What do Randonneurs Eat?

[Susan Otcenas]

I get some version of this question quite often. SO I wrote a blog post about it!

http://susanotcenas.blogspot.com/201...neurs-eat.html

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "randonneuring" is ultra-long distance, non-competitive cycling. Course distances vary from 200K up to 1200K, although occasionally even longer brevets are offered. (For example, last summer I rode a 1418km brevet and this coming summer I'm registered for a 1500km brevet.) Properly fueling your body is not just a matter of calories in, calories out. It's learning what you body can tolerate when, and in what quantities. We are each an experiment of one, of course, so what works for me might be a disaster for you!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the article and the photos!

SUsan

[maillotpois]

OMG - that bacon banana thing!! Brilliant!

You made me hungry with all the pics.

I may have missed it, but I don't think you indicated how long the brevet was. Based on the 9 hour ride time, I am assuming 200k. Correct?

I'm moving away from liquid/athletic food to more solid/real food, though I know the liquid stuff has its place. I'm interested to see if I can hold the solid food emphasis, as I'm planning another brevet series and a 1000k this year. (That decision was sort of made on a whim as I'd previously said I wouldn't do another series til the kid is gone, but we're darned close and PBP, etc.)

Just great photos and write up. Thanks for sharing that.

[azfiddle]

Susan,

Thanks that was an interesting summary.

Okay- so I'm not a super-randonneur- just the two 200k brevets, plus a few centuries, so my experience is more limited. On the 210k this past weekend, as best as I remember, and following Susan's format:
Solids
1 banana
1/2 bonk breaker bar (leftover from another ride)
Most of a Payday candy bar
3 shot blocks
2 one oz pieces of home made pan forte (an Italian concoction made from dried fruit & nuts, mixed with flour, spices and a honey/sugar/butter syrup that is cooked to soft ball stage before mixing with the rest of the ingredients, then baked for about 40 minutes). It has 150 calories per oz, about the same as a cliff bar)
Doritos and cottage cheese (shared with my husband)
1 tangerine
1/2 "sandwich thin" spread with nutella and banana
a few bites of my husband's Klondike bar
A few gummy bears
3 peanut butter sandwich cookies
About 1600 calories

Liquids
water
1 bottle with Gu Brew electrolyte fluid
8 oz Dr. Pepper
About 200 calories

Post ride....
Not sure
tortilla chips, albondigas soup, tortilla, beans and rice, and a beer ... But I didn't finish a lot of it.

In fact, there were a lot of things I just ate parts of. I know there are some foods that upset my system - bacon has no appeal for me!
I didn't feel so great an hour after the lunch stop with the Doritos and cottage cheese and the nutella sandwich, but I'm not sure which one upset my system (or if both of them did).

I haven't tried anything like Perpetuem.

I was riding for about 9 hours and had about 2 hours of misc. stops as well.

On El Tour de Tucson (113 miles) it was cold (for me- 48-55 degrees) and rainy and I really did not enjoy the 2 packs of GU and shot blocks I had with me. The GU was like cold toothpaste in consistency, and the shot blocks were almost too hard to chew. The pan forte really seemed like the most appealing food on that ride. I carried a lot of other food and didn't eat that much of it besides a banana or two. I remember eating stuff like cookies at the aid stations- maybe a peanut butter sandwich.

[GLC1968]

That was really interesting! I've always wondered what you actually ate on those rides.

I'm surprised at the low % of plain water compared to other liquids. Is that typical, or did that have anything to do with whatever weather you were dealing with at the time?

[thekarens]

That was really interesting. I can't imagine going those distances and having to figure out what to eat.

[Susan Otcenas]

Sarah - yes, 200K. As far as the liquid to solid ratio goes: When I first started rando, I only ate solid foods and had plain water in my bottles. I was opposed to the "science diet" aspect of the various sports-oriented drinks and felt that real food was also quite a bit less expensive. However, a number of things caused me to change my thinking on this, so that now I nearly always have calories in my bottles. I determined that part of my intestinal distress was coming from having to digest so many solids. Solids require more energy to digest, are more difficult to consume ON the bike, and (let's be frank here) PRODUCE more solid waste. Also, solids tend to be eaten in bigger "bursts" if you will. ie, eating half a sandwich at a time, which means your stomach gets a load to work on all at once. By switching to liquids, I get a swig of a small number of calories every time I take a sip (keeping my blood sugar more even) and there are no solids to weigh down my gut. I also find that once the sun goes down or when it cold, I eat FAR less solid food because it's hard to see and/or hard to manage. Eating in the dark (find the thing you want in your bento box or handlebar bag, deal with the packaging, etc.) is challenging. Add to that thick gloves when it's cold (or raining!) and the whole thing becomes troublesome. Instead, handling a bottle or thermos is much simpler, and it ensures that I get the calories I need.

