TLDR: how much (if any) will my overall recovery be hampered if I skip breakfast a few days a week and ride endurance pace ~2 hours.
I am having trouble nailing down my breakfast timing with my morning rides during work days. my morning ride is a commute to work during the week. so my arrival time is fixed. I can make the ride 1:15 up to 2:30 depending how early I leave.
trying to not write too many details: but in a nutshell my wakeup time can vary plus or minus 1 to 1.5 hours (this will not change). so if I wanna eat and say have 1.5 hours to digest (I just feel better that way), I need to cut into my ride time on the days I wake up later.
so I’m thinking if I just skip breakfast I can get in 2 hours no problem (maybe even 2.5). I would just move my breakfast to right after my ride so not worried about missing calories.
I’d also make sure if I was doing intervals to not skip breakfast that day (that’s usually one 1x during the week)
I know energy-wise I will be totally fine for each individual ride…would eat some bananas or whatever on the ride itself. just been reading about fasting riding and how some people say it’s something that will potentially wreck your recovery. just thinking about it, it will be much more convenient for my schedule / life to skip breakfast most days.
for reference my average weekly ride time is ~12 hours with occasional 15 hour weeks
I’ve had the same problem. I had a 2.5h commute to work. I usually just didn’t have breakfast before. I always took a few oatbars, but usually didn’t touch them. I then had porridge when I got to work. Eating before leaving usually made me feel sick - I’ve never been good with eating early breakfast.
It’s not the common wisdom, but it worked for me. I also used to eat fairly late the night before, and ate enougg during the day.
I’d probably just commute your shorter route and not eat before. Missing out on sleep likely impacts recovery more than the exact timing of food.
I need something to settle my stomach before a ride first thing in the morning. I usually have a small bowl of porridge or cereal about 20-30mins before a long ride.
Zero impact whatsoever, it’s fine assuming you ate normal / well the day before and aren’t coming in shattered.
Just make sure you get your adequate protein (usually 100-130g +) and fat (usually 80-100g) per day, and then enough carbs for the rest of the day dependent on the work you’re doing.
I will routinely do morning workouts completely fasted if it’s Z2, or just have something on the bike. I do better if I eat 2.5 hours+ in advance of the ride, or wait until I’m on the bike for a little sugar or just go with nothing.
If you are truly riding at endurance pace, don’t sweat eating before you leave. Get up, don your kit and head out. You can eat sufficiently on the bike. Have an energy mix in your bottle and some solid food in your pockets. I would personally lean towards some kind of fig bar or solid food since I don’t particularly like gels and sweet chews early in the AM, but that is a personal preference.
Several people here mentioned two bananas just before a long endurance ride. I’ve been trying and liking it. Gets me out the door quicker than my usual steal cut oatmeal and berries.
I’m usually out on the bike before 5:30AM and rarely leave later than 6AM, and as others have said, I think you’ll be absolutely fine without breakfast. If it’s less than 3 hours or so, I’ll just use an energy drink (aka sugar water) with the amount of carbs adjusted for intensity (I use the Saturday app).
The only time I’ll eat breakfast before a ride is if it’s going to be over 3 hours with some intensity. Those days, I’ll have a bowl of Greek yogurt, some granola, and blueberries with maple syrup first thing, let it digest a bit while I get dressed and pull things together, then take the first half-hour or so easy to give things time to settle.
With that setup, I’ve never had any digestive issues and the only times I feel insufficiently fueled are when I’m not paying attention to it for whatever reason (technical riding, spacing out looking at the road, whatever).
For a shorter AM endurance ride where I’m basically fasted for 10-12 hours, I’ll usually have coffee and do 80g/hr of carbs after 30 mins of warmup. For longer rides AM rides I’ll eat a bagel and cream cheese (basically light carbs and some fat) about 60 mins before I ride, or if I have the time I’ll do a big bowl of oats, pb, and banana 2 hours before the ride. Basically the more time I have before the ride the bigger meal I’ll eat. This weekend I did a couple 5 hour rides on just a bagel & cream cheese, but was pushing 80g/hr of carbs during the ride and felt great. I had to eat quite a bit after each ride, but I had no headaches or other signs of fatigue to speak of, and recovery was fine. If you are having fatigue or serious energy issues, chances are it isn’t just the meal you had right before, and is probably a culmination of other things.
What’s your average power on these rides? Off-the-bike carbs in the kitchen also have an impact on how to fuel your rides, as does the amount of kJ work performed on the bike.
I’ve got an ftp 250-275 range, and my endurance target can vary quite a bit. So kJ work can vary from 800-1000kJ for a EZ lower endurance ride, to 1400-1500kJ on one pushing the upper end.
The 800-1000kJ ez ones I’d have two bananas walking out the door, which for medium+ size is something like 150-180 calories and 40-50g carbs. Then later in the ride a Blueberry Crisp Clifbar for another 250 calories and 43g carbs / 11g protein. So about 40-50% calories
The higher endurance efforts I’d add another Clifbar and something else to hit 40-50% calories.
If I had a much higher FTP, say 350W, and therefore a much higher kJ burn, it would be a different story.
If you’re getting stomach problems you’re riding harder than endurance pace.
No limit to what I can eat before a real Z2 ride, bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausages even a full English roast beef dinner with all the trimmings.
20’ power is ~340 or so. 600-700 kJ / hr for pure endurance riding. 5 hours is 3000+ kJ. Depending on what I’m focusing on, average power can be 170-220w.
I think about energy from end of ride to end of ride instead of calendar days. So, I balance at the end of the morning ride using the ~24h prior. So, I solve the breakfast problem by fueling more the night before. Game changer! I do 5h rides around 250 average power so big burn, first thing in AM, usually 20k kjs per week.
I tried several times of skipping breakfast for my morning endurance rides. It seemed that no matter how much fuel I put in my drink though, my stomach just wants something solid first. I then switched to fig bars (nature bakery bars), as I am lightly peddling during my warm-up. Putting them in the fridge overnight is even better as the cold bar just tastes better for some reason. This has been a great solution for me over the past year.
For added context, I do a fast-paced group ride (25+mph for the group segment) on Tuesdays & Thursday. Tues is ~90 min and Thursday is ~120 min.
I don’t fuel before those rides…shot of an espresso and a bottle of fuel on my downtube. Maybe a gel in my pocket in case of emergency. Never any issues on those rides.
So again, a 2 hour endurance ride in the AM that you fuel on the bike will be absolutely fine.
I think you should try and see what works best for you.
I personally like having breakfast before an endurance ride, since I know my effort is going to be steady, and don’t have to worry about waiting for my body to do the digestion. Whereas when there is interval work, I definitely want my body to have digested things, so if I don’t have enough time between breakfast and ride I would consider eating afterward or something light that I know won’t upset my stomach, like a banana, or piece of toast.
That said, if you are training in the morning, you can also take advantage of dinner time the day before and get your calories there so you don’t have to consume them as your breakfast and you can get by by eating during and after the ride!
Again, in the end, you will have to see what works for you. We do have a recent podcast that talks about this subject and ways to carb load:
