Fueling

I would bet most people don't need "fuel" for a bike ride of 3 hours or less, except for water.  The triathlon community is "fuel" crazy. 

i'd agree with this.  the only real purpose of fueling is to set you up for your next workout by not burning through all your glycogen.  unless you are running off the bike then simple electrolytes with no calories in your bottles would be sufficient. 

You know, we don't do a lot of 3 hour bike rides anymore.  Almost everything that my kids do is fast and furious, and about an hour....and my rides with them are usually just riding along and waiting for them to come around again.   BUT.....when we do go for a long ride, we just bring water.  I'm not really talking about NOT fueling because we fuel up pretty good before we go for a long ride, and we have a BIG emphasis at our house on really eating to fuel exercise.  Yeah, if we were going to ride 3 hours and then run we'd want something.....but we don't do that.  It's a 3 hour bike ride.......a couple of bananas and a bottle of Boost (yeah, we like it as pre-race jet fuel) and we're good to go for quite a while at a 3-4 hour pace.  I won't back off the idea that most triathletes are "fuel crazy" when it comes to gels, mixes, etc.  It's mostly money down the drain for training.  I feel a bit different for racing.

Yeah, I didn't mean it to be misleading;....I was mostly posting on the run and that was a short answer.  Whenever I start seeing discussions about gels, and mixes, and blah,blah,blah, I'm always reminded of those "chit triathletes say" videos  LOL .....doesn't anybody actually eat?  Geez, all kinds of people do really hard work every day.....miners, constructions workers, and on and on......maybe we should suggest they eat some gels to keep them going strong for 8 hours.  

I fueled with carrot cake and beer last night.... after eating scallops, green beans, and orzo in garlic butter.....I could probably go 4 hours today.  If I could get that in a gel pack I'd just call it even and never get on a bike again.

What about 2 hour swim workouts?  Can you rubber band some gels to your upper arm or something? 

I gotta try that just one time on a Sunday at our pool when all the triathletes seem to be there.......I'm going to jump in with some Gu's rubber banded to my biceps.  Then when they stare at me I'm gonna be all, "WHAT"?!?!?!?!?!?!  

i would bet ice cream is a bigger problem for weight loss than a couple gus on a long bike ride.  what is the rest of your diet like?

that said, unless it's a billion degrees or it's first thing in the morning and i haven't eaten, i am on the "nothing but water" camp for workouts up to 2 hours.

I love how the instructions on Power Gels tell you to take one every "20-45 minutes" Yea right!!

You won't be laughing when you fall over on your bike.

all true.  Although as I recall, for recovery it was best to eat within 20 or maybe 40 min after strenuous / depletion exercise.  About 30% protein, 70% carbs- easily digestible.  However, it wasn't a huge meal.  just a couple hundred calories will do to aid recovery.

funny- I'm not usually hungry right after a long run/ride.  although, the next day I'll eat anything that isn't nailed down.

It's possible that the term "meal" is being used to cover all instances of eating even though it's not what we usually think of as one. I don't really like that use though as it's way too easy to look right past the quantity. 

I haven't seen it necessary to eat immediately after all workouts as things just simply aren't depleted that much all the time. Just being sensible in general is often enough. I just did a lighter 40' bike workout that did include a few minutes at and over threshold, and then ran easy for a few miles. Seems about what a lot of people may put in. There just isn't the overall stress in that workout to need big recovery from. Definitely agree with watching what we eat, but also watch in going overboard in obsessing about everything.

Turn in your triathlon card, you are not worthy.

Well last tri of the year was 2 days ago.