Fuel for epic rides...what to choose

As part of my prep for Dirty Kanza, I’m going to try out multiple fueling strategies. Right now I’m leaning towards a liquid diet (exclusively or at primarily). I know a lot of this is personal and what works for your stomach, but there are so many options. I know @Nate_Pearson likes Beta fuel, @Jonathan like Maurten. Then there is Tailwind, e-fuel, and Hammer endurance or perpetuem and more. What is confusing is all the marketing about simple carbs, complex carbs, carbs and protein, types of sugars. I don’t know the science well enough to sort through it. @chad feel free to chime in and enlighten me.

Any opinions on the best fuel sources whether it is science based or just personal experience? I’m probably going to order a few pack of all of the above and try them out to see what my body likes. Any others I should consider?

Thanks!

No science here just personal preference, haven’t done DK. No way would I do that on liquids alone. I would look towards real food. A couple of bananas, a quartered PB&J on wheat, and some pancakes. I would bring a clif bar and some chews but would try to stick to real food, it is comforting. I always bring gels but rarely use them, it is not that hard to eat on gravel and I feel much better when I eat. I also like to drink plain water.

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You can get individual packs of Maurten and Beta Fuel from The Feed. I have an order in to try a bunch of different stuff out and it was a nice way to get a big variety pack without commiting to a lot of money.

In my experience, you need to test your nutrition strategy as much as you can before these long events.

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Agree. I find this hard to do tho, because it’s hard to replicate race day conditions - in particular the combination of duration and intensity. It was only after a few 6 hr races did I realize my nutrition strategy was consistently failing at the ~5 hr point.

You can also make a little spread sheet and put the ‘macros’ on there that you need to replace each hour. Then you can see what you need to consume by combining servings, gels, big macs, etc per hour to reach the goals. I did that for my ironman to try and make it as simple as possible. I prefer solids while riding and eat a lot of cliff bars that i break into pieces, then added in what i need for calcium, etc.

I agree, I am pretty sure that nutrition is my Achilles heel. I am not good at eating during the events. Thank you for pointing out The Feed. That’s a good idea.

What would be your suggestions for the meal the night before the event?

Per @Nate_Pearson, lots of rice, maybe oatmeal and a whole box of cereal!

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Thanks @aydraper
I’'ve one more day of a training camp in Spain and have hit 1120 in TSS so far but feel like I haven’t dialled in my nutrition at the evening meal. I’ll try a ‘normal’ size plate of proteins and rice. Biggest day tomorrow so just want to get the preparation right.

I forgot to add sweet potatoes

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