Post event update, turns out the fuelling plan worked perfectly: www.strava.com/activities/7969153205 Ended up drinking all the sugar fluid, two of the bars and had about 150mL of water left at the end.
How much water are you taking? I guess 2 800 ml bottles? So 1.6 liters for 4+ hours? I guess it depends on the temperature, but that seems about 30% lower than I would tend to drink. I wonder if I could get away with less. I do tend to need to take frequent pee breaks...
This is literally the most helpful fuelling video I've seen. So grateful you actually showed the process rather than just talking fuelling. Thank you 👍👍👍
Finally got around to trying sugar water after seeing your video from a year ago and this one reminded me. What a game changer! First time I got through a big event without bonking , 255km Fitz's Extreme. I've always had gut issues and nothing has worked. Thank you 🙏
One comment about the sugar fueling - make sure you brush your teeth and are using a fluoride mouth wash after riding to avoid cavities. Hammer gels and others with lower simple sugar content are likely better to work with if you are prone to cavities
Nope it’s all the same with regards to fueling dental decay. The cariogenic bacteria are happy to use any of these fermentable carbohydrates. Makes no difference.
Not just sugar. Everytime you eat or drink something, just rinse your mouth a couple of times with clean water. And keep sipping water frequently so your mouth doesn't go dry. That'll prevent any dental issues. Nothing to do with just sugar
Huge shoutout for this video. Used this technique for my first gravel fondo and finished 3rd in my age category and 15th overall. Added a couple gels and 1 clif bar to chip away at for variety. Makes fueling no problem at all. Thanks Jesse, will definitely use this again!
mate you're a legend, thanks for making these videos, i'm seeing more and more lately the snobbification of sports like running and cycling and no one mentions alternative fueling as an option, everyone just seems to have this "just buy gels, just by the new alphaflys, just buy the new gear set" attitude without even trying more cost effective methods first. Just used your sugar, salt, juice and water mix for a 130km ride and felt great, literally no difference than spending £10 on energy bars and sports drinks, i made my own with stuff i had in the house so it cost me nothing. I feel like walter white cooking up my drinks at night now, need to add the caffine pills to a new concoction!
You're right - heating the sugar solution too much can change or break the bonds between the fructose and glucose which can slow down absorption rates. Don't boil it if you want to push the limits. For lighter fuelling, it doesn't matter. At high temperatures it becomes "invert sugar" which is what you see on labels for actual syrup in stores. It can have a caramelized taste and be quite pleasant if that's your thing.
Which is what he says in the video, if only you cared to actually listen, pal 🙄: "It doesn't need to boil. Get it up to a warm temperature and it will dissolve".
When the sucrose breaks down to glucose and fructose, doesn't that than become like all the gels and powders and would save having it to be broken down by the enzymes in your gut like sugar needs to, therefore speeding up the absorption process?
@@maartenholsboer50 No. The two compounds are absorbed more efficiently when kept together. Also, quicker absorption of a nutrient is not always better. Vitamin tablets are too quick, for example, and can cause negative effects.
Superb. I've been using this strategy for multiple years, thanks to your info. I worked out I'd saved over $3000 so far, compared to using SIS, Maurten etc. It's stunning that folks are still buying these insanely overpriced sugar packets. Because... marketing :)
Quick question: when you go on a normal training ride, do you also dissolve your sugar before adding it to your bottles? Or, do you just add the sugar to the bottle and shake?
Interesting one Jesse. For a while now I've been buying Maltodextrin (at about $12 per kg) and 1kg bags of Fructose ($8 per kg) and mixing up 2:1 (M:F) and putting in bottles with a Zero tablet. 90g of carbs each but completely adjustable. So good for energy. The TrainerRoad Podcast put me onto that. I guess you could go down the same route with this mix and water and turned into a syrup and put into the blue things you have. Might have to look into that. Cheers.
- 60 g Glucose - 30 g Fructose - 0.5 g Electrolytes - 0.5 g Vitamins - Optional Flavour - Water i use agave nectar for fructose and maltodetrin powder for glucose :)
Wow, that really is helpful. I struggle with storage space for 160km+ rides when using the products you showed (SIS / Maurten) but this opens up a whole new option that wont break the bank and would be ideal when travelling as sugar is available everywhere!
