To my understanding, exercise inhibits the insulin response. If you cannot wait after a meal, eating something after you start exercising might be a second best solution.
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I remember at somepoint there was an āeating to sufferā guide by the sufferfest, wish there would be a new one out! 
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This is another option, something easily digestible during the warm up with the same routine of chewing lots or swilling in the mouth to get some of the sugar into the blood stream quicker (we absorb some sugars through our gums)
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I think the turbo session or TT guidelines here can be applied to that. The TT guidelines would be more for optimising performance in a session. For a KoS effort that would require something quite different! Somewhere between RR, hard turbo, and ultra endurance!
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Andy, you just gave me a Eureka moment. Iāve wondered why I sometimes feel a step behind in the afternoon when Iāve put in a hard workout early in the day. I think more carbs will solve this. Thanks!
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What a great article!
And thank you so much for adding information about women.
Any adaptations needed for older riders? Iām 64 yr old female.
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Interesting article, as well as the recent episode of the Knowledge podcast.
I have signed up for a beast with the below profile this summer, and must admit I am a bit uncertain on how to approach my fueling. Must admit I am not very good when it comes to fueling. I bonked in the very same race after approx 160 km last time (2019), but that was due to a mix of a relatively high pace, underfueling, and sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours/night on average the week prior, and the race starts 9 PM) I believe.
Me thinks I should aim for a mix of solid food and easy carbs almost all the way through given the length of the event. A challenge could be bringing enough nutrition, fluids in particular, as feeding outside the fueling stations is not allowed. Mandatory 3 min timeouts for the lead group at 145 km and 249 km, but that is a pretty short time to refill bottles and load up on fuel (maybe clothing change as well depending on wheather).
For the record I aim to stay with the front group for as long as I am able, although I do not expect to stay all the way, but finishing within the top 10% would be a goal. Managed to stay with the front for 160 km last time, aim to come better prepared and in even better shape this time, expecting to stay with the front longer.
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Hi Ann,
Yes actually, something Iām looking more into is nutrition for after menopause as hormone levels change significantly. As estrogen is significantly lower, it is very important to consume additional protein, as muscle atrophy rates increase. What this means is after exercise you want about 30-40g protein, during the day 2.2-2.4g protein per kilo of body weight overall. Also try to consume some BCAAs (leucine too) during training. Hope that helps and let me know if youāve got any other questions
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Thatās a hell of a challenge! And that was before I saw the distance and just saw the elevation!
For fuelling, I would recommend taking some energy drink sachets you can put in pockets/bags to add to water, then aim for as high energy density foods as possible. So bars that have sugars and nuts are quite good as intensity will be high aerobic but not threshold work for that duration. Start with large amounts of energy in the bottles to start, and carb up well the day before.
Other good high energy density foods are the simple peanut butter and jam (jelly for the US riders) sandwiches in simple white bread thatās been packed down as flat as possible. Rice cakes are really good and easy to digest too (dessert rice, not the air filled crispy rice cakes)
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Great article and great commentary here.
I have struggled with fuel management for longer events like gravel grinders, I am used to lots of stuff like CX races and TTs. I stumbled onto Dr Alex Harrisonās YouTube channel fairly recently (Saturday Morning | Ride and Run Faster). He discusses the biochemistry at a level most of us can understand and also the solutions to many of the fueling problems a lot of us have experienced. Read what Coach Andy says, listen to Dr Alex apply it in training to adapt it to what works best for your rides and events.
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Thank you so much Coach Andy. Really helpful. I am sure there are lots of us older ones!
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Thanks for the feedback and advice. Considering looking into making my own bars to ensure I get stuff with high carb density to reduce the volume of what I need to carry.
Good tip to bring portion sized drink mix, but access to enough fluid will potentially still be a challenge though.
Have planned some races prior, and thought Iād practice proper fuelling there and try to find what works (and not).
Try this for longer rides
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Wow! That seems like one crazy cocktail 
Already googling maltodextrin, and MCT powder.
Thought Iād try some recipes from VĆ©lochef, and although there are rice cakes and the likes, there is nothing like that magical potion I donāt think!
