Pre-Loading for a Big Ride

Now that I am in taper/rest mode, with the big Mitchell ride just around the corner, it is time to prepare for how I am going to fuel the ride. Fortunately with all the century rides I have done over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to experiment and find a formula that works for me. As with anything, your mileage may vary. I know someone who eats an entire pizza the evening before a long ride, which I would never do, but it works out perfectly for him.
Initially I did a traditional carbo-load without much thought as to what I was eating. I would scan labels of anything in my fridge or pantry. If it had carbs, I would eat it, probably an extra 1,000 to 1,500 calories worth. This would give me plenty of energy to burn, but was simply too much. I would feel heavy, bloated, and it would affect my performance. Not to mention, after burning thousands of calories on a ride and eating somewhat normally afterward, I would end up gaining weight.

For the last few rides, I have settled on something I like to call ‘pre-loading’ rather than ‘carbo-loading’ because I am not adding much food to my diet. Instead I am shifting around what I eat so that it appropriately fuels the ride. Note that I have come to this plan through the guidance of a registered nutritionist.

Mount Mitchell Plan
The ride is on a Monday, so beginning perhaps Friday or Saturday, I will start to add a few extra carbs to my diet. Here I’ll start with items with a low glycemic index. You can find numerous listings on the web. Here is a good one. I will probably have some healthy legume and healthy fruits. Based on my tastes, it will probably be chickpeas, grapefruit and peaches. Foods with a lower glycemic index will store over a slower period of time, so by the time I need the extra energy on Monday, they will be waiting for me.

Aside from these additional carbs, I will eat normal, healthy meals throughout the weekend. This will consist of around 2,000 calories per day spread over several meals a day. Usually my training diet would have 50% carbs, but with the additions, it will probably be as much as 55-60%. Most of my fats will come from healthy sources (nuts, avocado, olive oil) and I will include lean protein from chicken or fish sources. I will mix in several vegetable and fruit portions, preferably around six, and take one multivitamin and fish oil pill daily.

Sunday night will be a little more like traditional carboloading, but without adding all the extra calories. On Sunday night I will make sure to have some sort of healthy high glycemic carb, which should be ready to hit the bloodstream first thing in the morning. Whole wheat pasta or brown rice will be ideal. Since I’m going to be eating with the Freewheelers, it will probably be pasta. In the past, I enjoyed the most success when I had Carraba’s prepare me a whole wheat version of their Chicken Marsala. It was delicious and I felt terrific the next day. Before going to bed, I will add a small carb snack. This will probably be a banana or a couple fig newtons, maybe both.

The morning before a ride I will usually have a healthy but easily digestible breakfast. Usually a boiled egg, Lara bar and banana would work, then I will pre-fuel for the race with a Clif bar. Mitchell starts very early so I’ll have to change my plan. Instead I will skip a breakfast of any substance and just have the Clif bar and a banana. This and the food stores from the past couple days will get me going, but since I did not significantly add carb calories, I will need to make sure to eat good carbs along the way. Many of these are going to come in the form of energy gels from my dispenser as I ride. At rest stops I will pick and choose from what is available, which will probably end up being bananas and fig newtons or similar snacks. At some point throughout the day I will want something a little more substantial, probably a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This will go along with sports drink that will provide enough sugars, carbs, and electrolytes to keep me fueled and hydrated. As long as I continually fuel myself along the way, I should not run out of gas regardless how difficult the ride is.

by aaronwest
http://SteepClimbs.com

Eating on Longer Rides

from CyclingNews.com Fitness Q&A
answered by Scott Saifer
=======================
Hi,
I am a 44-year-old male cyclist and I weigh 200lbs. I'm 6'2" tall. I've been a road cyclist for six years. I am hoping you can help me with a problem that I've been having over the past few years when it comes to rides that go over 90 miles and are especially challenging such as ones that include large amounts of climbing.
What happens is that as I approach, on average, the 85-mile mark, I begin to get almost nauseated and lose my energy and barely feel like keeping my head up, it seems. Once at this point, I don't feel that I can get any food down and water doesn't seem to help. An example would be this weekend on a 90 mile ride through some of the bigger climbs in my area of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As if on cue, at around 84 miles, I suddenly had nothing left in my legs and the weakness just continued right up my body and into my neck and shoulders.

