Eating for your Century Ride

Dear Palm Springs Riders of OC VV!

Hope this will be in time for your BIG ride. I will DO MY BEST to keep it as simple as it can get but detail enough to cover the detail ... hope you will find it helpful! Also please talk to experience riders in OC VV during the ride so they can give you some more tips... it will help you feel better and more confident to endure miles ahead. I wish Scott D. there so he can help you! He is our century king.

Prepare for century ride could take up to 12 weeks of training in most books, and each individual also should try out your own food on long ride 1st before you bring it on actual event, but during the actual event MENTAL will also be one of your strength or weakness that you need to be at your best to perform well or just enjoying your ride even in the last 10 miles. YOU NEED TO BE HAPPY ON THIS RIDE it will help you big time. NOT TOO PUMP UP! then also could lose sleeping too!

Here are some # and it will help you to understand better as you follow these paragraphs.

1g of fat = 9 cal
1g of carb = 4 cal
1g of protein= 4 cal

WELL train athletic (like Lance Armstrong) able to store ~2000+ cal from Glucose in their blood system.
Most of us VV are consider Occasional train athletic (our fast riders) and ONLY store about 1500 cal or less. PLUS WE don't utilize fat as efficient like WELL train cyclist does. Want to get better at this? Ride in Zone2/3 for long period of time... mean base miles... and we inexperience riders don't like to ride slow... there fore we never train right for our capillaries to open up. These lines of fuel open up to supply fuel when our muscle is working hard ... and the more the better we utilize our fat as for fuel instead of all sugar and glucose then when we ran out glucose too fast we will bonk early ... and when that happen you just have to slow down or stop to eat and it will take long time to recover.

NO need to eat FAT for the ride or just eat a little is OK too ... because most of us are 12% to 25% body fat... so if you are 150 lbs rider and even as tone as 12% body fat ... you still have 18 pounds of fat on your body ... and each pound contain ~3500 cal. Even ONE pound will be enough for your century ride ... SO NO WORRY about FAT! But I love #2 McDonalds breakfast with OJ for my long ride if I am away from home.

Carbo loading! Yep it works best if you train and taper out the last few days but if you don't train and eat all the carb the night before it won't help as much. It just fill up to the level that your body need daily... could be 1200 or 1400 or 2000+ like those tour riders.

So what should you eat?
Still carb will be the #1 source of food for your ride in any intensity!
Next some protein for high intensity rider and prefer no more then 1:4 ratio protein:carb intake.
NOTE: your body only can process 1g of carb per kg of body weight... for example 70kg rider can eat 70g of carb = 280 cal of glucose per hour....... and if you eat more then that your body can not absorb into your system so much. There fore if you ride too fast too early... you will run out of glucose in your blood system and force you to slow down because you bonk too early.

You want % of fat burn as high as it can be... for example 60%, 50% or 40% but not 20%

Here is an example why:
A 160# rider and HE rode few times a week ... so he is consider some train athletic and estimate his body can store about 1500 cal of glucose. He want to finish his century ride in 5hrs... and doing so will force him to ride at 21-23mph most of the times... he is riding in near AT... and the cyclometer show that his fuel from fat = 20% and total calories per hour he burn about 800 cal... so ONLY 160 cal form fat... BUT THE REST WILL BE FROM HIS GLUCOSE CAL = 640 cal... How long can he last in this paceline?

He eat 1 slide of bread has 15g of carb each hour,
1 GU gel has 25g of carb each hr @ the 30min.
drink 24oz of Powerade has about 10g of carb each hour.
So TOTAL CAL = ~80+100+ 200 = 380 cal intake per hour BUT total calories from Carb = 100/GU + 60/slide bread + 40/powerade = 200 cal of Glucose into his system per hour.

Math Time:
He eat and drink TOTAL = 380 cal/hr but ONLY 200 cal from Carb.
He is spending 560 cal from carb and ONLY intake 200 cal from carb...
That mean he is NEGATIVE 460 cal from carb each hour... and only less then 3 1/2 hrs he will bonk because in his bank ONLY has 1500 cal from Glucose. He probably already at semi-bonk state when his reserve run low about 300-500 cal from glucose.

Remember we do not need to worry about fat... but fat only can burn during lower intensity ride... when we get in anaerobic mode ... most or all of our calories will come from carb... that is why we try NOT to get near or pass your AT during these long rides. ONE HOUR TT is OK TO RIDE AT 0-2BPM BELOW AT! We need to save as much glucose as we can to endure this long ride and still finish strong at the end and SMILING. Recommend NEGATIVE SPLIT method for best result.

NEGATIVE SPLIT: (experience long and super long distance rider use this method to help them control their urge for speed when riding alone or in big pack)
Divine the distance into 2 or 3 segments and discipline yourself so you can stay at certain speed = certain intensity to prolong your energy for 2rd or 3rd split. By doing so you will budget your energy for this long ride and not too excited and fly the 1st segment... burn up all you glucose (these are limited fuel in your body and very valuable on long ride).

Don't do what stronger rider do! Even all can ride at same speed in same paceline ... but weaker rider will ride at higher HR = higher intensity = higher % of glucose cal use = bonk earlier even eating same food. SO BEST to WHEELSUCKER until the last 1/3 distance for rookie rider or 1st time century. Your Heart Rate will drop about 10-15 bpm in a 22-23mph paceline if you are in the back compare to the front person who break the wind for you. In WINDY situation... 1st and 2nd guy in front will need to work even harder!

Hope this help! Good luck on your century! Can't wait to read your recap!
Quang Vo from VV HPTeam in Minnesota.

PS!
If you still confuse??? then bring about 4-6 bag of GU, stop and refuel sport drink in the beginning... and don't forget to fill at least ONE water for the last 30 miles = closer to noon ... in case it hot use it to dumb on your head to cool you down ... you will perform better. Eat some solid food at the rest stops if you can not eat on bike with NO hand. Fast group can slow down every hour to eat solid or food with wrapping paper ... ONLY need ~2min of 18mph and NO PACELINE @ this time... for safety.

Few of us discussed about tires:
I change to new tires before each long ride (only if the tires are more then 1/2 way used then after the ride I swap it back) this help prevent some flats. Also difference tires have difference wearing mileage on it.
Example:
Continental GP4000 will last ~ 2000 miles,
Micheline Pro2 only last about 1200 miles,
so if we got older tires mean easier to get flat. Big group will get more flats and without preventing it... you could get 3-4 flats + 3 stops... that is 7 stopping... too many right?

I am exciting for you guys already! Don't forget to stick together at the beginning to take some pics with your smile on it!