Always carbs! I work to track my day-to-day carb intake; but what about my weekly long ride? Perhaps I can let myself relax a bit about carb count then. 

Somewhere I read, \”Taking on 60g of carbohydrate an hour is a good rule of thumb, so check the back of packets to make sure you have enough.\” So, do I get enough?

Last Sunday\’s ride \”menu\” consisted of a FitCrunch bar (27 grams of carbs); a Bear Naked® bar (26 grams); one Special K Protein bar (22 grams); 32 ounces of Nuun (4 grams); and one GU (23 grams). That amounts to 102 grams of carbs in all; and it sounds like a whopping amount.

My ride, 45.6 miles, took 4:07:14, so I got far less than 60 grams of carbs per hour; but do I really need that much? I wasn\’t racing, after all; and I\’ll always be working now to keep prediabetes at arm\’s length. Ergo it\’s always carbs on my mind!

On the other hand, is it possible that I need to eat more during those long rides? Is one-sixth of a FitCrunch every 15 minutes sufficient; or do I need one-quarter of a bar every quarter hour?

When I get home after such a ride, I typically don\’t feel very hungry, no matter what I ate during the ride; but about mid-afternoon, my appetite suddenly wakes up. Then I eat rather too much! It might be better to eat more on the bike, if it keeps me from over-eating later in the day.

Maybe I need to find some gels that are high in protein; that might help. I checked the nutrition info for several flavors of GU-Gel; and none contain protein. I also look for ride-food bars that have at least 12 grams of protein.

Fat vs Carb

Another thing I don\’t know is my fat vs carb burn. I do know that, the more intense the effort level, the more the body turns to its glycogen stores. There I go again: always carbs. But do I have to go full tilt all the time to burn off the carbs that I eat during a long ride?

I hope not! My body isn\’t sufficiently conditioned to ride at such a high effort level for hours; and, if you\’re concerned about weight control, the big thing is to use up calories. Bicycling sure helps with that!

Figuring out on-bike nutrition is an ongoing process. I\’m still experimenting with it; and I wouldn\’t be surprised if veteran pro cyclists are still tweaking the ride-food menus. We need to get enough protein; hydrate properly; and always carbs!