Gatorade Maltodextrin mix and a sub 5 hour solo century

I did a sub 6 hr (5:56) 122 mi, 6500 ft ride on Father’s day with one stop for water. Did 2 630 ml bottles Xtend Electrolye/BCAA mix with 1.5 scoops per bottle, 4 bottles total. Keeping ice in each with Podium Ice bottles to keep body temp down. The rest was 2 PB Clif bars (520 kcal), 2 PB&Js (600 kcal), and about 8 gels (800 kcal). Averaged a steady 212W the whole way, with climbing and light downhill pedaling on the rollers balancing out, so average worked out to my mid-upper my endurance zone. Not sure what you can take from this, but I think what I learned is that I fueled like I always do and don’t really pay attention to anything past 300-400 kcal/hr. Mine worked out to 320 kcal/hr. I like to separate fluids and kcal because those needs are independent of one another depending on conditions. I may roll out of the house looking like a squirrel with cheeks full of nuts (jersey pockets), but it gets lighter as the ride goes on!

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Take 1 bottle and have someone wait every 20mi with a fresh ice cold bottle? Put clip on aero bars on your gravel bike?

I know you said you were training your gut, but I find the amount of kcals (sugar) people are taking on these rides is a bit crazy.

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If you are taking gels, make sure you are drinking water with them. Gels are typically hypertonic, so they can’t get absorbed into the cells unless they are diluted and reach either an isotonic or hypotonic state. As a result, they just sit in your gut, and actually draw water FROM your cells in an effort to dilute the gel until such time it can be absorbed.

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If you’re worried about the aero penalty of the camelbak, take just the bladder and put it down the front of your jersey, where it’s out of the wind. You’ll look like a whale, but whales are streamlined…

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We’re keeping it simple with the one stop and also agreed on no aero bars.

Sounds crazy but has been working well for me.

That’s why I have been shying away from solid food, need more water. I use SiS gels which are “isotonic”.

No room for that with my gut in the way. :rofl: Plus I’m not going to run it like that in the gravel race so I want to get a feel for it when I’m on a drop bar bike.

You may still want to take in some water as it may not be as “isotonic” as it claims to be:

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I will be…

:+1:

Success!


Power meter died/dropped out so I pulled the battery at the water stop and reset and calibrated it. Had to stop and recalibrate again later because it was reading high, or I just had a Cancellara moment. So unfortunately the power numbers aren’t 100% on the money.

Followed the plan, took the camelback and didn’t use a single gel. Felt great the whole time all the way to the end but I was definitely riding the edge of carb limits. Went to lunch afterwards with the wife and had a normal sized meal and feel great.

Thanks everyone who chimed in on this thread! Next up, the real test on 100mi of gravel!

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:facepunch:

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Am I reading this graph right, do you have almost 0 coasting time?

Nice job! Now go crush the race!

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Lol close, power meter was dead for 13:30 according to the second graph! Nice catch!


image

I do have a couple things from the ride I’m curious about and I think they’re both sodium related.

First, about 3/4 into the ride I felt a slight headache feeling creeping in but went away. Maybe lasted 5 minutes and never got bad at all. Made me think not enough electrolytes?

And second, I urinated twice on the ride (clear) and multiple times after I got home (also clear). Which made me think too much sodium?

Just some observations…

Unlikely to be too much sodium. The amount of sodium needed to cause diuresis is 10x what it takes to cause GI discomfort during exercise.

More likely that you could have benefited from more sodium if you were peeing clear frequently on the ride.

Probably could do close to double the sodium next go-round.

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Well the race I’ve been preparing for is this Saturday. Here is the plan…

-2 mix bottles (Zefal Magnum) and a 2L Camelback (pain water) to first sag at mile 62, est. 3:40

  1. 3600ml of fluid for 3:40 (est) overall >10% sotution for start to sag. 350g carb total, 100/hr.

