Hey Hey!

Lots of dirt road for the cross bike....love riding in the morning fog!

Hope my friends in Montana are getting pumped for the start of the Wednesday night beer league! I'm so sad I'll be missing out this year.

Well, its been quite some time since I posted....4 weeks in fact. I just finished up with a long road ride today (sadly my mountain bike is in the hospital waiting on a fork overhaul) and wanted to talk a little about nutrition in endurance events.

In my expierience, I've found nutrition in distance excursions to be game changes or a deal breaker on many occassions. No matter how fit you are, you won't get very far if you do a poor job re-fueling yourself. On the opposing end, you can often go farther than you believe you would be able to if you fuel yourself correctly (and go the right speed), even if you are unfit.

Today, I managed to fuel just right. Other days, I've utterly failed at the whole nutrition thing and paid dearly and there aren't many things as awful as the feeling of a bonk. What I'm going to provide here is a general overview however, what works for one person may not work for another. The best thing to do is to follow the guidelines and practice different eating habits on long rides to see what works best for you.

My bikes

In general:

Pre-ride: If its before a race eat your meal at least 3hrs before hand so you've not got a load of food sitting around in your stomach. Thats not always possible before just heading out for a ride, but do your best. The best pre-long ride meal should be mainly carbohydrates. Beware hard to digest fats and protein. Adding an egg to carbohydrates can help slow the absorption of glucose. Some good ideas are: pancakes or oatmeal + egg. As the race/ride nears ingest 1-2c water (not too much so you aren't sloshing it around). Avoid high carbohydrate at this time to prevent an insulin peak (this then leads to lower blood glucose.....you want the glucose in your blood as it provides the most readily available energy).

During the ride: Drink about 1c of water every 15-20m. This is about a bottle an hour. Sports drinks a/6-8% carbohydrate every 15-20m are also a good substitute as they are an easy way to hydrate and help maintain energy levels. Ingest anywhere between 100-300 calories per hour. For longer events 200-300 is better than the lower end although this is variable between people. Smaller people obviously require less fuel than larger people as they burn less energy to go an equal distance. Training to eat can also help improved your body's ability to efficiently digest food on the go. I tend to consume about 200 calories each hour. It is a level which my stomach doesn't reject and I can still maintain my strength/pace throughout a long ride. Carbohydrates, again should be your main source of fuel intake. Some protein may also be helpful. Further, electrolytes are important. Especially when it is hot out and if you seem to be a high salt sweater (salt on the face after a workout is a good indicator). Hammer nutrition makes Electrolyte tablets which have helped for me in the past. I took about 3/hr last Butte 50 race.

Not biking but wanted to share: Visit Yosemite. It's awesome!

Post-ride: Eat immediately after to speed recovery. Mostly carbohydrate but some protein as well. High-glycemic index food are best for muscle glycogen replacement. Also drink lots of water!

Here's a play by play of what I ate today:

Breakfast: Oatmeal + a few spoonfuls of yogurt, 1Tbs honey, cinnamon, banana, blueberries and 3c of coffee + water

Ride:
At 2:00hr ate Honey Stinger Chews (160kcal) *I realize I am contradicting what I said here about    eating every hour but I had basically eaten breakfast and hopped right on my bike so I wasn't ready to eat at 1hr.

3:20hr ate some salted almonds + 1.5 small salted red potatoes (I'm guessing it was about 250kcal). I was felt sorta crummy on the big climb (~1:20min) so I sat in the shade for about 10min and drank 1.5 water-bottles. It was hot out....maybe 85 F and I was cursing the sun the entire climb because there is next to zero shade on the climb! I was wishing I had a sport drink or some electrolyte tablets as I was worried about cramping.

4:10hr ate my 1/2 of this rando monster bar I had (420kcal in the entire bar! But it has a nice balance of simple and complex carbs, some protein, some fat and a pinch of sodium) and started climbing the first in a series of hills. I was feeling waaaaayyyyy better at this point....maybe the water and food?

5:20hr ate the rest of my almonds and had the a few more bites of the monster bar (200kcal)

6:00hr ate the rest of my monster bar and the remainder of my remaining potato together about 140kcal (sounding a bit scrappy here).

6:30hr had my banana (100kcal)....needed it to get me over the last hill!

7:00hr flatted at the top of the last 2.5mile downhill which takes me straight to my door step! Balls, I'd already fixed 2 flats earlier in the ride (thank you California drivers for all the junk on the roads....I have gator skin tires and Mr. Tuffys and still managed to flat twice). I only had a patch kit left and was not about to sit around and fix it. Bailed on the ride and called a friend who lives a few blocks away. Thanks Lindsay!

Total calories: breakfast??  + 1,070kcal during the ride.....pretty close to my predicted 1,400kcal I was shooting for!
Total water: 70oz hydration pack + 3.5 bottles of water

Post ride summary: Honestly, I felt pretty good nutrition and hydration wise throughout the entire ride. I was feeling a bit crappy at the top of my long climb but that may have been in part to the blazing sun. Taking a break, eating some food and drinking water seemed to pull me back. Finally, I managed to have enough energy to make it home and didn't feel totally beat at the finish. Despite the heat I didn't cramp.

Post ride meal: Homemade potato crisps (shout out to Toby for the new food processor) + black bean veggie burger on salad + Dubliner cheese. Lots of water. Then, a walk to the store for some yogurt covered pretzels!


Miss you guys!

-Heidi

Another displaced Missoulian (Molly) and I found refugee running on the Tahoe Rim Trail last weekend. We miss you and all your lovely trail Missoula!

*Some of this information came from the following as I just got this new edition in the mail, signed by one of the authors!:
Sharkey B, Gaskill S. Fitness & Health, seventh edition: Human Kinetics p.302