Endurance cycling and bonking

vivo1972
vivo1972 Posts: 129 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
If you are doing a 6+ hour ride what do you eat and how often?

I'm struggling with bonking atm.... plus I have seizures and that dizzy/staggering/headswim feeling makes me really nervous as I have identical symptoms pre-seizure.

I'm drinking and eating carbs throughout but obviously I'm going wrong somewhere...my legs are fine and could go on forever btw. Sugar crash can be a seizure trigger

PS I have a recumbent trike (heavy) and often carry two panniers so my effort is very different to an unloaded road bike.

Looking for ideas and anecdotes about how you personally prevent bonking (I know the usual carbs per body weight stuff etc).

Replies

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,700 Member
    Rotflmao. In the Deep South , at least, bonking has a whole different meaning. I thought we were start ‘21 off with a wild thread!

    Carry on.
  • vivo1972
    vivo1972 Posts: 129 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    In the week building up to a very long ride I will ensure I'm getting plenty of carbs and eating at maintenance calories. (Rather than the approach of carb loading the day before I steadily work up my carb stores.)

    On the morning of the ride I'll have a big bowl of porridge or granola (about 80g) plus milk.
    For the ride itself I will add sports drink mix (usually a glucose/fructose mix) to my bottles.
    I'll also eat to a schedule, normally once an hour I'll have a Soreen malt loaf bar or a cereal bar. My stomach feels queasy if I don't have some solid food.
    My preference during the ride is high carb, some protein, low fat but that's personal not universal. Fat I find hard to digest on the move and makes me feel sluggish.

    If it's a fast-paced ride I lean more towards liquid sources of carbs, if it's more leisurely I'll eat more solid food.

    I'm burning 500 - 600 cals an hour depending on speed and intensity but obviously you don't try to eat that much on the ride itself. I can eat up to 90g of mixed carbs an hour but mostly don't hit or need that much.

    Mistakes and personal lessons learned:
    Assuming that because 80g of breakfast cereal feels good, 120g would feel one and a half times better (nope just felt totally bloated for a couple of hours).
    Trying to do a 200km just on sports drink, so sweet and sticky it was revolting and I both dehydrated and under-fuelled.
    Unpleasant flavours can lead to under-drinking, warm orange flavour is nasty to me but I can tolerate warm lemon or blackcurrant drinks.
    Beetroot juice is gross and can lead to stomach upset (almost had an accident before I even started riding!). Adding it to your bidon is nasty. Shots are far more tolerable than juice but I don't use it anymore.
    I'm not a fan of carb gels, bit of a last resort / emergency backup for me.
    Hydration is important for absorption of your carbs, I messed up one ride because it was the first hot day of the year and needed to drink double the amount of water I had been doing on training rides.
    If you start to feel lethargic or fear you may be running low on glycogen do something about it immediately as your cognitive ability suddenly plummets if you actually bonk.

    Most importantly - never turn down a free egg and bacon roll on an organised event, it will haunt you!

    Ty. Lots of pointers for my anti-bonk file!

    Appreciated.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    You received a very thorough response from @Sijomial above. The only thing I'd add is that recently I've taken an approach where I carry and consume my electrolyte mix separately from my calorie sources. Particularly in warm weather, dehydration is a big concern for me, (I'm a heavy sweater) so I consume an electrolyte drink (I use Precision Hydration) that isn't sweet. I can drink several bottles without any stomach distress, then consume calories from any sources that are easy to digest. For carbs I'm fond of HoneyStinger waffles or other solid foods while riding, switching to gels or liquid carbs while running if need be.

    Finally, I think its easy to underestimate the affects of dehydration. During a warm weather race I got very dizzy and almost passed out on the bike during a fast downhill descent. Looking back at it, I'm fairly sure that the heat and not consuming enough electrolyte drink was the most likely cause.

    Good luck.

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I dunt have anything to say that hasn't been covered, but I'll still chime in with start loading up on slow carbs a week in advance, and hydrate during your rides.
  • daveredvette
    daveredvette Posts: 88 Member
    I would carry PB sandwich with me on bike. It provided energy and sat OK in my stomach.
    After gatorade/water and GU packets the PB sandwich provided a different taste.
    I would cut sandwich in 1/2 and wrap individually to easily eat and ride.
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    Rotflmao. In the Deep South , at least, bonking has a whole different meaning. I thought we were start ‘21 off with a wild thread!

    Carry on.

