Tag Archives: fueling

March 30, 2013

Fueling Choices for a Big Ride

By aaronwest

Clifbar

On one of my early centuries, I mistakenly thought I could get away with having a big lunch midway through the ride, and nothing else. That was a learning experience. When I hit mile 95, I lost every last bit of energy. It was a major bonk. Those last few miles felt like another 100, with every hill feeling like a mountain.

Since that day, I have been determined to never let it happen again. On the other hand, the last thing I want to do is eat too much, and not benefit from all the calories burned on the bike. Through a lot of experimentation, I have developed a routine that allows me to stay properly fueled and fits with my tastes and preferences.

This post is about the stuff I like to eat before, during, and after a big ride. Like with anything, your mileage will vary (pun intended). My tastes may not be the same as yours, so I welcome feedback from others.

Breakfast Before the Ride

I like a good-sized breakfast that is high in carbs and protein, preferably at least two hours before I ride.

Eggs – I’ll usually go out of my way to eat an egg-based meal. It can be either a small omelette, or even a boiled egg or two. Eggs are great sources of protein.

Yogurt – I prefer yogurt to fruits, probably more because of the acidity content. I’ll usually have a container of a light yogurt.

Bagel – I love bagels, but pretty much the only time I’ll eat them is the breakfast before a ride. They are pure carbs and I’ve noticed a difference on the bike. A little bit of cream cheese is a must, but not something to overdo.

Coffee – This is a given. It probably doesn’t help with my fueling, but the caffeine is a must. My preference is a latte or cappuccino with almond milk.

I try to avoid heavy sugar-heavy dessert items. That means no donuts or muffins.

Immediately Before the Ride

I like to eat a little something light within an hour of the ride. I should have plenty of fuel in my body from the breakfast, but this seems to hold me over just a little further.

Bananas – I love me some bananas. I’ll have one or two before the ride. The carbs help with fuel, and the potassium can help prevent muscle cramps.

Clif Mini Bar – I’ll only eat this if bananas are not available. It is small enough (100 calories) to not weigh me down, tastes good, and has some helpful ingredients.

During the Ride

This is the area where I have experimented the most. I prefer my food to be portable, tasty, that is easy on the stomach. Fuels I have used in the past that I no longer use are Power Bars, regular Clif bars, energy gels, Honey Stingers, and countless more. I have moved on from these because they are either tough to eat while riding, messy, or both.

Clif Shot Bloks – This is the perfect bike fuel for me. For the last year, it is pretty much only thing I will carry on a long ride. The best part is I can eat it while on the bike. A pack of six bloks sits comfortably in my jersey pocket. I can open it with my teeth, and will squeeze out 2-3 bloks at a time. They taste good, can be digested easily, and are easy to measure. Since a full pack is 200 calories, I know that I need to eat at least one pack every two hours for minimum fueling.

Sports Drink – I know there are lots of options for this. I most commonly use Gatorade because it is easily accessible, but I can also use Skratch Labs, Powerade, or a home brew. On a long, difficult ride, I like to fill one bottle with ‘high test’ sports drink, or full Gatorade. The other bottle will have a diluted, light version, usually some Gatorade Low mixed with water. The full Gatorade can take a toll on my stomach, but I will rely on it for difficult riding (like climbs), and the lighter stuff for hydration and electrolytes.

A Meal – This is the tough part. I like to eat something substantial midway through a difficult, long ride. Last year on the Assault on Mount Mitchell, I tried having a Subway sandwich before the climbing began. That didn’t work too well because it took too long to eat, especially when my stomach was not settled. Usually I will try to eat some sort of substantial lunch-like whole food. I am still experimenting with this.

After the Ride

This is the tough part. If it is an organized ride, I don’t always have a choice. I have to eat what they feed me. Below are my ideal food types.

Protein drink – This is for immediately after the ride. Since usually I am mobile and cannot store my own, the drink varies by what is available. Ideally I will have some sort of drink that has between 15-25g of protein. A Muscle Milk or something like that will do the trick. Chocolate milk works too.

Something Mexican – I’m a sucker for Mexican food. Not only does it taste awesome, but it has a healthy mixture of different types of ingredients. This is my post-ride meal of choice if available because it usually has some grain, carbs, animal protein, and calcium (cheese!). I try to avoid anything fried.

Sub Sandwich – A whole wheat sub with veggies and meat is a good option. It is substantial enough to fill the hunger hole, while not being too heavy or unhealthy.

A lot of rides will serve stuff that is tasty, but not the best post-ride meal for me. I’m looking at you, pizza. Sometimes I’ll ‘suffer’ through it and eat what they offer, especially if I have raging hunger after an exhausting ride. On a few occasions, I have bailed on the post-ride meal and picked up a Subway or Chipotle on the road.

So what type of foods do you prefer?

