Cycling Nutrition & Today's 100K ride

In preparation for next week's 160k Ride for Karen, I did a 100K ride.

As usual, I went with my good riding buddy. He's fresh off a trip to Muskoka, which included riding the full Muskoka 70.3 bike course (90K+)... according to him, it's killer, and I believe it! Lots of hills, and it saves the best for the end. I can't wait to check it out next season.

Today's 100K went well. It's the 3rd time we've done this particular route this year, and my 4th 100K ride of the year. It was probably our slowest effort, but wasn't looking to break any records. Mostly just getting the legs spinning, and trying out some food.

What I ate:

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat with skim milk (and sugar) + coffee
Hour 1: Gatorade + 1/2 Cliff Bar
Hour 2: eLoad + 1/2 Cliff Bar
Break: Hot Rod (seriously) and a Nestea Iced Tea
Hour 3: Gel shot + watered down Gatorade
Hour 4: Gel shot + watered down Gatorade
Recovery: Banana, coffee, leftover Pizza Pizza (bacon & jalapenos, mmm!), Dr. Pepper, a glass of skim milk.

The Hot Rod was just because I was craving salt... I never get to eat those crappy fat sticks, so it tasted a little extra yummy. The recovery food choices were just because... I love to eat! And what better excuse than "I just biked for 4 hours and burned 3500+ calories!". :) Figured a banana and a bunch of sugar were good, the rest was because I wanted it.

I had energy the entire ride, legs mostly felt great. I really have the hang of the fueling thing now, at least with cycling.

My century ride motto: Eat anything that isn't faster than me!!!

Over 160k (100 miles) I'll burn about 5000-6000 calories. There's no way to get that kind of calorie intake while riding, so the critical thing is to fuel up the day before and the morning of, then take in as much as you can without feeling like crap while riding.

Last year they had a lot of food at the rest stops. I'll start with a couple eLoads (and will bring a pouch or two with me), some gels, but other than that I'll eat what they've got. Bananas, bagels, cookies, Gatorade, lots of grub to choose from.