Confused about nutrition

Signal_ rabbit

Am I the only one confused about what, when, how much to eat and drink before, during and after a ride?

I have been trawling through forums, websites, magazines etc and found most of them to be contradictory. I have come up with what i think is the correct approach but thought i'd post it here for constructive(!) criticism:

Now assuming you have a well balanced diet,

1) Have an isotonic drink one hour before ride. i.e Nuun, Zym etc.
2) Have an isotonic drink for the first hour to 90 mins of ride as opposed to water as the body absorbs them quicker.
3) After the first hour to 90mins start on carb drink, at a rate of 500mls per hour or,
4) continue with isotonic drink whilst eating solid carbs such as bananas, dried fruit, tea loaf, jelly babies(?), energy bars or energy gels.
5) After ride have a recovery drink of chocolate milshake (I like this bit!) or one of the many expensive recovery drinks on the market.

So how did I do? Marks out of ten?

tunney

Signal_ rabbit wrote: »

Am I the only one confused about what, when, how much to eat and drink before, during and after a ride?

I have been trawling through forums, websites, magazines etc and found most of them to be contradictory. I have come up with what i think is the correct approach but thought i'd post it here for constructive(!) criticism:

Now assuming you have a well balanced diet,

1) Have an isotonic drink one hour before ride. i.e Nuun, Zym etc.
2) Have an isotonic drink for the first hour to 90 mins of ride as opposed to water as the body absorbs them quicker.
3) After the first hour to 90mins start on carb drink, at a rate of 500mls per hour or,
4) continue with isotonic drink whilst eating solid carbs such as bananas, dried fruit, tea loaf, jelly babies(?), energy bars or energy gels.
5) After ride have a recovery drink of chocolate milshake (I like this bit!) or one of the many expensive recovery drinks on the market.

So how did I do? Marks out of ten?

How long are you planning on riding for?

Lumen

Signal_ rabbit wrote: »

1) Have an isotonic drink one hour before ride. i.e Nuun, Zym etc.

If isotonic makes the drink go in quicker, just drink a non-isotonic drink a bit earlier, surely?

I'd probably focus more on timing and choice of food before the ride.

Your approach does seem like an excellent way to support the sports nutrition sector in a recession.

Or...

Make your own sports drink

...but probably substitute glucose for normal sugar.

Bambaata

i woudlnt bother making my own. powder drums of them are very cheap these days and last months. if i was makign my own id be buying loads of fruit squash whoch would just as easily be as much as i'd have spent on the powder in the first place. If you were to only ever use the fruit squash when makign this it would be fine but in real terms that never works.

Signal_ rabbit

tunney wrote: »

How long are you planning on riding for?

Usually four or five hours at most.

RobFowl

http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/factsheets/sports/road_cycling
http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/143386/CurrentConcepts.pdf

You should find all you need in these.
They are the guidance given by the Australian institute of sport (world leaders in sports science and medicine)

LDB

Unless you are trying to lose weight you need to eat carbs prior to training.
The amount of grams you need will depend on how many kg you weigh and for how long you are training.

that aussie site linked to has a chart.

for 4-5 hours I definitely wouldn't be going out without a good bowl of prorridge in my belly!