Food, again?

I wasn't originally planning to do another post about food so close to the last one. However, after my big ride this weekend I thought it an important task to share my experiences with (and without) fuel this weekend.

So this Sunday just gone was the second HotChillee training run of the year. Last time, I rode group 3 which is already an improvement on last year for me. I spent a lot of the time on that last run at the front of the pack and so I decided to take the plunge, I decided to finally leap to group 2. This has been a specific goal for me so I was thrilled that, for the first half of the 116km ride, I rode with the bunch. Chatting, sharing stories, keeping myself snugly amongst the big boys I've looked up to for so long.

The ride was a little lumpier than expected, but after the first couple of gradients I felt confident and steamed on with gusto. I just forgot one key thing - this was not "my ride", nor was it last weeks 80km. I had eaten breakfast at 6am, rode for almost an hour prior and hadn't even got through a bottle by the 60km mark. This is where it went wrong.

Slightly stolen from tunedintocycling.wordpress.com!

In the past I've been visited by the ''man with the hammer" as the Velominati call it. I've come close to bonking hard and been close to calling a cab to get home. But with only half a ride done in a pack as quick as the one I was with, succumbing to that man is not an option. So I pushed on. For the last half of the ride I consumed the three gels I had with me, it wasn't enough. I was quickly eating into every shred of valuable energy I had in my body and oh boy could I feel it.

It wasn't like a bonk, it wasn't that I felt hungry and started to feel sick, and tired because of it. It was more like it felt like something was hoovering up my muscle fibres. On the climbs I couldn't even use my arms to keep me out of the saddle for a break, this is how I knew something had gone wrong. It's all well and good having tired legs but when your arms start to flop you kinda realise you've made a mistake.

There is no coming back from this. So I had to try my very best to pace back to the group, as hard as I could. It hurt, I even crashed. But it's not necessarily the pain on the bike that has instigated my regret, it's the week of training I have managed to destroy by something as simple as not eating right. I'm coming up to my first race, I should've been practising my sprints. Instead I've been doing hour long recovery rides each day to avoid more fatigue.

So what's the lesson here? Realise that without feeding, drinking, fuelling intelligently, you can not only ruin a nice morning out but at the same time take yourself out of the game for prolonged periods of time. What's the solution? My coach quite rightly advises me to make sure I ingest something every 15 minutes from the very start of the ride. Some of you might not be all over the energy gels and sports drinks, this is OK - but whatever you have, make sure you have too much. Follow these simple pointers and hopefully you won't end up in that same dark hole that I did!

1. Eat breakfast until you feel sick. Slow release carbs such as porridge are best.
2. Eat breakfast again.
2. Carry sugars, be it electrolyte drinks or bananas. Intake plenty of these especially when you start working up a sweat.
3. Take something in every 15mins to half an hour, no matter if its the start or end of the ride.
4. Eat a big meal with plenty of salts and protein in after the ride.
5. Afterwards, rest, and carry on eating. Rest some more. And then maybe take a nap.