I did my first ever hard 6hr effort the other day, where I consumed 100ml of water with 30g of boggo sugar and 0.6g table salt in it every 20 minutes throughout the event.
(Additionally I had some neat water from my other bottle for teeth benefit every now and then).
It went great, I “won” (local sportive) and it never seemed arduous to get the carbs in.
Question is, will that scale up to a 10-11hr event I have coming up? New territory for me, no idea what to expect from my stomach!
There will be aid stations with plenty of solid foods, but I aim to just splash and dash with a bag of sugar/salt in a refilled bottle at 2 stops.
I’d be interested to hear other people’s experience with this sort of fueling strategy.
You have to experiment to know. There are GI issues, palate fatigue and perhaps just a bloated stomach to deal with.
Personally, I crave something solid for anything longer than 3–4 hours. One good starting point are gummi bears, which consist of sugar, a bit of water, something like gelatin or agar agar, a tad of food coloring and a bit of flavoring. Plus, they are inexpensive.
I start to get hungry after 5 hrs or so. Still have energy, but just need something solid in the belly…so I eat something solid then continue with liquid and gels
Works fine for me. There’s definitely palate fatigue, but in terms of stomach issues, I think liquid fuel and gels are easier on you the longer you go - they absorb easier and faster and don’t need to digest and break down like solid foods.
Stay hydrated is the biggie - that falls apart and everything starts going south…
Everyone’s a bit different, so you have to experiment and play it safe until you know for sure.
For me, I used table sugar for the longest time, and then realized I couldn’t handle it after like 5 hours. Now I do 2:1 maltodextrin:fructose and I have been able to do that for 10 hours without any gut issues.
A bit of protein also helps for super long rides. Now sure how accurate it is, but Hammer Nutrition says that your body starts to feed off of muscle after 4ish hours, unless you include some protein. I’ll put a tiny bit of protein powder in my drinks. I did a 3-lap 9 hour race and ate a hard boiled egg at each pit stop. Some people can’t do liquids for that long and need to mix in solids. Some people can’t tolerate one flavor that long and need to mix it up.
Liquid carbs like you did is great and easy to digest making its way pretty safe and low risk to bloodstream. When going at a good effort or in heat - added fiber, fat, protein, and more complex carbs (whole food) just increase the risk in my opinion.
Like for my 27hr ultra trail run , i was almost exclusively doing 80g carb bottles and gels… worked great. One issue with only “drinking” calories is that you can run into issues where fueling needs out paces your fluid needs if its cooler out… or vise versa you need more hydration than you need fuel when its hot. So good to have options in concentration of carb drink… and then some gels, gummies also.
Agree with that length though of having some sort of food options with a bit more rounded macro makeup w/protein - something simple to carry like a clifbar , luna bar, etc. Easy to just take a bite and put it back in pocket. Alternatively I have been just putting a bit of BCAA powder in my bottles and pre-workout drink, not much… can effect flavor quite bit (ick - lol)
I’ve always preferred liquid fuel on the bike for Ironman events, but they usually aren’t strong enough so I’ve added bars and gels. But yes, I’d be fine with it all liquid when I can. I don’t feel hungry either, all the blood is diverted from the stomach to the legs anyway
For ten hours, I’d take something solid every few hours, but not a three course meal. Salty crisps can be like manna from heaven in late stage ultra events.
I’m all liquids. I do a hydration mix with low enough carbs to make sure I don’t over-fuel when it’s hot and my main carb source is straight maple syrup in a flask. I’ve never done ultra events, but have done the Unbound 200 (~11-12 hours) on only drink mix and syrup the last 3 years. I’ve also done leadville (~9 hours) 5 times with the same approach. This year, I’ve even eliminated the citrus flavor from my hydration mix, so I’m down to simple carbs, water, and sodium citrate. I think adding anything solid is just asking your body to do extra work. If nothing else, just the act of chewing something can be tough in a long hard race.
All that said, it you need solid food to trick your body into taking in enough carbs during a race, do what works for you. But maybe consider trying a simpler approach in training and see how it goes.
