What do you eat / drink before going for a ride ?

[TribalBoy]

What do you eat or drink before a ride ? Especially the early morning rides.

I am not used to eat or drink something in the early morning. Usually have breakfast at 10.00 AM. I drink just plain water before the rides and nothing else (For daily rides - 20 Kilometers approx). Same for even the weekend rides (30-40 Kilometers). Seems that is not a good idea

Any suggestion like some light food ? Like fruit juice, bread etc will be ok ? Do not want to have something heavy, but just to keep myself fit for the rides.

Or it is not required at all and have food only after the rides ?

[bonigv]

For my morning rides (25km) I drink about 500ml water before starting off and that works fine for me. Pune is not humid. Hence water loss by riding is relatively less. So the drink before ride suffices for till I reach back. 40-50 rides, I carry the water bottle in addition to drink before ride routine. Usually one more swig around 35km is all that is needed. Haan, I have started carrying some dry fruits on longer rides (40-50 , 2-3hr).

I am pretty certain that had these same rides been in Kerala I'd be drenched in sweat and be drinking bottles of water for the same 25k ride because the place is so humid.

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

Well, for my daily rides (~ 25 kms) I just start with a glass of water and carry a little water in my bottle (for interval training days). Come back and drink some glucose water and breakfast after an hour (have to run for office and hence the gap).

For weekend long rides (~ 100 kms) I start with a glass of water and carry one bottle of electral and around 2 lts in my hydration bag along with some energy bars. Stop for breakfast after around 1.5 hours of riding in a restaurant (generally eat idli/wada sambhar) and then again for some bananas in the last part of the ride.

After getting home and after cooling down I eat 2 boiled eggs before I bath.

Cheers
Pankaj

[prabuddhadg]

As the body becomes more efficient, the need for food and water reduces. I had been off cycling for about six years till this time last year. When I started at first, for a 50 km ride I would require a full bottle (750ml) of water mixed with Electral. Now I hardly have a sip on the same ride. I used to have a couple of bananas before starting at 6 AM, and on my return used to have quite a healthy appetite. Now, I do the ride faster, but don't feel particularly hungry. I am not saying this is the standard- everyone will have a different level of requirement- but just as an indicator, with increased fitness, I need less food and drink to do the same amount of work as before.

[TribalBoy]

Thank you for the replies. I guess water/very light food is quite adequate for my daily rides, and for weekends, have something in between.

[cryptic_abbreviator]

When I started at first, for a 50 km ride I would require a full bottle (750ml) of water mixed with Electral. Now I hardly have a sip on the same ride.

Similar experience. But then most of the while it is between 5 and 8 AM, so maybe that is why I "get away". That and the low 20s average I produce I carry a litre of water in case I need it all the same.

Tried cornflakes for the longer rides (the 50-100 km ones). Prefer ragi with some milk and sugar. Easy to fix when half asleep, drinkable almost and no heavy feeling.

When I am lazy there is an idly kadai/shop at my 20 km mark. The only problem is he makes only one batch of them. That and the helpful dog that seems to be in charge of cleaning plates

Bonked on the first century ride. But then had set out for a 50 and was expecting it. Tender coconut stall was handy at about 80km. Had to stop for a sapota juice under the Begumpet flyover.

The after ride fix I have yet to figure out. Did a fastish 40 (by my standards, 22-23 kmph it is a relative word) on the Quick 5 a few days, got straight to work and then only got to eat at lunch. Vague muscles hurting in vague places. I rather liked the chocolate drink idea but have not tried it out yet. Typically home made idly / dosa

Will have to do the cooking over the next couple of weeks. Will try and not undo whatever gains I made. Esp. since NO morning cycling can happen. Sigh! the only good thing I guess is the knee gets a break.

ciao
gr

[RNair]

Extremely bad habits!! The payment for this will come not now but in the future. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it helps you stay lean, fit and live longer.
Someone send me a reminder for this topic and I have some good tips.

[TribalBoy]

Extremely bad habits!! The payment for this will come not now but in the future.

Sorry, confused. Which habits you meant ?

[kk27]

to start with he means.... which offcourse I've learnt from him are

1) not having breakfast at all.... ( i.e. even if you are a cyclist or not; breakfast is a very imp meal of the day)
2) for newbies & avid cyclists starting on rides without anything in the stomach is not a very good habit.... some of you who have taken to cycling for loosing weight may think this as appropriate but it's not good.
But I have to go with Prabu here.... different bodies react differently & even for me it's the same like Prabu I hardly finished my bottle on a 110km ride we did last sunday, & some days I go out for short rides 20/30kms without any intake or a wholesome intake... but one banana atleast. Like Rajesh always says it's more about what you have a night before is also important.
3) & this one Rajesh very strongly puts across is having something after the ride.... I mean a very fulfilling one with eggs etc. which if avoided is more harm than good.

