Now that I'm working up to 4+ hour bike rides routinely, nutrition is becoming a critical part of training. I never worried much about nutrition while marathon training, and I still wouldn't now, as training runs are invariably under 3.5 hours max, which means you can get by with only a handful of extra calories as long as you've eaten well the day before.
For 4+ hr workouts though, you are well past your body's glycogen stores. Without fuel on these workouts, I become increasingly hungry from hours 2-3, and then after 3 hours, I will suffer a "bonk" if I don't add calories. This is a feeling of completely energy drainage, and goes hand in hand with a ravenous, desperate hunger. It's a very different bonk that the marathon race day late-race cramps, which I believe is mainly a function of training and not nutrition.
After experiencing a few fuel-bonks in the past few weeks, I've decided to get serious about my fueling strategy. My PB&J sandwiches were simply too clunky and messy to stop and eat, and I was bringing 3 of them on each ride as of late. A real pain.
In looking for liquid fuels, I mainly looked initially at commercial products. Hammer's "Perpetuem" fits the bill - provides 250ish calories per serving, and dissolves in a bottle. Unfortunately, it costs $45 for 32 servings. To put it in perspective, I would have used 6-10 servings of this on my ride today, or $9-12 of Perpetuem for this single ride. Ouch.
The main ingredient in Perpetuem, and actually nearly all sports calorie products (gels, etc.) is maltodextrin. I ordered 50 lbs for $57 including shipping from Honeyville Grain online. It arrived in TWO days via UPS, and I didn't even ask for any special handling. Impressive. It comes it a big brown box, and the malto is in a big brown bag about 2 x 3 feet in dimensions.
The texture of malto is like flour, and it's not really sweet at all. Dissolves fairly well, but to make thick goopy gels, you have to heat it. (I tried that.)
I kept it really simple on my 80 mile bike ride today:
- 3 x 22 oz bottles, each with water + 1 cup of maltodextrin (roughly 300-400 calories per the web, similar to Hammer's Perpetuem.) I combined the water/malto in a pot, and added 1 packet of Sweet n Low just to give it some sweetness. Dissolves pretty easily (stirring required), stays clear and is not messy/viscous.
I took in no solids on this ride. Only used the bottles for hydration + calories. It worked very well, in my opinion. Not a single hiccup. I am normally famished after a 4+ hr bike ride, even with a CLIF bar or sandwich on route, but with the malto, I felt no hunger at all after the ride. I think I got lucky with the amount of calories per bottle I need. I think it's an overall hypotonic solution, so I didn't need any extra pure water to quench thirst. Just drank it as I would water, and I felt fueled for the entire 4+ hr ride.
I don't want to make it sound like a magic bullet (it's not); it won't make you ride any faster unless you're bonking out at the end of your rides. It probably will help you ride longer though, by preventing the bonk. I've only got one test ride so far, but I definitely felt stronger today at the end of the ride than I ever have before - and I just bonked out on a 55 miler last week. I even cranked out an extra 5 mile hill sprint loop at the end just for kicks, and I was averaging 22+ mph on flats in the final 10 miles per my Garmin. (My entire ride was mountain roads in Socal - this was not a dead-flat easy 70 mile course.)
Best part, is that I'm home now, it's lunch time, and I'm not even hungry or dizzy. I actually feel, well, pretty normal. First time that's happened to me after a 4+hr workout.
I do have to add electrolytes, though - I think all that salt loss would become an issue later on, as my homebrewed malto has zero electrolytes added right now.
3 comments:
Arrgh! I just ost the whole comment I typed out!
Wondering where you got the information on the calories per cup. I've been looking but it's tough to find.
We've been using maltodextrin for years, just filling a bike bottle 2/3 full with the stuff then filling it up with slightly watered-down orange juice.
I like it because I don't have a sweet tooth and have difficulty consuming enough calories while exercising.
These days we've been adding 4 parts maltodextrin gel to a gel flask, then one "commercial" gel packet. Fill the rest with water to get it out of the flask better.
I need to try a flask with 4 parts maltodextrin gel, a shot of vanilla syrup, and a shot of espresso! Vanilla latte gel!
Adding salt can take away some of the starchy taste, if that is a problem for you. We have a suspicion that adding some baking soda can also help with that, plus it's a source of sodium ions and helps your tummy a little.
Willis, are you going to continue using this when you resume long runs for marathon training or will you switch back to commercially packaged gels? just curious. btw, good idea on your part to make this stuff up. i've never tried Perpetuem but have heard good things about it.
Anon - Great advice. I totally agree with your approach for fueling on long rides. I will have to try the salt trick; currently I'm carrying salt tabs separately since I couldn't get the salty taste right in the fluid.
Sara - I honestly an a minimalist when it comes to training/racing, believing that simpler = better. Thus, for marathons & training for it, I will only race with gels + H20. I will probably train with the malto for LRs, but it's not critical and I'll switch to gels 2-3 wks prior to race day. The malto really becomes important on 4+ hr bike rides (or ultras) where you really need to stay fueled. For <4hrs, you can burn up your glycogen and just add a few cals on top.
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