In my opinion, palate fatigue is purely mental and chasing solutions for it is wasted energy that is better spent training to make eating on the bike a purely mechanical process. Eating on the bike isn’t about tasting good, it’s about fueling. Eat the tasty stuff afterwards. But again, it’s all individual and I’m sure the companies selling 32 different flavors of nutrition would disagree with my perspective. If you need an orange mocha frappucino flavored gel or bar to get your carbs in, do what you need to do.
Thanks for all the feedback! I had it in my head that liquid carbs was HARDER on your GI than “real food”. Not sure why…
I will take some backups, a couple of chocolate/nut bars or something, but I’m optimistic now that I can just neck sugar water all day like I did before and be just fine
FWIW I really struggle with chewing while on the bike, even with a Breathe Right strip I feel like I’m suffocating.
For a 10 or 11 hour event, you have to be honest with yourself and recognize that some real food might help your overall time, while in the moment be slower and feel like a waste of time.
I’m good for about 5 hours on gels/mix until the wraps and fries at the gas station start to look really good
It is something you have to practice and you can use liquid carbs for the durations you want to. I would still include solid food in there somewhere. I ride ultra endurance and liquid carbs works great either overnight or remote sections where there may be nowhere to resupply for 5-7 hours etc. Some real food now and again does help and goes down easy most times as you are not cramming it all that frequently.
Be wary of too concentrated a solution, if hot, as others have mentioned.
I’d skip the protein powder in the drink and eat some kind of solid food or maybe a protein bar. Most solid foods will have some protein in if they’re not made to be pure carbs. Especially for a full day event or ride
Haha, it seems I’m in the minority - and I’m not “racing” as such. But for my upcoming event of similar duration, I KNOW that I get fed-up of that same sweetness the whole time and simply can not ride past a water point with cooked baby potatoes and salt, date balls and banana loaf. Manned by friendly people in the middle of nowhere. All of those are easy to digest and just changes from that same taste all day.
Not having a picnic. Just getting off the bike a bit, having a quick stretch and a couple of jokes while having a bite and off again.
The longer I ride the more I shift to liquid carbs. After about 5h i find it hard to eat sweet things. However, I would still plan to eat something. If my bottles are too strong I get an upset stomach. My current go to is to eat candy at the end: haribo bears. And I always carry emergency gels. At least three for 10h. Although I seldom eat more than two.
I did the ultra run across the Grand Canyon (R2R2R) and used 90%+ gels for the entire run. I say 90%+ because we did stop at Phantom Ranch and have a lemonade and a Three Musketeers candy bar on the way back. I believe it took our group around 11-12 hours.
Literally every single time I add solid food on a long, hard, hot ride - it looks amazing, I’m craving it, I convince myself in the moment I need the break from liquid and gels and it’ll do me well. I love a fresh muffin from a coffee shop…
And then I regret it spectacularly. I always feel like s**t afterwards and end up shutting down eating anything for like an hour until my stomach starts to come back around.
Easier Z2 rides I can get away with it and I’ll have some gummi bears or similar simple sugar candy, or maybe a small pastry, a coke or a monster. But that’s about it.
I think it’s mostly HTFU, drink the mix, eat the gel, stay hydrated, repeat…
Well when I was racing Ironan races, I only took in liquid calories. It was concentrated and I was a a sub 10hr IM finsher. I would wake up at 4am and have good breakfast and carb up the days leading up to the race. Most of my calories would be on the bike(well over 2000Cals) and then just try to get a little bit of gel in every aid station on the run. So yeah, you can do that.
God yes, last gravel sportive the lights were going out and chews/gels were not tasting great but the last feed stop had salt n vinegar crisps that I destroyed in short order.
For OP’s question: I’ve done a few long days out and fueling purely from drink mixes definitely doesn’t work for me. I like some real food after a while. A pb bagel cut in half is easy to eat on the move and is full of energy whilst still not being a processed gloop.
