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Ride Fuel – Enjoy your ride, Don’t Just Endure it!

by Louise Gagnon

Tips to Stay Strong on Your Next All Day Club Ride

Summer has finally arrived (well, sort of) and many of us are hitting the roads for longer rides. So here are a few reminders that will help you not only to ride with a smile on your face and not feel lethargic the next day, but also enable you to ride more safely. If your blood is too low on sugar or salts you can become disoriented, lethargic, and/or incapable of reacting quickly; all things that are very bad not just for your safety but also for that of the rest of your cycling group.

Breakfast
Eat foods that have a low to medium sugar index, such as porridge, Shredded Wheat cereals, baked beans, whole wheat bread, bananas, etc. Don’t forget proteins: either poached or hard boiled eggs, a few pieces of cheese, baked beans, milk, lean meat, low fat yoghurt, fruit smoothies. Proteins are key; they will give you lasting power, nourishing your muscles for longer. Baked beans are super food as they contain the carbs, proteins and salts you need.
Stay away from sugary cereals, fatty bacon/sausages, and too much butter on your toasts.
Drink lots of low sugar stuff and limit your caffeine intake to 1-2 cups. Be careful of juices as they are often loaded with sugar!

Morning Coffee Stop
Start putting in sugar and salts: your best choices are white bread tea cakes or a bagel with copious amounts of jam/jelly. Your body is still fresh so it can absorb solids and protein-enriched fuels so don’t be shy to give it the ultimate portable boost of salty nuts you will have brought with you, or alternatively order a milkshake. If baked beans are on the menu, that ís excellent. The caffeine in your coffee/tea will be your ally so make sure it is a strong one as it will fire up your metabolism. Sugar in there is fine too.

Sadly flapjacks, and cakes of all sorts are not your best allies given the high fat content (often the worst kind of cheap trans fat). But granted, they may be good to the taste; they are just poor for a cyclist’s body.

Especially on hot days, insert half a teaspoon of salt into your water bottle or drop an electrolyte/magnesium tablet (“Zero” is an excellent product. By the way, massive sports nutrition sales on now at big chains such as Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles). Keep the other water bottle for your “on the go energy”, most often in the form of a few tablespoons of a soluble carbo drink containing sucrose/fructose (I use 2 tablespoons of “High 5” Energy Source Summer Fruit Flavour, and keep a spare sachet for the afternoon).

On The Way to Lunch
Hydrate (drink!). You should have empty water bottles by lunch time.

The body is now a bit more fatigued and less able to digest solid foods. Time to turn to sports gels and electrolytes products. Don’t keep sipping on your high energy drink or it will rot your teeth. Drink it 1/3 a bottle at a time and rinse your mouth well with water from your other bottle. For variety and really cheap solid rocket fuel solutions, I ingest either a handful of Jelly Babies or mixed fruits with cranberries and apricots (£3 for 500g at Sainsburys – yummy). I am also a fan of white bread jelly/Nutella butties; folded in half, they are easily portable and will make your mates envious.

Lunch
Feel you’ve pushed the machine a bit and want to stay strong? Start with a sugary drink (J2O, Coke, etc.) and drink it within 30 minutes. Add a pinch of salt (no worries it won’t change the taste).

Sandwiches which combine bread, which has salt in it – and some kind of protein (eggs, meat, smoked salmon, tuna) are excellent light foods. So are baked potatoes, omelettes and pasta dishes; don’t be afraid to load them with proteins. Hearty soups and bread are good but they often miss key proteins to rebuild muscles so make sure you ask for a piece of cheese or dip into your ziplock bag that contains nuts.

Post Ride (30 minutes to 1.5 hours max)

Nutrition does not stop when you are finished. The secret to a strong recovery after a hard ride is maximum sugars within 30 minute post-ride. This is your brief window of accelerated glycogen storage to ensure your muscles are loaded with power for tomorrow’s ride, so don’t miss it! Good news: you may now flood your system with sugars, including cakes and sweets, in short anything with a high sugar index. A top choice is milk chocolate as it is full of sugar and also contains proteins (from the milk). If you have nothing else, a large Coke or similar will be fine. Have two if you wish.

Subsequently, and within 1.5 hours it is muscle repair time so go for some proteins (see above breakfast proteins). A main meal several hours later might consist of bread, pasta, potatoes and rice as well as a bit of simple sugars like cakes and sweets.

***

On your bike your only engine is your body.
Feed it what it needs at the right time and it will work wonders for you!

