38075kcal burned! What I ate to fuel the Highland Trail 550 Bikepacking race
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- The Highland Trail 550 is a 550mile bikepacking race around the Highlands of Scotland. Resupply is sparse and limited at times so it can be a puzzle to fuel for the ride. I relied on a mix of energy food packed into my bikepacking bags and also on a number of stops at local shops when available.
In this video I break down exactly what I ate during the Highland Trail 550 and calculate exactly how many calories I consumed during the event and the amount I used.
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Dr Mike Stroud "Survival of the Fittest"...walking across Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes, they ended up with only butter and olive oil to consume once the food, whisky and chocolate ran out. You are in good company with fat bars. 👍🏻
I aim to carry food around 4calories/gram. Mostly carbs and fat. A tip an ultrarunner gave me. Has worked so far
Thanks for sharing and well done in the race - it’s no easy thing despite some very good weather. I discovered the hard way that my gut and metabolic system just isn’t adapted to consume anything other than real food when on such events. Sugar in any form just gives me gut rot. I read ‘feed zone portables’ by a Tour De France team chef years ago and it transformed my approach to eating whilst going hard. Very worthwhile read even if you obviously can still consume those quantities of sugar / carbs.
Fascinating stuff and a really interesting insight! I'm going to go practice my eating skills now...
What an impressive performance of keeping track of all the Kcal and in a same time racing the HT550! Well done mate and thanks for sharing . STYRKR is a pretty nice discovery for me recently.
Cracking video Josh, thanks. Fascinating to see how people fuel for these types of events, I really struggle to absorb gels and sugary carbs for events over 2 hours, but interesting to see you using the high fat bars - look right up my street!
Yes I found the Holyfat bars were the perfect balance to the high carb stuff. Much gentler on the mouth and nice sustained energy release
Cookie Monster! Awesome insight.
This is really great content mate, cheers
I found this fascinating. Is there something wrong with me? At my slow touring speeds, I depend more on bars from the supermarket, such as Nakd, Fruesli and Eat Natural bars. I stock up when they are on sale. Listening to you has got me thinking I should be cutting sandwiches into fingers and stuffing them into the shoulder pockets on my Atom pack when I’m backpacking. Didn’t they used to do something like that in the Tour de France back before SiS came on the scene? I do bits of the HT550 at holiday pace. Presumably I’ll need roughly what you used plus more for the BMR on all the extra days I take. And a bit more for having less efficient muscles. Great video. It’s got me thinking.
Nothing wrong with the cereal bars, however the sports specific bars that I started with have more than double the amount of carbs for the same size bar... so those extra calories add up over time. You do have to carry them with you though so there is a weight and spare penalty
I've been using OTE for a couple of years now, find it is much better than other energy mix I tried, no rank guts. I split it up to 3 scoop (750ml bottle) sealy bags for quick easy refills for big rides. Like the Lemon & Lime best, isn't as sweet so is much easier to drink once getting over 6 hours of riding. Their Anytime flapjacks are great too, love the lemon drizzle.
Will try Maurten , Stykyr & Holyfat.
Have a try of cream cheese, raspberry jam and prosciutto in a soft white roll ... it's a treat! (credit Feed Zone Portables book)
That is an impressive amount of chocolate bars - I always feel guilty after picking up a pack of those tasty Caramel bars during activities like these. but your list literally does pardon the pun take the biscuit! I think I need to revise my strategy, perhaps I under-eat? I often finish really tired and deflated for a few days afterwards and try restrain myself from pillaging the cupboards. One thing is for sure, I need to pack more on the move, I have tended over the last couple of years to lower my storage potential which is a compromise because you tend to stand around at resupply eating instead - instead of pedalling.
You can never eat enough in one of these races… I ate all of that and was still underfuelled when I figured out the actually energy requirements
In a story a single energy bar costs about 2€. Those things have got really expensive in the last couple of years. If you are an ultra cyclist, you have to make your bars from scratch.
We are also smashing the Egg&Cress sandwiches for long stuff in the UK. I've still not come to terms with the cold sausage rolls thing here. UK needs more Aussie-style bakeries! Your drinks low cal - you not a fan of chocolate milk or iced coffee on rides/races? Another service station staple for me.
