Fueling Zone 2 Workouts

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
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LM Forest - looks like you have a lot of good info from a lot of smart and experienced people. FWIW as I was perusing the Forum and stopped here I provide my 2cents based on my experience and most recently and because of this thread my reflections of the last 48hrs.

  1. Follow the advice and see what works for you.
  2. At some point in a long Z2 ride you will need fuel NO FREE CHICKEN
  3. I am normally in the camp of fuel all workouts. The amount depends on the effort. I always carry enough fuel both liquid and solid real food and gels. Better to Have and Not Need than to Need and Not Have.
  4. Yesterday I did Bald(1 hour Z2 AT says Achievable) indoors light breakfast and 64grams liquid carbs, mandarine, 1/2 homemade energy bar Team Sky recipe and a back up SiS gel all in arms reach. @30 min mark mandarine energy bar consumed. Drinking every 10-15 minutes combo of water and energy drink. @40 minute mark I felt the onset of lack of fuel discomfort. Boom SIS gel discomfort gone finished workout.
  5. Today I did Walker (2hrs Z2 AT says it’s a Stretch) indoors. Fuel liquid and water, 1/2 homemade energy bar, banana. @ 1hr 20min all real food is gone about 2 large swigs of energy drink left and I am starting to feel uncomfortable backup SIS gel was not replaced from yesterday :person_facepalming: so I have to stop and go to the supply closet and get gels. Needed two SIS gels @7min to go that uncomfortable feeling coming back again… but I decided just to gut it out cause I did not want see anymore downward blips on my Z2 power profile that would eventually make it STRAVA :scream: :rofl:
    So the point is I come to the Forum see this thread and think about my situation. As mentioned it’s all different for each individual but After Further Review… I came into both workouts with my glycogen stores too low… I had been playing around with fasting not for cycling but longevity(thank you David Sinclair) and was trying to reach autophagy…and while I did I did NOT have sufficient fuel intake for the pre workout fuelling…
    So there are a lot of factors that can affect what happens to your system… Anyways I just wanted to share my 2 cents.
    A good book if you’re still into books is “Advanced Sports Nutrition” Benardot…The 7 day pre race taper is awesome…
    Good Luck and Keep the Rubberside Down :wink:
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Two days ago another 3:20:00 endurance interval as part of a 4 hour ride. One week from the last one.

Fueled that ride with 260g carbs:

  • 90g bottle (28oz/828ml) the first hour
  • 40g Cliff bar the first hour
  • 90g bottle hours 2-4
  • 40g Cliff bar hours 2-4

Which averages out to 65g/hour. Pre-ride was about 200g carbs.

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Replaced 61% of kJ burned - 2442kJ work.

Close to identical kJ work, normalized/average power, and IF. But this week HR was a little lower (-6 bpm), more moving time / less stops, decoupling dropped from 3.3% to -2.4% (just call it zero), an actual negative split this week (more power at end), and Garmin performance condition improved from fair to baseline.

Historically 60g/hour is good for 3-5 hours, and longer rides pushing that up to 70-90g/hour. Then eating immediately after the ride.

Hope that helps someone looking to experiment on fueling/hydration.

I’ll give 90-120g/hour a try once my endurance rides get a little longer.

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Absolutely 100%