Long ass trainer rides

[wawa]

I have avoided riding the trainer for more than an hour or so up till now.

That ship has sailed.

I have a stupid question...

Do you fuel for trainer rides any differently than you do outdoor rides? Liquid nutrition or chews feels silly when my entire kitchen is 20 ft away, but I mean...so I could put some pb&j squares on a plate next to my bike? I don't even know what I'm asking here.

Up till now for longer outdoor rides Ive tended to do some liquid nutrition on the bike just to keep intake steadish, but pretty diluted. I get legit hungry and ike eating food, so I also scarf down some real food at breaks.

[wawa]

Also any general tips beyond Netflix all the Netflix to not lose your mind for hours on end biking to nowhere?

Also it always hurts so much more!! Whine!!

[mrshandy]

I am by no means an expert on this. I too hate long trainer rides. But I think I would fuel the same as I would for outdoor rides. I wouldn't want to get "spoiled" by real food that I couldn't eat on outdoor rides. I'm pretty strict about these things. That's me.

Honestly, it probably wouldn't matter for like 1-2 rides. But I would want to experiment eventually with fueling on long rides and know what works for the race.

[wawa]

Jan 10, 2019 12:39:08 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

I am by no means an expert on this. I too hate long trainer rides. But I think I would fuel the same as I would for outdoor rides. I wouldn't want to get "spoiled" by real food that I couldn't eat on outdoor rides. I'm pretty strict about these things. That's me.

Honestly, it probably wouldn't matter for like 1-2 rides. But I would want to experiment eventually with fueling on long rides and know what works for the race.

We do have several outdoor rides both at events and on our own baked into the schedule, so we'll get to test the nutrition plan but I do also have a fair amount of comfort with what works for me all day on my bike and it's a wide range. So I'm not toooooo worried about that aspect, but yeah I guess I don't want to get in the habit of anything too impractical in case I get attached. Like bowl of cereal might be an odd choice...

[sadlebred]

I don't ride for much more than 75 minutes on the trainer. I'd rather do a hard focused set of intervals than slog out a 30 mile ride indoors. On the rare occasion I have done a 2 hour ride it's usually within an hour after breakfast. I usually wouldn't eat on a ride like that and didn't need any extra food. The one concession I'll make is to keep my bottle of ice water by the trainer instead of room temp water.

[wawa]

Jan 10, 2019 14:47:28 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

I don't ride for much more than 75 minutes on the trainer. I'd rather do a hard focused set of intervals than slog out a 30 mile ride indoors. On the rare occasion I have done a 2 hour ride it's usually within an hour after breakfast. I usually wouldn't eat on a ride like that and didn't need any extra food. The one concession I'll make is to keep my bottle of ice water by the trainer instead of room temp water.

yeah, I'd love to not ride for more than 75 minutes on the trainer, but there's just no way to get through what I've got on the schedule with kids and winter and not just embrace the 2+ hour trainer ride.  And I dunno man, I get HUNGRY if I try to go for more than an hour without eating something.  Like my stomach is growling.  I'm a wimp that way.  

@vtcupcake emilyj

[wawa]

Jan 11, 2019 11:33:47 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

1. On the long haul trainer riders, you should pretty much be riding indoors as you'd be riding outdoors. That means timing nutrition and hydration, only eating/drinking what would be available to you for your event day, timing of said nutrition and potential rest breaks, etc. I have routinely done 3 hours on the trainer and have gone up to 5, and I just park several bottles of Tailwind on a table next to my bike. Along with filling my BTA so I remember to actually drink from it.

2. If your stomach is growling it means one or any or all of three things:
- You haven't eaten enough to ride. This includes everything from lunch and dinner the day before and breakfast pre-ride (like, 90-120 minutes out, at least).
- You're not taking in enough calories during your ride. Are you wearing a HRM? Roughly, how many calories are you burning an hour?
- You're not timing your nutrition effectively. 90 minutes from full to zero for your glycogen stores if you don't eat, and extend that slightly if you're not eating *enough* to top those stores off. If you're just eating a pb&j? Yeah, it's going to take a couple of hours at LEAST to get the available calories from that, especially if your heart rate is elevated and your bloodflow is being diverted away from your gut to your extremities to pedal the bike. 

3. I switch up watching movies that I don't have to be overly invested in to mindless television as background noise (golf channel, food network, etc).

In which I ramble...

To be clear, when I fuel I don't have hunger issues. I was responding to sadlebred's ability to get on the trainer for 2 hours without fueling. I can go up to an hour without fueling but I get legit hungry by the end of that. (If I push past, which I did unintentionally on a fairly recent long outdoor ride when we took a longer loop than originally planned, then I bonk hard. But first I just want to gnaw off my arm)

I tend to graze liberally at rest stops...which means I eat whatever they've got. I have yet to find something that doesn't settle in just fine. So...what I intend to eat at the event is whatever there is. And whatever sounds good. I always carry the chews I like and some stinger waffles though in case nothing sounds good or the stops are too far apart. And I have calories of some sort in at least one bottle...but after trying skratch and tailwind and deciding I'm cheap, I Itrain with just good old Gatorade so whatever the event provides is usually fine and i have some emergency backup to even out the intake with the digesting of the chips and cookies and pickles.

I am probably too loosey goosey with this? I'll always be a solid food at stops girl, since I like food and it's a morale boost...but I guess what I need to do is start playing around with something portable and premakable that can be my ride food if I don't want to eat chews and waffles in my basement. Find a common food that makes sense for both outside and inside since my issues is that I don't want to eat my outside foods inside. Besides the Gatorade. Gonna keep on keeping on with that.

[wawa]

Jan 11, 2019 13:25:19 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

Jan 11, 2019 12:43:38 GMT -5 wawa said:

To be clear, when I fuel I don't have hunger issues.  

Which is it? 

That I have to eat to not be hungry. Sb said she can go two hours without eating. I said that i cannot. I'm not sure which part of that is unclear.

When I ride, I eat. Barring extenuating circumstances. Therefore I don't get hungry. I was asking for insight on WHAT people eat, specificly when in your own house.

Which you answered.

[emilyj]

I was confused too, with respect to if you got hungry or not and when your stomach was growling.

My eating rule - nothing on the trainer that I wouldn't eat on a regular ride.  So even though I could get creative, I don't. Whatever I eat outside on a ride is what I eat on the trainer. 

I use Zwift, so the changes in the 'terrain' I go through in a ride keep it interesting.  But I also use Netflix simultaneously and it works for me.

[wawa]

Jan 11, 2019 14:32:29 GMT -5 emilyj said:

I was confused too, with respect to if you got hungry or not and when your stomach was growling.

My eating rule - nothing on the trainer that I wouldn't eat on a regular ride.  So even though I could get creative, I don't. Whatever I eat outside on a ride is what I eat on the trainer. 

I use Zwift, so the changes in the 'terrain' I go through in a ride keep it interesting.  But I also use Netflix simultaneously and it works for me.

Yeah, I got into ramble mode and was mashing up specifics. Sorry.

I think this is when I finally start trying those rice cakes or those little salty balls and such. I like real food. It's race friendly real food. Seems like the obvious choice to test. Also good for mh who hates sweet stuff.