The bacon thing is freakin' amazing, BTW. I can't remember where I saw it, but as soon as I did, I made it. You weave the raw bacon into a mat, then bake it until crispy. Use it as you would bread. I made some for a 200K for me and my friends and needless to say, they were a big hit.

az - "I didn't feel so great an hour after the lunch stop with the Doritos and cottage cheese and the nutella sandwich, but I'm not sure which one upset my system (or if both of them did). " Or, it many have just been too many calories at once. When on brevets, I try not to eat too much at any one point, but rather be continually nibbling. Taking in too many calories at once is hard on your system and may cause nausea, as your body needs to send energy (and blood supply) to your working muscles, which sends it AWAY from your stomach. If you've eaten a lot, it will sit in your stomach like a ton of bricks, making you feel sick.

GLC - another day might have been COMPLETELY different, save for the Perpetuem. I'm also super fond of Allen Lim's rice cakes (from The Feed Zone Cookbook), Larabars (including my own homemade versions, peanut butter banana sandwiches, turkey sandwiches (late in the evening on a long brevet when I crave protein), and lots of other things. I once at a huge bacon cheeseburger at mile 180 on a 250 mile brevet. Damn, that was good. As far as plain water - I don't drink much of it. In warmer weather, sometimes, but generally I always have calories in the bottles so that I don't have to eat so many solids. Sometimes I carry thermoses and make myself a "rando mocha", which is hot cocoa made with coffee instead of milk or water. On winter brevets, having warm drinks is so nice.

[maillotpois]

Lots of wisdom here (on the liquid thing). In fact, what you describe is what I actually DID for my last brevet series and it worked great.

I haven't done anything over 200 miles since 2011, and sort of got in my stubborn head recently that maybe I could do it all on real food. But having one of my bottles with sustained energy in it always worked really well for me. I don't generally do gels or other stuff, but I would start with 2 bottles of SE and then keep one of them with SE or something. In the last half of a 400 or 600k, I could never really tolerate the liquid stuff, but I felt like at least I'd pre-loaded with calories pretty well by that point.

Thanks for reminding me. Now to see if my bins of sustained energy have expired.

[Susan Otcenas]

Thanks for reminding me. Now to see if my bins of sustained energy have expired.

Curious to know why you prefer SE over Perpetuem or Heed. I've never tried SE, even though it is also a Hammer product. I've relied on Perpetuem the past few year unless it's hot, in which case I use more Heed (as Perpetuem can turn rancid in the heat. 1st hand experience on this... Yuk! ) I find the Heed flavors, especially the orange, very mild and therefore tolerable even when many other things turn me off. What do you think of SE's taste?

[maillotpois]

SE has no taste that I can tell. I always mixed it with an electrolyte drink, like Clif's drink. It lends a creamy sort of feel to the drink. I have tried perpetuem, and fine those two pretty interchangeable. But I prefer SE for the ease of combining with other flavors.

Heed doesn't really work for me, gut wise.

[Sky King]

Thanks Susan new ideas for food on the road

A couple of my go to foods when touring.

Rolled Whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and honey, for those who can tolerate banana's when riding you can mash up and spread too.

Road side lunch stop - "Fish Taco" (the Bike Hermit's name for this snack) Sardines of your choice inside a corn tortilla

and finally, we often buy cocktail bread at whole foods - usually pumpernickel or rye. This is a thin sliced dense bread, 2 inch square. I put about 10 slices in a baggie, some summer sausage and cheese. Obviously we do most of our eating off the bike as we typically aren't on the clock.

[shootingstar]

I've admired randonneurs who can eat, cycle long into the night with alot less sleep and cycling under a broad time frame.

I would be curious for those who do long distance bike touring with their loaded bike panniers, if people here tend to eat/drink athletic food. I've done a number of loaded bike touring trips from several hundred km. to 1,000 km. and...have never had athletic food/drinks. It just never occurs to me, quite frankly. Closest would be energy bars, but I really don't consider that athletic food.

These are things I've noticed myself:
*if I ever eat any meat, it tends to be much smaller amounts of meat before or after a ride.
*noticeably salty and processed foods ie. chips, etc. I don't respond well --stomach-wise. Same for deep-fried food. I will only have it if there's no other choice/desperate.

*an ice cream or gelato is a luxury energy for me. Very welcome during a hot /humid trip.
I like eating parts of a sandwich along the way, banana, real juice drinks, etc.

I also believe that there is a cultural factor here: has it occurred to anyone that eating 1-2 pieces of a veggie sushi roll, works also during a bike trip? People worldwide work very hard and many hrs. ...they find ways to eat healthy without athletic food.