Quote:
Originally Posted by slow&rusty
My wife and I had an interesting discussion, she prefers to wake up and start her exercise (she runs 3-6 miles), I prefer to have breakfast (a bowl of cereal) and a mug of coffee to put some sugar in my bloodstream as I typically will cycle 35 miles (this is on the weekend).
What do you guys do and / or recommend?
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I think you're both right.
If she runs anything around/under a 10 minute mile, she is done under an hour. Anything in her stomach is going to get bounced around as she runs. It probably works better for her to keep her stomach empty, and burn off the stored glycogen from last night's dinner.
If you are riding 20mph ave or under, you are riding at least 1.5 hours. You aren't bouncing around as much, and might benefit from the sugar/caffeine ritual.
Something to consider is that eating will divert blood to your stomach for digestion afterwards, so it's all about knowing how you react to eating before/during working out. Longer low intensity workouts - eating becomes more and more important with the longer durations. Higher short intensity workouts- sometimes better to keep the stomach light. Different people will also react differently to eating beforehand- also explaining your differences with you wife. Seems like both ideas work for each of you.
Also- some sugars break down into useful structures better than others. Poweraide drink, for example, has some long chain cheap sugar that doesn't break down and will sit in your stomach like a rock. I think Gatorade has it too, but I can't remember. All I know is that if I start drinking gatorade during a long ride, I need to be careful.