Endurance chow

In two weeks, I'll be doing a 40-mile cycling race, the longest I've ever done. My training rides lately have been 20 - 25 miles, and I'm finding that I bonk pretty hard at about mile 16 or 17.

Since I can't drink and eat (obviously) and I'm in Arizona where it's still in the mid-80's, I've been trying to limit myself to foods where I can start sipping a bit earlier. On my 25 miler on Tuesday, I had half a packet of oatmeal before I left the house, and then a 2T peanut butter packet and a small squeezy tube of applesauce during my "long" breaks. Small wonder I ran out of energy!

So fellow endurance-types, what do you suggest for an event that's going to be 4 or 5 hours long (including breaks)? I'm drinking sugar-free electrolyte stuff en route, but when I'm expending 1200+ calories in 2-hour training rides it's pretty obvious that what I'm eating isn't nearly enough.

Thanks, all!

Some foods high in potassium...For what it's worth; bananas (banana chips), raisins, oranges (orange juice), prunes, dried apricots...These are good for electrolytes, but I don't know how your system will handle some of that stuff, esp the acid part (oranges).  I put nuts, raisins, banana chips, and beef jerkey in my pockets for long rides...But the farthest I'll go is 10 miles because of my heart.  Brian

Great idea, I hadn't thought of bananas! I have a dehydrator so I should be able to make chips no problem. And I'm OK with OJ, so I can put some in a spare water bottle.

Thanks!

My marathoning partner uses "GUs."  Yuck :P

You can use some mineral products, health drink and natural products. It will be very beneficial for your body and very powerful also.

In running longer races like 1/2 marathons or 15 K's I have found my normal breakfast with time for electrolyte fluids like a bottle of G2 then a Quest bar 20 minutes prior to the race sets me up to drink more electrolyte fluids when I need it during the run...don't love the GU's but work well in a pinch!  Not a biker so can't help there but works for me on my runs...banana, as mentioned above, is also good and is part of my regular breakfast.