From Couch to Competitor: Fueling During the Ride

A titanic amount of rice cakes

In previous posts I mentioned that we burned 3000-4000 calories during each ride at Road Titans. You need to fuel and hydrate properly when you are burning calories like a dump-truck guzzles gas. Staying on top of fueling and hydration will help you feel better throughout a ride, and it will help you recover faster for your next ride.

Rice cakes were our fuel of choice for Road Titans, and we scarfed down six of those puppies per day. We also went to town on some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the rest stops. The rice cakes are a slow burning carb and are easy on the stomach, so they are the perfect fuel for endurance sports. I suggest to begin eating them half an hour to an hour and a half into rides and to eat one every 30-45 minutes throughout a ride. For shorter (3 hours or less) rides you can start eating later (around the 1.5 hour mark), but on long rides like the ones we did at Titans I suggest starting at the half hour to 1 hour mark. The same thing holds true for frequency. On shorter rides you can probably get away with eating every 45 minutes, but on the longer rides you want to eat more frequently.

I also suggest consuming plenty of water and hydration mix on all training rides. You can't go wrong consuming one bottle per hour. That strategy should keep you hydrated in most conditions. SWORD is my go to hydration beverage. It is easy on my stomach, and I have never cramped while using it. During the rides at Titans we would go through 5-6 bottles per day with 3-4 bottles being hydration mix.

If you are planning on doing some epic riding follow these fueling and hydration guidelines. You will feel great throughout your ride, and you will also be able to hammer the next day. Next up check out how we fared on that savage beast called Sassafras.

Lentil Curry Rice Cake

Here is a new rice cake recipe:
For details on how to make them go back to my post on rice cakes.
Lentil Curry Rice Cakes
1 cup of sushi rice
1/2 cup lentils (soaked for 4-6 hours and rinsed)
2.5 cups of water to cook the rice and lentils
3 tablespoons yellow onion diced and sautéed
1 jalapeno pepper diced and sautéed
8 grape tomatoes diced and sauteed
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon Sriracha