Quote Originally Posted by sundial View Post
I'm still trying to figure out my on the bike eating schedule though. Any suggestion?
My biggest suggestion would be to keep (sanely) increasing your long rides on the weekends per one of the gazillion century training plans out there...and REALLY use those long rides to learn what your body needs/likes. I cannot stress that enough. MUCH better to have the runs on local training rides where you know where the bushes are! MUCH better to find out locally if the same gel that works for you on packet #1 in hour 2 still works great by packet #5 in hour 7. All that kind of thing.

For the century I did last weekend, I chose not to eat ANY of the wonderfully tempting food they had at the stops, with the exception of 1/2 banana (which I had used in training successfully). I can get digestive upset, so I simply decided to carry ALL my own food & electrolytes...needing only water at the stops. It was very hard for me to pass up all the beautiful fresh fruit and yummy cookies they had, as well as the sandwich makings...but, I just didn't want to tempt an upset stomach.

I planned on needing 200 calories/hour, but it turns out I had way too much food left over when I got done. I expected to be out for 12-13 hours (lot of climbing, slow rider). I did the 200 calories x 12 hours = 2400 calories to carry. Then, because I felt nervous, I threw in 2 extra bars for 2900 to carry. It was way too much.

Next time, I will carry about 150 calories per expected hour on the bike. When I got done with the ride, I wasn't even hungry. I had just fueled ALL day. And, I don't like to eat too many calories at once, so rather than eat 1 bar every 45 minutes to an hour, I will eat a bite or two every 15 minutes. It gets a little tedious, but my tummy can get upset.

I used a combination of: yogurt & almonds (1st 10 mile stop, early a.m.), payday bars, power bars, CarbBoom gel, banana, almonds, Clif Shot Bloks, water, and nuun electrolyte tablets (in one of the water bottles only, but all day long, alternating bottles).

Oh, and one last thing...I don't know if this is pertinent to your ride or not, but I tried to eat more of the solids at the top of my climbs before descending, so I could digest more of the solid foods on the downhill, with a lower heart rate and lower exertion.