Replies

The body’s ability to store carbs is limited: as glycogen in the muscles and liver.

Bodybuilders know to carbo load only before intense physical activity.

I don't know anything about body building and had no idea they carbo loaded. I was once a regional road racing cycling champion and raced nationally as well. I typically rode 300 miles a week most of the year. My normal daily ride was around 45 miles and took around 2 hours. My longer rides were typically over 100 miles. I still did this type of training regimen some years later in my life.

The amount of calories that a trained cyclist burns while riding at a fairly intense pace are a lot more per mile than someone riding the same distance at a slower pace. So my day often revolved around eating enough before, after and during my efforts. The timing is actually quite important, to replenish depleted glycogen stores in your muscles most efficiently one must consume a lot of carbohydrates soon after a ride.

Before a training ride one must load up on carbohydrates as well to get them started going through your system. And on rides one must eat before you start to get hungry to keep a steady stream of carbohydrates to help extend the carbohydrate stores in your muscles and liver. When those stores become depleted on a longer ride it is very noticeable. It becomes much more difficult to keep up a fast pace.

You are capable of metabolizing fat for energy only at a much slower pace than what your digestive system can provide which is why it is so important to never let your digestive system stop providing sugar to your blood stream during competition. When you fail to eat enough on a ride and you deplete your glycogen and the sugar being provided by your digestive system and you are using almost exclusively energy from your stored fat, it is miserable... we used to call it “bonking out”. I took specific supplements to enhance my body's ability to metabolize fat on longer rides and they made a measurable difference, but I am sure that this was partially psychological.

I was invited to go on a century (100 mile) ride by a group that I met out on the road. My wife and I like to tandem bike ride, so I decided to take her along. It was her first century. We had been hit by a car which broke the frame of our good tandem, so we showed up on our folding tandem which weighed ten pounds more, had upright handlebars and cheap components. The other riders were not too impressed. They gave us a map because they thought that we would be dropped for sure. But they had no idea how competitive my wife was. I had her drink and eat a lot the night before and then in the morning as well. During the ride I made her eat a cafinated food bar every ten miles and drink ice water out of our jumbo sized hydration pack.

We set the pace at around 22mph all the way to the restaurant at the half way point. No one would believe that she had not ridden a century before. On the way back we started riding fast again and the whole group just disintegrated behind us. These were people who rode bikes worth thousands of dollars and wore the most expensive gear, but none of them seemed to really knew how to keep themselves fueled for a hundred mile ride ridden at a quick pace. They were not racers just cycling connoisseurs. We were never invited to go riding with them again.