Throughout the ride I drank plenty of water, all in all, four full bottles. Then at the first store stop I had a chocolate milk and a pack of salty pretzels with some cheese (Combos) as a quick snack. After ascending a couple of other mountains we had a second store stop to load up our water bottles which I did and also drank a small Gatorade G2 and a Lifewater with electrolytes drink. Here I also had a Snickers peanut butter candy bar.

Granted I know these aren't the greatest of nutritional items, but I only ever have these on a ride and only because they are easy to get at convenience stores and provide a lot of carbs and some protein. Further, about an hour into the ride, I also had an Accel gel pack. I feel that this sudden nausea and rapid loss of energy (bonking) is likely due to me not getting enough calories. However, as mentioned, I did eat a gel pack in the first hour, more food at about 2.5 hours, more at about 4.5 hours and at these store stops I felt that eating much more would be too hard for me to process and digest and I would get sick from "too much" food.

The average speed that day was a little over 17mph. Finding out if it's the lack of food that is causing this to happen almost always at the 85-90 mile mark, and how to correct this problem is very important to me. Besides helping me be better on normal rides, I have a strenuous ride coming up, the Assault on Mount Mitchell, in a couple of months and this happened to me on that ride last year.
I was feeling well, my ride was going according to plan and my time was looking good. I had hoped to come in under seven hours. However, about 87 miles into the ride, I bonked. And what's worse, I got nauseated, just to the point of thinking I would vomit, but never did. I tried to force some food down, but couldn't make it happen. Needless to say, I missed my goal of going under seven hours.

During that ride I drank probably six bottles of water, an FRS energy drink, had two flasks of Hammer's Sustained energy supplement, ate a banana, a few cookies at one of the brief rest stops, two Accel gel packs, and possibly another energy bar. Again, not huge amounts of calories for someone of my size, but I don't know how I can get down many more calories during a ride without getting sick from "trying" to get a lot of calories down, or if this is even my problem.

But again, to re-iterate, the two biggest problems are the nauseated feeling and my legs just dying and not bouncing back after a tough climb. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Scott S
Spartanburg, SC USA

Scott Saifer says:

Scott,

You are not eating enough. You are not eating often enough and you are making bad food choices. It's no surprise you'd be bonking. I can't promise that eating better will prevent the bonk, but pretty much anyone who ate the way you have been eating would bonk, so at least you've got a good chance.

Here's your new eating prescription: from the beginning to the end of the ride: have a few big bites of something high in carbohydrate, with a small amount or protein or no protein at all and minimal fat every 15-20 minutes. Someone your size should be able to absorb about 300 Calories per hour. In 15-20 minute chunks, that's 75-100 Calories per chunk. Do not go more than 20 minutes without a bite. Forget the cheese.
You can use athletic energy foods, or choose from among these long-time cyclist favorites: pretzels, fig bars, bananas, potatoes, PB&J, crackers, bagels, rolls. Eating every 15 minutes is going to require carrying several hours worth of food. Recharge your pockets at your store stops, but don't do your eating there. Eat on the bike to save time.

Drink enough that you need to urinate a few times during one of your long rides and that when you urinate, the color is pale, in the lemonade rather than the apple juice range.

Scott Saifer, M.S.
Head Coach, CEO
Wenzel Coaching.com

What's the Point? (part 1)

• Bikes don't have brake lights.
• Pointing out a hole as you pass it means the rider behind you has already hit it.
• It's not just Courtesy, it's Safety.
• Give a Shout & Point it Out™.

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After a grueling Upstate Winter Bike League ride yesterday, I felt totally drained and exhausted.  The legs were feeling great at the start despite the chilly 28º temperatures and icy breeze, but as the day wore on... my body crumpled, and my motivation collapsed.  - nearly totally bonked by the end.


To view complete details of yesterday's ride with comparisons, click here.

Of course, this was no Assault on Mt. Mitchell, and it was slower and flatter than the Assault on Marion... but it was certainly a test of willpower.  After 2.5 hours, we stopped at a store for food/drink.  At that point, I ate what I could (some of my food was a little too frozen to chew), drank what I could (snagging a left-over Coca-Cola from a buddy of mine), and stretched as much as I could in the time given.  Yet when we started back, my muscles burned so deeply that I thought my femurs were on fire!

Two hours later when we finally rolled into the parking lot... I was defeated.  Everyone else seemed okay (or at least better off than myself) - a complete reversal from 2 weeks ago, but I wondered to myself... "Why?  Why do we do this to ourselves, and then return - again and again? Why do we slay ourselves in the name of fun?"  Of course, this is a difficult question to answer... and one which will hopefully be answered through all of these posts (and I will say a little bit about that in Part 2, for sure).

