My aim was to improve my time from last year and overall, to finish feeling stronger, and it’s exactly what I did. The half hour-ly “eat” notifications kept me pushing on, and having a piece of the Chocolate Chip BAR50 felt like a treat when my legs were aching. However, I think the fueling plan helped me in this aspect as well: it was something to focus on when the ride itself seemed to drag on. I knew the course to be brutal with lots of elevation, but the rainy and very dirty conditions made the ride a lot harder mentally than it was last year. The Reiver was by no means an easy day out on the bike. I had plenty of electrolytes (a blend of the SLT 05 and 07) and ensured that I was always sipping carbs from my drink. Compared to last year, I think the biggest difference in my performance came from my bottles. I relied on the GE元0’s for most of the ride, and saved the BAR50’s for the very few flat sections. Well, let’s start by saying that this year, I didn’t bonk, nor did I have any stomach issues or felt hungry or weak throughout the 200km route. Mixing the two types of carbs in a special ratio allows you to have more - and that is what you want at an event. The carbohydrates in these products consist of two types - meaning that you get an optimal amount of maltodextrin and fructose. Instead of figuring out how many carbs I could get from a banana or a handful of Haribos, products like Styrkr gels, drink mixes and bars help you easily figure out your carb intake.įor example, each of the BAR50 rice bars gives you 50 grams of carbs, and the GE元0 Dual-Carb gels boost you with 30g of carbs. Next, we talked about where to get the carbs from. You could go even higher but that is for intense efforts and you might struggle to make your gut absorb the amount of carbs (more on that later). “It is a multi-faceted thing, and not one size fits all,” Leon started with, and from there we got to the basics of on-the-bike nutrition.Īs a general rule, Leon recommends aiming for 30 to 90 grams of carbs per hour. Because as much as I can claim to be a semi-expert in eating lots, I think there’s always a lot more to learn about what I should be munching. I set up a call to get some expert help with this from Styrkr's Head of Sports Nutrition & Innovation, Leon Veal. The first step of the process of becoming an expert in fueling myself was to create a fueling plan. Without further reminiscing about my near-tear feelings from last year, let’s see how things went this time around. Last year, the lack of a proper nutrition plan was a real pitfall of mine, especially towards the end of the ride when I felt completely depleted and had to have frequent stops just to gather energy for the next hill. Having done the 200km route last year, I signed up for the event again with the hopes of doing the same distance but completing it faster and feeling a little better throughout the ride. The event takes place in Kielder Forest every year and offers three challenging route options: 60, 130 and 200km. In order to learn how to do it, I asked endurance nutrition brand Styrkr to help me develop a battle plan for one of the UK’s largest gravel events, the Dirty Reiver. You need to ensure you have enough energy to complete the ride but because you’re off-road, you also face added elements contributing to the difficulty of eating and drinking while riding. Fueling for a multi-hour endurance gravel event is not an easy task.
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