Dissolving it properly on the stove is a good idea. Never thought of that. I just usually dump it in the bottles before a ride. Can get a bit concentrated down the bottom though at the end. I never really notice nutrition on the bike. But definitely feel a lot better after.
On the Nullarbor White, bro..DR would be happy 🤣. Actually I hit the sugar water on all my rides, hard to convince my mates who run out of energy near end of rides from avoiding the sugar then overeat when they get back home. Ah well best fuel for harder rides. Adam Hansen used to put a heap of gels in a flask for his tour stages, he'd smash up to 150g per hour. He was sponsored though, your way is the bomb for us regular roadies.
This video should be seen by all people riding the bike. Sugar is the perfect fuel. Cycling should be simple and affordable. Rim brakes + sugar for the win.
Agreed. Cycling has become way to elitist and cycling channels like GCN, bike radar, cycling tips even trainerRoad are fueling that elitism: expensive alternatives - good , cheaper alternatives - bad yada yada... When in reality often the cheaper alternatives are even better like sugar or rim brakes.
@@latte6878 especially GCN.. they buy the "cheap" stuff and then openly mock it like people buy the "crappy" stuff by choice. I wouldn't be surprised if one of their presenters was surprised to hear that an average cyclist doesn't ride a 8k plus bike with a couple thousand dollars worth of gear and accessories at their "cheap budget days". No wonder majority of the people hate cyclists.
So your fueling at around 1.3g/kg. Sugar is fine if you can tolerate it without a big insulin response, which many people get an intolerance to after a few times of using it like this
@@emmaswanwick4908 read again. Sugar is fructose plus glucose. Sports gels are maltodextrin (glucose) plus fructose. If you tolerate gels you tolarate sugar because it is the same thing same ingredients in the same ratio, only that sugar is 100 times cheaper. And one more thing : our body never makes insulin while riding the bike, because carbs are not stored during exercise. During exercise insulin is at its lowest, carbs are transported to the working muscles and burned for fuel. Only at rest we make insulin to store the carbs as glycogen. The lack of this basic knowledge makes it so easy for people to be fooled by marketing saying gels are necesary and we should sell a kidney to afford them. Gels are sugar plus water
To avoid the liquid overage and needing the bigger flask, consider that sugar will consume about half its weight in volume. In other words, 500g will be ~ 250mL. Since your total volume is 500mL (250mL * 2), add 250g of water to your 500g of sugar and you should be pretty much spot on splitting between the two flasks.
man thanks heaps for this! I'm getting back into long distance trail running, aiming for another ultra marathon next year. The gels and chews are so damn expensive, this is such a simple way of getting exactly what are in those gels. I can believe you rawdog that sugar water though. I'd be mixing with juice... Great to see another Aussie here!
Have you tried using maltodextrin in your sirop? Maltodextrin does breaks down into glucose once it gets into your blood but the theory is that because they are chained carbohydrate molecules they have lower osmality and therefore go through your intestine wall more easily. Basically, with maltodextrin your gut should absorb it more easily. You can find maltodextrin at a reasonable price in beer home brewing stores.
Err no. The longer chain carbs take longer to break down before they are absorbed as glucose in your intestines. So, if you are taking in straight glucose which is absorbed in your mouth and stomach as well as your gut, this will fuel you immediately. The longer chain carbs help provide a longer and shallower pulse of glucose because they take a little longer to breakdown.
I use maple syrup and dextrose from the homebrew store, salt, and then add water to thin it a bit. It tastes delicious and is way way cheaper than the store bought packs.
Wonderful video on demonstrating how to fuel on the bike. My issue is the water. Now I only want to do 45 to 75 km races due to feed zones not being great for most of them plus I don't like having water bottles above 500 ml during races. I purchase those top brands for races and you can buy cheaper ones in the grocery store for indoor and outdoor training.
I did 280km on Saturday. 500g sugar in a bidon (half sugar half malto to lower sweetness), citric acid and electrolytes. And a large bag of candy. I carried another two bidons of water. I ran out of food at the end. 12h activity, 8:30 on the bike. Hot day, but easy pace with friends. Just thinking how many single use wrappers I would have thrown out to fuel for this using gels...