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Thankfully, we didn't have to contend with blustery 30+mph winds this time.  Two weeks ago was dangerous and stressful due to conditions.  But this ride was also incredibly stressful!  Again: Why?

What made this ride any more stressful or difficult than any of my other group rides?

One of the primary issues that we had yesterday was a lack of communication.

Just like The Assaults®, there were cyclists at nearly every level of experience participating.  There were novices, mid-pack racers, weekend warriors, and at the front (or in the mix) were Cat1/Pro racers!  A wide range of abilities, mixing together, coursing down the road at high speeds... is a recipe for danger.

And just like The Assaults, the pace was fast - far faster than the usual Wednesday night jaunt through the county that many of us are used to.  Even drafting while sitting-in pushed riders to their limits.  It's good practice to push oneself beyond a comfortable level - that's how we learn and grow.  However, health and safety must always come first (whether you are on a group ride or in the gym, etc.).

With so many on the edge of their abilities, mistakes are bound to happen.  People lose focus, make mistakes, overreact, and bad things follow.

It is incredibly important to communicate completely with our fellow riders.  Yesterday was not a race.  The Assaults are not races.  There is no prize at the finish, and there is no corporate sponsorship deal for crossing the line in front of anyone else.  This sport is one of the few civil sports left!  Good sportsmanship is still highly valued - there is no pride in defeating someone because they had a flat tire, a mechanical, or even a crash.  We've all seen it in the Tour de France: the Best wait for each other and help each other out.  (The consensus is: the handful who act selfishly, do not deserve the prizes they claim to have won.)

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After the snow storm that blanketed the southeast a few weeks ago, our local roads were in severe disrepair.  Debris, broken and shredded pavement littered the roads, and we could never be sure where the next hazard would pop up.  For this reason, the people at the front must always be alert, watching for these tire-biting, wheel-smashing, cavernous potholes.  And, rather than swerving around them at the last second - the leaders should glide around them, taking the line of a smooth arc such that the riders behind can follow, and may also see the debris or hole well in advance.

Still, the most important visual communication is The Point.  (I will discuss aural communication later.)  When approaching a hole ...or gravel ...or a turn ...or glass ...or anything that can cause danger and chaos in the peloton:

"give a shout and point it out"

People in the front need to carve a path around while pointing (clearly, and not just a small hand gesture from the bars).  Perhaps more importantly: people in the middle must pass that information along!  True, some of us find ourselves chatting while riding along.  But that does not mean that we can't pass along a Point.

Again, it's not just courtesy, it's safety.

How many text while driving? How hard would it be to point out a hole before riding over/by it? 

"Wag of the Finger:"  If you are an elite athlete or top racer, please don't act "too cool" to help those around you.  Even the top European Pros point out road hazards during the races.  Nothing is accomplished by this self-centered and elitist behavior - the sport of cycling is better than that, so should you be.

As I hop down off of my soapbox for a moment and massage my aching quads and stiff shoulders, I think back to the ride... I was almost hit by a car because nobody relayed an important message about an upcoming turn.  I was almost taken down in a crash because a rider hit a pile of gravel which was never pointed out.  I was almost hit by a car when making a turn and no one clearly relayed the message of oncoming traffic.  More than one of my friends related stories of being cut-off due to people dodging potholes and debris - again not having been pointed out by the riders up front.  And more than a few riders got flat tires (some double flats) due to glass, sand, or holes in the road - none of which was ever pointed out!

•  Certainly, there is the argument that to avoid all of these incidents, one should ride closer to the front.  Pelotons often sort themselves out, with the strongest and most experiences riders on the front, so much of the antics described occur near the rear.  This is something of a myth: often, it is the case that avid cyclists fight for a higher position (which causes issues in and of itself) and place themselves farther up than their skill allows because they feel unsafe near the back - something that communication could help alleviate.  I spent an equal amount of time at the front as near the back yesterday, and the problems were uniformly distributed.  One vehicle incident happened while I was near the front, one while I was nearer the back.

It was a stressful ride, and I am happy that next week I will be at the Great Escape for our first Official Training Ride for the Assaults:  Let it Roll!

