just fine - at least up to 70 miles. For under 30 miles I don't really eat any extra but do have a bottle of Heed to go with my 'bak and some shot blocs should i need them.