Louise Gagnon, Ride Leader
West Surrey CTC

I was looking through some old rides lists recently, and noticed that we used to go north of the Thames more often than nowadays.  That gave me a yen to get into the Chilterns, so last Sunday I headed towards Henley, and had a picnic lunch in the sun at Hambleden Lock, watching the traffic go through, including one lovely all-wood motor launch a bit like this one:
http://www.marinefilm.co.uk/PageImages/SlipperLaunch.jpg

Then I headed up the delightfully scenic Hambleden valley through Skirmett, getting sight of Turville windmill atop the hill ahead, to Fingest with its distinctive church tower.  The gentle climb through Frieth takes you on to a ridge (more good views) before you drop down through Bovingdon Green to Marlow.  A highly recommended loop!

Since then I have turned the 1985 Runs Lists into web pages in the WSCTC online archives, so you can find out what we were doing 30 years ago here:
http://www.jeggo.org.uk/wsctchistarch/runs8501.html

My wife noticed first, on Friday to be precise, and told me when she got back from teaching Bikeability on Friday morning and cycling over to Woking in the afternoon; there was something in the air. I answered with a rather non-committal “yes” as I had not had a chance to experience it. I was rather focused on the Sunday ride as the weather forecast was very good and I had had a lousy week. I needed to turn the pedals. I had even decided which bike to take out – my grin machine, or negative gravity machine as Peter Fennemore (spelling?) had once christened it.

Guildford is the best start for me – it’s the closest and I can cope with leaving the house just before 8:30. And I was not going to be late. In fact I was blowing away the cobwebs and didn’t realise Martin was chasing me down through Merrow. Arriving at Guildford there was Mark, resplendent in blue to match the chosen steed of the day. Finally Clive rolled in at just after 9:10 and seven of us set off. I missed the conversation as to what Peter had forgotten but as we were going within a few yards of his house he was going to divert and pick it up. Good of him to roll down the hill just to cycle up it.

A slightly unexpected right turn into Lawbrook Lane meant that Leith Hill was not on the route today. Instead, we had the pleasure of Radnor Road out of Peaslake, with a decent pause at the top. Mark had commented on the amount of gadgetry on my handlebars – a GPS/phone and a cycle computer for my powertap hub. The latter clearly did not like the climb and gave up and no amount of fiddling with it the top of Radnor Road could get it working again, so now I have to do the detective work and find out which battery has died. And great pity as I would love to see the stats on the ride. (More anon). The rest of the ride to Horsham was lovely – though Mark needed a little persuading – but the promise of meeting up with Don, apparently did the trick. Didn’t know you were such a gambler, Clive, but luckily for you Don  was there, as well as all the women and girls in pink doing the Race for Life. I hope they raised a lot of money.

Two turned back at Horsham, and the rest of carried on southwards. At Warninglid we had a slight indecision as to the turn so Martin climbed the two feet over the humpback bridge to the gates of “Lyndhurst” to ensure he did more climbing than the rest of us – until Clive decided we should all do it and Peter should take the picture. Then having decided we should take the turning, we retraced the 20 yards and headed down to Fulking

.

So what was it take my wife had noticed? Well, there is something in the air and it affects drivers of certain prestige German cars, Range Rovers and a few others. I lost track of the number who overtook us on blind bends, just coming up to the brow of the hill, who used their horn for absolutely no reason, the many who did not acknowledge us when we stopped to let them through but the award of the day goes to the woman in a red car who just had to squeeze past us only to pull in to a car parking space about 50 yards further on. As if we were going to steal her space! The sun, UV or pollen just completely turns their brains to mush!

The road along the south side of Edburton Hill and Trueleigh Hill, from Fulking to Upper Beeding, is a delight as long as there is no headwind – which there was not. But one lone cyclist nipped past and didn’t say hello. Paul commented on my restraint at not latching on to his wheel. But my mind was on more pressing things – lunch, taken at the Café in Cobblestone Walk. A charming place, very friendly, but mind your head.

The need to get to a tea stop meant that we set off at around 2:30 hoping to cut through Wiston House but a closed gate, camera system and warning sign made us turn back and head up the Horsham Road and past Wiston. A little before Adversane three cyclists overtook us – without saying hello. Their leader was small man, his bike had a rack and a pannier and he was pedalling 19 to the dozen. His companions were larger in stature, one was wearing that dreadful Heinz beans jersey. We let them go and I thought no more of it. But on the B2133 we slowly reeled them in and then Clive was on their wheel and I was on Clive’s. That gentle incline around Streel Farm seemed to be troubling them and as I seem to be getting a reputation for accelerating uphill I just put my foot down and apparently left them standing – the joys of a negative gravity machine. The GPS trace shows me hitting a ridiculous speed. I slowed for the left turn to Wisborough Green to let the group catch up but Peter said that we had to get to the café first as he was fed up of finding the item he wanted had run out. Full steam ahead all the way to the café and we arrived at 4:02. The café closes at 5pm in the summer (Kirdford at 4pm so we would never have made that.) Never was a cup of tea so needed. Of course the three turned right at the junction so our efforts were not needed but it was the talking point during our break.