-Peter
http://TotalCyclist.com
http://theAssaults.com

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Quick Note about Stress:   Admittedly, I showed up to the ride with work and personal stuff on my mind.  I knew I hadn't hydrated or eaten very well this week, and my sleep patterns had been off kilter for while.  So, going into the ride, my body and mind were already stressed.  This undoubtedly played into it all - but the other factors mentioned above exacerbated the strain to the point of total mental and physical exhaustion.

PLEASE: FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS!

White Knuckles and Hot Soup

After a brutish ride last weekend (click here to see the details), I am reminded of the difficulties when riding in a peloton of more than 100 people in conditions such as they were.  Many of us have read the "How To" guides, the tips and tricks of a pace-line, the group etiquette, and all the articles that surround group riding.  But when it comes to extreme elements (or extreme reactions to those elements), we all tend to lose our focus.  Last Saturday was a wonderfully grim example. 

Rag dolls strewn around the table, slowly warming ourselves with spicy tortilla soup, we ached and stretched our shoulders & necks.  This ride had been a test of will and of character. Nothing out there was impossible... but it had certainly seemed so at the time.

I looked around at my friends at the table.  Vacant stares and hollowed eyes, as though veterans of some great battle, they were defeated.

We sat quietly while the soup worked its magic.

The winds had blustered and blown, with gusts upwards of 30mph.  Temperatures had barely broken freezing (thankfully, there was no precipitation).  Still, crosswinds and headwinds (ne'er a tailwind!) battered us all day.  And yet, the leaders - the men up front - drove on and on with frightening speed.  Despite those great invisible gale forces constantly bearing down on us, we rode 82 miles at an incredible 20mph average!

This is the kind of ride one simply survives.

In these conditions, I had to keep reminding myself of some of "the rules" of riding.   For instance:
1.)  When the wind comes from the front left, go to the yellow line.  This enables the people behind you to form an echelon (diagonal draft).  In the same case, if you're drafting and find yourself on the white line, directly behind someone else... again, move into the wind.  Rotate, take turns, pull and share the workload.  Form multiple echelons so that everyone can draft, and gaps don't open up.  Be considerate, and work together - it's the only way to ensure your own safety and continued participation.

2.)  Cold weather and high winds tend to make people tense up.  The stiffer your arms and neck, the more likely that you will overreact - or be unable to react - when the situation suddenly changes (like a gust, a hole in the road, or a crash).  Besides, after 4 hours of a hunched shoulders and locked elbows, and you'll be so sore you won't want to ride the bike ever again!

During that hellish ride, my hands cramped. I was gripping the bars so tightly that they hurt - a white knuckled reaction to gusting wind and chaotic riders.  "Stop it," I kept telling myself over and over, shaking out my hands.  "Don't squeeze the bars - hold the bars!"

3.)  Eat.  Eat and Drink.  Keep fueling and refueling despite it all.  You sweat and you burn calories in cold weather just the same, so be certain to get it back in.

Thankfully, I did remember this important rule, and even though it was difficult to let go the handlebars while rolling, I managed to squeeze in a few gels and bars.  On a ride like this, the best time to eat is at stop signs or traffic lights.  Many experienced riders bonked that day.  They hit the wall because they simply didn't remember to eat!

That night, I was exhausted... and thankful for my warm bed.

-Peter Kay
TotalCyclist.com

The What and How of Event-Day Nutrition: The "B" Word

To follow up on Boyd's post and that I heard the "B" word  ("bonk") from several cycling friends after the January 8, 2011, UWBL, I wanted to offer a few suggestions about the what and how of nutrition when competing or participating in a targeted event.

The bonking at the UWBL can be traced to the intensity of the ride combined with the extreme conditions—cold and wind. Part of proper cycling nutrition is obviously choosing the right fuels—foods, gels, and liquids. I have stated over and over when offering advice that YOUR nutritional needs are YOURS; thus, there simply is no template anyone can offer a cyclist. What works for me may or may not work for you so the Golden Rule of "what" to use for nutrition is TO EXPERIMENT FOR MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT and to do that experimentation under conditions similar to the targeted event.

For many years, my cycling circle has ridden a hellish century leaving from Table Rock State Park, winding up Hwy 215 (wicked climb), and then rolling along the Blue Ridge Parkway to descend into Brevard before climbing the backside of Caesar's Head and dropping back to Table Rock. This ride, since the pack is often only about a dozen riders, is much more demanding in some respects that the Assault on Mt. Mitchell; it provides the exact conditions under which a rider can address fitness along with what to eat and drink.

