I’m signed up for a rather long and difficult 7 day bike tour and I’m a little (a lot) worried about being able to complete it. I have some time to train, but not as much as I might like. Mostly, though, I’m curious about a couple of things from those that do long distance riding and those that run and ride.
For long distance riding, what do you use to keep from bonking?
For those that ride and run, how fast do you average on a bike and what is your running pace?
I generally run anywhere between 13 and 20 miles on the weekend and can average around 7:15 to 7:20 on those miles. But when I get on a bike I find averaging higher than 16.5mph nearly impossible. I’ve looked at triathlon results and plotted run pace vs. bike speed and I’m an outlier. Generally people that can run 7:15 pace can average 19+ mph on the bike. Those that average 16mph on the bike run at a 8:30 or so pace.
I’ve tried a century ride once and completely bonked by 95 miles. I rode 70+ miles last weekend and made it through okay, but that was a flat course. I could probably have done another 20+ miles, but it would have been very difficult. So I need fueling ideas. I use something called Amino Vital and Nutri Grain bars. I’ve tried Cliff bars but they seem to sit like a lead weight in my belly.
Get most of your calories from liquid sources. Equal parts of Gatorade (or your favorite) and water. Most commercial sport drinks are too concentrated.
I’ve used this mix for rides of up to 50 miles without any solid food on the road.
You can also try things like gels, sport beans, etc.
How often and how far do you bike?
I used to use this (diluted) when i was still running for any race of over an hour.
FWIW, I’m a mediocre-to-bad runner and a horrible cyclist. I eat differently on a triathlon than I do on a bike tour.
On a long distance tri, or a training ride for a long distance tri, I’m generally trying to replace 300-400 calories and hour, so I take in calories every 20 minutes, alternating between liquid calories (think Gatorade), Gel-like things (think Gu or gel shots - one of my friends swears by baby applesauce) with water, and solids (think Clif bars - already cut up into small pieces) with water. Because I know I lose the ability to chew after a while and I can’t run with food in my stomach, I tend to move toward more gels & liquids toward the end.
On something more like a tour or a ride, where I don’t really care about time and it’s more about enjoying the ride or spending time with friends, nuts, dried fruit, undrie fruit, crackers, sandwiches even. I’ll have bars and gels, but they’re a last resort and I’m not as concerned about eating by the clock.
My Wife is a full distance Ironman tri athlete, and she counts on liquids and gels for calories. It’s really hard to recommend any particular source of energy, other than it be concentrated, and that, of course you can get water on the course.
One thing that is stressed is to not change over to something different than what you train with. Go with what you know.
Not sure what she is working with at the moment as far as nutrition, but I will ask. She is doing the boulder 70.3 mile in June (not sure if that’s IronMan sponsored race, trademark and all that) to get ready for the Lake Tahoe 140.6 mile IronMan next Sept.
And yes, it’s crazy. Last year we (yep we, I’m her Sherpa and…) tried to do Lake Tahoe, but it was canceled because of the smoke from the King fire. Gonna try again.
Is pace an issue in a 7 day bike tour? Touring is generally reasonably leisurely and I think even 12mph would be normal.
I think you’re overthinking it if you are worrying about fancy sport-specific foods as a tri rider would. We humans have been long distance running for millenia and we don’t need fancy gels now any more than we did on the African plains chasing down antelope. You just need to have calorific slow burn food.
My approach is based on a book I read on ultralong distance riding. The key point of the book (and I hope I’m remembering the technical details correctly) was that ingesting super-calorific foods (ie sugar, ie gels) just runs a real risk of wild swings between excess sugar, consequent insulin production and then bonking followed by desperate sugar intake and around you go again. If you are actually racing and trying to stay right on the edge then OK, but I think that’s different to a tour.
The book suggested you need food that has some sugar for a quick hit, complex carbohydrates for slow burn, and some nutrients to round it out. Their top recommendation? Banana and honey sandwiches on multigrain bread. I’ve got around quite a number of 130+ mile rides on nothing more than sandwiches and bananas. I’m talking about “Gran Fondo” or “Cyclosportive” style rides that aren’t races but we usually try to set a pretty cracking pace.
As to drink, just water and take some electrolyte sachets (the type you’d have after a bout of gastro) to dump in one of your bidons from about halfway through the day, maybe earlier if it’s really hot.
I’ve done a number of week long tours like RAGBRAI and have done a handful of double centuries. I just signed up for a 5-day Katy Trail ride in Missouri in June.
The first thing to remember that it’s a ride and not a race. If it’s going to be hot, it’s best to get on the road as early as possible. Enjoy yourself.
Do NOT get dehydrated. Make sure to drink plenty of fluids both during and after the ride. And by fluids I don’t mean beer as excess alcohol can make things worse. Make sure to be hydrated before going to sleep even if you have to get up for a nature break in the middle of the night. Dehydration can be cumulative and you might not recognize the problem until it really hits you.
During the ride plain water isn’t the best. Taken to extremes, you can get sick on just water especially if you are sweating a lot. I use sports drinks for anything over 2 hours of riding. I often dilute the stuff as sometimes it upsets my stomach at full strength.
