Nutrition – What should we bring

Andy Gradisher gave us a nice writeup of what we should be eating/drinking for the trip.  Thanks Andy!

High carb, low fat

It’s easy for the body to use the carbs for energy during the ride. Fats and proteins will take too long and the ride maybe over by the time those are used. Also trying to break these down is wasted energy that wasn’t put into your body.

Foods

– Dried fruits

– Low fat fig-newtons

– Raisins

– Cliff bars   (always a good choice)

– Dates…ect (and not the female kind)

– Almonds

– Bagels

– Low fat bite size cookies

– Bars (energy/power)

– PP&J

– Power gels/Goo      Note* With these make sure to drink lots of water or they will sit in your stomach like sludge.

– Energy drinks

Eating and Drinking

Most common in cycling, eat before you’re hungry and drink before you’re thirsty. Nibble on high carb foods though out the ride rather than stopping and eating a large amount of food. (such as lunch)

Try to ingest some carbs every 30 minutes or so. If the muscles are burning glucose from the low-fat fig Newton say you just ate, they’re not burning your stored glycogen. The sooner your begin drawing needed energy from food intake the longer you can keep a reserve of stored glycogen.

Post Ride Meals (2 or more days)

When you finish a long ride your glycogen stores are exhausted and you are very likely to have low blood glucose. Your body responds to the glycogen debt by ging into overdrive to replace the missing glycogen. Excess glucose is stored on the muscles and the liver. The period of intense glycogen production and storage lasts for 30 to 60 min.

The solution to this is to flood our system w/ carbs that can be quickly converted to blood glucose (laymen term: sugar). This is roughly 60 min after exercise has stopped, keep in mind that it takes time for carbs in the stomach to be broken down into useable blood glucose.

The first 30 min are CRITICAL, if you are to replenish your system. 30 min after your ride is most important.

How many carbs do you need?…..

One half grams of carbs for each pound of body weight.

160 lbs=80 grams of carbs in first 30 min.  Also combing carbs and proteins is ok as well. Recommended ratio of carb and proteins is 4:1, 160lbs=80grams carbs 20grams proteins

You can eat the same foods as your were during your ride, but you may be sick of it so try a recovery drink w/ the correct ratio.

One recovery drink supplement is ENDUROX.  It has the exact ratio in it with every serving. However that is only one example that I like (I had a couple different samples). You can look at GNC, Vitamin shop or any supplement  store and see what you like best.

After the 30 min try to ingest carbs at regular intervals.

The first 30 min off the bike is the single most important factor affecting your next day/s ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LET’S ALL AVOID THE   “BONK” 

HYDRATE…… HYDTATE…. HYDRATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!