Something people tend to ignore, however, is the HOW of proper nutrition. At the windy and cold UWBL on January 8, many riders likely—since it is early season and many are not yet as fit as they want and not quite as sharp with their large-pack handling skills—failed to eat and drink often enough because so much of their focus was on not getting dropped, not crashing, and clinching every muscle of their body unnecessarily (wasting even more energy).

This leads to a second Golden Rule about nutrition: Practice how you eat and drink under intense riding conditions.

All cyclists must be able to eat, drink, and adjust clothing while in close conditions. . .and do so safely. Fishing out food and reaching for the water bottle with heavy gloves and negotiating a vest or jacket over your jersey are challenging maneuvers in a bicycle when you are in close quarters; when the event is intense of the weather conditions extreme, the challenge is magnified.

The only solution is practice. What hand is better for you to keep on the bars, where should you keep that hand, and what is required for you to take out food or grab a bottle without dropping something important?

First, hand position on a bicycle is HUGE. You should always keep your weight evenly distributed on a bicycle (most of the distribution is best central on the frame and NOT leaning into the bars). When you leave one hand on the bars and twist your body (to grab food or look back), you tend to weight the bars on the hand remaining on the bar—and weight is how bicycles are primarily steered. IF YOU DON'T MONITOR THE WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION, YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO SWERVE.

And you want always to maintain a straight line, always avoiding any sudden movement left, right, or lurching forward/suddenly slowing.

Eating is problematic for hand position. Leave your hand on the hood, and you risk the swerve, but maintain the ability to use your brake. Place your hand toward the stem, and you achieve the weight distribution to stay straight (if you are alone on the back of a group and need to look back for a car or dropped rider, dropping back and leaving a hand near the stem is a great technique for not swerving), but lose the ability to brake.

Thus, in a tight pack going at pace, you need to learn to stay straight, keeping a hand on the hood, and grabbing food at regular intervals. The same rule applies for drinking. You must learn to drink while maintaining pedaling, pace, and line.

You can and should practice all this alone if you are new to the sport, but as you improve, this must be a part of your training, especially on intense training rides.

Nutrition, then, is about what and how—and ultimately to have the event-day performance you want, you need to be prepared, you need to be able to everything as if it is second nature, and you need above all else to be relaxed.

Practice, practice, practice.

Paul Thomas, EdD, Associate Professor

Furman University

http://bicyclelust.blogspot.com/

Going to the Bonk

What a bonk looks like!

We've all been there before. On a hard ride and then all of a sudden something happens. The lights go out, gas tank runs empty, Elvis leaves the building. On a ride like Mt. Mitchell bonking can become a very real possibility for everybody. For myself the past two years I have completely bonked at exactly the same spot (just before the right turn onto the road into the park). Last year was so bad that at a couple points I had no clue where I was and almost swerved off the road in a delirium.

The main thing you can do to prevent the bonk is to stay on top of the fuels. There are plenty of rest area along the course at Mitchell (10 to be exact). These are great places to refuel and keep calories coming into your body. For those of us trying to cross the line in less than 5 hours, we tend to skip all the rest stops. This means I carry about 2000 calories worth of food in my jersey pockets, the problem is during the event I'll burn close to 5000 calories! Somewhere in there, something has to give. Hopefully this next year I'll be able to prepare a little better, conserve some energy during the ride, and make it to the top without completely falling apart.

Now, as many of you know, bonking is a pretty awful feeling. Not being able to put any power to the pedals, feeling like you are outside your body looking in at someone else pedaling, it's something that most people hope to avoid. But you should all try to make it there at least once before Mt. Mitchell. For those who think I am crazy there's a purpose to this. There are many telltale signs that a bonk may be approaching. If you learn your body, you learn how far you can push. . .and how far you can't! If you have never bonked in training, you may not know during Mt. Mitchell that a bonk is on the verge of happening within the next half hour. The last 25 miles are pretty much all uphill, that is a long time to go when you are completely cracked.

If you bonk (or come very close to it) a couple times in training you'll start to learn when you'll need to stop and refuel. Sure you may only start to feel tired at the rest stop in Marion, but if you don't refuel there you may be completely gone by the time you reach the parkway.

Now, one of my favorite things to do is make people go hard. Whether they are riding with me, or when I was coaching them I loved to see the human element to suffering and pushing to a new level. Most of us can do way more than we ever thought possible, this May you'll have your opportunity to challenge that!

Boyd

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http://boydcycling.com