Candy is Sweet

While on vacation here in Northern Idaho I’ve been doing some two to three hour country road slash gravel riding, and I’ve been reminded that even on relatively short sub three hour rides the body needs some calories.  Nowadays we cyclists have nearly limitless options when it comes to sports nutrition - bars, gels, blocks and drinks – but time and again I return to good old fashioned sugar candy.

When I use the term “sugar candy” I’m referring to things like Red Vines, Jelly Beans, Sweet Tarts, basically stuff that is one hundred percent sugar (sucrose, fructose, etc).  Sugar candy provides a quick shot of energy, and comes in a cheap, readily available, digestible, easily packable form.

Basically cycling is the conversion of the potential energy of food into the kinetic energy of motion.  It’s calories in and calories out.  Your body acts much like a battery in that it stores energy, but unlike a typical battery it stores energy in two ways: fast release and slow release.  The readily accessible fast release energy is stored as glycogen (from carbohydrates) while the slow release energy is stored as fat.

When you exercise the body draws from the fast release (i.e. muscle and liver glycogen) stores first, and if you haven’t replenished those sources the body then turns to burning fat for energy.  The typical human stores about ninety minutes of energy as glycogen, so if you’re going out for a ride lasting less than an hour and a half you can most likely forgo ingesting any food while on the bike, but if you want to ride at a strong even pace for more than two hours you’re going to need food.

I should note here that running out of glycogen stores does not mean that you’ve totally run out of gas.  The body has a massive reserve fuel tank – fat stores – you can go for days (some folks have gone for months) running solely on fat stores, but the energy from fat is dripped into the system which means one thing: slowing down.  This is bonking.  When you bonk you don’t come to a complete stop and collapse, but instead your speed goes from twenty to fourteen, and you just can’t seem to get those legs moving any faster.  The takeaway here is: if you plan on pushing your body hard for more than two hours regularly ingest easily digestible carbohydrates.

When I go out for rides lasting two to four hours I begin eating candy at sixty minutes out and continue eating small amounts at thirty minute intervals for the remainder of the ride.  For rides lasting longer than four hours I add in some salty/savory food such as ham and cheese sandwiches, savory rice cakes, and beef jerky.

My rule of thumb is: eat smart off the bike, eat stupid on the bike.