Long distance nutrition - interesting comparison

[maillotpois]

This is a really great comparison of what 2 reallife ultra endurance riders ate/drank in 2 different events:

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

1 got most of his calories from liquids and the other from "real" food (if you consider an egg mcmuffin "real" food.) This is great proof that there's no one perfect nutritional solution for everyone.

I tend more towards the pure liquid approach - but this guy drank 2 bottles per hour! I have never been able to get that much down. Fascinating.

Boy, I'd better get over this cough soon so I can get back on the bike. Surfing the net is going to get a little dull!!

[RoadRaven]

Interesting article, Mallio
I see this in my house...
My eldest son and my partner do a 140km approx training ride every Sunday morning (they are out there now).

My son has a plate of creamed rice and some toast before he starts and takes loads of muesli bars.
My partner eats only a small banana and takes a combination of leppins and a couple of muesli bars.
They both have a bottle of water and a second bottle of water with glucose in it.

Before a race too, my partner is the same - he eats very little, some toast during the morning and maybe a piece of fruit. Just before the race he has a can of 'V' and a leppin as more food upsets his stomach.

Before a race my son and I both have big breakfast - often something like eggs on toast (he has cheese as well) and eat a muesli bar close to the start.

[mtbdarby]

Sarah,
Interesting article indeed. And I was gonna post a nutritional question anyway so here goes:

Since each of my weekend long rides is now a PB, I'm in uncharted territory for me nutritionally. I really struggled riding 2 1/2 hours this weekend and my mph were down. Here's what I ate:

1 bowl of frosted mini wheats with 1% milk and 1 slice of pizza. Walked the dogs for 45 minutes then hopped on the bike.

Drank 24 oz of water the first hour then had 1 packet of hammer gel. Got off the bike to stretch while fueling. Ate a handful of walnuts with dates.

Rode another hour and drank 24 oz of water and 6 oz of pedialyte. At the end of 2 hours got off and stretched again and had a potty break. Another handful of dates and walnuts and one more hammergel packet. Took 2 electrolyte pills. Rode another 30 minutes.

I had absolutely NO energy in my quads by the end of this. The last 7 miles were really tough. Yet the weekend before I had energy to burn but I ate less - I can't pin what I did that differently. Any thoughts or suggestions for me?

Thanks,

[maillotpois]

I'm no expert, but it seems you may not be taking in enough. How about trying sports drink instead of water in your bottles? How about adding some more real food instead of gels? Like a bagel or trukey sandwich or something? You have a lot of fairly simple sugar in the food you are eating (gels and dried fruit) - maybe adding a little protein/fat in there would help keep you fueled.

[Nanci]

You should probably be aiming for 300-400 calories per hour, from whatever source. I used to do really well, running, with a gel pack every 20 minutes.

Nanci

[Veronica]

I've become quite fanatical about eating every 30 minutes and drinking every 15. I use Sustain Energy in my water bottles - not full strength. When I eat, it's usually just a bite of something real, like a Payday or pretzils, or an entire gel packet.

V.