Rajesh, I hope I've not disappointed you... but pls add/modify if I've missed something.

[TribalBoy]

Great, thanks for explaining it.

For me, no intentions to lose weight. I am not used to have something in the early morning. That was the only reason. To be honest, I used to get up at 7.30 before buying the bike ! Now I wake up at 5.30 and start riding at 6.15. So is it ok having some light food (as others mentioned - banana or bread and a cup of coffee or fruit juice) before I start riding, then have the normal breakfast after the ride ? No plan to skip breakfast, just having it after the ride (at 10.00 AM, as before).

@Rajesh
Will be great if you can post some points, tips and suggestions on this.

Like Rajesh always says it's more about what you have a night before is also important.

No wonder today I felt tired and had to cut short the ride Last night I went to sleep without having dinner..

[RNair]

KK nailed a lot of points.

First for weight watchers - Eat in the day, lose weight in the night is a very strong mantra. Last thing you want is eat a lot before heading to bed. Eat moderate at night and your body is ready for more as soon as you wake up to energize for the day ahead. Also eating well in the morning keeps you away from munching during the day.

For cyclists - You have to respect your body. Every time you are doing a physical activity, you are punishing the body and every muscle needs to be repaired and refurbished. Going out and riding 100km on water, bars and having breakfast only after 90 mins is just no good. You are young now and body somehow recovers for now but it does long time damage to your body. I know several people who rode like champions in their young days and are now paying the price in many ugly ways due to this neglect.

Eat a good HEALTHY breakfast whether you ride or not. If you ride then make it even more sumptuous. Once on the bike every 45 mins or so eat a bar or a gel or an available snack that will be readily available to your body. Water it down. A lot of stuff people eat here during rides are not even processed by the body during the ride. Preride - Furbish the night before too.
Post ride is as KK said. EAT well!! I eat a protein rich food after rides.

KK - It does not take much to drink water. 110 kms in Bombay on a single bottle of water will hurt you. If not today then later. I understand when you say the body does not ask for it. It is common. You have to teach the body to ask for more. Make it a habit to drink a bottle/hour.

[kunalkins11]

Yes, to ride 50 kms without eating, or eating after an hour of finishing a ride is useless and dangerous! I always eat about 50-80 gms of carbohydrate - 2 bananas and/or 2 slices of bread whenever i go for a ride greater than an hour's duration and then i follow the simple rule of eating about 50 gms of carb evry 1 hour of riding! - i drink about 1 litre of water for 50-60 Minutes of riding. That's my average! i Can't fathom how you guys can go 50 kms without having any water!!

Having adequate energy - Eating - Since you are the engine on your bike and Fluid - Water - Compensate for loss through sweating, preventing cramping, maintain body temperature etc is of PARAMOUNT Importance! What you eat before, during and after a ride will greatly affect the quality of your ride and Recovery!

[RNair]

Just to throw some numbers. I eat 550-650cal for breakfast. I burn a min of 1500cal/ride soon after it. Long weekend rides I burn up to 4000cal/ride.

[prabuddhadg]

@ Rajesh- My morning rides start pretty early, like 6 AM. Eating before that is difficult. For a 100km ride, I would have force myself to have two slices of brown bread and jam. But for a 50-60 km ride, I don't feel the need for any food. In fact, if I eat, I need to delay my ride so that the food gets some time to settle in. I prefer to eat a little heavily the night before.

A slightly unusual experience I have in this regard, is that after having a pretty high red meat diet (beef steak) the night before, I felt very energetic for my morning ride. I have not been able to explain this. I usually prefer to gorge on carbohydrates, but I am not sure how this protein and fat diet helped. Coincidentally, I was watching a film on a 70's Paris Roubaix and Roger Devlaminck was having a steak before the race(!) I was pretty surprised. In fact, the narrator in fact said that this was a good breakfast for this kind of a sustained effort.

Does the above make sense to anyone?

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

KK nailed a lot of points.

Going out and riding 100km on water, bars and having breakfast only after 90 mins is just no good.

I have a mandatory breakfast everyday at around 8:30 AM weather I am riding or not. So, on a weekend long ride I generally start at around 6 AM (without eating anything; just with some water) and have breakfast at around 7:30 AM on the way. In the remaining ride I do finsh up my 3 lts of water + electral, one energy bar and also few bananas. After the ride I have some glucose water and two boiled eggs within half an hour. This is followed by lunch with high proteins and carbs.