Really interesting and useful info - thanks @Coach.Andy.T
Fuelling training adequately, energy availability and avoiding RED-S are the training elements I struggle with the most and spend far too much time thinking about. I know Iāve caused myself problems in the past by eating far too little when trying to lose fat and whilst Iām doing much better at this still have no idea if Iām doing it right or not!
As far as I understand energy availability, from sources such as:
we should aiming to be eating at least 45 cal per kg of lean body mass after exercise calories burn is taken into account.
Given I currently weigh 72kg at 15% body fat, my LBM is 61.2kg
According to the stats in SYSTM from my KICKR Bike Iām burning 5,500 calories per week riding and donāt get the opportunity to ride outside unfortunately. This is a mix of zone 2 and more intensive Sufferfest rides, rarely more than 2 hours a time.
I also do strength training 5 times per week for 50 mins each session.
I do all my training early morning just after getting up and never eat before or during. I drink plenty of water with electrolytes and have breakfast of 600-900 calories about 30 mins after training.
If I assume the 5 strength training sessions burn a combined 1,500 calories, total calorie burn through exercise is 7,000 per week or 1,000 per day.
I guess itās safe to assume the calories burn stats from the KICKR Bike are accurate enough?
45 cal x 61.2 LBM = 2,754 calories plus 1,000 exercise calories gives me an average daily target across the week of 3,754 which seems crazy high.
So maybe I have totally misunderstood how to calculate energy availability?
Iām using the Carbon app, that was recommended by @RitzMan since Sep 22 and currently eating about 3,050 calories a day and maintaining weight at this level.
This works out at 33.5 cal per kg LMB which could be far too low.
I know if I push calories higher then I do gain weight and then back off again as I donāt want to gain fat. I canāt help thinking that perhaps I need the extra calories and either have to accept a bit of weight gain, but maybe itāll all balance out and be fine after a few weeks at a higher level.
Or I just donāt really understand energy availability?
I find thinking about all this by far the most stressful part of my training. I would love to understand this better and stop obsessing about how much to eatā¦
Sorry for such a long post and apologies to anyone who made it this far
Thought it might also be useful to add:
This suggest 40 - 45 cal per kg LBM (3,448 - 3,754 in my case) is āadequateā with less or no weigh gain.
Thereās also a nice calculator here:
https://www.fitter.co.nz/energyavailabilitycalc
I stopped doing these calculations as the calories required tell me I canāt afford to workout 
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Ha ha - so true.
3.7k calories a day is even more expensive than a new bike
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Sir @ediblehedge, you have done an admirable job establishing your baseline needs. I suggest the next phase should be focusing on how you FEEL while living with those baselines. Tune into your body and feed it based on your intuition.
Maybe one day you want to take a gel before your ride, then the next day you donāt. Itās ok. Because you have your baselineās established, you will still stay within your daily and weekly goals. But within the day, allow yourself room for more leeway.
From my experience, I am calmer and recover better taking this approach. The one caveat is to make sure to leave enough calories for your evening meal. It sure feels good to eat until happy during the day, but it can be a bummer if that means going to bed hungry so that I stay inside my daily macros budget!
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Thanks Sir @RitzMan really appreciate your reply. Apologies for failing to address your appropriately in my previous post.
I know that eating by feel is where I need to get to, but I know that I am absolutely hopeless at this! I can and have felt full and satisfied on 1,300 calories a day until after 4 or 5 weeks when I didnāt and barely functioned for a while as I recovered.
Tracking me not do stupid shit. At least when it comes to food.
Iām not the sort of person who can trust their intuition when it comes to food. I know thereās certain foods (crisps / potato chips especially) where if I eat one, I eat them all, go out, buy more and eat them too. Itās easy to say no and avoid them completely, but eat just a few like a normal person? Aināt gonna happen 
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Well ā¦ LOL! I can relate, Sir @ediblehedge 
Foods that come in a package are so dangerous.
What I was referring to was the foods you are eating now and tracking with Carbon. Staying within your established diet, you could experiment with eating a bit more around your exercise times and see if that helps smooth things out.
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