A no-sugar ride

[mirliluck]

Yeah I'm pretty sure she's talking about eliminating 'added sugars', not naturally occurring ones...

I think it's a good way to approach sugar in general. Naturally occurring ones like those in fruit, nuts, dairy, even veggies come with all the other benefits those foods offer like vitamins and minerals, etc. Sugar in other forms should be really an occasional indulgence, not standard ride-fare.

When I DO indulge in sweets, I want it to be in the form of a brownie or chocolate ice cream, not coming from an energy bar.

[Melalvai]

No sugar for me means no refined sugar and no corn syrup. From what I've learned about glycemic index, the sugars in fruit are bound up in soluble & insoluble fibers which have a time-release-capsule effect so that you don't get a sugar rush and the crash.

I'm not trying to control for carbohydrates. Just glycemic index. I don't know the GI of pomegranate fruit leather, but it's kind of high for pomegranate juice so next time I might leave that one at home.

By one bottle per 10 miles, I actually meant one bottle per hour, because on longer rides 10 miles = 1 hour for me. That is, I typically average 12 mph but with breaks it works out to 10 mph. (I'm curious as to what I'd average on a lighter bike...this is my commuter work horse and it weighs about 40 pounds.) This ride, as predicted, took 4 hours.

Electrolytes: I adore V8. I used to hate the stuff but I started drinking it on bike rides and now I love it.

[abejita]

This is what I've always done because I never cared for the ingredients of the processed 'sport' food. We bring raisins, dried cherries, bananas and homemade lara bars. For electrolites, we add elete to our water.

[zoom-zoom]

I would say the bananas, bread, and fruit leather are still all high-glycemic. Perhaps not as much as table sugar, but even white potatoes are higher than table sugar--so natural doesn't = low-glycemic in some cases. I didn't go near bananas during the early stages of Atkins (which is all about low-glycemic, natural foods), nor bread, nor dried fruit.

Even without high-glycemic carbs, that was a lot of calories for 4 hours, especially in the heat. Your body would have needed more fluids just to process the volume of food. I feel better riding when I don't eat much, since my body has to work to burn the food. For a 4 hour ride a Clif bar and Nuun in my bottles (plus refills of water) suffice, as long as I have eaten enough pre-ride. If I eat too much I just feel sluggish.

[Triskeliongirl]

To me that is a huge amount of carbs and a huge amount of calories for a 40mile ride. I think folks think they need way more food than they really need on the bike. On a 40 mile ride, at most I will consume 2 bottles of muscle milk light, and 1 small bag of pretzels.

[Crankin]

Lately, I have been needing more food on the bike. Maybe it's the fact I have been riding in hot weather? I tried restricting it a bit and that was not good.
For example, yesterday I rode 45 miles. My riding time was around 2.5- 3 hours (I don't usually care). I had one bottle of Accelerade (the lower sugar kind) and another bottle of water. I drank about 2/3 of the Accelerade and at about 30 miles, refilled it with water and mixed in some more powder. I sipped about 1/3 of the water. At about 25 miles I felt really sluggish and hungry, despite the fact I had egg whites/cheese, whole wheat toast, and fruit for breakfast. I had to stop and eat about 1/4 of my bar. A few miles later, I finished it. At mile 41, we stopped and I had a fresh fruit plate and coffee, then rode the last 4 miles home. I was ravenous and a little "buzzed" by which I mean I get this weird feeling after a long and hard ride... not shaky or anything, but it only goes away after I eat a good meal or snack. Unfortunately, I chose to stretch for 20 minutes! So despite thinking I would have a nice low carb salad with chicken breast, I opted for a chicken sandwich on a whole wheat roll, cole slaw, and melon. I had a snack of half a ciabatta roll, a slice of cheese, and one slice of low salt ham at 5, since I was going out to dinner, late. I was starving until I ate dinner!
I find I feel much better when I eat a little bit continuously during a long ride. Sometimes I need a shot block every hour, too. In fact, I often eat half a Luna bar before starting a ride, even if I have had breakfast within 2 hours.
So, even though I try and watch my carbs quite a bit when I am not riding (more to control my weight than for any medical reasons), I just can't do it on the bike. Yet, my DH can ride quite well without eating or drinking anything. I have to remind him to drink and he never uses anything but water or occasionally some Nuun.

[mirliluck]

I personally don't think it's too much food/carbs for a 40 mile bike ride, but maybe better used by your body after and during the ride than all just before to help you protect lean muscle mass. Eggs and banana maybe before the ride for fuel, the fruit leather or something similarly portable during, and the bread or oats, something like that, immediately post ride to restore glyogen in your muscles. I've read somewhere that sprouted grain bread is like the perfect post-ride/workout complex carb, I usually do something like that with a protein shake. And then lots more protein later...