Did I do wrong? (Food for riding content)

[guttertrash]

I just put my gear from Saturday into the wash, and noticed that my black bibs have white streaks all over the back, so it does look like I was sweating a fair bit - although I didn't know it at the time, so I guess I did lose a fair bit of salts.

 

[VamP]

Triathlon's 4th discipline is 'the transition' but I'll forgive you. I'm siding with Amaferanga with this one, he is usually right. Just went too 'hard'. For example I did 70miles nice and easy today, no food, no water,no stops, no problems and I'm the first usually to suffer cramp....always when I over do it.

I would endorse that. The OP probably rode harder than usual to keep up with his partner, and just fatigued. I don't think fuelling or hydration were the problems in this instance. Pacing is another aspect of long distance riding that needs to be mastered.

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

I would say you didnt eat enough pre ride, you didnt drink enough on your ride and you didnt eat enough on your stop. For 70 mile + rides I will take on at least 2-3 litres of fluid (if not more), plan a stop somewhere where you can refill your bottles, I usually do tesco somewhere and buy another 2 litre bottle of water to fill my litre bottles up, or I have a profile design double bottle cage on my seat and a single cage on my frame each holding 1 litre of water which means you dont need to stop if your training hard. Plus i will take on fresh carbs in the form of gels or slices of soreen etc every 30 mins. Also the distance is significant if youve never done it before, factor that into it too.

 

[amaferanga]

I would say you didnt eat enough pre ride, you didnt drink enough on your ride and you didnt eat enough on your stop. For 70 mile + rides I will take on at least 2-3 litres of fluid (if not more), plan a stop somewhere where you can refill your bottles, I usually do tesco somewhere and buy another 2 litre bottle of water to fill my litre bottles up, or I have a profile design double bottle cage on my seat and a single cage on my frame each holding 1 litre of water which means you dont need to stop if your training hard. Plus i will take on fresh carbs in the form of gels or slices of soreen etc every 30 mins. Also the distance is significant if youve never done it before, factor that into it too.

That's a LOT of fluid. As a comparison, I rode 70 miles yesterday (fairly brisk) and had one 500ml bottle with squash (and a bit of electrolyte powder in it) and 3 Soreen go bars. I could have drank more in the last hour if I had it, but I didn't and getting to the end of a ride a little bit dehydrated isn't really a problem.

I do wonder how some folk in the UK would cope if cycling somewhere properly hot....

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

You would be amazed how dehydrated you actually are while riding only taking in sips of fluid. If im peeing a lot of clear fluid then I cut the amount im taking in, that amount is talking about a summer day here, It will probably be less when its not so hot. Im sure sports advice reccomends 500ml fluid intake per hour, I would say we can do less as we are not going really full on, but for say 100 miles, 2 litres of fluid over 4-5 hours will do you nothing but good.

The idea is to stop dehydration before it starts, once your dehydrated its really hard to pull it back while doing exercise.

 

[amaferanga]

I would say I was moderately dehydrated, but not to the point where it was affecting my performance. I seem to recall reading somewhere about a study of pro cyclists or triathletes that suggested that the guys that were winning were more dehydrated than those that were 10th or 20th. Not sure exactly where I read that, but it does suggest that being mildly dehydrated really isn't anything to worry about.

Some people seem to be drinking more cycling for a few hours in British spring temps than I drank when I was cycling for 8 hours a day on dusty gravel roads in Africa. Ultimately, we all have different needs so to suggest that I need 2 or 3 litres to ride 70 miles in the UK is daft.

 

[lulubel]

Ultimately, we all have different needs

Probably the most important point that's been made in this thread. The only thing you can really do is experiment and find out what works for you.

I was out for 1:40 this morning, drank about 1.5 litres of water, and my pee was a lovely orange colour when I got back. It isn't even hot here yet - 18C today - so I'm not sure how I'll manage when the temperature heats up.