Eating for an overnight ride

[slowly getting faster]

I'm planning on doing the Exmouth Exodus next weekend. Did it last year and finished, but felt I got my pre-ride eating seriously wrong.

Standard advice is eat lots of carbs the evening before major exercise so I had lots of pasta. Then had normal breakfast (porridge with dried fruit), possibly toast as well. Then had more pasta in the afternoon. Result of this was that I felt rather stuffed at the start, which meant I didn't really want to eat the food I carried for the ride - mainly flapjacks, which usually work well for me.

Did I just eat too much beforehand, or is a different pattern appropriate for an overnight ride?

 

[piedwagtail91]

i just eat normally the day before, with the addition of toast when i feel like a snack. on the day of the ride I'll have a bigger breakfast, muesli toast and fruit.probably a snack mid morning. two hours before i set off it'll be a tin of beans and 4 slices of toast.(our ride starts at 2pm)
i tried taking food on the ride bit found i didn't fancy eating it.
our overnight ride has a good few stops to buy food from shops that are still open and garage shops, so i got tins/pots of rice pudding and various pots/tins of fruit such as peaches and pears and fruit cocktail, as well as fresh fruit such as banana and apple.
.i did take a couple of flapjacks that i managed to get down but relied on the stuff i bought on route.
i found i could choose exactly what i fancied rather than what i thought I'd like before i set off.

 

[domtyler]

I wouldn't eat all that pasta mate or you'll have to change one letter in your username!

 

[piedwagtail91]

personally , pre event I'd stick to what you normally eat, I've done about a dozen 24 hour rides and never bothered with pasta.i don't like to change my routine before an event.

 

[Baggy]

Hello - also did the Exmouth Exodus last year so probably saw you somewhere en route. I also try to stick with what I usually eat the day before, but think your body does react differently overnight so take a mixture of savoury and sweet foods - cold pizza, flapjack, eccles cakes, glucose tablets as I don't usually want sweet things in the middle of the night.

That said, I didn't eat enough before the Exodus last year, had the world's smallest baked potato at the pub and was playing catch-up on calories right through the ride. I felt so grim at the mid way point that I didn't fancy any of my food, and was inhaling custard creams at the tea stop...