I’m a big fan of fuelling my rides and had a though this morning that it would likely make sense to also fuel for other sports such as hockey. Games kind of look look like a Spanish Needle workout and last 1.5 hours.
Has anybody ever tried this? Does this even make sense?
Eat like you normally would for a long ride 2-3 hours before. Then I would think during the game have something easy to digest like Gatorade or even some type of gummies. I haven’t played in a while but Gatorade ( it was free) was my goto and a clif bar or similar between periods helped.
I usually eat about 2 hours before, which lines up with when the fam sits down for dinner. I’ve always just drank water throughout the game. Its probably optimal to drink some carb+electrolyte drink though. Maybe even down a gel right before you step on the ice. Maybe I’ll try that this week. Oh, and about recovery… Those locker room beers are my time to socialize and catch up with my friends, but they may lead to a net fitness loss 
This is how Gatorade was invented. Except the case study was American football.
I wouldn’t hesitate to take a gel from time to time to keep your energy topped off.
I always used an SIS gel before the game then tailwind throughout. Definitely seemed like it worked well, beer-league athleticism being what it is 
Gave it a try this morning. 2 scoops of Gatorade + 4 tbsp of table sugar for roughly 60 to 70g of carbs and it might be placebo but it really felt great! I think I’ll definitely keep that going.
I’ve also got the post game recovery locked in with 2 Bud Lights.
There’s a half-time break, right? Could have a gel then, or a carb drink. See it in pro football/soccer now, sometimes a player will come to the dug out and have a gel or a little unlabelled bottle of drink.
In a galaxy far far away, I played a ton of hockey. Eat everything. Drink even more. Done.
Actually, my go-to fuel was those “PowerBar” peanut butter things (I think they’re now discontinued) and plain ol’ PowerAde in one bottle, and H2O in another bottle. An hour on the ice was fine. Afterwards, my team refueled with copious amounts of beer.
And yeah, I wore an HRM – just for the grins and giggles of it!
Shifts on the ice (I was a winger) was absolutely like a series of threshold intervals for the hour-long game.
p.s. YES, I played on Valentine’s Day (per the data above). My wife knew who she was marrying.
its funny how this is such common knowledge now… 10 years ago, not so much. When I played in college, I would have a gel between periods. Guys would chirp the hell outa me in the locker room…mainly bc I was always somewhat of a Phil Kessel build haha.
Coming from hockey, cycling training was super tough for me at first. The mindset in hockey was “bust your ass in the gym, at practice and at games”. In cycling, its “bust your ass once or twice a week, and chill the rest”. Took me the longest time to accept z2 rides as anything other than recovery
LOL. The minute you lace 'em up, you go hard AF. Anything less, and I never heard the end of it from my teammates, They’d look at my HR data from the bench on my phone and tell me to move my f^&Ing feet faster. 
On the bright side, I can confirm a Polar HRM could broadcast easily the whole span of ice, back to my phone on the bench.
It’s not so common in my beer league, made up of mostly 40 year old Dads. I get chirped for bringing two large water bottles for our 1.5 hour of ice-time. Many guys don’t even drink H20, and no one eats anything throughout the game. I don’t understand how they can get away with that.
I’d chirp ya if you were doin that in beer league too 
haha
Yea I’ve gotten bad over time, as hockey is less competitive for me and more of a once a week way to do something not on the bike. I probably forget a water bottle better than half the time I play.
This is exactly the same as the discussion on fueling riding and other sports. You can go for two hours without anything to eat or drink, but should you? Would you feel and perform better if you took some carbs and fluid on board? My take on that is “yes”.
Same with soccer players taking a bottle and spitting out 90% of what they take in on the sideline while talking to the coach. And they also cramp like hell in the last 10 minutes of a match. Wonder why.
