What I know from fuelling ultra distance events is that I can’t eat the same things on a 10 day 4,000 km cycling event as I can on a 200km event over a few hours. What can work for 200km event doesn’t necessarily scale up.
Now you may say whatever I do to fuel 4000km over 10 days will scale down to that 200km event. While this is pretty much true, it’s not till you’ve done the longer event, that you figure out what works sustainably.
In other words fuelling that works for an individual over 200km is most likely not going to work over those 4000km. and multiple days. Now you might strike lucky at the shorter distances and find the right balance. But most ultra distance riders, including myself, have found we’ve had to significantly change our fuelling strategy and tactics as we’ve gone up the distances.
What would class as low carb in the context of 1.5-2 hours training 5-6 times a week? I generally average around 200g carb with that being 30-35% macros as my energy is most stable with this.
This all makes a lot of sense but is annoying as basically means training AM the options are to keep smashing simple carbs or none at all. A jelly baby here or there will actually make things worse! If you want to make sure you aren’t completely fasted could having some fats/protein pre ride be a sensible option?
I look forward to experiencing what you’re getting at. Michelle will do RAAM at some point. I’m not sure I’ll ever hit 4000km in 10 days. Admittedly I have zero experience in so much as thinking about fueling events lasting longer than 48 hrs, let alone reading about them. I suspect that my methods are expandable to 48 hrs, with >90% of that being riding time. I won’t make any claims about anything longer than that!
Actually you could take the none-at-all approach until midway through ride, then have some smaller amount and finish with post-workout meal as normal and probably be fine.
I tried this this morning starting fasted and then a small amount (jelly babies) halfway through intervals and it seemed to work. No real crash.
Makes sense i don’t think i’ve eaten a diet of 50% carb in over 10 years. Does this change who you fuel on the bike? I guess not and still focus on 60g carbs an hour on longers rides.
I would also assume following a lower-carb diet means you process carbs slightly differently to those on a high carb diet?
Agreed. His communication style…well, let’s just say it took me some time to get past that, but once I did, I found him to be very knowledgeable. I learned a fair bit from him.
Strange. He always had very worthwhile inputs to every thread I came across him. Probably more so than 90 % of the forums population. Anybody who might took offense to his often times rather frank statements could be considered rather less secure in their reading background and in their opinions. This is very weird and a troubling regulation - as far as my gathering of posts from him reaches. And I came across a lot of posts from him. Makes me think not more highly of the TR forums I have to say.
I got the following from a client in email today, FYI. Sharing just to prove relevance of hypoglycemia.
Quote from client:
As written, I’ve done the carbs with the protein shake before & during my workout, first thing in the morning. I eat my breakfast about an hour after my workout. The last two times I’ve done my workout, approx 45-50 minutes afterwards I get sweaty and dizzy. It feels like I’m having a blood sugar crash or something.
If you’d like I’ll share the next one I get. It’ll happen within 2 weeks for sure. It’s relevent in real life 100%.
I suspect that you (@_Matthew) just happen to have low somatic symptoms to hypoglycemia and therefore, I respectfully posit, a strong confirmation bias towards it being irrelevant in normal training and fueling scenarios. My confirmation bias is in the opposite direction, of course.
But the bit on hypoglycemia I’ve written earlier in this thread and many others is one of my most often used TextExpander snippets with clients and online on forums, if that provides useful info pertaining to the frequency that this happens in the population.
Yep, eat sooner post-workout. Mixed meal, still high carb, but also protein, fat, fiber. (the lightheadedness that the client was feeling was after training cessation & before they consumed their post-workout meal)
