My winter cross-training this year is kickboxing. Great workout, almost as intense as a mountain bike ride, about one hour in length. I need to eat something with potatoes in it about 2-3 hours before the workout (I do the same thing before a ride). a couple of perogies does the trick. It doesn't have to be much. Other people find pasta works for them, but it just makes my tummy feel full

I've noticed that after kickboxing I'm pretty wired and it takes me several hours to realize that I'm actually kind of hungry. I usually crave protein, but the thought of eating meat at 10:00 at night doesn't really thrill me. Tonight I'm trying something different, something I would do after a mountain bike race or a 1 1/2 hour or longer ride....I'm going to drink the recovery drink Endurox. It's got protein and I don't know what else in it. I'm hoping that if I drink that right after kickboxing (about 7:30 pm) - on the drive home even - that I won't have any desire to eat dinner. That would be my ideal world.

Everyone here has good ideas. My thoughts are that you need to try to see what works for you. If you do a long ride and don't fuel up enough before during and/or after, you might not notice it right away, but just be very tired the next day. A training ride is different from a fun ride. During the summer our wednesday night rides usually last 3 hours or longer. I carry water and really watered down gaterade. I always have some kind of bar, usually just a snack bar, not an actual energy bar, and rarely have more than half on a ride of that length, sometimes nothing at all. but those rides are just fun and end up at the bar with a platter of fattening snacks (love those potato skins with bacon!! mmmmmm) and jugs of beer! not exactly training fuel!! On a training ride I'll have a before drink (we've got accelerade) drink water and gaterade on the ride, and, if it's more than an hour ride, have either a snack or a gel pack (I have to practice using those things - they're great in races, but they're not a lot of help if I fall over when trying to suck one back!!) every 20-40 minutes. At the end of the ride I'll drink the recovery drink while I"m doing my stretching. Seems to work quite well for me!

Best of luck on the century!!

namaste,
~T~