Cycling on the Cheap - Alternatives

[Baracuda]

I am training for the ever pushed out Swartberg Fondo and was going through expensive energy bars etc at a pace.

Started to do some research on ingredients (energy/carbs per unit weight) and dates and almonds seem to be among the best. In the baking section at checkers you can buy dates at a very reasonable cost. Long story short, I spent R200 on dates, almonds and the other ingredients required to make date balls. That produced a whole baking tin of date balls. After 3 months of riding taking 2-3 balls in a ziplock bag (that I reuse with me), I still have a quarter of the tin left.

If you run the sums, each ball has more energy carbs that all the branded bars that are R40 each. And they taste better.

[Jewbacca]

5 minutes ago, Baracuda said:

I am training for the ever pushed out Swartberg Fondo and was going through expensive energy bars etc at a pace.

Started to do some research on ingredients (energy/carbs per unit weight) and dates and almonds seem to be among the best. In the baking section at checkers you can buy dates at a very reasonable cost. Long story short, I spent R200 on dates, almonds and the other ingredients required to make date balls. That produced a whole baking tin of date balls. After 3 months of riding taking 2-3 balls in a ziplock bag (that I reuse with me), I still have a quarter of the tin left.

If you run the sums, each ball has more energy carbs that all the branded bars that are R40 each. And they taste better.

I guess my question is how far are you riding while training for the GF that you need bars?

I've done it 3 times on a Single Speed and never bought bars for training or for the race day, so I guess I'm just wondering what sort of training rides people are doing that warrants the use of such substantial refuelling.

[lechatnoir]

8 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I guess my question is how far are you riding while training for the GF that you need bars?

I've done it 3 times on a Single Speed and never bought bars for training or for the race day, so I guess I'm just wondering what sort of training rides people are doing that warrants the use of such substantial refuelling.

with all due respect, I think you are perhaps a different species. I think you need to change your name to mitochondria-man!

seriously though, kudos on what you can do. I can dream of what you can achieve, but I have more chance of walking on the moon

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Baracuda said:

I am training for the ever pushed out Swartberg Fondo and was going through expensive energy bars etc at a pace.

Started to do some research on ingredients (energy/carbs per unit weight) and dates and almonds seem to be among the best. In the baking section at checkers you can buy dates at a very reasonable cost. Long story short, I spent R200 on dates, almonds and the other ingredients required to make date balls. That produced a whole baking tin of date balls. After 3 months of riding taking 2-3 balls in a ziplock bag (that I reuse with me), I still have a quarter of the tin left.

If you run the sums, each ball has more energy carbs that all the branded bars that are R40 each. And they taste better.

This sums up the point of the thread. Nice one.

[_David_]

Just cycle from the KFC drive-thru to the Mcdonalds drive-thru, nutrition sorted 

[Baracuda]

6 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

I guess my question is how far are you riding while training for the GF that you need bars?

I've done it 3 times on a Single Speed and never bought bars for training or for the race day, so I guess I'm just wondering what sort of training rides people are doing that warrants the use of such substantial refuelling.

4-5 hour rides.

I look at the GCN channel on youtube occasionally and they have had a few clips on how much to pros eat / drink, how much should one eat on a ride and so forth. The pro's consume a scary amount, equivalent to 3-4 energy bars an hour (made up on bars, gells, drinks, cakes etc). Amateurs should be on about half that. So I tried it and it is amazing how well it works. Energy drink, bar and gell per hour and after 4 hours you still giving it horns.

You should try it (and gears), you may win the whole event.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Baracuda

[Mountain Bru]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

This sums up the point of the thread. Nice one.

Agreed. 

Although I'm surprised no one has really praised nature's energy bar yet.... The humble banana. 

Comes in it's own bio-degradable gel-wrapper.

Easy to chew/eat

Cheap

Vegan friendly

No preservatives

Makes a great energy drink if you smoosh it up in your bottle...... 

[TNT1]

3 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Although I'm surprised no one has really praised nature's energy bar yet.... The humble banana. 

Comes in it's own bio-degradable gel-wrapper.

Easy to chew/eat

Cheap

Vegan friendly

No preservatives

Makes a great energy drink if you smoosh it up in your bottle...... 

You left off "tastes like dog-you know what".

 

Maybe I have just eaten too many of them. I can't anymore.

[Mountain Bru]

6 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

I agree

How far and long are people riding that they need to make these things?

I make/bake stuff for an adventure race when I'm carrying my food for 24 hours plus between transitions and need to eek out grams/kj. Every other bit of exercise I do can be fuelled before or with a coffee/pastry stop at some point, which to be fair, is really just for the social aspect and not necessary.