Is it not sufficient? I mean eating just before the ride is kind of unusual and kind of delays the start as mentioned by Prabhu.

Cheers
Pankaj

[cryptic_abbreviator]

Hi.

Did a very nice 50 with HBC. Nice new route

Both S and D were on the ride. Made sure all of us got their ragi + banana dose before the ride. Water stops about every 10 km. Energy bar. Idly breakfast at the 40th km. Juice. Ragi bread, absolutely fresh pudina chutney, peanut butter, eggs. About half an hour later.

About 18kmph was what D and I managed. S was about 15 kmph. Quite a few breaks, the handle bar on the Mach slipped all to one side necessitating a village cycle shop stop. S took a toss. Not quite sure but looks like the noodle on the rear V brake somehow locked the wheel. A stop at a pudina farm. Then the breakfast halt for twenty minutes.

S has not done any cycling in a very long time (14 years she says) and has just got started again . But she did just fine. This thread was definitely useful in getting her to breakfast (which she would definitely have skipped)

ciao
gr

[vkalia]

A lot also depends on when you ride, as the human body's metabolic activity differs at various times of the day.

Personally, I perform physical activities best in the evenings. All the sports I have played, there has been a SIGNIFICANT difference in my energy levels between mornings and evenings. Just today, I went for a 65km ride in the morning - had a breakfast of 6 slices of toast and 2 eggs, and polished a couple of gels I had lying around, and I was still seriously hurting -- and close to bonking -- during the last 15-20km. The same ride, had I done it in the evening, would not have required any extra food and i would have felt just fine at the end as well.

Know thy body and its needs - there is no general formula. However, I am not sure I agree with Prabuddha and KK's approach of not drinking or eating. Even if you dont feel the need to eat or drink, your body still needs nourishment. Riding 2 hours without a sip of water is just a bad, bad idea as it *will* dehydrate you. You may be able to cope with some dehydration, but it is harmful to your body.

V.

PS: CR, no offense, but I find your posts extremely hard to read... worse than SMSese, actually.

[RNair]

Most people on this site have been cycling for a very very short period of time, so the consequences of bad habits still have to catch up. It takes time for that to happen. For now you will feel just fine too. I ride thousands and thousands of kms with a lot of folks and every ride session I encounter people with many many problems. Most have 10-15 years of cycling under their belt. There are folks from permanently damaged muscles to folks without teeth (Osteopenia) All I can say is you guys have a lot of time to work on good training habits and to respect your body. Every time you are out there riding, you are punishing that body. It deserves better!! This is all I can say.

For those who have no time in the morning. Wake up 30 mins earlier than you do. Go to bed 30 mins earlier too! No reason why you cannot do it if you want to lead an athletic life. It comes at a cost and sacrifices are required.

[RNair]

Instead of telling people to eat or not. let me throw in here how I prepared for my ride today. For this week so far for 6 days I have accumulated 446km! I am training for TFN.
Today was going to be 104kms.

Preride - Night before - 3 slices of Pizza and a variety of fruits
Breakfast - bowl of kellogs (2 portions) w/reduced fat milk and a banana to go with it. A glass of water. ( Woke up at 7.30am for a 10am ride.)
Ride - A powerbar and a bottle of water every hour. The ride was 3 hours.
Post ride - 2 portions of pasta with mixed vegetables, another banana and chocolate milk w/reduced fat milk and more water.

Did I bonk? - No!
Did my body ask for all that food? - No!
Did I feel really hungry? - No!

The ride was 101kms with 1500m of very brisk climbing. We averaged 31.4km/hr over 101 kms with all that climbing. Burned 3600cal.
Am I tired? Yes!
Can I recover and put in another effort tomorrow? - Yes!

You need to eat for sure with the relative effort you will put in.

[bonigv]

Rajesh: The dailyplate.com direction you gave in some your posts was a great pointer. I have become a keen follower of what I eat and how much eat through dailyplate (the livestrong version). Overall I need about 1800 or so calories to survive a day. I burn about 750 or so cals in 1.15hrs in the morning (map my ride calc). As you can guess my primary objective for the next 4 months is to get my current BMI of 26 to some where around 21-22 by losing an extra 10kgs I am carrying. To this end I maintain a daily cal shorfall of 750 to 800. I ride 6-7 days a week (Weekly total around 220KM).

