Food for endurance sports? Lots of information on how to do it right, how to carb load correctly, hydration, enough salt, enough sleep, tips on how to get up at 2am for a smoothie, pasta is good for you, pasta makes you gain weight. . Conflicts in the media and proven methods are a minefield. But after running countless half marathons, two marathons, long distance cycling, and every other event I’ve entered over the years, I should know better what works for me and what doesn’t. For many years I was severely intolerant of starchy carbs to the point where I was on an elimination diet to see what was causing my problems, had celiac tests with no results here or there and then spent 11 years eating low carb foods. and complimentary healthy foods that my friends said looked and tasted like cardboard. The intolerance was so sensitive at one point that even if my fork had been in contact with mashed potatoes before touching my fodder, I would be clutching my left side in agony. I slowly started introducing starchy carbs back into my diet with the occasional cause of discomfort, but now I can eat anything more or less. The choice to start doing this was simply because I wanted to be more active, I wanted to run, I wanted to play soccer, I wanted to ride my bike, but I couldn’t do it any longer and keep from introducing potato and rice back into my diet. plate and I had to try to make it work.
Eating and hydrating for endurance is something that is easy to get wrong, especially during a heat wave. If it’s not worrisome that what I’m eating is mindless garbage (as I pick my way through the fries on Fatboys’ plate while stabbing my fork into my salad), it’s worrisome that what I’ve eaten is enough to sustain me in the next long distance or fast travel, fueling my body with quality instead of cheap and cheerful and getting the nutritional balance right. Then there’s the conundrum of burning more calories than you eat so you don’t eat enough to replace the calories burned. My head spins. There are times when I can go for a fasted walk or run and feel great and then there have been the occasional time when I’m so busy with home life that if I’m out and about running errands I forget to eat properly and I paid for it and this was what happened in the days leading up to Ashby’s 100, a 105+ mile race that last year had been a very well attended just-for-fun race within the cycling club and then turned into an event official this year. Having spent several days before the event being woken at the witching hour tending to ‘Gizzard Puke’, the youngest member of the house, I was in time to train for my impending triathlon, followed by holiday shopping and busy trying to picking up any last minute essentials and helping with bike maintenance ready for Ashbys 100, so not only was I sleep deprived for the days leading up to the ride, but I hadn’t really eaten much let alone consider HOW hot it would be at day.
The morning of the trip, I got up and dressed in my custom Primal Ambassador kit, ditched the Neon Crush Arm Warmers because it was going to be a hot day, and sat on the edge of the bed looking at my stack of socks thinking about what to do. pair put. wear, Electric Shock or Panda socks, always a tough choice, but he’s done with the icons. Drinking my black coffee, my brain and stomach couldn’t really coordinate, I still woke up unable to finish my breakfast. I had packed some gels, flapjack and salt tablets in my jersey pocket, enough to get me to the 50 mile feed stop and headed out to meet the other riders for the 8:30am start. Around 20 cyclists participated in the event. Coach Matt gave us a pep talk, including making sure we had a proper breakfast. You know, when you were at the school assembly and the principal was calling out the students for something, in an attempt to pinpoint the culprit, that’s how I felt at that moment and my inner self let out a little “oh!” sigh. He then reiterated the intervals for when to take the gels and stay hydrated, “If you’re thirsty, it’s too late,” he said, to which I was relieved that he was up to the task and we only had 50 miles to go. the first feeding stop, how bad could it be.
We set off at a comfortable pace, chatting as we headed out into the open countryside towards St Ives and Warboys, it was starting to get pretty hot for that time in the morning. As we entered a path, some of us slowed down to wait for others a bit further back to make sure they had seen us before trying to catch up with the group ahead. Riding through the rural landscape with bright yellow rapeseed fields, the cyclists looked like a snapshot in the Tour de France riding among the sunflowers. Some riders who had come back from injury were starting to feel the effects at mile 40 of the ride as we were going into a headwind with some slop back, it felt good but my bike felt quite heavy and this was partly due to swapping out the tires on my regular SWorks Gripton, which was starting to wear out, with a set of temporary road tires that came as a spare with my CX bike and I didn’t get along with them. The tire roll was noticeably different and felt heavy in comparison, this in turn began to work hard on my legs as the group began to push into the bog into a headwind. Despite sitting in the middle of the pack, I suddenly found myself falling off the back and then working harder again to keep up with the group who was now sitting around 19mph, but nothing unusual in speed. Falling back in frustration, I drove to the stopover point where everyone had gathered for a quick drink and regroup. We only had 4 miles to go to the feed stop and I thought this would be a good point to assess what I wanted to do, continue or finish the day at 50 and didn’t want to give up.
