Water, coffee, and a banana if it’s a hard workout.
I started using Tailwind for harder workouts. Coffee and water for easy. I’ll supplement gels and blocks if it’s really tough. Have a batch of Clif products to go through though I want to try SiS or something more liquidy. I’ve used bulk hammer and Gu gels and water them down in the flask sometimes usually for outdoors
I carb the $%$% up for any ride.
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I ran out of my usual Skratch Labs Hydration mix this week, so today I used a NUUN tablet for the electrolytes, and mixed in 2 tbsp of maple syrup for some carbs. That and a Finnish liquorice stick got me through Mary Austin today.
Two 16oz bottles of water with 1 nuun tab each…keep it simple
I am a fan of medjool dates for sure but how many and how often are you having them?
Not a ton; they’re not my primary fuel when I need to be putting down a significant amount of calories. I’ll have maybe a couple in the morning before I head out for a 90ish minute ride if I’m just getting up and going without breakfast, or maybe one or two an hour (or less) once I’m out depending on how I feel. I’m also a smaller individual (~56kg).
Thanks, I am often in that situation where I ride early in the am and do not get to have a meal before I ride and likely end up under fueling and therefore probably impacting recovery ability
I use water, sometimes a banana, but reliably these -
Like right as or literally a few minutes before I start pedaling. I find no issue with them causing stomach distress, but YMMV.
I really struggle with staying hydrated, even in ideal conditions, so I usually carry a bottle of Tailwind or Skratch, lately almost always the caffeinated buzz.
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< 1 hour: Water (sometimes Skratch)
60-90min easy: Skratch (Lemon Lime or Strawberry Lemonade)
Working 75min+: Tailwind, usually 2.5 scoops per bottle (250cal/hr) - Mandarin or Raspberry Buzz (AM rides only)
If I need more fuel, I use Hammer Gel.
For a 90 minute session like over-unders or similar, I’ll do one 250cal bottle of Tailwind and one 80cal Skratch bottle which I often don’t finish.
2+ hours on the road or trainer, I take two or more Tailwind Bottles, usually taking a bottle an hour. Again, supplement with Hammer Gel in a flask if needed.
Just water, but my workouts are never more that 90 min. Ive never felt the need to use a carb drink while on the trainer. I’ll fuel after the workout.
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0-60 min: 1 24oz water.
60-90 min (working) or 60-120 min (recovery): 1 24oz of Gatorade at 1/2 concentration, 1 24oz water. Gu gels available if needed.
90+ (working) or 120+ min: 1 24oz custom Infinit mix, 1 24oz water. Again, Gu gels on standby.
For each hour after 2 hours I add 1 24oz Infinit bottle.
I buy powdered juice from the supermarket. I add 1/4 tsp of salt substitute + 1/4 tsp of table salt. I get 500mg of sodium and potassium.
First off, I mostly stay around sweet spot range time to time some over-unders and VO2.
Up to 90 mins I eat nothing and usually ride in fasted state.
This helped to reduce my body fat ratio 8% within last 90 days, of course with some careful eating. I was out last week for a 3.5h ride and TSS of this ride was 320ish, high power output relative to my FTP. No feeling of hunger or weakness. After the first half I ate cliffbar just to stay safe.
If I feel weak I usually eat a good musli mix - high carb ~1 h before the activity, polish it with a coffee and kill it:)
just in case I prepare my recovery drink for hard rides before i am on the bike and on the last recovery valley i choke it down.
I use and highly recomment Crank Sports eFuel. Carbs and electrolytes and my stomach tolerates it well.
I find even for the shorter rides, my RPE goes down if I am fueling on the bike.
I love those fig bars, keep a stock of 2 or 3 flavors at all times for rides and runs! Plus they’re dirt cheap compared to traditional bars/gels/chews.
The CEO of skratch gave me this recipe for hydration:
3 tbsp glucose (dextrose)
1/2 tsp sodium citrate
1 liter water
That’s pretty cheap.
For fuel on the cheap:
dump into your water bottle…
2/3 cup glucose (dextrose)
1/3 cup fructose
fill the bottle up with water
Neither one of those has a scintillating taste (they’re both pretty insipid) but they do the job and save some jack.
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ON the bike? I’ve tried carbonated drinks on the bike but that doesn’t really work well.
From Google:
As you learn more about performance nutrition, you will undoubtedly come across the term 2:1 ratio when isotonic drinks or energy gels are discussed.
The 2:1 ratio refers to the specific proportions of carbohydrates found in the product, namely a ratio containing twice as much glucose as fructose.
It quite simply means your product contains 2 different types of sugar / carbohydrate molecules: glucose and fructose, in that specific 2:1 ratio.
Sugar is the No. 2 ingredient in a bottle of Gatorade after water. Sugar is a disaccharide known as sucrose, and is composed of two simple sugar molecules, glucose and fructose, that are chemically attached to form the disaccharide. Dextrose is the third ingredient in Gatorade and is an even simpler sugar than sucrose. Dextrose is a monosaccharide – meaning it’s made up of one sugar unit – and is another name for the simple molecule glucose. Glucose is your body’s preferred source of energy.
So in a bottle of Gatorade your primary ingredients are Water, Glucose, Fructose 2:1. Amazing!
In a bottle of Maurten your primary ingredients are Water, Glucose, Fructose 2:1. Amazing!
If you are using Maurten, you clearly don’t mind the fact that it tastes like shit, so you can buy the Galcier Cherry Gatorade which has no artificial coloring in it and the list of ingredients between the two is much closer than something like Gu vs. either one.
Gatorade (Glacier Cherry):
Water
Sugar (Glucose Fructose)
Dextrose (Glucose)
Citric Acid
Salt
Sodium Citrate
Monopotassium Phosphate
Calcium Silicate
Natural Flavor
Gum Arabic
Maurten (A$$ Flavor)
Water
Glucose
Fructose
Calcium Carbonate
Gluconic acid
Sodium Alginate
GU (Espresso Love)
Maltodextrin
Water
Fructose
Leucine
Natural Flavor
Potassium Citrate
Sodium Citrate
Green Tea (Leaf) Extract (Contains Caffeine)
Citric Acid
Calcium Carbonate
Valine
Sea Salt
Malic Acid
Gellan Gum
Isoleucine
Sunflower Oil
Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)
Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
Price-
Gatorade Powder is $9.98 on Amazon for 9 Gallons of mix. That’s $.15 per 500ml or 16.9oz bottle.
Maurten 160 is $2.33 per 500ml or each 16.90oz bottle.
Maurten is 15.58 times more expensive than Gatorade for essentially the same 2:1 ratio.
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I just use 2 scoops of maltodextrin (60g carbs), a good squeeze of honey and some fruit squash to add flavour.
The ratios aren’t exact, but it does the trick for me.
If I go for solid food, it’s just plain fig rolls.
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