What to eat when out riding "all day"

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zill
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What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby zill » Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:43 pm

Let's say you go ride on a road/racing bike for many hours and over lunch time. Assume you haven't brought any food with you apart from some gels or snacks and need to buy lunch outside. Where and what would you buy for a healthy option? I like to skip cafes as there is too much temptation there. Maybe go to a supermarket? But then what to buy?

Aussiebullet
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Aussiebullet » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:37 am

Supermarket and a pound of dried dates for $2, bananas, or some bread rolls for ~80 cents white and wholemeal, from Coles Woolworths or Aldi.
You could buy fruit bars energy bars etc but I tend to avoid them as they are expensive and loaded with other crap to stabilize them and give them shelf life for months/years, I prefer to use them only in longer races.
The other choices have little or no additives, some sulfur in the dried dates doesn't both me as they seem to be the best choice for me they sit well in my stomach and really give me a boost within 30 - 40 mins.
Oh and water from parks, playgrounds and public BBQ areas.

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby CKinnard » Sun Apr 12, 2015 7:07 am

For brunch (before 10am), a cooked breakky (our long rides start between 4 and 530am).
Later, a healthy salad sandwich, with ham or tofu or cheese, with a scone and tea/coffee.

the longer the ride, the more (healthily) normal the food. And you can get sick of gels, biscuit, and fruit cake.

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Tim
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Tim » Sun Apr 12, 2015 8:12 am

If I go for a long ride I take food. Common sense really.
The few times I've been caught short;
Meat pie, can of Coke and a Mars Bar, gets me home but none too healthy. About as calorie dense as possible.
On ride food;
Dates, nuts and bananas, maybe a muesli bar when touring/traveling.
I think that lack of readily available, over-the-counter, cheap healthy food has a lot to do with our societies weight problem (not my problem, never been over 65kg). Conversely, the availability of cheap, fast garbage is a major contributor to the problem.

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CXCommuter
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby CXCommuter » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:18 am

I take mix of gels, fruit, muesli bars, depending upon intensity. Some people hate the gels- my gut prefers them.

If all day rides plan a stop somewhere I can get a salad/meat wrap or sandwich, something light. When caught out chocolate milks. I once had two 600ml choc milks in a siting as they had a 2 for 1 deal (can't help myself on deals)- had to sit 10 minutes longer to let my gut sort itself out.
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby singlespeedscott » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:27 am

Pitted dates for me as I can just put them in the jersey pocket and munch on them without having to unwrap/peel/worry about bruising/rubbish. I'll usually stop at a bakery for snacks and refill water at parks, toilets etc.
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Tim
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Tim » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:37 am

A strong, sweet, milk-based coffee can fuel me for 15-20 Km's.
Flavoured milk works too.

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foo on patrol
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 am

Ever thought about the baby food squirter packs. :idea: I use the custard ones and works well but will give the vegie ones a go soon. :wink:

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby RonK » Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:12 am

singlespeedscott wrote:Pitted dates for me as I can just put them in the jersey pocket and munch on them without having to unwrap/peel/worry about bruising/rubbish. I'll usually stop at a bakery for snacks and refill water at parks, toilets etc.
Dried figs even better.
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zill
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby zill » Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:50 am

Some really good suggestions here.

This morning though before seeing these posts, I had 19,000 KJ worth of mostly junk food (couldn't help myself). Hope I'm able to do the ride today without needing to stop for a proper lunch. Will see how it goes.

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Tim » Sun Apr 12, 2015 11:45 am

19,0000Kj :shock: :shock: :shock:
That's about 2 full days of energy for me (on a lazy day).
Enough to ride nearly 300Km's at a gentle pace.
Get on that bike Zill and don't stop till Tuesday morning! :D

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Dirty32 » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:18 pm

If you are out riding all day... Does it really matter?
Healthy, not healthy... Your body is needing fuel.

Enjoy it... Its part of going out on the bike all day!
Stop at a cafe, grab a coffee. Get something nice, but you dont have to go all out and eat the place out of caramel slice.
Something reasonable.

