Nutrition

 

Nutrition and hydration are critical for long, multiple-day rides. Most of your fuel comes from carbohydrates.

• Before the day's ride, you need high-carbohydrate, low glycemic foods and beverages.
• During the ride you need a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. You need 100-300 calories of carbo-rich food per hour and 8 ounces of fluid (best to use both water and sports drinks) every 15 to 20 minutes.
• For recovery, immediately after the ride you need (1) recovery fluids and (2) high-carbohydrate, high glycemic food and beverages. You also need protein, sodium and potassium. An hour later you need more.

My plan:

Before the ride, to use breakfast and possibly a sports drink. For instance, a bagel with peanut-butter and/or jelly (Why not both?) and a banana will provide 85 grams (425 calories) of carbohydrates.

During the ride

• On the bike, Gatorade, Water and Power Bars on a regular basis. Since I don’t remember to drink, I have my bike computer programmed to beep at me every 20 minutes.
• I’ll also visit America by Bicycle’s “sag” vehicle for additional sports drink, fruit and cookies or whatever they have.
• For lunch, I’ll look for sandwiches, veggie pizza, V-8 juice, yogurt, etc. However, hamburgers are my favorite. Which small town on my route has the best hamburger? The best cinnamon roll? These are important issues I must investigate.

After the ride I’ll try to find a convenience store for my recovery supplement of chocolate milk, a bagel, yogurt, pretzels, bean burrito or whatever I can find.

I’m sure our dinners will be high in carbohydrates, either from pasta, potato or rice along with whole grain breads or rolls.

Friends who have ridden across America tell me that by the end, you’ll eat every thing you can find, and you’ll loose 5 to 10 pounds.