Thanks for this insight, Josh. I seems that it is very hard to eat too much on a race like this. Would be interesting to hear how your approach to fuelling while riding have developed, as you have gained more experience. I suppose the obvious newbie mistake is to underestimate how much food you really need to perform for hours on end.
Essentially you cant eat enough for these kind of races, so the more the better. The high card bars and gels are the thing I’ve adopted most as they are easy calories. But depending where you are racing and how long the event is you can’t always rely on these products so it’s a case of trying to eat the best you can
Thanks,@@joshibbett I'm doing another attempt at Italy Divide nesxt year, will eat like a madman. Which I essentially do everytime I'm in Italy anyway…
And keep up your great content here - informative, friendly and personal.
“I’m not a super-expert.”
Well I dont know who is then.😂
This is a super nerd level breakdown. I greatly appreciate it. I was laughing so hard at some points. You are a legend man.
Would you have packed different fuel if you were just having a casual push along? Like some home made food or baked goods? Is your fueling different when racing vs casual?
Thanks again!
If I wasn’t racing then I’d probably ditch the energy bars and gels and just eat normal food… but also make sure I had a sit down meal a few times a day if the opening hours of cafes allowed
Thought of a question, do you take a Sawyer water filter along? I've found them to be an invaluable addition when riding off-road - saves carry additional water bottles around - you just have to be sure there will be opportunity of running streams etc.
Brilliant video and great to see how much food is required, it would be awesome to hear how much fluids you consumed and did you use anny electrolytes?
I’d estimate about 5l of fluid per day. I didn’t use electrolytes, however the holyfat bars that I used have quite a bit of salt in them
Thanks for doing this.
It is interesting to hear this level of detail.
Two quick questions which I have regarding your burn rate-what was your total m of climbing and how much do you weigh?
Total m of climbing (according to the official gpx) was 14630m, weight was approx 72kg at the start
Good content- many thanks. I guess there’s nothing wrong with good old comfort food , if you can get hold of it.
Have you done something similar for the SRMR?
well I'll be riding Silk Road for the first time in August, not entirely sure what I'll take yet but I imagine that I will take some energy food if it fits
Thanks again for sharing more insight
For water, what capacity do you have, and therefore do you plan to run with a constant water reserve or go deplete until a big refill, or work off consumption per hour?
I had a 750ml bottle in the bike and a 1.5litre bladder in a hydration vest. I’m really not stressed about water on ht550… that’s one thing Scotland is not short of! I topped up my supplies in streams or if I found a tap or at the resupply stops
Do you tend to eat food at the resupply? or pack it up and get going? I feel in the past I've always tried to keep going but found I was just carrying food whilst passing other resupply points.
A bit of both really, I try and eat at bit at the resupply while sorting other stuff out and then pack some to go... but its quite dependant on the route and availability of further resupply
Josh, you didn't mention proteins, isn't it important for recovery, especially for a multiday event?
thx
Josh - really welcomed this insight. Can I ask how often you were eating on the bike, whether it was gels, sausage rolls etc - did you have a formula / routine? Thanks
I tried to eat at least 1 thing every hour as a minimum and then more as needed. I also tried to eat a bigger item (sausage roll or sandwich) around the time I’d usually eat my meals
Hi Josh, i'm new to cycling and came across your channel and really enjoy your videos, i'm just wondering if you carry a bike lock for these types of rides? I get nervous leaving my bike outside of a shop unlocked even if it's just for a couple of minutes.
I tend not to carry a lock. Generally speaking I think you get a pretty good idea of what is safe and what is not on a long ride such as this. I try to keep my bike in sight at all times and usually just take my bike into shops... I don't ask as the answer is usually no! However sometimes if I have a bad feeling I won't stop at certain places
@@joshibbett Thanks Josh!
When I did HT550...I was burning 500ml of H2O with hops per 3 hours :-))
Sounds perfect!
Interesting insight. Thanks Josh. Just curious how big your hydration pack is, and how often you would refill your water?
For this race I use a 1.5l hydration vest and a 750ml bottle in the bike which I mixed my energy drinks into. I refilled as and when it ran out, usually 2-3 times a day
@@joshibbett sweet, thanks
Do you, especially on the longer multi-week events, make any changes due to things like temperature flux or altitude? Or is that just too much to bother with in the thick of it?
Theres no really science to it, at least for me, but yes tastes and what I can stomach do change depending on temperature. I don't think altitude affects it as much though