Cycle Sportive Nutrition

I have read it, definitely worth looking at. I don't go into ketosis myself, but go for low-ish carb at about 100g/day, upping that to about 200 for a ride fo that distance.

Hi Fantompoet yes Def worth the investment. Been experimenting with low carb 'fuel' for the Brighton marathon as mentioned earlier. Last week's long run went well with no carbs just 0 carb isotonic drink and my go to snack - pork scrathings.

Only 6 weeks to go now and am doing the lydd 20 miler this coming Sunday. Plan is big cheese and ham omlette and coffee bomb for brekkie; nice and slow pace all the way round. Keep well hydrated and experimenting with high5 zero carb tablets and extreme for hydration and energy. I got a runners bottle and trail pack on the Web for under £4 and you'll find they have a cyclist version too. Any how they come with a carb gel (total carbs are high but 'of which sugars' seem quite low if I've read the nutri info correct) which I don't want to use but will if have to and I'll let you know how I get on.

Anyone got any low carb snack suggestns?
i

FantomPoet said:

Hi all.

I have been silly enough to sign up for a 100 mile sportive in April and have started to visit how I am going to fuel it.
At the weekend I tried to use gels and carb drinks on a 60 mile training ride. As I neared the end I 'carbed up' which
turned into a problem. Once home I though wow that was good...tiring but good...I'm off for a sleep. Two hour later
I woke feeling rough and tested my blood, which came in at 3.2 (I take no meds for BS so all my own doing).
I guess my body over reacted to the carbs as I normally keep well away from the nasty things...So I don't want to repeat that again.

I can normally do 60 miles on no additional carbs but was conscious I was aiming for double (or nearly) the distance.
Do any of you folks do this type of distance? If so how do you fuel yourselves?
I have come across a possible book on Amazon called 'The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance'
which is an addition to a low carb book which apparently is good although I have not seen it myself.
Have any of you read this? Is it worth buying?

Thanks for your help and thoughts

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Congrats on signing up for the event @FantomPoet !
I am wondering if you message @Brightside, he might be able to help - a very seasoned T2 cyclist having taken part in last year's TeamBG Diabetes Grand Tour: Also check out www.teambloodglucose.com.

Keep well hydrated and keep your pace slow and steady which will keep you in the fat burning zone.
The fact that you had a low BG during the night suggests to me that you didn't actually carb up enough rather than carbed up too much (please pile in anyone else if you have a different take on this). If your ride involves hills/strenuous sections you will burn up glycogen (glucose) stores within the muscles (and also within the liver). If you don't take on board enough carb to replace this, then your liver will spend a good few hours trying to replace your stores through gluconeogenesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis) - not a bad thing necessarily, but it could lead to a bit of a BG low as it tries to keep pace re-stocking the shelves so to speak.
@Brightside will be coming up to the Diabetes conference in Nottingham on Saturday if you can make it - TeamBG will have a stand there. There will be other endurance cyclists there too if you need a bit of advice and inspiration. www.gbdoc.co.uk
Keep an eye out for this year's rides with TeamBG, and keep up the good work!

As a cyclist who rides a few hundred km a week I have experienced this first hand. I used to wake up in the middle of the night after long rides with extreme hypos, it didn't matter what I ate after I'd still go low anywhere up to 36hours after a big ride...

I've played around with loads and had help from Leeds met/carnegie university and Leeds teaching hospitals...

Here's my top guide

I find that whilst riding I must consume 30-60g of carbs per hour whilst actually on the bike, this equates to 2-3 energy gels or 2 energy gels and half a bottle to a bottle of high5 energy source.

It's keeping this carb debt down to a minimum which tends to stop the post ride hypos for me but this doesn't always do it so here's something to try with it...

Pre-ride I eat a small (for me) meal of about 40-60g of carbs without insulin (or with a heavily reduced insulin intake of 80% reduction).

Post ride I have a larger meal of around 200g of carbs with a 50-75% insulin reduction.

It's trial and effort but you'll get used to it And hoe how your body reacts...

Henrh

Be careful listening to people who talk about the "of which sugars" on energy products this is because of which sugars referred to glucose contents however most energy products contain a mixture of fructose and maltodextrin usually on a level of two parts maltodextrin and 1 part fructose.

both of these saccharides break down into glucose and therefore the end result is an increase in blood glucose levels so in conclusion you should consider the total carbohydrate value an energy products not the of which sugars value as energy gels will contain little or no starch.

Hi haspden

Is it the high5 gels you use? I haven't used any yet but got a free sample with some high5 zero tabs I bought. If it's the total carbs we should be counting I will steer well clear. Cheers.

Yea i use high5 and love them, I've used SIS, Zipvit, Torq and more...

Almost all will be around the 15-25g/sachet mark

Henry

Cheers Henry

If you're every cycling past hythe in Kent let me know. I now have a spare high5 energy gel going spare!

Ed

Baruney said:

Cheers Henry

If you're every cycling past hythe in Kent let me know. I now have a spare high5 energy gel going spare!

Ed

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Haha thanks Ed... Not passing till July on my ride to Italy however

Happy running,

Henry

Ed the hydration tabs are great tho if your sticking to 0carbs... Their Zero range is great for hydration, but with zero carbs do you get and if so how do you handle post run hypos?

