Short rides 2 hours or less… maybe a snack on the way home from work before the ride. I do eat dinner not long after getting back from the ride, so there’s that.
More than 2 hours… I’ll grab a granola bar and/or a banana. Stuff my pockets with the kid’s snacks. I try not to use gels on daily rides as they’re expensive. On a longer weekend ride I’ll take some for race prep now and then. But $1-2 per gel adds up… fruit snacks are 10 cents.
My go to’s are sugar water, breakfast bars, bananas, gummies and I’ll do jam sandwiches too. I tried some of those guava things too and they were cool, pricey for what I got but I’ll check out a mercado and see if I can score some for a reasonable cost.
For something short like sub 2h, nothing usually during the ride. I’ll just eat a larger meal before hand, or have a small snack at home before or after I go out.
For longer rides I prefer carbs dissolved in my water bottle.
For long long rides, say north of 8h, I’ll add in chocolate bars or other gas station treats every 3-4h or so.
Depends on both how hard training was before, how long that endurance ride is, and how hard my ride the next day will be.
But for a short endurance ride (2 hours is short for me right now) I’ll do carbs in a bottle (DIY Malto/fructose mix) then nutrigrain bars, chewy bars, and maybe a Rice Krispie Treat. I should get back on the banana train though, much cheaper than other options but hard to do on longer, hotter rides since they can turn to mush.
Longer rides are about the same but I’ll throw in some clif bloks or gels. Mostly to mix up flavors and textures but they’re also more space efficient per carb. Then when I stop to refuel I’ll usually buy a big gatorade to refill my bottle, have either a coke, root beer, lemonade, or chocolate milk while there. If I’m feeling crazy I’ll also get a snack like a glazed donut, muffin, etc.
For curiosity: do you dissolve as per producer recommendation or have you tried cramming as much carbs as possible?
Last year tried with 3x 80g in 1L bottle with no issues. During coming summer trying to take it as far as possible, so I need to carry only electrolytes tables for ~8-12h rides and refill only plain water
uncrustables, multi-grain bars and pop tarts. If I’m out, I’ll grab some gummies. Water chaser. I’m sick of having a cavity every checkup (moving away from sugar water and gummies - for intensity days only).
For endurance rides I fuel with Tailwind in my bottles (50g/carbs per bottle), CARBS gels, gummy bears, Team Kitchen oatmeal fuel (https://www.teamkitchen.co/), guava bars and/or dates. If we stop i get a muffin and a coffee, or fruit and a RedBull. I aim for 80-100 g/carbs per hour. I start with breakfast which is usually greek yogurt with fruit, coffee, water with ELMNT, and a banana.
I mostly work out early morning which are typically 1.5 - 2 hour rides. For morning rides that are Zone 2 / Low 3 I will either do fasted or maybe 1 scoop Skratch. If it is hard intervals then I do one bottle of 60-80 carbs which will last 1.5 hrs. For bottles I mix 1-2 scoops Carbs Fuel and 1 scoop Skratch for taste and more electrolytes.
Longer Rides I shoot for 60-80 carbs per bottle as above. I have a box of cheap sweedish fish which I will use to supplement. I will also supplement with Gu gels or Carb Fuel Gels if harder ride.
Timing wise I drink every 12 minutes regardless of ride. With a good sip each time this will result in one bottle every 1.5 hours. Food wise I will eat every 30-40 minutes some sweedish fish or gel.