When Hunger Knocks

Ever sat comatose, staring at the kitchen floor?

We’ve all been there….

You roll in from a big ride, peel yourself off the bike, dump your helmet and shoes somewhere near the door, and then… slumped in a chair you find yourself comatose, staring at the kitchen floor - too wiped out to make your recovery drink, let alone think about sorting dinner.

For years, moments like these felt like proof of effort. The utter depletion, an unofficial badge of honour and evidence that you’d left everything out on the road. If you weren’t wrecked when you finished, had you even been on a proper ride?

Well, there’s an uncomfortable truth to all of this: that almost satisfying, kitchen floor moment isn’t a triumph. It’s a sign you’ve been getting things wrong.

No Badge of Honour

There’s no doubt cycling can be hard. Getting fit takes time on the bike and quite often, long rides, big climbs, and hard efforts. But ending rides wrecked isn’t a sign of strength - it’s proof that you didn’t fuel your ride properly.

The beauty is, once you learn to get fuelling right you’ll be able to build fitness, and still have enough energy to function for the rest of the day.

So what’s going wrong?

To build fitness, we need to increase the time we spend cycling. Long, steady miles – the typical Zone 2 - will be a key part of our riding. And although they’re not super intensive, long rides do require fuelling - which most of us tend to forget.

When you come home empty it’s likely not your fitness running out, it’s under fuelling. You haven’t eaten enough to fully support your rides. And it’s not just the kitchen collapse you risk, cycling on fumes severely restricts your ability to ride well in the first place.

What Actually Happens?

When riding at proper Zone 2 or you’re your weekly group rides, your body uses a mixture of fuel sources; fat and carbohydrate. The trouble is, we can’t store enough carbs to get us through the long rides at anything more than a pottering pace, and we must eat to keep the carbs coming. Running low means we only have enough power to ride at recovery pace.

A Quick Straw Poll….

How many of you have gone out with your weekend group ride, or your weekly long ride and only drank half a bottle and had one bit of cake at the café stop?  Then as the ride draws to an end, start to feel empty and have to limp home?

I bet many of us. I certainly have.

This classic way of riding won’t destroy us, but if you do want to build fitness rather than just do the rides you always do, simply eating more can make a huge difference.

Here's a short video expnading on my fuelling your long rides thoughts.

Remember, riding under fuelled means:

• You won’t be able to keep the power going on longer rides and the fitness adaptations won’t be as good as they could be. Instead of training, you’re surviving – there’s a big difference.
• You are not tired, you are depleted. That kitchen floor moment isn’t a normal state of fatigue, it’s a sign your body’s drained of the fuel it needed to finish strong.
• Your recovery takes longer, meaning the next session might suffer too. If you’ve come home super empty you’re behind the recovery curve. Conversely, ending a ride fully fuelled means you’ll be able to ride again, meaningfully, that much sooner.

If fuelling matters, how do you do it?

I find that how I start a ride matters, and can set up the pattern – good or bad - for the ride. If I consciously think about the need for fuelling and start eating straight away, it seems easy to keep going. Conversely, if I have my head in the clouds and an hour goes by before it even occurs to me to start fuelling, then rides can quickly go down the pan.

So the golden rule, start eating and drinking early on the ride – simple but powerful. When you first start riding this way it might help to set a timer on your head unit to go off every 20-30 minutes. After a while it will become second nature.

My top tips:

• Start a ride fully fuelled. Have a good breakfast and don’t roll out the door half empty.
• Start eating early, then keep eating all the way through the ride. Aim for around 60gm of carbohydrate an hour (# this is a lot – more later)
• Hydration is vital, so drink regularly too. Dehydration impacts energy delivery, so drink before you are thirsty.
• Plan ahead. Know that you will need food on your rides, so get the larder stocked up.

How Much To Eat?

Over the years the thinking about how much to eat during hard training and races has evolved. It is routine for women World Tour riders to consume 80-90gm of carbs an hour and the men, 120-130gm. This is huge…

For most of us, on training rides we should aim for about 50-60gms an hour. This is a lot and is harder to do than it sounds. And if you are coming from being a one-cake-wonder then getting this much in will take practice. Take the time to get used to it and I guarantee, your endurance rides will improve massively.

What to eat?

This short blog is just here to introduce you to the idea of fuelling your longer rides and so is not really the place to go into what to eat - you are probably familiar with sports nutrition and will have your favourites.

My only thought here is that for longer rides, start off eating real food: wraps or bananas work well for me and mean you don’t rely 100% on gels. Your stomach needs something to fill it and taking just sugar (no matter how scientific it is) won’t really work on big, multi hour rides.

So that’s it. Change your mindset and accept that regardless of what those around you might be doing, fuelling your rides properly can be a game changer. For me the benefits are:

• Consistent Power: When you fuel your ride properly you can keep riding at a good pace for several hours, rather than fading halfway through.
• Faster Recovery: Finishing a ride well fuelled means you’ve already started the recovery process. You’ll bounce back quicker and feel stronger on your next ride.
• Reduced Injury & Illness Risk: Chronic fatigue weakens your immune system and can lead to overuse injuries. Proper fuelling not only helps your training but supports overall health. A big point and often overlooked.
• More Enjoyment: Cycling should be fun and continually riding on empty isn’t…. The better you fuel, the more enjoyable your cycling will be.

An Invitation to Better Rides

My goal with this blog, the website and my personal coaching is to help you get fitter, ride stronger and enjoy cycling more. If you feel like you’ve been wearing the “kitchen-floor badge” for too long, try letting it go.

The key thing is to understand that fueling isn’t optional - it’s part of the training. If you want to ride strong and continue improving, you have to give your body the energy it needs.

Ride on, stay fueled, and never lose the fun in cycling.

Interested in more personalized guidance? Feel free to reach out - my goal here is to help you find the enjoyment and benefits from cycling that I do.

I know that when preparing for a challenge ride it can be confusing to know what rides to do, and when. That is why I created the Cent-Soulor. It's designed specifically for new and returning riders, and builds your fitness, skill and confidence. 

To find out if it could help you, check out the info page here: CENT-SOULOR 

Or if you feel more one to one coaching could help, my personal coaching information is here: PERSONAL COACHING