As far as eating, get a good breakfast. Pancakes are good and so it fruit. During the ride, eat things with a lot of carbs and some fat and protein. I like PayDay candy bars and Fig Newtons. Nutri Grain bars sound good. You can get buy things like Power Bars which are designed for endurance sports. Oh! Bring along one or two of those GU Gel packs or some Sport Beans. You may start feeling weak towards the end of a ride and one of those 100 calorie wonders can really help in about 10 minutes after consuming it.
Here’s an important tip: within one hour of finishing the ride, consume something with protein and carbs in it. This will help you recover for the next day. One cheap thing that works is good old chocolate milk. I also like Slim Fast drinks.
I average about 15-16 mph day in and out. The Katy Trail ride that I mentioned is pretty flat but crushed limestone and I ride a heavy steel touring bike. I do about 13 mph on it. I also stop/slow down often to “smell the roses” during a tour.
Running pace? I do 2 or 3 half marathons a year and take about 3:15 hours. Do the math and you’ll get about 15 minute miles. Therefore I’m not running; rather; the wife and I walk them. Last is a place to! I’m a much better cyclist than ‘runner’.
All good suggestions, but the OP has not indicated if this tour is competitive, or recreational. Supported or not? These factors may determine your nutrition strategy (especially if you are going to be carrying all your fuel, or not).
We did a 50-70 mi/day self-supported tour on the Oregon coast last year, and made liberal use of local restaurants and grocery stores, along with our camp chow. A competitive event will probably have a much faster pace than we did, but may have aid stations every so often to refuel. If that is the case, see if the event lists the food and drink they will be offering, and try some of those things during your training - that way you can learn if those things work for you during the event (and you wont need to carry all of your own “special snowflake” fuel).
Make sure at night to refuel and replenish. You are going to need a healthy meal with protein. If you refuel and rest properly, you can do a strenuous activity day-after-day. We met a lady on our tour that was counting calories and watching what she ate - she was a mess - not a lot of energy. If you are burning 100s of calories more than you normally do, you gotta refuel more.
For running a 10 miler or half-marathon, I prefer gels, as they are light and compact and I usually only need a quick boost every 20-30 minutes - food would not be good on a run, for me. For cycling, I don’t mind a little extra bulk that a bar, banana, or even a PB&J require, and the real-food does not bother my stomach.
Given the difference between your running and biking, and that just from the post it seems like you’re much more experienced in running that biking, I wonder if improving your cycling technique might help.
I really don’t know if this is applicable to you, but unless they consciously learn not to, almost every person naturally cycles in way too high a gear, pushing too hard and too slowly. It’s really kind of unnatural to be moving your legs fairly quickly but without much resistance, and takes quite a lot of conscious effort for it to feel natural. But if you don’t gear down, you’ll wear out very quickly.
Are you riding from hotel to hotel? Do you need to carry camping gear or just water and energy bars to snack on the road?
I road once from Columbia, MO to Chicago. Every day I road faster than the one before, without seeomg to exert more energy. I was pretty heavily laden with panniers for all my clothes, a tent, etc.
Day 1 I was doing 10-12 mph. Somehow, by the end of day 3, it was like 22.
Competitive bike touring seems like a contradiction in terms, unless you’re talking about racing the last 2 miles to the alehouse in the evening, so another vote for just enjoy it at a leisurely pace [a competitive long distance ride, not looking at the scenery, would normally be labelled an audax over here, sry if that’s what you mean]
You sound fit and active to begin with - the main thing that could scupper a tour is a discomfort issue like a saddle sore, or an injury. So plenty of clean shorts and nice and comfy with the bike position are more important issues than peak fitness IMO.
Some people can eat gels all day - others need real food. Even if you can stomach them ok a cafe stop for a square meal is a morale-booster.
I want to emphasize this. I was on a seven day ride and one blistering hot day I got dehydrated. Bad. Funny thing was I wasn’t thirsty during the day while riding.
Now I drink ever 15 minutes. I alternate between water and electrolyte drink. Water in the camelback and drink in my water bottles.
Supported recreational. There will be snack stations along the route, but main food is up to the riders.
I generally recover well. I’ve not done ironman stuff, but on the weekend I do run teen to upper teen miles or bike over long distance (50+miles) and I’m generally good the next day. It is the super long stuff I don’t seem to do well with.
I don’t take even water on a run less than 17 miles. Anything over that and all I take is water. I’ve found eating does me no good and just upsets my stomach. Biking is different and I clearly need to fuel. I just need to find the right fuel.
For biking, I have a bottle of the amino vital, which is essentially amino acids and malto-dextrin. In addition I have water pack for hydration. The problem is that the amino vital doesn’t seem to have quite enough kick to replace all the energy output.
I know hydration is important. My goal is to need to pee every hour. If I’m not feeling like I need to go that often, I will need to drink more.
I have a bike computer and try to keep my cadence between 90 and 105. I’ve heard somewhere that is peak energy output. So yeah, at times it can definitely feel like I’m just wildly spinning the cranks.