-1 mix bottle and one water bottle (dropping Camelback) from sag to finish at 100mi, est 2:00

  1. 1900ml of fluid for remaining 2:00 >9% solution for finish. 175g total, 87.5/hr

each bottle contains;

  1. 75g Gatorade
  2. 100g sugar (85g in finish bottle, aiming for 100g/hr)
  3. 100mg caff (33mg/hr)
  4. 1.5tsp sodium citrate (@ 5850mg total with Gatorade, @ 1000mg/hr)

Also carrying 3 gels just in case.

The race has an early 8am start and it sounds like overcast with high in the upper 80’s for the day. The race will probably end up being a shorter total time, I estimated on the slower end to make sure I have plenty of fluids.

Wish me luck…

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More success!

Ended up 3rd in the open class and 4th overall in a field of 400! Way better than expected! Followed my nutrition plan and the total time was shorter than planned as I thought it might. I was at a disadvantage as there were a lot of people getting rolling hand ups on course so not only was I carrying more water, I also had to make a stop to refuel.

This ended up taking 2:55. Still had a decent amount of water in the Camelbak but made sure I got all the mix down evenly through that time. So around 115 carb/hr for first 3 hours.

This was almost spot on at 1:55. Worked perfectly as I just finished up the last of my fluids about a mile from the finish.

This was followed. Never touched the gels!

It got pretty hot towards the end with a fairly mean headwind in some spots. I personally know 4 people that dropped out from cramps or dehydration.

As for the race itself. It was very fast and somewhat chaotic for the first 40 miles. There were times where I went on the front just to take a break from it. Lost the small front group when I stopped at the 62mi sag to refill.

Got in with a group that wasn’t working together very good for a while, slower pace than I wanted but had to stay out of the wind as long as I could. Was planning to attack the group when we got closer to the finish but I got a gap on a steep little kicker so I hit it hard and solo’d in from 13.5mi out while 2 guys on aero bars chased me. They started reeling me back in but I stayed in it and they gave up the chase.

My best 20min power of the day started at 4:14 / 87mi into the race during the attack (262w avg 270 np for 20min). The solo effort was 38min / 13.5mi long and averaged 244w and 259 np and 21.4mph on 42c Pathfinders with around 30psi in them. The whole race was 100.19mi, 4:50, 206w avg, and 241np. My ftp is currently around 315w / 4.3w/kg.

I felt great the whole time and never had any “dark moments” during the race. Even felt good enough to go out and ride 20mi on the mtb the next day! Thanks again to everyone following and replying and also @Dr_Alex_Harrison for the fueling and caffeine advice, has really been a “game changer” for me!

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I did 108 miles with a partner yesterday where I was in the wind the entire time. There was also about 6k of climbing. I followed @Dr_Alex_Harrison recipe by loading up my first 33 oz bottle with 300 grams of sugar/gatorade plus 2 tsp of sodium citrate, second bottle of water. Then I put a ziploc baggy of another 300 grams of the same in my jersey pocket. About 45 miles in, i listened to my stomach and switched primarily to water for about 15 miles until we got to a gas station stop. I put down a gel, got some ice for my bottles and put about 120 grams of the ziploc bag to top the mix bottle off. About 20 miles later at the last stop, I put down another gel and topped off my bottles with water. The second half of the ride got hot, but I felt strong even in the parking lot after the ride. Got to credit the fueling for the strength throughout. I had to modulate a little bit water over the mix, but I literally pulled my buddy the whole 108 miles.
I also felt really good the car ride home and hungry, but not ridiculously so. And then feel pretty good today as well.

I’ll also add, my buddy crumbled. Literally suffered for the last 20 miles or so. He’s not far behind me in fitness, so got to think his nutrition wasn’t as good.

At the end of the day I consumed from a little under 6 hours moving.
300 grams in first bottle
120 grams out of ziploc bag
48 grams from two gels
27 grams from one banana
total: 495 grams

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Nice!

No idea. Would’ve loved to not been carrying that extra 4 or 5 lbs of water though lol

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