The need to feed

Today's post is something that I am absolutely guilty of doing while riding my bike and more recently while running.  That thing is adequately feeding yourself and drinking enough (while cycling).  It usually starts off with the best of intentions, for example this weekend when I went on my long ride, I packed two bottles of gatorade, clif bar, three gels and a tube of shot bloks.  It usually starts off with the best of intentions but as it usually ends, it's with me having some major cramping because I didn't drink enough or eat enough etc. 

I've been getting better with forcing myself to drink some gatorade every 10 minutes, but I also need to figure out a timeline for things like shot bloks, and gels.  Clif bar is usually consumed whenever we have a break of some sort.  But usually the thing is you get so into a zone or you're just spending every little last ounce of will power to just stay with the group.  One thing that makes feeding easier is if you can grab said food easily which I've found is not easy with the new team vest because the zippers....... well long story short they suck. 

If you feed yourself adequately at the very least if you can't keep up it's just because you don't have the legs.  As for bonking because you've not gotten enough food in you, you're not going to recover from that quick enough in a ride to save you the embarrassment that is soon to follow.  So if you stay hydrated, make sure you get electrolytes in so you don't cramp, it's painful when it happens and it doesn't go away for a while. 

So moral of the story is bring your food, but remember to eat it, if it's going to quickly just ask whoever you're training with to pause for a sec or go slow and eat.  There's nothing worse then getting all caught up and then forgetting to eat and then bam, disaster hits.  But even more importantly, bring enough food so that you can eat it.

~Cheers