Too much fructose for many riders, including me. I prefer a maltodextrin-apple-juice-water mix right in the bottles. Having the carbohydrates in the drinking bottles results in a more regular rhythm of CHO uptake compared to an "extra-tube" or gels that are more difficult to handle and more distracting in a race event.
Theoretically if it were hotter and you were going to add electrolytes to your fueling flasks, what would you use and how might you calculate dosage? Have you made a video about it?
Figure out your sweat rate which varies by temp, humidity & effort level (create a chart listing weight of you sans clothes & fluids you're carrying before and after but dried off) and get sweat tested for sodium lost per liter of sweat (does not vary). Then consume this amount of electrolytes per hour based on projected conditions of your ride and effort level expected
Thanks Jesse you just helped my kids get a lot richer m8
2 года назад
I prepare my own "betafuel" - maltodextrin 1kg ~ 3$ + Fructose 1kg ~ 2$ + soft flask. Biggest advantage is that it doesn't have this super intense artificial taste 😋
Best video I’ve seen. Every other video I’ve watched leaves me so confused. My only question for you is why do you not add this all to your water bottles? Is it because the race is long enough that you consume more bottles of water and need to pace the carbs out longer?
Yes if sugar is in the bottles I’m in trouble if it’s hotter than I planned and need more water. I use sugar in bottles for training, but long races with a high fluid requirement it’s easier to use the flasks and refill bottles with water as needed
Sorry I just watched another video from you explaining just this! I’ve been wanting to try this for months but like I mentioned was so confused by everyone else’s explanation. Thank you!
Love this and all your other videos on this topic. Can I ask-Would you do the same fuel strategy for an 8-10 hour ride? And, would my body still tap into fat reserves if I consume mostly sugar water?
you have told you have the two bottles in the back pockets. Aren´t they very large for the pockets and I can´t see them in your pockets while you are riding, in this short cut where you are shown
all the other nutrients listed on the commercial products are really just for marketing. micro grams. I'd put a shake of salt in the drink too. Well done presentation.
There's no need to heat it up. Just pour the sugar into the bottle, add cold water, give it a couple of shakes, and it will be dissolved in a couple of hours.
For my caffeine gel I use a mixture of coca cola, maltodextrin and some sodium in my flasks. 100ml of CC contains about 10g of sugar, so I substitute sugar with maltodextrin to make it less sweet. I aim for a 2:1 ratio of glucose/fructose, so per flask I aim for 150g of sugar all in, so the recipe goes: 100g of maltodextrin, 100g of sugar, dissolve it in about 450ml of CC, add salt. In my 2nd flask I use some fruit juice of choice, and mix it with maltodextrin (2:1). Slightly less concentrated, but easy to swallow. Any thoughts on that?
lol those gel product prices are insane. Yeah, that kind of aesceptic packaging is difficult to manufacture, and these are small volume companies, yadda yadda, .. I'm never buying that. Lately I carry small bags of sugar and salt, and add water. Today for a pretty long ride I brought 5 or 6. They fit in the pockets easily. I think for a long race where you need to carry your own food, making the gel is a good idea.
great video Jesse with some real information. Howeve...dont let the #glucosequeen hear you :) . Jokes aside, i understand the sugarapproach really is meant only when doing some serious (cycling) effort. Will try this as well. At present my go-to stuff is a family size haribo gummi bear bag.
I know it's a bit more expensive but I make my 1:0.8 ratio with maltodextrine and fructose (I feel maltodextrine is very quick). I also make rice cakes that are very cheap and frozen them for when I need Love to watch those silicone bottles, I'll try to find them to separate carbs and water. Thanks for the video
@@mauriciorosales1259 It "cost" of breaking down sucrose is completely insignificant compared to all the rest that has to happen to it. In fact, having a bit slower break down is advantageous because you don't "spike" as much then but have a more even supply of calories.
I watch this vid, and Chris' peaks vid, and trying to work out how to carry this much liquid. I've got a couple of 200km unsupported rides coming up. What size flask did you buy, and where? I have 500ml bite flasks but are way to large for pockets. Do you just sip this concentrate and have plain water in the bottles on your bike?
Thank you for this strategy. For my clarity, do you add any type of fruit juice or salt to tone down the taste of pure sugar? Also, did you have any GI issues with all that sugar?