Yo”
Arriving at the food stop, we were met by some of the club members who had made cakes and sandwiches, providing drinks and a supply of sun cream. It was even hotter and many of the riders were already sporting a cycling tan by 11:30am. I felt much better after eating and was ready to complete the second half. Everything was going great until poor Bill, who was the organizer of the event, had a mechanical bushing 10 miles into the second half of the trip. While waiting for a replacement bike, the riders took a break and hit the grass, a good opportunity to top up on sunscreen, hydrate, and crack some awful jokes before heading off to our second stop in Denver, which was about 80 miles away. . I was starting to feel better after having eaten, so now it was just a matter of conserving my energy, ignoring the tire situation and the rising temperatures. 5 miles before our second stop, with the sun beating down on us and wanting to get to our destination, Coach Matt was getting bored and needed a distraction as the heat was getting to me, so we started playing I Spy, it’s It funny how the most obvious thing takes the longest to guess. Finally, we made it to The Jennings Arms, a riverside pub in Denver, parked our bikes in a group and headed to the bar for snacks and salty drinks and then headed down the stretch home.
Riding along the river bank we passed the riverboats and traded waves, poor Bill suffered a second and third mechanical within minutes with a flat tire. Setting off again I could feel that I was feeling a little out of it. The heat had affected me a lot and I was losing the power to push my legs and I began to fall backwards and make noise. The main herd had gone ahead and it was just me and Bill for company. Trainer Matt had been ahead of the pack, but he noticed that Bill and I weren’t in the pack, coming back to us he could see that he was struggling. Having saved his Cherry Bakewell Torq gel for a “special occasion”, he handed it to me along with his half pack of Dextrose sweets and told me to eat them with the gel. Meanwhile, as he pedaled and did as he told me, I was also expected to answer several of his questions, including the answer to the letter ‘D’ from our previous I Spy. Talking was made more difficult by the fact that the dextrose and Torq gel had begun to mix and foam almost like a magnesium tablet. This was making me laugh and laughing was all I could do. Matt handed me a Soreen malt loaf and told me to eat it, as well as digesting Torq gel and Dextrose candies, I couldn’t stop laughing as the malt loaf clung to my teeth as the foam subsided. Within minutes the combination of all three started working and Matt explained the three power reserve levels to me and probably coupled with the heat and my pre-trip feed they had probably put me on the third power reserve fairly quickly. . I kept driving for another 9 miles before the group called another pub for a water fill, another puncture repaired and the sweeper to take me home. He had well and truly hit the wall at 91 miles!
The next day, I decided that I needed to make up the miles that I hadn’t completed the day before for the sole reason that it was unfinished business. Taking it easy on another hot day, I headed out into the sunny field, well fed and hydrated in my Theta shorts and Jersey with the intention of just taking in the views and letting the legs spin for about 10 miles…27 miles later I got home. It was so hot that the rest of the week was a case of taking it easy. It was too hot to push myself through training for my triathlon and I didn’t want to injure myself. Sitting still for long periods of time is not in my nature, but I took advantage of my rest time while the weather was nice and did some shopping with the intention of buying a triathlon belt and laces, however I came home empty-handed. but had ordered a new road bike. It’s similar to the time I went to the stores with Fatboy’s bank card to buy coffee and ketchup and came home with 10 shopping bags and no sauce or caffeine.
The following week my new bike, a Liv Envie Advanced 1, was ready for me at Rutland Cycles, after tuning the bike up and adding the aero water bottles I was able to take the bike home. It has been a real pleasure riding this bike and practicing the swim to bike section for the triathlon has brought a big smile to my face. So, with the lessons learned on how to eat right, taking the weather into account, and with an eating plan on track, I’m looking forward to my first triathlon, just hoping it’s not too hot, otherwise I’ll just keep swimming.
Until next time…