+1 on going to liquid calories as much as possible. My approach is 24 oz. bottles with ~120calories worth of Skratch (1.5 scoops), plus an extra 700mg of sodium citrate. I’ll also run a pack when it’s hot or I’m training for an event that requires one (with the same Skratch/sodium mix in it). Maple syrup in a flask to get up to ~100g of carbs per hour. I’ll supplement with sour patch watermelon candy and cokes when available.
I did 13+ hours at Unbound this year on nothing but skratch and maple and felt strong w/ good appetite all day. It got pretty warm for a while, but not really a hot day. Also, agree with training/riding as early as possible. I’m in central TX and it’s been over 100f every day and I’ve been riding crazy early with long rides in my run up to Leadville. 4:30 am starts and it’s already a sauna near 80F and 90% humidity. It actually feels better around 9am when it starts warming up and the humidity burns off. As long as you get off the road by around noon, I find it manageable. After that, anything above Z2 is going to be short-lived.
My problem with relativ strong drink mix in the heat is that i feel like i dont hydrate enough. Especially fo4 long rides i prefer it in the drink. Carrying g3ls for 5 hours is alot of stuff in the pockets
Sounds kind of weird but on recent hot rides I’ve packed a medium sized baked sweet potato that was refrigerated into my jersey pocket. It’s more of a taking a break snack, not while riding food. But by the time I eat it mid ride, it’s warmed back up and it goes down surprisingly easy if it’s baked long enough. Best part is the wrapper is edible (potato skins) and biodegradable (paper wrapper).
So a single 1L bottle with 12-1800 calories then a second 1L bottle with plain water. Top both off with water whenever you’re able to stop. Maybe carry a small baggie with more mix to add halfway through or so. I’ll go through 4 full liters of water including the caloric intake on a hot 4-5 hour ride and that seems plenty to me personally, YMMV.
If you don’t have many available options for water, carry a third L bottle either in your pocket or arrange a third seat cage or top tube cage are options.
Gels, yeah, I don’t like doing 15 gels in 5 hours either, but if you use a Hammer flask or similar, it’s not too hard to get 15 gels in an easily manageable arrangement.
Best bet on a 5hr ride is probably to supplement the liquid calories with something else. I’ll usually do a couple of fig newtons and then 4hrs worth of mix in my bottle, along with water. Works well for me. Just a thought… but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to try to take in 1500-2000 calories of solid food on a 4-5 hour ride, hot or otherwise!
Just did another 6 hour ride Sunday. Was completely fine on 100% liquid 4 hours in, but then got the bright idea to eat a big homemade cookie and some skittles when I stopped to top off fluids at a rural NH general store. Spent the next 90 minutes regretting it, although at least I didn’t barf it all up.
Literally my only bad experiences with my stomach on the bike are when I’m doing something other than liquid and gels, although I’m sure something like fig newtons or graham crackers would’ve been better.
Oh, I very much know that was my bad. The whole “Ride fast eat trash” thing sounds great in the moment though and you’re not always thinking straight and damn that cookie looked good
But, point stands. I can just keep going on liquid carbs or gels indefinitely (and it’s real easy to monitor carb content) as long as I get the water/sodium right…
Seeing more than a few posts (Insta/Strava) from pros I follow who have had tough days due to heat in the last couple of weeks. I hate it when memes seem to be coming true. The heat isn’t going away, so we best all learn how to adjust.
Yeah I will try that again, just find it hard to keep track of how much mix I already consumed. And if I consume too much my intestines go berserk… Never had issues with my stomach…
Will need to try that before my event in 2 weeks where I want to have 4 hours of mix and then 3 hours worth of gel.
Next time around I’m going to have to remember to pack some sodium citrate to mix into straight water when I get to the point of not wanting flavors. I’ve got enough extra fat that when in z2 I have minimal carb needs (for my brain) but dialing back/skipping hydration/sodium is not an option.
On the topic of heat and drinking fluids;
Has anyone ever used Morton’s lite sea salt? It’s 50/50 sea salt and potassium chloride, just curious if anyone has experimented with it?
Might be a good blend to add in my drink mix or not…
Yeah, we all have plenty of fat on board to keep the lights on, but carbs are still going to help if you can keep taking some in. Even if you don’t want/need the energy, a little sugar in your mix helps with hydration. Glucose and sodium work together to improve the transfer/hydration process. I will often run a weak mix of skratch late in a race on a hot day (but still with extra sodium). I know I won’t want a really sweet mix if it gets brutally hot, but running a weak mix still provides a little sugar to help with hydration.
You gotta up that game, those are amateur numbers.
3 cliff bloks is 24g of carbs. so 8g per.
During Unbound I did 4 blocks every 20 minutes, so 2 packs an hour. Or 1 Never2nd gel every 20 minutes. I run a 20 minute eat timer on my head unit.
Just have to do a better job of teaching myself to force it.
The flip side of that is I was high temp for the last 3 hours of Tahoe Trail and ate nothing. The only way to really practice it is to do so in the heat. How much for how long, at what output and what temp to “learn” how to do it? zero idea, but it’s one of those bits of work erg mode isn’t likely to help with.
No, I was not fasted by a long shot, so I was pretty loaded with glycogen and had no issues eating on the first lap. IF for the whole race was .65 (it sure didn’t FEEL like .65, but maybe I was doing a great job of recovering on the downhills, while not pushing hard enough on the up hills?)
I hindsight maybe my regular mix (Gu summit tea) at 50% might have been doable. In the literal heat of the moment it didn’t come to mind even though I had some with me. I think I was the 2nd to last finisher and the last one in at under 8 hours so avoiding the sweeper was VERY much top of mind.