On the green a cricket match was in progress and as we set off the batsman was clearly intent on slogging everything.   He pulled one to mid-wicket and it crashed into a car and off across the road just a few yards in front of me. Time to move out, I do not like being a target. The rest of the journey was uneventful and one by one my companions peeled off for home as I made my way to W Horsley and completed my second hundred of the year. When I got home I said to Alli, “ There is something in the air – the car drivers…….” “I told you so,” was the response.

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE

Message from Fleet Cycling:

This coming Sunday, 7th June, we have a special ride planned.
We are cycling from Odiham to Runnymede as part of the Odiham celebrations of the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta. This will be a club ride but is open to all CTC members as well as 10 guest riders.

The ride starts at 9:00am outside the George Hotel in Odiham High Street and stops at 9:30am in Fleet at the Hart Leisure Centre to pick up Fleet riders. Then onto coffee at Deepcut and lunch at Runnymede. The ride finishes in Fleet at Hart Leisure Centre – total of 70 miles

There are more details on our website – where you will find details of the route out and back as well as contact details for the ride leader, Ken Crookes. It is possible to download ‘gpx’ files of the routes if you want to load them to your GPS.

Also on the website is a Guest Rider Form which should be handed to Ken on the day.

BUT MORE! From Sean Hayden, Secretary of Reading CTC: –

“You may be interested to know we have our own ride to Runnymede the following Sunday 14th June led by John Lomas to meet the celebratory carnival and water procession. It’s a 40 miles at a leisurely pace departing 10:am from Dinton Pastures (between Reading and Wokingham)  and returning there for those parking cars. I have copied our ride leader so he is aware that we are not the only cycle club with a local interest in the subject.”

More at http://www.readingctc.co.uk/rides/

Best wishes

Colin Waters,
Secretary
01252 677909
07703 305745

One of the reasons  I go on the Sunday ride (and there are others such as just enjoying being on the bike and the companionship) is to get over the stresses of the week.  So having to decide whether I was going to go on the Danebury 150 given the weather foreast, which bike to ride and what to wear doesn’t reduce the stress.  And having faffed for too long and driven in the car along the roads I would have ridden – rather than going the car-friendly route – and struggling to find a parking spot I was late. Everyone had set off.    Huge thanks to Nick for registering me at top speed and ringing Peter to say I was chasing behind.  I should catch up at Whitchurch.  No idea why the usual 10min-grace-period-for-a-puncture-on-route delay to the start was not observed.  But anyway I set off in haste and hoped the weather would improve.

Luckily for me, Peter Clive, Ann, Chris and Alan dawdled and stopped for a dropped chain and I caught up with them before Farnham – which significantly improved my mood as I was not sure that I would make Whitchurch on my own if it got any wetter .  But having pushed hard I was now getting cold.  An unfortunate puncture for Alan meant I had time to put on a an extra layer which did the trick.  And as the rain increased I deployed my rainlegs whilst wondering when I became a fully paid up masochist.  Rainlegs are great – they keep an important part of you dry and warm – the downside is the stick that you get from some of your companions – which happened at Whitchurch.  Great cake though – which tasted even better as the rain start to pour down outside.  Our coffee break might have been extended a little bit.

Finally braving the great outdoors once again we set off for Danebury and the weather steadily improved.  The ride was uneventful and taken at a steady pace, held back a bit by the wind.  Danebury was marked by the taking of a photo and a selfie. The less said about both the better.  Lunch in Stockbridge and the food got my internal combustion engine going and warmed me right through.  On to  New Alresford through beautiful countryside and past innumerable thatched cottages that look amazing from the outside but I imagine them to be dark inside and the regular re-thatching a financial millstone.  But what lovely villages and hamlets to live if you want to get away from the city.  The sun came out and it was a lovely ride.  On to new  Alresford and we arrived at the station just as the station master was walking away with his stamp.  Not to worry, tea and cake were waiting.

The final push back to Elstead felt like the end of a long ride and the temperature was beginning to drop.  The new pennant was a welcome sight as we rolled back in the Elstead.  Even more welcome was the tea and food –  huge thanks to Nick and Marion for such a wonderful spread full of treats that really hit the spot. Great end to a great ride.