They're Ok when you're just tapping along at 100bpn doing 30kph in a group ride. Surely it'd be impossible to eat enough of them when doing 4ish hrs at about 300 watts. Personally, I'd struggle.
Nice. No gut issues with such a hypertonic sugar solution? Separate water bidons might help. Do you do a sip of sugar syrup and chase with water? Will need a lot of water. Have been doing a malto dextrin sugar 1:1 by following your vids to get to glucose fructose 2:1, not as sweet and still cheap. Not going above 80g so don't need the pure sugar. Thanks for the tips.
This is so cool will definitely try the sugar water. Just a simple question, we all hear we need to consume x amount of carbs per hour. Are you calculating this while you are consuming your carbs or just consume as you see fit and "eye ball" it to make sure you are leaving enough for the whole event.
I loosely keep track of it. Let's say I'm going for 100g per hour, 4 hour race and 200g carbs in each flask. Then I know I need to finish the first flask over the first two hours, and second flask before the race finishes.
if you're using hammer gels or clif gels how would you have to adjust or what else would you have to take in to compare like you're comparing to beta fuel and the others?
Good luck Jesse. One question, you said you weren't going to stop, how do you maintain hydration assuming you carry 2 x 750ml of water? That's only enough for around two hours.
Min temp 7 degrees, won't get much over 16 by the time we finish, so won't need that much fluid. I'll have 1x 900mL and 1x 800mL bottle, that will be enough to get me through, likely with a net fluid loss but not enough to effect performance. If it was much longer, or a hotter day, I'd stop for water
I think he will have bottles with plain water with him to wash the sugar solution down with. The video is only about the nutrition - the flasks will go into his back pockets.
Have you had issues with the flasks leaking with homemade gel? I haven't tried that bite nozzle yet, mine are either flip-cap or twist nozzle from HydraPak and no issues.
Yesterday i burned 1700 calories in just over three hours...your method of 100g sugar an hour plus a couple granola bars would get me pretty close to that number. Is the goal to consume as many calories as you'll burn on the ride?
Great vid thanks, I actually bought those flask things off your other, older vid but never really got into it. Will try this for longer rides. A couple things: * Do you find the flasks gets 'floppy' once they are half-full? And sorta annoying to put in/out of your jersey pocket? * What's the best way you have found to clean them? * What would be the shortest duration ride you would use or make one of the flasks up for? * I think someone else asked, but say for a 10hr ride, would you still only use 2x flasks or how would you change that? Thanks mate!
I use a 250 mL flask from HydraPak and, while it does get floppy toward the end, I find it easy enough to still get into my jersey pocket. It goes in easier if you put the nozzle end in first. Haven't tried making a sugar (or malto + fructose) home gel, but I use the Gu 15 serving pouch. Will give making my own "gel" a try sometime soon.
It's going to be cold, there is some salt in the bars and I'm not a salty sweater. If it was hot I'd add electrolytes to the sugar syrup, or in the water bottles. I don't have a specific reason I'm not including it, I just know my body and know that I don't need excess salt for a race this length and temperature
Cane sugar and beet sugar taste a bit different, I perfer cane. Why not make a mix of Sucrose and Maltodextrin and do the same thing.....the reduction of sweetness of Malto helps on long rides and too sweet makes it hard to take in the sucrose, it also gives you a bit quicker fueling too. How much water are you taking in per hour? I would think you want a more isotonic ratio of sugars to aid in absorbtion? Also do you coach Dave Christensen in the Nevada?
I am guessing he will have additional water with him to wash the sugar solution down and protect his teeth. He is only discussing fuelling in this video, and not hydration.
Yeah very insightful Jesse..I will try sugar water with the no doz and see how my body reacts. I’m about the same weight as you , taking 3 tablets for the 2 hours going to effect the heartbeat or give me any adverse reactions?
So your taking water in the bike no stops. Assuming you have 2 750ml bottles that's enough for 3 hrs. Is the remaining water in the suger bottles for the last 1.30hrs?
@@nerocoaching This worked PERFECT. I'm fueling w/sugar water from now on. Did around 80-100g a hour and had average power of 232 for 3:38. Never even come close to that before! Caffeine helped too in second half.
Is consuming so much sugar even ok for your body? Like I'm not going to get diabetes from that or something else? Genuine question, I just started learning about nutrition&sport
