Castle ride practice - nutrition worked

I rode the Castle ride yesterday as a practice. The site is here. It's a slightly different course for 2010. The section from the hill after Ightham to Cobham is different. A bit faster and hillier. It's much more fun.

The bit after Headcorn to Northiam is different. I didn't enjoy that as much for some reason.

Just over 100 miles in 6.30. Quite pleased with that. If I get some draughting in the ride on the day I'll be better.

My food was improved over last year. I chose bars for the first 50 miles. I also used some shot blocs. In the second 50 miles I was mainly on gels. I had 1.5 litre of energy drink and 1.5 litre of water. That lasted for about 60 miles, then I stopped and had a coke and a bottled a Gatorade. Seemed to work. I finished very strongly.

Before the ride I had oats, banana and protein powder with water blended together (twice). I think low GI foods a few hours before is the way to go. The night before I had a few more grams of carbs than normal in prep for the ride. It all seemed to work so I'll try it on the day. 16th May.

My favourite find as far as nutrition goes is the Clif Bar - Chocolate chip. I cat eat two in an hour as they are 33 grams of carbs per bar and I think the body can absorb 60 grams per hour. That makes the maths easy.

Clif bar