    Yep, I imagine every Brit reading the title wondered where the heck the thread was going.
  • vivo1972
    vivo1972 Posts: 129 Member
    Interesting how everyone fuels/drinks differently with the same base info. Ty
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,986 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    Rotflmao. In the Deep South , at least, bonking has a whole different meaning. I thought we were start ‘21 off with a wild thread!

    Carry on.

    b5c75897c7497291152ccc5cdbcd4c5a.jpg
  • _mr_b
    _mr_b Posts: 302 Member
    My longest ride to date is a 10 hour self-inflicted challenge that three of us did. It started as an organised 60 mile ride that only went one way so we decided to add a return leg and make it up to 100 miles. Oh and it was all off-road hence the time - RideLondon took much less time!.

    We basically ate everything we could! My general rule was backpack with electrolyte drink in it and then aim for a gel every 20 to 30 mins depending on what else I'd had as I also made flapjacks to eat too. Plan was 60g of carbs an hour and for that to not just be gels.

    Carb-loading the night before tends to help too, fill those muscles up with all the glycogen they can handle!

    Biggest tip I could give is little and often, even right from the outset just keep adding fuel, think of it the same as you do fluids.
  • sheclimber
    sheclimber Posts: 176 Member
    edited January 2021
    Unfortunately for me it's been trial and error. What works for one person doesn't always work for me.

    - I've learned my sweet spot for eating is between 45-60 min. When I was a road biker I could go a bit longer.
    - I like Honey Stinger chews and mini Cliff bars (100 calories - or half of a big one). I only do gels during races when I need to cram in more calories quickly, otherwise they are gross. Huma are the ones I tolerate best.
    - I can't eat a big meal before I start or I'll feel ill.
    - I love Skratch to drink while I ride but I hate putting anything but water in my Camelbak because it can funk up a bladder quick if you don't get it cleaned out good (I ride MTB and my frame is too small for water bottle cages), so I recently was given the tip to drink my electrolytes before I ride and that seems to be working well (except I need to pee more on my ride - lol.) During long rides I can only handle Skratch anymore, other drinks are just too sweet and I found myself not drinking anymore because I couldn't do anymore sweet and my stomach would be off.
    - Longer days I take a PBJ or PB & Honey sandwich cut into quarters. Sometimes I'll put it on a flour tortilla instead of bread.
    - My go-to pre-ride breakfast is baked oatmeal with a little yogurt and fruit.
    - Never underestimate the power of Sour Patch Kids when you need a pick me up!
    - I always have a Protein Drink waiting for me after a ride. I like Premier Protein that comes in shelf stable single serve cartons. Through one in a little cooler and it's heaven after a long hot ride! Cooler days I don't even bother with the cooler and can drink them room temperature-ish.

    The biggest thing to me is eating in my window. This past summer I was riding some new trails and my buddy and I were having a blast! So much so that I lost track of time and didn't eat until we were 90 minutes in (she almost never eats! but she's an Ironman so....) and it was too late. I bonked a little while later...on the big climb out, and it really put a cloud on what had been a really awesome day up until then.

    Just play around with food and timing and find your sweet spot.
  • Inspirationalwaterjug
    Inspirationalwaterjug Posts: 384 Member
    I run 80 grams of carbs an hour all liquid on my rides took a while to build up to it and still trying to work my way to 100g an hour. If you're running a power meter you can kind of calculate how many you're burner on these rides as a cheat sheet for how many calroies you're burning to ballpark your needs
  • vivo1972
    vivo1972 Posts: 129 Member
    edited January 2021
    So.....

    Yesterday I was out for 7 hours and made it with ease, 5.5 hrs riding. Yay.

    I slowed down and just cruised trying to keep my heart rate in lower zones - tough considering my nature is to push hard.

    I stopped and got off after every 1.5 hours and made myself chill out and stretch my legs.

    Food wise a 100g oats before I set off. I pureed some tinned peaches and had those in squeezy pouches, a bit like a gel but just fruit :) This was the best energy booster, it was almost immediate and refreshing.

    I had two bacon cobs on the way round, stopped twice for bought coffee and took a flask of coffee from home. Also 1.5 litres of SIS energy drink.

    I left the dog at home and it made such a difference. I wasn't constantly in zone 4 but more in zone 2 .

    Most importantly I stopped fretting I would bonk and just took it easy and relaxed. Fab day.

    I'm going to try trail mix I've bagged up as well.

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