Hi Henry

I'm type 2 so I guess our needs for the gels are pretty much opposites? The lowest reading I've had was a 4 after a half marathon. At 4 I felt good but do not know what it would feel like to get into
the 3's - not great by all accounts. So what I have to work out is what fuel over what time is going to get me to the 26.2 finish line in April Without bonking from too little energy and without spiking the old bloods from 'rich' carbs. Hopefully I will be in optimum nutritional ketosis by then so the carb conundrum should not be an issue as the body should be fuelling itself from fat and boy I've got more than enough of that - prob be able to run to Italy and back with a bit to spare!

Wonder... Always impressed by people who can run marathons, unfortunately my knees (even at 22) don't like running so I'll stick to my riding for now

Should have guessed type two when you mentioned no mess, I just assumed you were type one and meant when you're exercising. My bad...

Yea the more you train the more efficient your body at using fat so keep at it! There's also a lot of research suggesting that regular exercise helps keep blood sugars regular too...

I've certainly noticed that first hand too...

haspden said:

As a cyclist who rides a few hundred km a week I have experienced this first hand. I used to wake up in the middle of the night after long rides with extreme hypos, it didn't matter what I ate after I'd still go low anywhere up to 36hours after a big ride...

I've played around with loads and had help from Leeds met/carnegie university and Leeds teaching hospitals...

Here's my top guide

I find that whilst riding I must consume 30-60g of carbs per hour whilst actually on the bike, this equates to 2-3 energy gels or 2 energy gels and half a bottle to a bottle of high5 energy source.

It's keeping this carb debt down to a minimum which tends to stop the post ride hypos for me but this doesn't always do it so here's something to try with it...

Pre-ride I eat a small (for me) meal of about 40-60g of carbs without insulin (or with a heavily reduced insulin intake of 80% reduction).

Post ride I have a larger meal of around 200g of carbs with a 50-75% insulin reduction.

It's trial and effort but you'll get used to it And hoe how your body reacts...

Henrh

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I'd follow pretty much everything you day there apart from the post ride meal. I'd eat normally, maybe up to 50g carbs, but with very low insulin bolus. If on MDI I'd also reduce that evening's levemir/lantus by at least half.

Of course, I'm only going by what works for me. I do agree though that there is a definite tendency for low BG for 36-48 hours after a significnat event.

Are you sre I can't interest you in a nice ultra marathon? marathons are for taking it easy

Baruney said:

Hi Henry

I'm type 2 so I guess our needs for the gels are pretty much opposites? The lowest reading I've had was a 4 after a half marathon. At 4 I felt good but do not know what it would feel like to get into
the 3's - not great by all accounts. So what I have to work out is what fuel over what time is going to get me to the 26.2 finish line in April Without bonking from too little energy and without spiking the old bloods from 'rich' carbs. Hopefully I will be in optimum nutritional ketosis by then so the carb conundrum should not be an issue as the body should be fuelling itself from fat and boy I've got more than enough of that - prob be able to run to Italy and back with a bit to spare!

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I'm not T2 savvy, but in my experience, anything you are consuming during the race you can pretty much ignore. You simply can't take carbs in at the rate you are using them over a marathon, if you try you'll experience all sorts of gut nastiness. You'll be using fats during a marathon as well, if you train well adn can run in ketosis you'll be quicker.

What I think you need to be careful with is post race hydration and re-carbing.

And by the way the 3's are easy, it's the 2's you need to watch out for.

ElyDave said:

I'm not T2 savvy, but in my experience, anything you are consuming during the race you can pretty much ignore. You simply can't take carbs in at the rate you are using them over a marathon, if you try you'll experience all sorts of gut nastiness. You'll be using fats during a marathon as well, if you train well adn can run in ketosis you'll be quicker.

What I think you need to be careful with is post race hydration and re-carbing.

And by the way the 3's are easy, it's the 2's you need to watch out for.

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Hi Ely Dave

Not long to go now til the Brighton marathon and did the lydd 20 miles today in 3 hours 51 mins. Happy with that as plan was a constant 5 mph all the way round. The zeros worked well though there wasn't half the water stations that the race info said there would be. Bit miffed on that one but shouldn't be a problem for brighton. Had 2 packs of pork scrathings, big bag of almonds and walnuts and bought an atkins advantage bar on Saturday to try. Anyhow only had 1 porkies and the atkins bar which is circa 550 cals and digifit cals spent came in at 4500 so guess should be eating more? That said felt aok all the way round. Had testing kit with intension to take bs somewhere between 10 and 15 miles but felt good so didn't. Is that a bad move? All said and done fasting bs this morning was 4.9 and straight after the race was 5.7. I was expecting much lower. Have put it down to either the atkins bar and will have to look into the ingredients in more detail as there's stuff in the I've never heard of or the high heart rate throughout the run. Must be a race thing as although the pace was as per training My heart rate started circa 150 and 170 by the end. Way above normal but was able to hold a conversation so will have to look at that too as was hoping to go 160 max. B's 4.4 after a soak and just had a goat curry so will test before bed. Feeling good though. We'll see if I'm able to say that in the morning!

I don't know if this will help

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8BY4fyLvZc

Hey ElyDave, my diet is mainly carbs and consume an average of 8000kcal a day so I guess my post ride carb intake may be slightly higher than most like I said in my post it's the theory that count not the specific values as as you well know, everybody is different..

jack412 said:

I don't know if this will help

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8BY4fyLvZc
View attachment 12303

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Cheers jack 412. Brilliant Many thanks and when I'very got some more time will have a look at some of the related Vids. Found out what polyols were so will have to look into those in a bit more detail Though happy to say none of the reported 'pass through' issues so far.