I’ll be doing a century soon and am trying to figure out how to fuel properly. This is a ride with friends not a race (that’s what they all say). I’m not sure how to fuel for something like this. Normally during workouts or hard group rides I’ll take in about 70ish grams of carbs an hour. Since this will be a much less intense and much longer ride than normal should I be looking at a lower carb per hour goal or should I worry more about calories rather than carbs alone? If so, how many calories should I look to consume an hour, or how do I find that number? Thanks for any advice you can give!
I think you should fuel properly for it and get a decent amount of carbs per hour. On a long ride those glycogen stores can run out fast unless you’re truly fat-adapted. So stick with what you’re used to.
But maybe think about having some of the carbs in a more satiating form, that comes with more calories via fat and protein - Clif Bars, fruitcake, jam sandwich, muesli bars with nuts etc, rather than just gels and drink. Enjoy the ride and enjoy what you eat on it.
Everyone is different and hopefully you have a chance to do some longer rides to work out the kinks in your fueling strategy. I usually bring a variety of solids, gels, couple bananas to mix things up. I try to take something in about every 45 min and alternate gels with solid foods which seems to keep my system happy. Usually just have sports drink in my bottles. I admit I have a bit to learn in this area but this works for me for now.
I did a century ride a couple of weeks ago, endurance paced, 3471kj of work and IF of 0.7. I had a bottle of beta fuel, a bottle of nuun electrolyte (zero cal basically), one clif bar, one sis gel and one other gel, so about 1100 calories total for the ride. I’m not sure if I should be an example of what to do, I also did SSB HV for 12 weeks on nothing but my morning coffee most days, I eat a carb heavy diet throughout the day so I’m not necessarily using them during workouts or long rides.