Towards a better strategy: Nutrition

   Struggle is definitely expected in a 300km ride. And hence the wrong approaches always have a cover. After struggling on my first two 300km rides, the 3rd triple hundred didn't seem hard. There are always better ways to approach a tough task. Though my 1st one was a tale of what not to do on long rides, the second one did not reflect the learnings very well. The first approach to reduce the total time of a ride used to come from cutting out on breaks even if that meant sacrificing food. But realising that nutrition is important for this demanding sport and that body can not store all the calories needed, one needs a regular intake of fuel. The recent 340 km ride from Bangalore to Coimbatore was an example. Apart from the fluids (that always get enough of emphasis), I maintained a regular intake of around 100-200 Cal/hour and some booster doses as well in between. In some of the other earlier rides, I had turned to protein and relied on it not just for body repairs but for energy as well. Once sugars and carbohydrates in the body are depleted, it is the proteins that keeps you moving. But the process of drawing energy from proteins and fats are pretty slow and they practically serve you after you lose all the sugar and carbs which makes you feel out of steam. On the recent long ride, I focused on slow carbs as intake and that made me pretty independent of proteins(though they are also burning all the while but at a much slower rate). The recovery process was way better this time. About recovery process, it is claimed that the process must begin within an hour from the end of an event ( as long as these). The athlete must intake the carbs, proteins and salts without much delay. But it is never much of a problem to re nourish while on the saddle as compared to marathon and ultra marathon runners. So why not before than later!
   The end result was an active and alert rider with enough potential to ride again the next day.