I ran 13 peaks a while ago with just water, some game, a bar one and 4 gels. I stopped in Hout Bay and bought a sandwich and a coke and got a coffee and brownie from the coffee caravan at the Nek. 18 odd hours of running/hiking.

Cost me 75zar which I feel is justified as I didn't spend any time preparing/cooking/baking anything.

 

That's cool.... But it doesn't count because it wasn't on a bicycle. No need to look pro and smash gels if you've given up on life and resorted to running (unless you're Froome on Ventoux). ????

But man, that is seriously impressive. I don't think my body could do that. I can feel my stomach eating itself if I don't eat on anything longer than 90 minutes.... And after full on bonking once and semi-passing out on a trail, I know I never want to go there again. 

[Mountain Bru]

22 minutes ago, Baracuda said:

4-5 hour rides.

I look at the GCN channel on youtube occasionally and they have had a few clips on how much to pros eat / drink, how much should one eat on a ride and so forth. The pro's consume a scary amount, equivalent to 3-4 energy bars an hour (made up on bars, gells, drinks, cakes etc). Amateurs should be on about half that. So I tried it and it is amazing how well it works. Energy drink, bar and gell per hour and after 4 hours you still giving it horns.

You should try it (and gears), you may win the whole event.

 

Someone can correct me on this, but I think it's all about carb intake for endurance sport, and the goal (even for us weekend warriors) is 60g to 80g of carbs an hour, depending on your body. You can't absorb more than that in an hour, and it might actually start making you feel miff if you eat more while training. The carb energy drink I use is 63g per 750ml, and I aim to finish it in around 90 minutes, and then get another 20g to 30g of carbs from gels/food every hour. A far bar is 60g of carbs though, so I assume your date balls are similar, so 1 per hour is probably spot on. As said earlier, fluid carbs are much easier to take in than solids, especially at high intensity or when you're buggered though. 

  

[Mountain Bru]

18 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

You left off "tastes like dog-you know what".

 

Maybe I have just eaten too many of them. I can't anymore.

Have you tried the woolies ones? Everything tastes better if it comes from woolies. 

Otherwise here's a recipe for banana bread that might tickle your fancy: https://www.myturnforus.com/boozy-banana-nut-bread/

[Baracuda]

19 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Agreed. 

Although I'm surprised no one has really praised nature's energy bar yet.... The humble banana. 

Comes in it's own bio-degradable gel-wrapper.

Easy to chew/eat

Cheap

Vegan friendly

No preservatives

Makes a great energy drink if you smoosh it up in your bottle...... 

They certainly are easier. The trick with date balls is to roll them in coconut or it gets sticky.

But it is really interesting to look at the data, I was quite surprised and never considered dates before, but where as bananas are 23g carbs / 100g, rice 25g / 100g, etc, dates are 75g /100g.

On the energy side, certain nuts like almonds and peanut butter also have 2-3 times other foods that I used to think were full of energy.

Good old peanuts and raisins have far more energy and carbs that most energy bars per unit weight at a fraction of the cost. 

 

[TNT1]

17 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

But man, that is seriously impressive. I don't think my body could do that. I can feel my stomach eating itself if I don't eat on anything longer than 90 minutes.... And after full on bonking once and semi-passing out on a trail, I know I never want to go there again. 

You need to train your body how to go into ketosis.

[Baracuda]

3 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Someone can correct me on this, but I think it's all about carb intake for endurance sport, and the goal (even for us weekend warriors) is 60g to 80g of carbs an hour, depending on your body. You can't absorb more than that in an hour, and it might actually start making you feel miff if you eat more while training. The carb energy drink I use is 63g per 750ml, and I aim to finish it in around 90 minutes, and then get another 20g to 30g of carbs from gels/food every hour. A far bar is 60g of carbs though, so I assume your date balls are similar, so 1 per hour is probably spot on. As said earlier, fluid carbs are much easier to take in than solids, especially at high intensity or when you're buggered though. 

  

Yip, I have one per hour. The reason for focusing on concentrated energy / carbs is also to cut down on bulk. Otherwise, one would have to eat a large jam sandwich every hour. After 5 hours...

[TNT1]

2 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Have you tried the woolies ones? Everything tastes better if it comes from woolies. 

Otherwise here's a recipe for banana bread that might tickle your fancy: https://www.myturnforus.com/boozy-banana-nut-bread/

Yeah, banana bread I can do. Love it. Raw banana is too much. I had a team mate once who ate sliced up banana in a bowl with condensed milk after stages. The thought of it makes me nauseous.

[Mountain Bru]

22 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

You need to train your body how to go into ketosis.

Is that a form of meditation?