Back to carbz…in particular hi-CHO vs lo-CHO (and not to start digging that rabbit hole here!). Last year I was totally lo-CHO because I wasn’t doing any intensity. Life was just fine, including the long 5hr endurance rides. I’m abig believer in fueling for your lifestyle – fat or carbs, but not a combo. Now, getting back into intensity and starting fresh, I’ve learned that even though I was training with carbs, I wasn’t training with enough carbs.
I started really pounding sugar on March 22…coincidence? I think not! +
Are you saying you have upped your carb intake at meal time with veggies and the like or you have increased the amount of fueling (sugar) you are taking in on the bike?
Off-bike meals are the same as before. Once I started training again with even minimal volume, 5hrs/wk, my body started to really crave veggies. I like them but sometimes they are a bit bulky in quantity, esp. hard veggies; leafy greens I could eat for days.
On-bike fueling is what changed. Pre-sug I was doing water only and things like a gel or two, but found those never really did anything (cuz only 25g carbs). I started w/ 1x100g/bottle/hr, which will made me barf it’s so sweet, and am now down to 2x75g/bottle/90min…still 100g/hr but the concentration is not as sickly. Seems to be my, ahem, sweet spot.
Interesting… I have been fueling my tougher workouts with 30g of carbs per hour (Gu drink mix), which is half strength mainly to cut down the cost. This is in addition to my pre-ride fueling which is typically 50grams of carbs (fig bar + dates + coffee). Do you find any difference between sugar water (table sugar?) and drink mix? Also, do you use liquid carbs for shorter workouts (say 75 minutes or less)? Any edge that helps me nail those VO2 max workouts is appreciated!
Interesting I’ve not thought a lot about the amount of carbs I take in. Low intensity rides I usually always do fasted, while higher intensity (SS and above) I will have a handful of dates throughout but I train early so no breakfast beforehand. I’d need to do some sort of measurement but probably works out and around 50-70g of dates over 90-120mins.
I’ve never really felt like I needed more carbs, but interested to try it to see how it affects my RPE
I decided to give high carbs a try last summer after eating LCHF diet for too long. I carb loaded before an FTP test and had a 6% increase on a result that had been static give or take a couple of watts for over a year. I then decided to carb load heavily for triathlons - 8g+ per kg of bodyweight in the day prior to a middle and a day and a half before an iron distance. The results were astounding. My recovery was also much improved IMO. Im now fully converted back to high carb although do about one long slow fasted session a week.
I probably am underfueling while I’m on the bike at the moment - but I don’t really start gut training until I have events in mind - still, the balance above seems to work well for me
Replace some of the sugar with maltodextrin. Its just sugar, but doesnt taste sweet.
Edit: Actually one thing to note–malto is actually all chained glucose…not sucrose. So no fructose in there. Might be relevant for gut happiness.
I’ve been mixing bottles with 35g gatorade powder, which has sugar as the first ingredient, and 65g maltodextrin. So it’s probably something like a 4:1 glucose:fructose ratio. Not ideal, but I only take 1 or 2 bottles of the stuff. No gut issues yet. One of these days I’ll get some fructose powder to play with the ratio some.
What are people doing for carb intake during a short-ish workout? Like one hr TR workouts is what I have in mind. I usually only take water during these, am I selling myself short?
I’ve had similar problems getting burned out on workouts. Asked a sports science phd to help me set macros for life, weightlifting, etc., and for any bike time above short 30-min post-meal walk/jogs or bike time that is primarily oxidative, he suggests adding anywhere from 50-75g of carbs for each 30 minutes of hard cycling time.
If you’re hitting your workouts and recovering for the next day then no. However adding more carbs will likely improve both aspects above. I’ve been slowly increasing my carbs to 90 grams and hour (GU Roctane - 3 scoops). If you’re trying to loose weight, then maybe just stay with water.
+ 
bread.
