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Time-Release Ride Food

When arranging your menu for a long ride, here’s a classic eating sequence once recommended by former U.S. national cycling team coach Eddie Borysewicz that still works well today. (1) high-protein/fat foods such sandwiches made with meat, cheese, peanut butter or cream cheese; (2) fruit, cookies, energy bars and other foods rich in complex carbohydrate; (3) simple sugars such as energy gels.

When you dine on the bike in that sequence, the foods in group 1 will be doing a slow burn to supply energy throughout the ride while those in 2 and 3 provide more immediate oomph.

Wash it all down with the carbohydrate calories in a sports drink, and food energy won’t be the limiting factor when riding long.

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Comments

  1. Oatmeal made with skim milk before, lemonade mixed with water and electrolytes and plain water during, chocolate milk after. I ride over 200mi a week on this recipe.

  2. “(1) high-protein/fat foods such sandwiches made with meat, cheese, peanut butter or cream cheese”
    You’re suggesting eating this while on the bike? (you state: “when you dine on the bike in that sequence”)
    . . . Are you serious??? That would derail even the slowest of riders. WAY too much protein and slow digesting carbs at the beginning of any ride! It would be much wiser to fill up on the high-protein/fat foods two or three hours BEFORE a long ride, and then maybe a small amount of protein (and maybe a smaller amount of fat) four or five hours into the ride.

      • Yes, pros eat big breakfasts – we get that – but typically AT LEAST two hours before race time, and more likely three or four hours before the start. And not while “dining on the bike”.

    • On my twice weekly 60+ mile rides and on my weekly 100+ mile rides I have a handful of salted mixed nuts and a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies. Fat and protein. On the longer rides, I have a dozen fig bars – pretty much just carbs. And on all these rides, a bottle of Coke – caffeine and pure sugar.. It ‘s a mix that has worked for me for decades.

  3. Those peanut butter sandwiches don’t derail me. In fact, good, solid food with a nice mix of protein, fat, carbs & salt are absolutely necessary for me when I am doing any ride longer than 3-4 hours. Of course, I wouldn’t want that on a HIIT day…