Eating when bicycling long distance
I’ve decided to be flexible with our diet on our upcoming bicycle trip. This past weekend we biked 130 miles (round trip) to the state park in Delaware and back. Although I thought I was eating alot, I wound up losing 5 lbs. I suppose eventually my body will learn to communicate something besides how much pain I’m in, and, I’ll learn how to eat properly when I’m burning a ton of calories.
Although we took food with us (which we re-heated on the camp’s fire pit using branches found near our site, thus avoiding using our alcohol fueled camp stove), we found that we needed much more food that we had anticipated.
I’ve been reading up about how to eat nutritious meals when doing long distance bike trips and one temptation that I should avoid is eating the same thing day in and day out. Its something I have a tendency to do which is probably okay when I sit in front of a computer all day, but its a different thing when my body starts to demand more nutrition because of what I’m burning up.
Good luck with meal planning. That’s gotta be a tough one. Do you have to pack most things or will you be stopping to eat along the road at restaurants often?
Comment by Heather @ SGF — August 14, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
Your biking is an inspiration. A neighbor heard me saying I had a bike on my wish list. Last week he wheeled over a bike that was being tossed. He said he will help me get it road worthy. So, 2 days ago I finally decided to really look at it. I climbed on to get a feel for it. As I was dismounting I got hung up and crashed to the ground with bike on top of me. Fuck me. I am so pathetic. I dusted myself off and vowed I would not let this keep me from trying.
I don’t doubt your body will kick in and start being ravenous for what you need - without much planning.
Comment by katecontinued — August 14, 2008 @ 9:02 pm
First off, I agree with Kate, you inspire me with your biking. I don’t own a car, and am a happy pedestrian, but I haven’t ridden a bike in years. I’ve been told many ‘o times that I could get around much faster via bike, but I am scared to bike in Columbia. We have bike lanes and all that, but I’ve seen bikers almost get run-down by people in large trucks who voluntarily CHOOSE to ignore the fact that a bike lane means bikes can be, well, in that lane. I’ve also heard stories from a few friends about getting “doored” in the downtown area. I guess people open their doors without paying attention and my friends were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But these are all just excuses because I am scared - the city offers a confident city cycling class, so perhaps I should buck up, get a bike, and take the class.
Good luck with eating while biking. I imagine eating a wider variety of food while you are burning vast numbers of calories is a good thing. I would have a difficult time with that myself. Are you getting plenty of carbs and protein? Thanks for bringing this up, should we ever take a long bike ride, it is something we’ll need to keep in mind.
Comment by Jennifer — August 15, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Heather: We’ll be taking some stuff like peanut butter and bread and fruit, and hope to stop for supplies at a store/market an hour or so before we reach our campsite. On our test ride we ate at restaurants for two meals, since we were really hungry and the food we carried wasn’t enough. I’d like to keep restaurant eating to a minimum, although I would like to eat at Local Burger.
Katecontinued: I constantly have accidents. I am really clumsy. In fact, when riding our new bikes home, I wasn’t used to the placement of brakes (we have drop bar/ramhorns) and couldn’t brake fast enough when someone ran in front of me, so I crashed into a wall and got badly scratched up. I’ve been riding a bicycle for about 20 years now (on and off), so unless I turn into some elegant person overnight, I’m going to keep having accidents until I die.
Jennifer: It took me a long time to get comfortable with riding in the city. I rode on the sidewalks until then and dealt with peds yelling at me because it was much safer. I then went through a phase where I was really aggressive on the road and quite obnoxious. Now, everytime I see danger or feel my temper rising, I stop and walk my bike until I calm down. One reason that many drivers can be rude is because they can’t see a biker. Having neon/reflective/shiny things all over you is helpful to them. Other drivers are just rude and they can’t go through life being obnoxious at every bicyclist because its just going to get old and boring after awhile.
I’m flattered that my biking is inspiring to others. Remember, the more people bike, the safer its going to get for others. Safety in numbers!
Comment by Beany — August 17, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Oh wow! I’m salivating over Local Burger’s menu. We’re going to need a restaurant review
Comment by Heather @ SGF — August 18, 2008 @ 8:16 am
I am so impressed with all of this, Beany. I miss being on my bike. (Rare lately due to the vertigo…and the 100+ degree heat.)
Somewhere I read something about Lance Armstrong’s diet when training. While it may not be particularly healthy, it could give you some ideas.
When my sweetie was doing long distance running and biking, he liked the energy goo stuff because it’s very easy to digest while moving. His favorite was Clif Shots, chocolate flavor. Rather than buy a zillion of those, costing money and creating waste, he made his own. Running shops sell small gel flasks that hold maybe 4 oz or so of energy goo, with a top like a sports bottle. He’d mix brown rice syrup with a pinch of salt and some cocoa powder. That was very similar to the Clif shots. The sugars in brown rice syrup are about 1/3 simple and 2/3 complex, meaning you’ll get a nice jolt of quick energy as well as ongoing energy as well while your body digests the complex carbs.
Comment by Chile — August 27, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
Thanks Chile
Some of my friends have suggested the training goo and I’ve been a bit reluctant to try it out since…well its new. I might be more willing to try it out a few weeks into our trip when I am having a hard time with my energy levels.
Another reason I’ve been against it is because I don’t want to start depending on something that may not be readily available everywhere. We have long term plans of biking in S. America and Europe (assuming our upcoming one turns out reasonably decent), and I don’t know if I’d be able to buy supplies for an energy goo so readily in a small village somewhere in EU or S. America.
Comment by Beany — August 28, 2008 @ 7:45 am