Depends on intensity and duration, but fuel your workouts!
Unless weight loss is your goal, your performance should be your priority. SS or higher intensity and anything over an hour eat early as much as you can handle. I use Heed (sports drink) for everything other than recovery/aerobic days. Also, if it’s threshold or above I start the workouts with a gel and possibly one midway if the workout is 75-90 mins.
Eat whatever your stomach can handle and experiment with foods/gels/drinks. Don’t make workouts harder by under-fueling.
Then it’s probably my mistake of making my training harder by not fueling. I’ve always ask myself if others user have the same level of pain doing those 5x9min 102% or the 6x3min 122% etc…
On a gentle hour, nothing. Anything more and I start on the jelly babies. A hard two hour session might see me having as many as 6, but 2-3 is more common. Other than that, water. About a litre an hour was the norm for me; less now since I got a bigger fan.
Hour: Nothing, and usually done fasted.
90 min: usual raisin toast and honey before; single gel at 40min
2hrs: raisin toast and honey before, gels every 40’.
For those longer workouts, I’m experimenting with gel every 30’ as I feel underfueled by the end of sweet spot or higher efforts.
As a type 2 diabetic I have learned that if I don’t eat when I begin exercise
my liver will dump glucose and I will have very high sugars so I will eat as I start to pedal and then depending ont eh workout space it out as needed. I made some food 2 weeks ago that has been working well for me similar to what GTN did in a video:
1/1 ratio Medjool dates and almond butter mixed together in the blender (make sure to take the pits out fo the dates)
tablespoon of coconut oil
add some crushed almonds/cashews
powdered cocoa
roll into balls and roll into shredded coconut
These work really well for me and are easy on the gut and keep me topped up enough without being high blood glucose wise. The combo of sugar to protein and fat seems to work well for my needs - just putting this out there in case anyone else is in a similar spot. Bananas and clif bars also work well for me.
I sweat tons and always have at least one bottle with electrolyte - and can go through 2 bottles in an hour and double that for an hour 1/2 to 2 hour workout.
Personally I like to use dates as fuel on the 90 minute workouts. In the past I’ve found that I begin to struggle beyond 60 minutes without any on bike fuel. I prefer drinking water to stay hydrated rather than any mixes.
I will eat anything and everything, I prefer any kind of real food while training indoors, but my general rule is that the closer to race season it gets, the more closely my training nutrition will mimic my race fuel strategy.
Generally I don’t need nutrition for a 60-90 min ride (assuming I’ve eaten beforehand). And let’s define “need” as I can get through the workout at the right intensity without dropping power or breaks or backspins.
But does having food on the bike during workout help me have a better workout? (“Better” being defined as I could have or did bump up the power, had a positive mindset, felt great at the end) You bet!
If I feel stressed or tired or my headspace isn’t 100% for any reason - I’ll generally eat during the workout - or at least have an electrolyte bottle. It just takes away a small bit of stress, helps me focus, helps motivate, gives me a kickstart on recovery and all these things are going to result in a more productive and quality workout.
Of course, developing and practicing mental strategies to deal with performing even when you don’t feel 100% is an important part of training which is why I won’t always eat if I’m feeling a bit off. It’s a balance. I found that when I had a hard and fast rule of “never eat on the bike if under 2 hours” I dug myself into a mental and motivational deficit surprisingly quickly.
I think exactly the same as you…I gotta train my mental through the discomfort but I like your approach on not always go to the mental spiral and sometimes give it a shot of “feel better” sensation. Has I approach the week7 of sustained power build the anticipation of a hell week take place…must be time for a mental break. Thx for sharing
The intensity, mental challenge and discomfort should come from the workouts, not from under fueling. If you can do more properly fueled, you are doing your training a disservice by not being fueled and doing more. Your most gains will come from a well rested, fueled and motivated body ready to crush a workout. If the workouts are too easy when fueling on the bike, increase the intensity or your FTP.
Quarter a banana and eat 1 quarter every 15 minutes starting at 30 minutes. I also add a date or two into this rotation. If I don’t have the dates I will sub them with a cliffbar eaten 1/2 at a time. Have also used small sweet potatoes in place of the dates.
Last night I did a two hour VO2 and threshold workout that burned a little under 1800 calories.
Prior to starting I ate half of a small sweet potato. On the bike I ate a banana (64 calories), two SiS gels (90 calories each), a bottle with one scoop of skratch in it (80 calories), and the other half of the sweet potato (total from entire sweet potato was 139 calories).
Total calories in was 463 (114 grams of carbs) over two hours. It felt like I ate a TON (more than I usually do) - but compared with the caloric expenditure it was peanuts. This puts me at just about 60 grams of carbs an hour - the theoretical limit. Bleh - I want to get more calories in but I’m not sure I can handle more than I did on this ride
Immediately after the ride I had oatmeal (150 calories) with one scoop of skratch recovery (100 calories) and whey protein (94 calories) as my recovery food.
I followed this up with a full meal about 30 minutes later (around 950 calories in the meal)