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May 30, 2012

A Short History of Learning to Eat (with help)

By aaronwest

Earlier this year while shopping, my wife and I passed a display for Mexican food. She looked at me and said “you never eat nachos anymore.” She was right. I hadn’t eaten nachos in years. Back in the day, I would place layers of chips on a large plate. I would melt smooth and creamy cheese, add refried beans, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, jalapenos — the works! Sometimes I would even fry up some hamburger meet and sprinkle it on top, grease and all. It was a gigantic plate of fat, and it tasted so, so good!

Needless to say, I was a lot heavier back then. I had grown up skinny with a high metabolism. I could eat anything, including 2,000 calorie plates of nachos, and gain nothing. I lived in denial for awhile about my weight gain. I would see a chubby face in pictures and figure it was just a bad picture, the wrong angle.

I topped out at above 190 lbs, maybe as much as 195. That’s a lot for a guy of my height. One day, a co-worker looked at me and said “Wow, Aaron, you need to back off from that table!” She meant it playfully, but instantly realized she had crossed into an area that most people don’t talk about. I was not offended in the least. If anything, I realized she was right. How in the world did this happen to me?

Over the next couple of years, I managed to lose about 25% of my body weight through dieting. It was not an easy task. I cut approximately a quarter of my daily calories and stuck with it for the long haul. My weight would fluctuate, but as long as I stuck with my diet, it would trend downward. At some points the weight would come off quick. Other times it came off slow. The important thing is that it came off.

During my dieting period, I got a gym membership and started putting time into the cardio machines. That eventually led to running and then cycling.

Since I had lost all that weight, I figured I knew it all about dieting. The truth was that I knew next to nothing save for how to burn calories. I wasn’t eating well. I was just eating less. I had no concept of eating healthy, and couldn’t even begin to understand how to fuel a workout.

That’s when Kelli from Apex Nutrition came in. I found her from another blog endorsement, kind of like this one. She gave me a discount and that started almost a year-and-a-half relationship where I finally learned how to eat well.

In the beginning she had me complete a lengthy questionnaire that documented everything I consumed. And I mean everything! She asked questions about my lifestyle, what food options were available, when I could cook, and so on. In a few days she sent me this detailed, lengthy meal plan. At first I was overwhelmed. The more I read, the more I thought there was no way I could eat this stuff. It was a lot to absorb and I let it sink in for a few days.

Finally I set the plan into action. I took her suggestions little by little and documented my caloric intake a meal at a time. She initially offered free coaching and I re-upped for more. She monitored what I ate, praised me when I ate good, whole foods, and politely pointed out when I had not done so well. Yes, I literally paid someone to tell me to eat my vegetables. 🙂

Like with the weight loss, getting into a routine of healthy eating took time. First of all I had to re-invent my kitchen, gradually phasing out the unhealthy foods and replacing them with healthy alternatives. I had to find healthier options for eating out, which is something I have to do often because of a busy schedule. On top of all that, I’m somewhat of a picky eater, so I had to find foods that fit into my selective palette.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Kelli’s training is that I learned how to fuel my workouts. In fact, I would say that what I’ve learned about fueling and eating right is a substantial reason for my successes on the bike. Someone who has not been riding two years should not be able to accomplish Mitchell in 7 hours. Without experimenting, learning my body and how to keep it fueled, I would not have reached such heights.

I have utilized Kelli for two Mitchell training periods and an off-season conditioning program. I have achieved great results in both. The only failure was in my goal to reach 145 lbs before Mitchell. I was at 147 lbs before Mitchell, but I achieved far better gains in muscle mass that my power increased dramatically. It was a net gain, and a lot of it was a result of the coaching I was receiving.

I no longer track my calories and really don’t need to. I may not know it all, but I know my body far better than I ever have. I’m able to eat light without feeling hungry, and it is almost second nature for me to prepare for short, weekday rides, or these intense endurance events.

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May 18, 2012

The Mitchell Plan

By aaronwest

Last year my plan was just to complete the Assault on Mount Mitchell. This time I plan to do it faster. I finished in 8:05 last year and my first ambition was to beat that time by a mere thirty minutes. That seemed reasonable. I have since set the bar higher and am now shooting for a time somewhere around seven hours. That’s a much higher challenge and will require a plan.

I have done all of the work and all of the training. Now the outcome depends on the choices I make before and during the ride.

First, I am going to eat well. Tomorrow we’re having a Mediterranean dinner because most of those carbs are high glycemic and should be ready to burn on Monday morning. The next day we’ll be having a pasta dinner somewhere in Spartanburg. To be on the safe side, I’m going to have some ice cream on Sunday evening. Yep, I’ll be living it up this weekend.

The next decision is where to line up on Monday morning. Last year I was hesitant to jump into too fast of a pack, so I hung back a ways. That meant I was in a slower group to Marion. This year I am going to scoot my bike up a lot closer to the front and try to hang with the big dogs for awhile. There will be some separation when the hills hit, especially Bill’s Mountain, but there will be groups forming the entire way. I’ll try to hang on to whomever I can and will shamelessly try not to pull.

In total, I stopped around 20 minutes last year. It sure felt like more, but that was it. I need to cut that down drastically this year. I am hoping to only need to stop once along the way to Marion. Hopefully I can manage the way up to Mitchell with just one or two stops as well. Fortunately I have learned how to pace myself on climbs and let my heart rate go down. Rather than stop, I’ll just slow down until my mojo returns.

The problem with not stopping is I won’t be able to eat the delicious rest stop food. I learned a good bit about that from last week. I will pack some mobile food to carry with me, most of which will be Clif Mini Bars and my Hammer Gel squeezer. I’ll also carry a third water bottle in my jersey. If I have to stop along the way to Marion, it should be only to refill bottles and nothing else.

This year I have the support of my lovely wife. She’ll be waiting for me at Marion with half a Subway sandwich and a Coke. That will probably be my longest stop. There I will scarf down the sandwich and guzzle the Coke before hitting the road again.

I will carry only one full bottle up to Mitchell. Why carry extra weight when there are rest stops every few miles? If I need to top it off, I’ll stop for a refill without lingering. I remember that most of the volunteers are helpful and will refill bottles for the riders.

So far the weather looks to be gorgeous, with a low in the 60s and high in the 80s and little chance of rain. Sounds like a perfect day to ride. Hopefully I’ll make it a good one.

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May 8, 2012

From Cashiers to Mitchell

By aaronwest

My 2nd Assault on Mount Mitchell is less than two weeks away.

I’m glad that I had a couple struggles at Cashiers. To me, this was like the powerhouse team that loses a big game before the playoffs. It happens often in sports. The teams lose, then have to regroup, re-focus and come out on top. Kentucky’s basketball team is a great recent example.

Most of my Mitchell training is now finished. There will be a couple more rides, including one more century this weekend, but the hard stuff is behind me. Now I have to use what I learned about myself to formulate a plan for the big ride.

Cashiers reminded me not to overestimate myself or underestimate the ride. That’s exactly what I did this weekend. I have been training hard and making great progress that I forgot some of the little things.

  • The week prior to Cashiers, I didn’t ride at all. I was due for a recovery week, but could have benefited from an easy spin or two.
  • I didn’t drink a lot of water prior to Cashiers. Most of my hydration came in the form of two cups of coffee before the ride, which is not ideal.
  • The biggest mistake was in my eating the night before the ride. I made poor choices ordering from a German restaurant. I got a small side of potatoes when I should have ordered a pasta dish.
  • On top of that, I forgot to eat something just before the ride as I usually do.

No wonder I struggled out of the gates. My tank was empty!

So I have one more (relatively) flat century to use as a testing ground. That will be at this weekend’s Tour de Midlands. The plan this time is to fuel intelligently, stay on the bike without stopping (much) and ride as fast as I can.

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July 28, 2011

Back on the Scale Again

By aaronwest

I am officially registered for Bridge to Bridge. It is yet another mountainous century ride, beginning at Lenoir, NC and ending at the top of Grandfather Mountain. While the numbers are comparable to Hot Doggett, the layout is more like Mitchell. The only major difference is that the climbing begins about halfway with a 10-mile, category one climb, then a gradual climb to the top. Grandfather Mountain will be short and steep. I have heard it is anywhere from a 15-20% grade.

With just under two months to prepare, it is time for me to get back into a training mentality. I stopped weighing myself after Mitchell. I was careful to continue to make healthy food choices, but didn’t watch calories or watch for portion control. I just weighed myself yesterday and found that I am about six pounds heavier than I was in May. That is still a great weight for me, but to make the climbing easier, it would help if I gradually dropped a little bit. Now I am at around 152 and would like to be 145 by ride day.

Much of my training will be similar to what I did before, which worked great for Mitchell. The only change I’ll make is with my training ride fueling. I feel that I am a stronger rider now and much less susceptible to bonking from inadequate fueling. During my initial training, I would make sure to get around 250-300 calories per hour of riding. I’m going to cut that down to about 100 for weekday rides and 200 for longer rides. I will fuel a little more for the big, organized rides like Blue Ridge Breakaway and Carolina Foothills Tour, where over-fueling will be the safest and most comfortable route.

My fall schedule will be heavy. Beginning August 20th, I will participate in large events for 5 of the next 6 weekends. That will end with the MS Ride, a double century. The season will be capped two weeks later with a 253 mile, one-day group ride from Spartanburg to Charleston. Yes, crazy, I know.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Blog, Nutrition