I’m going to back off 2:1 fuelling on TR workouts. My weight has been stable for years at ~70kg and used to regularly do turbo sessions fasted, but since drinking a bidon of 2:1 on each significant session it has gradually crept up, despite a significant increase in workload (e.g. SPB MV). And no, I don’t think it’s all muscle.
As a result, on the road, the FTP increases are being negated by the increased weight on hilly rides.
I’m going to experiment with electrolyte rather than carb hydration for a while and see what happens (or maybe just reduce the carb concentration).
Would you not back off something else in the day? I guess it depends on how much of 2:1 mix you’re having - I go for a 40g/ 500ml bottle which my mix works out at 160cals.
I do sometimes just have food that I would have later in the day, during the workout, so it’s not necessarily “extra”. Doesn’t work as well on intense workouts though.
it’s hard not to do that when you specialise - at least during my PhD I had no energy to give a toss about other areas for a while at least. Would imagine for this realm of science to be even worse.
I tried 700ml + 100g sugar + 1 lemon, way too sweet. Today I tried a 70:30 sugar:maltodextrin ratio and that was quite nice.
I also used @Nate_Pearson’s suggestion of pre-diluting the carbs in warm water. That worked so much better than just mixing cold water with the carbs. The drink doesn’t contain any clumps which helped make the bottles easier to clean post ride.
Really happy that I have a cheap and effective way to fuel on the bike
I measure the carbs in a beaker, boil some water in a kettle (doesn’t matter if it doesn’t reach the boil), pour the water into the beaker with the carbs, add a pinch of salt, and then put it in the fridge ready to be used in the morning.
I’ve started drinking more carbs during my easy rides (about .75 IF, trying to stay below LT1/VT1, and using HRV alpha 1 to try to guide that) and have found that helps me feel better during and after the rides.
I’m mostly doing longer rides at this intensity (90-240 minutes), and am probably ingesting 60-80ish grams/hour. I pre-mix at about 10% concentration (so 100grams/liter), but add some ice to the mix, and don’t drink a liter per hour, although that depends on the temperature. (I’m also trying the cheap sucrose + gatorade mix that @Dr_Alex_Harrison suggests, and that is working well for me. Super sweet, but tolerable.) Pettit is a bit lower intensity than what I am usually doing, but I am seeing positive results (feeling better, less craving food, etc.) by fueling on the bike.
I did a 5.5 hour ride with this mix, coke (about same sugar concentration), and some gummy bears coming in at about 88 grams/hour, 70% of which was liquid. This worked well for me.
I’d suggest trying more fueling during your easy rides - even if you don’t go to 90+grams/hour for easy rides, you might find that you see changes in the RPE and/or how you feel after the ride or the next day. It has been hard for me to stop seeing easy rides as a chance to have a calorie deficit, and focus more on quality training and recovery.
Can also try swapping regular table sugar for brown sugar. It is significantly less sweet in taste.
80 grams of brown sugar per bottle is no problem compared to table sugar.
I’ll have to give that a try - the overly sweet taste of lots of sucrose is my main complaint. I haven’t tried maltodextrin/fructose, but will give that a go. Unless it is a significant improvement over straight sucrose I doubt it will be worth the extra cost/hassle for me.
I wish there was a maltodextrin equivalent of fructose - a way to get the sugars without the sweetness.
I’m done with severe calorie restriction now and I’ve done my last three toughest rides with a decent amount of carbs both before and during… and boy, it may only be psychological, but the performance difference has been immense.
It’s both psychological and physiological and there are multiple interplays between the two. Glad you’re enjoying the performance boost. I do too
You can add maybe 10% of carbs from just maltodextrin to bring down the sweetness slightly and without harming ratio very much.
Adding more salt tends to make concentrated sweet beverages more enjoyable for me too. Either table salt or sodium citrate have similar reduction in sweetness perception for me.
