Eating properly on your endurance training rides
Long endurance training rides are the backbone of your development and provide the best opportunity to train your body to digest food during exercise. On these rides you are concentrating mostly on endurance and aerobic development and using oxidative metabolism for almost all of your energy supply but you will use up a good amount of muscle glycogen along the way.
At endurance intensity you energy consumption can range from 300-500 calories per hour and most of these calories will come from fat with an increased use of carbohydrate during higher intensity efforts. It is important to support all levels of energy consumption on long rides to maintain performance and not deplete glycogen stores. Remember, you are always eating for tomorrow. This is also the time to experiment with new energy sources like drinks and gels to see if they will work on race day.
Eat normally before your endurance rides. Having a main meal 1-2 hours before endurance training is fine and you can even eat closer to the beginning of the ride as long as your take it real easy for the first hour and let some digestion take place.
Fluid replacement is a major concern on the longer rides. Digestion, thermal regulation, recovery and energy metabolism are all effected by dehydration. A mix of plain water and energy drink is best on the longer rides.
Daily calorie intake - Eat your normal balanced diet with total calorie intake based on BRM plus the calories needed to support you training activity with about 60-70% calories from carbohydrates and the balance made up of the usual percentage of fats and proteins.
At the start - At the beginning of a 4 hour ride you should have at least 1000 liquid and solid food calories on the bike and plan to stop along the way to restock as needed.
During the ride - Start snacking and drinking right away. Take in your fluids and calories in small amount to allow for good digestion. This will give your body a chance to practice digesting solid foods under moderate stress conditions to keep you energy stores at necessary levels. Remember to drink at regular intervals. A 20oz bottle per hour and more if it is hot.
During Recovery - Practice you normal post race recovery routine. It is really important to replace muscle glycogen immediately after a long ride. Take in 80-100 grams of carbohydrate and 20oz-30 oz water in the first 30 minutes after training and keep snacking and drinking as needed until you next regular meal.