Personally, id rather not stop than go to a supermarket and clop around in cleats to grab a bag of dates and a plain bread roll, to fuel myself.
Riding all day is inherently good, and your still better off eating what you want, than not riding at all... Its all part of it.

With all these diet based questions... biscuits, cutting out sweet foods and what not, I get the feeling that you should join a nutrition, dieting and eating forum, rather than a cycling one.

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ldrcycles
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:33 pm

Dirty32 wrote:If you are out riding all day... Does it really matter?
Healthy, not healthy... Your body is needing fuel.

Enjoy it... Its part of going out on the bike all day!
Just what i was about to say. If you're doing 200k plus then eat whatever the hell you want, you're not trying to lose weight, just keep the fire burning. Obviously you can't just have sugary stuff as it won't last too long. For me it's meat pies, fish and chips, chocolate, coke etc. The assumption is that you will be happy to keep riding after having a big plate of fish and chips with a battered sav, i can but no way i would guarantee anyone else could.

Look at the diets of the blokes going for the Year Record, the pommy was guzzling sausages and steak and kidney pies, the yank is having pizzas and coke. The current record holder was a vegetarian, so it's all about finding what works for you.
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby HappyHumber » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:44 pm

Dirty32 wrote:Riding all day is inherently good, and your still better off eating what you want, than not riding at all... Its all part of it.

With all these diet based questions... biscuits, cutting out sweet foods and what not, I get the feeling that you should join a nutrition, dieting and eating forum, rather than a cycling one.
Amen.

Though I don't think the OP in this thread is the only one guilty of this on BNA by any means. People just tend to read and believe what they want to. Then you get a portion of those that like bashing each over the heads with their own rehashed take on the same things. Talk about pointless.

Read, try some different things. Use your own common sense. Be wary of your vices & cravings. Come to your own conclusions about yourself....... then start a thread on chain maintainence & lube just for something completly different. :roll:
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matagi
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby matagi » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:51 pm

zill wrote:Some really good suggestions here.

This morning though before seeing these posts, I had 19,000 KJ worth of mostly junk food (couldn't help myself). Hope I'm able to do the ride today without needing to stop for a proper lunch. Will see how it goes.
Why couldn't you help yourself? That's the question you should be asking. What combination of circumstances is producing this massive over consumption?

FWIW, I never go on a long ride without planning my food and it usually consists of - a handful of nuts and dried fruit for mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, with a piece of 90% chocolate, some sort of sandwich for lunch on rye or spelt sourdough, (usually peanut butter, cheese and lettuce), plus some fruit (banana, apple, mandarine). I only ever take water to drink and save the chocolate milk or banana smoothie for a recovery drink when I get home.
Last edited by matagi on Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

CKinnard
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby CKinnard » Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:37 pm

one thing is certain though and that is people new to long rides (200+) tend not to eat enough and generally die several times during the day. Even when u eat and drink right, 3-4pm can be a challenging time to ride thru, esp if still banging thru rollies or long climbs.

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby tez001 » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:25 pm

Not really all day rides but on my 100km + rides I'll have my normal muesli bars and held but sometime stuff a jam sandwich or roll in my back pocket. If I get real hungry I'll just find the nearest 7-11 and grab a coffee, bannana bread or muffin

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby GAV!N » Sun Apr 12, 2015 8:34 pm

foo on patrol wrote:Ever thought about the baby food squirter packs. :idea: I use the custard ones and works well but will give the vegie ones a go soon. :wink:

Foo
Urggh! No. I've had some tastes of my young fellas. I can't blame him for scrunching his nose and spitting out the veggie ones. Taste like...something that rhymes with your name :p :lol:

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby zill » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:58 pm

Dirty32 wrote: Personally, id rather not stop than go to a supermarket and clop around in cleats to grab a bag of dates and a plain bread roll, to fuel myself.

Don't you get hungry?