My question is this. I ride in the mornings (5:30 - 7) and before starting all I do is to drink about 500ml of water. I drink water after I reach back + have a cup of tea. I usually have a protein + fruits heavy (low carb) breakfast of 500cals around 8:00AM. This is not obviously immediately after the ride. In your opinion am I killing my body with such a habit?

[rotorbuddy]

I wish I had read this thread before going on my sunday morning ride. I did 41km, 1h 44min, averaging 23km/h, my first ride entirely on the 42T chainring (my largest). Started off with one cup of coffee. The ride was non stop(thanks to the early morning traffic, didn't even have to get off the saddle) and pushed myself to get home without taking a sip....in retrospect, did everything that shouldn't be done. Sure enough, after getting home and after stretching about 20 minutes, had mild cramps in the stomach. So, here are the questions:-
1. Does one need enroute replenishment (Banana/ Energy Bars) for shorter rides (sub-50km) like these or starting off after breakfast is sufficient?
2. What are these energy bars (Names / Brands/ Availability etc.)?
3. Liquid replenishment - Electral / Glucose or will plain water suffice?
Next sunday, I will certainly be wiser!!

[Jade]

Instead of telling people to eat or not. let me throw in here how I prepared for my ride today. For this week so far for 6 days I have accumulated 446km! I am training for TFN.
Today was going to be 104kms.

Preride - Night before - 3 slices of Pizza and a variety of fruits
Breakfast - bowl of kellogs (2 portions) w/reduced fat milk and a banana to go with it. A glass of water. ( Woke up at 7.30am for a 10am ride.)
Ride - A powerbar and a bottle of water every hour. The ride was 3 hours.
Post ride - 2 portions of pasta with mixed vegetables, another banana and chocolate milk w/reduced fat milk and more water.

Did I bonk? - No!
Did my body ask for all that food? - No!
Did I feel really hungry? - No!

The ride was 101kms with 1500m of very brisk climbing. We averaged 31.4km/hr over 101 kms with all that climbing. Burned 3600cal.
Am I tired? Yes!
Can I recover and put in another effort tomorrow? - Yes!

You need to eat for sure with the relative effort you will put in.

Hi Rajesh,
Generally manage my pre-ride and post ride meals well.
Please help me with what I should eat during the rides - long ones anout 70 - 100 Kms and what intervels. I don't really know what are powerbars(never had these, maybe these maynot be even available in Jodhpur!). Can it be compensated with things like Bananas (my favourite ride meal) or something else, which can be readily available?
Another problem is that I tend to cool down too fast during these breaks and thereafter it becomes more difficult to ride.

Yor inputs generally help me a lot

[ejidda]

Starting off after breakfast isn't possible for me ... but after reading rnair's post I will fix a quick cornflakes and banana breakfast next time

2. What are these energy bars (Names / Brands/ Availability etc.)?

Energy bars in india - not sure whether the Cereal bars available are the same thing (the brands i have seen are Ritebite and Horlicks), our chikkis (jaggery made) are good too.

Liquid replenishment - I carry lemon juice with some electral powder thrown in alongwith the one litre bottle ...

Post ride - is mostly bananas and Idlis (our Sunday breakfast), having read this post I included a boiled egg today.

[vkalia]

1. Does one need enroute replenishment (Banana/ Energy Bars) for shorter rides (sub-50km) like these or starting off after breakfast is sufficient?

Depends on your body type and how fast you are going, but if you are well-fed prior to the ride, you shouldnt need energy replenishment for a typical 2 hour workout at recreational levels. If you do, you could always carry some but I'd recommend perhaps also checking your pre-ride eating.

2. What are these energy bars (Names / Brands/ Availability etc.)?

I use bananas and Snickers. I just bought a box of gel off Ebay cos I am a big-time choc junkie and this is relatively guilt-free, but as you can see, that is more out of "want" rather than "need". Bananas rule as a good all-purpose energy fruit.

3. Liquid replenishment - Electral / Glucose or will plain water suffice?

Not a big fan of glucose. Pure sugar is not very useful for extended exercise, as it gives you a short boost but also metabolizes quickly and then your body hits a low as well. Electral - well, dont suppose it hurts but I dont really see a pressing need for electrolytic replacement on a 2-hour ride unless it is really hot. If your muscles are cramping up, by all means have some. Otherwise, good, ole-fashioned H2O works.

V.

[rotorbuddy]

Thanks for the pointers, Vandit. So, I will initially stick to Banana and water for the route and start my ride after a bowl of breakfast cereal. As my distance / intensity rises over my rides, I will try Snickers (my all time favourite!! )