Fueling up on bike rides....

You don't need anything more than GU, it's just a preference, and what you can handle. I get real bored of gels real quick, so I take a jam sandwich, a home made muesli bar, a banana, and make the rest up in gels, usually 3 food items per 3 gels, so alternate one gel, then one real food source, and so on, and aim for 70g of carbs per hour (the dietitians recommendation, 1g per bodyweight per hr for rides greater than 1hr duration).

Thanks for all the great advice! At about what point do you all feel the need for the extra fuel (i.e. after so many hours)? Just trying to see what others do.

Thanks a lot everyone for taking the time to reply to my question.

It is really unusual for me to eat a gel or shot blocks or similar items on training rides (long or short).  I try to eat "real" foods with a combination of the simple sugars and carbs that I need based on the distance riding and what I have eaten earlier in the day and day before.  I often ride on a weekday when I should be eating dinner and when and what I had for lunch can impact what I eat on the bike also.

I usually eat sliced apple, nuts, energy bars, for shorter rides.

I will eat sanwiches, fruits, nuts, and energy bars for longer rides.

for a 30M ride I probably will not eat any solids on the bike (before or afterwards yes).  For anything longer than ~40M I will probably eat something on the bike but not much (1 bar or bag of nuts, or apple slices).  For a 60-80M ride I will probably start to have several things to each and possibly a sandwich or something else with more substance.

Michael

How far are you riding? Fueling for a 30 miles ride may be different than for 80-100.

I often ride up to about 50 miles with just a couple bottles of water and usually have some left. If I'm training for a HIM I'll have more because I will usually do a run after the bike of 1-4 miles. That helps me nail down nutrition for fueling the run after the bike. Just biking, I take very little for most rides because I'll have something before and after.

My longest ride has been just over 2.5 hours and it was about 47 miles. I didn't have anything but water for the first hour and the second hour I did fine with a bottle of gatorade and a bag of shotblocks. The last 30 minutes I just finished what gatorade was left and I chased the ride with some chocolate milk and a good sized solid meal afterwards.

I usually don't take anything in for a ride under 60 minutes. I think most people should be fine with a pre ride meal or even your glycogen stores.  

I eat on the bike according to the ride.  40-50 mile hammerfest maybe a gu to start and a gu halfway through.  On long rides (90 - 120) I tend to do better with some real food mixed in with the gu.  Bananas, cereal bars, fig newtons all seem to sit well for me.  I've also eaten stuff like PB&J at rest stops and that is ok, but seems hard to eat on the bike.  You really don't want to know some of the crap I've eaten from convenience stores after I've blown up!   

On a long ride I like to eat early in the ride and try and eat every hour or so.  If you wait to eat, you may have a hard time later in the ride.  Hydrate.  You gotta drink, too!  

As several other posters said, your fuel will really depend on the duration of your ride, your pacing, how you've eaten/hydrated earlier in the day, and the temperature of your ride.

 Usually for rides of less than 1 hr, I take only water or electrolyte drink (G2O, Accelerade or Luna).  However, I've gotten shakey when doing this with Accelerade (which has the most calories of these three) because of not enough calories early in the day so it will really depend on the day.  Prior to the ride, I generallly eat a snack - nuts and a banana or an energy bar or PB&J.

For rides longer than 1 hr, I take one bottle of electrolyte drink and a Gu for every hour of activity.  For a 3 hr bike, I have to stop and refill my water bottles or buy a gatorade.  Sometimes I make more electrolyte drink (if it's hot) and sometimes not.  I've not tried "people food" very often on my bike yet but plan to start this week.  Lara's chocoladt bars were too thick for me - same with Cliff but might be OK broken into small pieces.  Lots of people eat Uncrustables sandwiches, fig newtons, etc.  I think poptarts or pretzels would also work.

Solid food is not really something I felt like I wanted until I got past the 3 hour mark. Before that "magic" number for me I could do just liquid and Gu's but if I planned to go longer and had not mixed it up with something solid......my stomach did not want to cooperate. (does that make sense?)

I've been working on this all summer in preparation for my MS150 ride. I have been working to tweak my nutrition to finish strong and make sure I don't have too much of a deficit so I can ride again the next day. I have found that Gu20 is the best sports drink for me. Last weekend during a 4.5 hour ride I had Gu2o, water, Gu, shot bloks (won't do those again), a banana, and a couple of fig newtons. I think the little bit of solid food helped keep hunger at bay. It worked out to be about 200 calories/hour and I'm pretty sure I could not have tolerated any more. And anything more solid just sits in my stomach.