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby zill » Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:09 pm

Burnt about 16,000 KJ riding today as shown on the Garmin (based on power). Only ate a few snacks along the way which goes to show how full I was. Had a light dinner so was a net slightly deficit day in terms of calories. But wasn't happy with my ride which included a TT effort. Didn't perform that well. Have to stop this careless eating behavior which I have wanted to change for nearly a year. It's improved a little but it's still there.

Now thinking of some odd/desperate strategies like going cashless and now even trying to put the card in inconvenient places and only get it out when need to make genuine purchases. Shopping definitely being done online to avoid temptation in the supermarket. Anyone got an even better way of restricting one's ability to finance junk food? If only they invent a card that can be used to purchase anything except processed food and beverages :cry:

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby MoeJoe » Sun Apr 12, 2015 11:16 pm

Fruit cake is a good option. The cheaper 'homebranded' ones in the supermarket are the better ones, they are less dry. Easy to cut up into whatever size you like and cheap-as.

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby kb » Mon Apr 13, 2015 5:25 am

foo on patrol wrote:Ever thought about the baby food squirter packs. :idea:
...
GAV!N wrote: Urggh! No. I've had some tastes of my young fellas. I can't blame him for scrunching his nose and spitting out the veggie ones. Taste like...something that rhymes with your name :p :lol:
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matagi
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby matagi » Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:17 am

zill wrote: Anyone got an even better way of restricting one's ability to finance junk food?
I get around it by not buying any food in the supermarket. I am lucky because living in Melbourne, I have the Queen Victoria market and a whole host of local farmer's markets for my food shopping. Maybe you should investigate options in your local area and surrounding suburbs.

But what it all really boils down to is discipline. Because I like eating food I prepare myself, I make the effort to arrange my weekend so I can go to the market (which sometimes means getting out of bed at an ungodly hour).

As I posted earlier, I really think you would benefit from some professional help.

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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Calvin27 » Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:39 am

zill wrote:Burnt about 16,000 KJ riding today as shown on the Garmin (based on power). Only ate a few snacks along the way which goes to show how full I was. Had a light dinner so was a net slightly deficit day in terms of calories. But wasn't happy with my ride which included a TT effort. Didn't perform that well. Have to stop this careless eating behavior which I have wanted to change for nearly a year. It's improved a little but it's still there.

Now thinking of some odd/desperate strategies like going cashless and now even trying to put the card in inconvenient places and only get it out when need to make genuine purchases. Shopping definitely being done online to avoid temptation in the supermarket. Anyone got an even better way of restricting one's ability to finance junk food? If only they invent a card that can be used to purchase anything except processed food and beverages :cry:
Dude, I struggle to see even if you loaded up on food how you could eat 16000kJ in a day! Unless you have a crapload of sugars.

I'm with the others on this and if you're doing full (for me even half) day ride, eat whatever the body wants to.

If you're really keen on restricting food, maybe try planning dedicated food stops, rather than eating when you are hungry. There are also 2 types of hungry - stomach is empty hungry and energy is low. Figure out when and where you are getting each and adjust accordingly. Another big thing for me is to avoid fruit at all costs. I find the sugars in fruit (strangely not in lollies etc.) somehow make me super hungry 30 minutes after eating them. So no bananas or dates if you get this too.
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Re: What to eat when out riding "all day"

Postby Dirty32 » Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:27 pm

zill wrote:Don't you get hungry?
Of course I do... But i'd rather pass and not eat, than stop for a dry bread roll or a couple of dry ryvita or rice crackers. Or I'd choose not to ride that long in the first place, if they were my options for food and energy! May aswell take some bits of cardboard and polystyrene out with you.

If you are riding all day (thinking surely 200km +), you are burning a shedload of energy. You can afford to eat whatever you crave (short of a whole tray of caramel slice or anything completely ridiculous)!

All I am saying is, I would choose to eat something I enjoy. Its part of the fun and adventure... A toastie, a crossiant, a muffin, a pie, and a coffee or whatever it is that piques your interest on the day... With the energy you are expending and the fuel your body is wanting, It isnt going to do any harm!

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