Mirabellensaftpresse

Riding 100k for the first time

and what to eat and when. 2024/06/30

CN: ED Recovery

I originally planned to ride my first 100k sometime later this year, but the opportunity arose to do it with a group, so I did it at the end of June.

A general recommendation is that you can ride a distance in a day that you have ridden within a week, sometime before. I never rode 100k in a week before, but several times rode distances between 85 km and 95 km. My longest distance in a day was 62 km. I am fitter than I have ever been in the last 8 years, so I considered myself ready.

But just in case I realized I was not, part of my preparation consisted of mapping out train stations for a possible early return. The other part of the prep revolved mainly around food. Doing a ride this long requires adequate fuelling.

The question of what to eat and when becomes especially difficult when you're in recovery from an eating disorder. Old rules, such as eating as little as possible, eating only when hungry, or not eating calorie-dense food, make riding longer distances much harder than it needs to be.

The picture shows the food I ended up taking.

Not in the picture are two bread rolls and a pack of sliced cheese. Neither is the breakfast I ate before. The ride was supposed to include a cake stop in the middle, end at a food truck, and have a snack break roughly every hour. This was the plan.

Despite taking so much food with me, I ended up seriously underfuelling myself by only eating a small fraction of it.

What I ate:

Upon leaving the café, I felt like I should eat that bread roll with cheese, but I did not.

Approaching a hill, I thought, "There’s no way I can pedal up that hill." I knew this meant I had eaten way too little and that I should REALLY eat something NOW.

On the train, I felt like the bowl at the food truck was just the appetizer. When I arrived home, I ate:

After that, I felt so disproportionately full while still not satisfied. It felt horrible and led to bad sleep. Riding 100k takes up 2000–2500 kcal in addition to your normal energy expenditure. So it's likely twice as many calories as a normal day. You can't and don't have to eat that in the same day, but eating your normal amount—or even less—is not going to cut it. Trying to refill too much at once is definitely going to jam your system.

Lessons learned: