Hey all,
This year I have been really focusing on my nutrition, specifically on-bike. The results have been amazing, especially with my 3+ hour power compared to last year (I’m up between 30-50 watts depending on the exact duration).
Today I want to go big or go home…even though I’m already home and will try it at home. But I digress.
I’m going to shoot for 100g of carbs per hour. My plan is to do my Saturday SS ride today on the Uber Pretzel in Zwift, trying to hit 4 hours or just under for the route. Doing it solo will require at least 300 watts average, which means a whole lot of calories.
I’ve been reaching 90 grams during some training rides, but I must admit I don’t hit that number for every ride. I recall various episodes of the podcast where Nate talks about training the gut, which means consistency is important. Today will be an experiment in mega-fueling. This is all as a method of experimenting for LOTOJA later this year.
I’m wondering how many of you have breached the 100g per hour mark without, you know, turning into a fire hose from either end or keeling over and lying in a fetal position on the floor for a few hours holding your aching gut.
My strategy is this:
75g from homemade beta fuel (2:1 mix)
22g (or so) from SiS gels
Misc grams from little Pepsi cans and bars.
Let me know your experiences trying to hit 100g and if you were successful, and if so, what that meant for your performance.
Cheers!
If you’ve been able to hit 90g/hr on previous rides of about this duration and intensity without any gut distress then you should be able to go to 100 no problem. Everybody is so different that it would be hard to extrapolate from one to another but I’ve done ~100g/hr on several rides with no problem. My biggest issue is remembering to eat and just keeping up with the intake. I rarely have gut issues outside of maybe a bit of gas. Also, you’re body won’t know that you just hit triple digits and have some extra boost. You will feel better than 90g but probably not wildly so.
Glad to hear you’ve done it before. My concern was with bumping it up after doing 90 sometimes, not all the time.
While I totally agree that the body won’t be like, hey, a magic number! I’m going to use my time up the ADZ at the end of the route as a metric for how well it works 
As in, faster time = success. Bail because of gut issues = not a success
Yeah, again it’s super personal. I’m sure some people may need to sit at a certain consumption for a month or two to acclimate before attempting to bump it up while others can just keep increasing with little to no issue until they hit a limit. So maybe yours is 95 and you ‘blow up’ or maybe your limit is 125 and your needlessly limiting yourself. There’s no way to tell without trying!
My hope is to keep bumping it up to make a huge difference for LOTOJA.
Besides, what’s the worst that can happen…
If I can do 90 w/o any problem then it’s always been no issue moving to 100g/hr. So long as the mix of carbs stays the same.
My experience is that you don’t have to consistently consume carbs at that rate. Not throughout the year, at least. Seems like it takes me three or four weeks of ramping things up to 100g. Like…maybe two or three rides a week. Don’t feel like you have to be slamming down 100g/hr carbs on every single ride, week in, week out.
Sounds to me like you’ve already nailed it. Now all you have to do is the ride and the eating. I predict it’s gonna be no prob4u.
If you are hitting 90 already, getting precisely to 100 seems like a pretty low risk, but also I would think have marginal value. I doubt those 10 extra grams per hour is going to make a huge difference. I just recently did a century and ate 2 scoops of tailwind per hours, 3 bananas, 4 gels, and 1 stinger waffle, which comes pretty close to 100 per hour, but I just ate what felt right, didn’t try forcing it in.
Yeah, agreed. It’s not so much about a magic 100, rather bumping it up to a significant level. As said, I was nowhere near this last year during LOTOJA, and my goal is to reach at least 100, which will dramatically improve performance if I can maintain that for 8.5 hours. That’s the real goal-super fueling for race performance
@wasket…throw in some carb loading experimenting. For a race like LOTOJA that could pay off for you as well.
I can do 100 of homemade malto/fructose 2:1 no problem, but I find that I have difficulty with many products. If you’re used to doing mixed products, I think you’ll be fine, but I would just add a little more of what you already use rather than add new products to the mix.
@Brennus I will definitely work on that too. I think once the weather is a bit better and I can start doing longer outdoor rides I will see how loading can help too (not that I don’t try now, but you know what I mean).
@Pbase That’s what experiments like these are for. The 2:1 is very simple and I’m used to the gels. I will figure out where the right balance between too much similarity and too much variety. Today is a good step towards that.
Let’s talk more about 300w for 4 hours! Sounds impressive! It’s also probably quite a different matter of sustaining high carb intake +100g for a hour, vs doing that for 4 hours. That ride is going to be ~4000+kj right?!
Having a hardcore sweet tooth has really benefited me in learning to do 100g/hr. SiS isotonic gels, Clif Shot Bloks and bars, random chewy sugary candy from Trader Joe’s…I’ve accidentally done 120g/hr for a couple of hours before just because I liked the candy 
the only GI distress I’ve ever had was when I tried to do short grain rice at 100g/hr. No bueno.
Lol yeah, it’s all the kj 
I’m about 2:30 into the ride so far. My legs are the major factor (sore from Monday). Fueling still going okay though, no gut issues yet.
I saw in another post you do these rides around 85%. How does that compare to 90%? I guess those 15-20w probably make it a lot more bearable than sweetspot. I’d like to eventually do 3 hours at 90% (without stopping), but my legs haven’t been playing nice lately. Trying to get back up to 2 hours at 90%, which used to be not all that hard. Also 2 hours is probably my limit for needing to get off and pee! 
My FTP recently went up, so it’s a bit different than last time. However, I’m not just riding steady, I’m doing 20 minute intervals at 340 or 315 followed by about 5 minutes at recovery…so 88/94% then easy…just finished my 6th set at 100kilometers. ADZ up next, ugh
I’m now able to push 130g without any GI issues. Gonna keep bumping it up until issues crop up.
If everybody has a superpower, I think I’ve found mine.
That sounds like @Nate_Pearson super power, lol.
I just finished my ride. Bailed out at 3:30. The 100g per hour worked wonders and caused no stomach issues, but my legs were getting sore and I knew if I pushed up ADZ it would compromise my Saturday workout. So far so good!!
Nice. Now try 105, then 110, then 115