Training on new roads and nutrition for long rides

After a deserved day off the bike, if I may say so, today was put aside for a long ride and some experimenting with food and drink intake. Going by what I experienced last time I rode this route and distance, I really needed to make some changes and concentrate on maintaining my energy levels high for the whole ride.

Some research on the Net and a few calculations last night and I came up with the rate of 50g of carbohydrate per hour to get me home in good shape after the 5 h ride. I made a list of the goodies I needed to carry with me and EAT during the ride, sometimes a difficult thing to do.

• 3 gels (75g)
• 2 biscuits (44g)
• 1 EFS bar (40g)
• 2 Sport drinks (90g)

I still needed to refill the bottles with water and buy sports drinks on the way to keep the fluids up for the whole ride.

The distance was the same, around 140 km, but I decided to make it a little harder by changing the route to get a bit more climbing done.

I must say, getting out of bed wasn't an easy task. Having stayed up late, watching the Brazilian football team get a beating by the Argentinians, I woke up this morning with a kind of hang-over. I also had a lot of pain on my left shoulder, the result of the terrible encounter with a van last week. The weather was a little strange also, it didn't look like the day was going to get warmer in a hurry. Twelve degrees it was...

Remembering that I had made a plan to meet with Stephen for the ride, I managed to jump out of bed, have breakfast and get dressed with everything warm I had. Luckily, by the time I went down the stairs, I started to defrost a bit and I decided to remove the sleeves on my jacket and leave the full-finger gloves behind. On the bike at 9:10 am.

I met Stephen at the Bus Stop on Old Northern Rd, and the first thing I said was: You must be cold! He only had a pair knicks and a jersey on, so I sarcastically asked if he knew where we were going and for how long. I must feel the cold more than everybody else...

The Ride

I started the ride taking it easy and saving a bit of energy. Stephen might have had different ideas and seemed to want to have the ride done as quick as possible. Ha!

If I haven't mentioned yet, Stephen rides a bike like the one I had when I first started, 2 kg lighter maybe, still a 11.5 kg steel frame with down tube shifters and 25 mm tires fitted. A good commuter but a bit of a tough machine to ride nowadays. Surely, he was going to ride much harder than me, without trying.

The course we took wasn't easy with its rolling hills, rough surface, climbs and trucks flying pass doing crazy speeds. All got better as we hit Dayboro and started the 7 km climb to Ocean View and from there 70+ km of country roads and very low traffic.

We rode 25 km of roads completely unknown to us which is always exciting, managed not to get any punctures, found a shop when we needed one and didn't 'hit the wall". Definitely, a ride to be repeated. Next time, a little faster!!

Distance: 140 km

Time: 4:55

Total climbing: 1518 m

Total descent: 1514 m

AvSpeed: 29.8 Km/h

MaxSpeed: 64.7 Km/h

AvHR: 135 bpm

MaxHR: 164 bpm

The Course:

Bunyaville State Park - Eatons Hill - Lake Samsonvale - Dayboro - Mt Mee - Campbells Pocket - Moorina - Narangba - Strathpine - Albany Creek - Bunyavile State Park

Food and Fluids:

• 2 x 750 ml Gatorade
• 1 x 750 ml Water
• 2 x 600 ml Powerade
• 2 x 41 g Powergel
• 1 x 65 g EFS bar
• 2 x 35 g Oat cookies
• 1 small cheese scroll

Total carbohydrate intake of around 400 g, higher than I had planned but useful for post ride recovery.

Great ride, good company and a definite workout!