Nutrition Notes

I'm working on my pre-event meal and my in-race nutrition. The last time I tried a pre-event meal it didn't go so well as it was hard to get in all the carbs w/o feeling bloaty but this mornings felt pretty good. My stomach had been messed up for several weeks where anytime, riding or not it felt bloaty.

Not sure exactly what was going on but things have calmed down a little. I think I'd unconsciously cut back on protein/fats a little. Now things seemed more balanced.

I took copious notes this morning with start times/end times for what I ate and exact portions. Yes this is anal, but this is such an important part of racing and if I can get it figured out it's on less thing to worry about and one more thing to feel confident in.

I'm going by several sources for my guidelines.
Dave Morris's Book


Monique Ryan's Book


And Chris Charmicael's book


For pre event meals in the time frame of 3-4 hours prior to the event they suggest a range between 2-5g/kg body weight.

Here's what I had and the times:

7:25 Coffee 1/2 caf 1/2decaf cream/splenda only drank 1/2 cup

Ensure + 50g
Grape nutes Trail MixCrunch 2x1/2cups @ 37g/1/2cup=72g + soymilk 8 g
Thomas Hearty Grain English Muffin+ eggwhite sandwich 2x27g = 52g
1 cup Stony Field Farm Organic Vanilla 34g
mixed in 1/2 cup grape Nuts mixcrunch 37g

Total: 253g

I think I'm around 57k=4.4g/kg

I started eating at 7:30am and finished at 8:40am

My stomach did not feel bad after all this. Sure I was full but not anywhere near as bad as last time. A lot of this stuff is high fiber which is not so good for a pre-race meal but this is how we eat all the time. I'd like to get some lower fiber stuff like regular english muffins and some basic pancake mix instead of the But-wheat stuff we have around. But I won't experiment w/that until after this next race.

I believe the culprit for my problems last week was the HEED. I took 2 glasses of 3scoops of it. In addition I used HEED on the rides. Plain and simple that stuff just rubs me the wrong way. I'd been thinking that I'd had the concentration too high during the race sims, but tonight I confirmed that solely maltodextrin sourced drinks DO NOT sit well with me. It also could be the Xylitol in HEED which is a sugar alcohol which can upset sensitive stomachs. I had a glass of it at tonight while watching a DVD to just get some more carbs in for tomorrow, and I couldn't even finish 1/4 of it before my stomach started to get bloated. And it was just 1 scoop. Last week I had 3 scoops/glassx2.

I am so glad actually that I know to stay away from it. I'd been thinking that I should try it again at a lower concentration for tomorrows ride. But I'm going to stick to Gatorade. I wanted to get some of the Power Bar drink which I've had before and really like the taste but can't remember how I did with it at high intensities.

at 10:30 I started to drink a bottle of Gatorade mixed with 4Tbsp Gatorade and 25oz water =4x13= 52g. Finished that by 11:15

I started riding at 12:00
on the ride I brought 2 bottles of 20oz Gatorade mixed at at 2Tbsp Gatorade = 26g each, and one 20oz bottle of plain water

started drinking at 15mins into the ride. Finished 1st bottle at 1:15
Finished ride at 2:20 and had about a 1/4 of the other bottle left. I only drank less than 1/2 of the pure water.

Didn't bonk or feel close to it. Stomach felt tight but not too burpy and I didn't have the sickly sweet taste in my mouth. Was able to down another Ensure+ after about 15minutes w/o issue.

However road bike riding does not shake you up as much as mtb racing, and I wasn't going as hard as I would in a race.

So I took in less than 30g carbs per hour. And I didn't bonk and didn't have an upset stomach. But the question is will <30g/hr keep me from bonking in a race.

One thing I know is no more Heed or Hammer gel for me. Just personal preference.