I’ve only ever used water and jelly babies. I’m not interested in gels due to the cost, but is there something better I could be using than JBs? And what about drink - would a sugary squash of some sort make more sense?
What do you use, and why?
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Gummy bears, and homemade electrolyte drink. This is likely not needed when it’s cold, but is essential for me during the summer when it is warm. If it’s a hard workout early in the morning, I’ll add maltodextrin to the drink for extra energy. I try to keep on trainer nutrition very low cost. I do have some gels by the trainer that I use maybe once every month or so if I think it will help get through a hard workout, but that’s the only time I’ll use them.
Here is a post about the drink mix I use:
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I’m a huge fan of Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars and Clif Bloks
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Water and an sis gel with caffeine. If it’s over an hour I’ll have a maurten drink. Whatever makes the RPE lower, and caffeine and carbs work well at doing just that.
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Nutrigrain bars for me, and either water or electrolyte mix. I only use the bars as they are cheap (£1 for a box of 30)
Water and medjool dates. I like the dates because they’re basically sweet little sugar bombs, but I can tell myself I’m eating a real whole food that isn’t processed etc. When I’m doing more intense outdoor rides though I just mix up maltodextrin powder and electrolyte tabs into my bottles.
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constant battle between skratch and osmo lol
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Nakd bars (usually the peanut ones) and water. Sometimes Skratch instead of water if the workout is concerning. I’m not usually on the trainer for more than a couple hours.
[e] (To be clear, this is what I eat on the bike when I eat on the bike, which is generally on rides over an hour. For less than that, I just do water. I ride in the morning and I always eat something first, because #womancortisolcatabolismroar.)
On the trainer, 60 mins and less = water, more than 60 mins = water + maybe dates and/or figs and/or a banana.
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Water with electrolytes tablet. During longer 1,5h threshold workouts - 20-40g carbs (SiS Go energy) and second bottle with water. I will be testing coconut water from bulk powders soon. If I have to eat on the bike - homemade cliff bars (I cannot buy them here) or some rice cakes.
Water and bananas… cheap, easy and super effective.
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Just ran out of my Gatorade mix and was about to order more but lets see what others say here as a potentially better alternative. I usually do water only for lower tempo and easier, and water/gatorade mix for high tempo and harder
Easy sessions are just water. I tend to use my harder training sessions to replicate what I will do when I ride outside. I have to watch what I eat to do with my crohns disease. Experimenting is a lot easier inside on my digestion but I do notice a difference with keeping energy levels up.I do find a difference in riding with being properly fed before and playing with the timing of taking liquids.
Hard sessions can be GU roctane if energy replacement will be an issue otherwise I will use Nuun electrolyte tablets with caffeine.
Gatorade Endurance Watermelon or Lemon Lime. Its whats on course and i enjoy the taste
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Water with Skratch and Honey Stinger chews.
For anything around 1:30 or less, Nuun electrolyte drink in one bottle + water in another bottle.
Once I get closer to 2 hours, I add 1 or more Larabars
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Skratch for longer SS and threshold intervals.
A SiS hydration tab for easy workouts.
If I need a second bottle I’ll just drink plain water since the second bottle is typically the last bottle. I try to keep up with drinking a bottle every hour at least. I FEEL like it helps me recover faster.
Regarding food.
I have a backlog of older/random gels which I’ve been going through. I’ll eventually switch to bananas and cheaper bars like clif. Something I can get on sale. After looking through this thread I’m going to certainly consider dates.
I always try to balance cost and fueling for these workouts. If I knew I was going to be tackling a really hard workout thats been historically challenging I would consider going into full blown race fuel mode.
But on the other hand I’ve gotten enough experience now to know that underfueling keeps you from being as consistent as possible and thereby limiting your training potential. So, taking some nutrition in during a workout is very worthwhile. But shelling out big money on scientific food for typical workouts won’t do a favor for your bank account.
A bit out there, and I’m still in the testing phase, but:
Lately I’ve been going through so much I’ve been wanting to keep the costs low. I bought a big thing of plain honey, and I’ve been mixing it into my bottles at the rate of 300cals/hour. So far so good for the day in, day out stuff.
Under an hour Perrier or water and over an hour IM trying SOS hydration right now. its okay and I just tried tailwinds with caffeine and thought that was good but only need half of the individual bag for a 24oz bottle if not man your super caffeinated
Water. If the ride is over 1.5 hours maybe a gel
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