it is ON

I was going to write a sort of how do I prep for a 100+ mile ride.

Talk about the importance of the day before.  Look at the tour guys and the eating they do off the bike is prep for the next day.

People think about refueling during and immediately after a ride, but rarely about before a ride.

Sure there is talk but not enough focus.  Go into a hard/long ride/race with a full tank.  You don't start a road trip with half a tank in a car that has a filler neck problem that you can only trickle fuel into.

Starting with a full tank is the critical element to success.  if you're trying to get skinny and don't need to race/ride the next day, go wicked low calorie after the ride.  Just enough to function.  You'll wind up eating enough over the next few days to top up without having to overload afterwards.

Eat First.  Ride later.  More I think about riding and fueling and food and what not the more that Lim's stuff seems to jive with what i've found.  I don't do well with an empty stomach and once it is empty gels and drink just don't cut it.  Always bad.  Need something in there, one for the sustained drip of fuel, but two keep shit from sloshing around and saying "HEY DUDE WE'RE EMPTY."

New/old/updated Gel/Blocks whatever energy policy.  Eat only w/in the last 2 hrs of the ride.  Yeah so if you are riding less than 2 hrs it won't matter.  If you're racing an hour or less a heavily caffeinated gel is a perfect IMHO (providing it is filtering through a manageable mass of food) way to start.  I watch Cam totally demonstrate this principle on the 'Three Builder' Ride (that wound up as only two).  He started in on the Cliff shots 25 miles in.  Granted there were a few other confounding issues he was facing, but it was sort of one of those moments where all the past experience crystallizes into a coherent understanding.

Food.  Gotta keep the fuel processing but solid, real food.  It worked at Great Glen for me.  Ham and Cheese Sandwiches,  Pasta e fagioli soup...  yeah that's what I ate. The whole time.  A bit of chili.  And then I drove home after racing the two man.  Boom.  Fueling.  All about fueling.

Borrowed the Garmin from Jack at Legend so we'll get less lost hopefully.  Still haven't managed to make my short hand scribbles yet. Did eat this morning.  On the bike, riding in, late.  Nutter day here. But focused, busy, driven, with purpose. So. Much. Still. To. Do.

Need to grab some ham and english muffins for the sandwiches tomorrow, and get through a pile of other stuff.

TT is going to be interesting.  Nothing like riding all day and then doing a TT.  Oh wait.  There's a group of people who do it all the time.  But then that is what they get paid to do.

CX fueling is different, but I have found something that works for me, when I remember to follow through it. Fuel won't win ya anything but it sure can f'up your race...

Enough of a moment of distraction for the day.

heddwch
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