Training 31 May

Piling on the mileage. This past Saturday (with Steve away with family commitments) I had made my mind up to cover some longer distances. During our ride across England we will be covering well over 100 km (62 miles) per day. With our comfortable and normal speeds of 20-25 km/hour we can expect to be 'in the saddle' for 5-6 hours per day. I figure we will be using about 600 kcal per hour, which adds up to a whopping 3000-3500 kcal per day. A person will need about 3000 kcal per day, with little or no exercise just to exist and maintain and even weight. With a good breakfast lunch and dinner, there will still be a shortfall. It would be great to lose some weight, but this a very unhealthy way to do it! We do not want to have an energy crash and run out of glycogen 2 days into a 7 day ride. With this in mind, I have been looking at nutrition during the ride. Assuming 3 good meals a day, with low fat, some protein and high carbs (beer?), we will need to have several hundred kcal on the bike. This can be in the form or simple sugars (i.e. glucose, fructose) and complex carbohydrates (i.e. maltodextrin).

I have been taking energy drink with me on my rides. It is a bulk product which I make up in one of my two 750 ml water bottles. Each bottle has about 200 kcal (with electrolytes). It tastes awful! A bit like soapy water. The main problem is that the drink contains protein (which makes more amino acids available for fuel and saves your muscle protein from breaking down) which does not dissolve. This means you have to give it a good shake before drinking/eating it. But, it is a very easy method to take in energy on the fly. My wife Maile has been busy experimenting with home-made energy bars. She has been combining oats (complex carbo), whey (protein), peanut butter (protein and fat), and syrup (simple carbo). Her first batch produced a bar that tasted very sweet and had the consistency of poo. It was a mess, especially after sitting in my nice warm jersey pocket for a few hours. After a bit of work and brainstorming, she now has a bar which looks, and tastes, the business (and doesn't turn to mush in my pocket). I can expect about 300 kcal per bar. Now we just need to figure out home much to take on each ride.

With all this in mind, I set off from Nantwich with food, water, map and spares for a long day in the saddle. I managed a long jagged loop right along the edge of south west Cheshire. With the sun on full, I passed near Chester, through Malpas, Marbury (near Whitchurch), then past Wrenbury and Audlem before heading back to Nantwich. About 90 km in, I was feeling completely drained. My legs were moving but the muscles were working hard to keep the wheels just spinning. I didn't feel out of energy, just tired (should improve with fitness). My dilemma was, do I manage another 10 km to make a metric century or head home and count costs. Those of you that know me, already know the answer. So there was silly me doing laps around the block just to get to 100 km! Well, I did make it. 100.6 km in 4 hours of saddle time, my first metric century. After a proper meal, I didn't feel too bad, so I must have taken about the right amount of food and water. 100 miles next time??? Watch this space.

Chuck