Fuel for the Climb: Learning to Eat on the Bike
For 30 years, my idea of fueling a ride was simple: water bottle + maybe a snack for anything over 50 miles. That worked ... until it didn’t.
The Portland-to-Portland (P2P) ride demands a completely new approach to eating and drinking on the bike. Here’s what we’re facing: 3,800 miles in 47 days, with 155,000 feet of climbing. We’ll average 88 miles a day, with 17 days of 100+ miles. Five to eight hours in the saddle.
To fuel that effort, the recommendation is:
➡️ 60–90 grams of carbs per hour
➡️ 1–2 bottles of electrolytes per hour (though the recent NYT article, “Do You Really Need to Drink Electrolytes,” has me scratching my head)
For me, this is a big shift. I’ve never been a fan of mid-ride eating, but I’m working on it. Trek Travel will provide full support — meals, snacks, hydration, 5 guides and 3 SAG vehicles to help carry everything. I’m planning to take full advantage.
Prepping for this ride has made me re-learn how to eat: before, during, and after each workout. I finally started eating before morning workouts. Thanks to another Huberman Lab podcast interview with Dr. Stacy Sims, I now choke down 15g of protein before the sun comes up. I’m still fine-tuning my on-the-bike nutrition, but I know one thing for sure — I can’t afford to bonk in the middle of Montana.
Shifting my mindset around eating and drinking on the bike, including retraining my body to accept calories during the ride and the actual physical act of feeding myself going 17+mph, has been one of the biggest challenges in this whole prep process. It’s not just about getting the miles in — it’s about giving my body what it needs to keep going, recover well, and do it all again the next day. I’m still practicing, still tweaking, still learning what works.
Listening more closely to what my body is telling me is also a shift. That shift became even more important after an unexpected health scare in March. I’ll share more about that — and the curveballs that followed — in the next post. Spoiler: training for a cross-country ride doesn’t protect you from real life… however, it does give you tools to handle it.
Yes! I spent many training days and tweaks learning how to properly fuel for ironman and I learned many hard lessons but figured out what worked for me. It's also very hard bc every body has different GI tracts and what I can use to fuel may not work for others. If you ever are in our needham apartment remind me to show you alex closet :) LOLOLOL. Love the photos!
As you, I hadn’t paid too much attention to hydration and nutrition when biking. For the longest time, it didn’t really matter as my distances weren’t outrageous and daily. Of course, when I extended the distance, I needed to be prepared with snacks and water. I focused on Clif bars, PB&J, cheese, hard boiled eggs. Clif brags about protein and I believed!
At 70 years young, my son encouraged me to read about nutrition and long bike rides. The article emphasized quick energy with minimal protein as the body has to work too hard to digest protein and convert to energy fuel. So Stinger honey waffle and Stinger Gold (honey based gel) has been my ‘go to’ biking snacks since then. After that transition, my next century ride was the best ever!
Electrolytes - this was a lesson I still needed to learn. I started experiencing weird things happening when hiking in extreme heat (N. Virginia). Sweat dripping from my clothes, very rapid heart rate when at rest for a while. Dangerously Low blood pressure an hour after finishing a long ride in hight heat. It could be bc I didn’t drink enough or have enough water with me. If I did drink a lot, I was sweating so much, I was diluting the electrolytes in my blood. Stinger Gold claims electrolytes, so I use that and a tablet or 2 in one water bottle and plain water in another bottle. After reading your post about one bottle per hour, I drank more electrolyte laced water than usual yesterday on a short gravel ride (30 miles temps near 80, respectable humidity). I was beginning to suspect a correlation between electrolyte tablets and gastric issues; today instead of biking my planned metric century, I’m staying close to my porcelain throne.
Thus, I’m definitely concerned about your upcoming 47 day adventure with a bottle of electrolytes every hour! I don’t know how your body reacts to electrolytes overload, but I’m beginning to think I would need to trailer a PortoPot behind my bike.
One more thought - yeah, can’t eat enough — BUT, both TrekTravels and Backroads provides too much food in middle of the day. Your body will be fighting fueling your muscles after lunch and fueling your gastrointestinal system.
Just some thoughts.
Stay safe, have fun!