Saturday long ride

Friday night, I installed the XLAB Mini Wing that I got from Triboutique.ca a couple of weeks ago on my Kuota. Having only the capability to carry a single bottle on my bike was a bit of a roadblock on my road to longer ride. I'm not really an heavy drinker when exercising so I can do with 0.8l for a 4hrs ride (unless it's particularly warm) but since I'm hoping to do an unsupported 200km ride before the summer is out, I definitely needs to carry more liquid with me. Also, I probably should get into the habit of drinking more ... which I did the following morning by riding 133km with 2 bottles.

I didn't drink all, but alternated between both bottles at each of my feeding slots (every 30 minutes or so). In one bottle, I had my usual homemade energy drink (minus Maltodextrin since I'm out and need to get more at the store), and in the second one I put a bit of Agave Syrup with one tab of Nuun for electrolytes.

Between the energy bites, the drinks and a couple of dry apricots, I didn't feel low on energy but however, my legs started feeling heaving (and painful) at the 100km mark, so the last 33km were not super enjoyable.

I'm planning to extend the ride this coming Monday (which is an holiday in Canada) to make it over 160km. Assuming the weather collaborate since it's kind of looking wet this week :-(

About Energy Drinks (part #2)

I was at a nearby Running Room store Saturday and grabbed some energy drink supplements which I had heard about from listening to Coach Brett's podcast:

• eLoad FLY (carbohydrate fuel)
• Nuun Active Hydration (electrolytes)
• Chia Seeds (proteins & fat)

While I'm still trying to formulate (I got the Chia at another store BTW) the most appropriate drinks for my running and cycling (see previous post on the subject), I though I'll give these a try during my Sunday's ride and assembled the drink as follow:

• Russian Earl Grey brewed overnight in 800 ml of filtered water
• 3 tablespoon of Agave Syrup
• 1 Nuun tab (orange flavoured)
• 1.5 scoop of carbohydrate powder (so 120 kcal of carbs)
• 2 tablespoon of grounded chia seeds (which may have been too much according to a twitter exchange I had with Coach Brett)

The Orange flavour of the Nuun tab was very pronounced, and I probably should have used a tea that marry better with it; but overall the drink didn't taste bad and I didn't get any stomach issue as the result of consuming it (yay!). As the weather was on the cool side, by the time we were done our 2:47:00 ride I had only consumed about half of it and finished the bottle on my drive back home.

So, did it help? ... Maybe. My legs felt a little less sore and I didn't feel hungry for a while after the ride (I skipped breakfast when I came home and instead had a late small lunch before an early dinner couple of hours after) ... but that could have been coincidental. This week long run (+28 km) may serve as a better test platform for that drink ...

to be continued ...

Energy drink supplements!

Got these bad boys: Electrolytes tabs and Maltodextrin powder ...