Smoothie DURING Ride? (Century Ride)

I usually hear of smoothies pre or post ride, but as I think about my prep for a century ride (100M + 10K feet climbing), would it make sense to have a fruit smoothie during the ride? I normally carry two bottles, so I can do 1 water, and 1 for the fruit - I only blend various frozen berries with frozen pineapple, mango (from the Costco frozen fruit variety packs), and water.

No other added milk, sugar or anything else.

The night before, I plan to eat a can each of black beans + corn, I figure that’s a good slow load of carbs and protein.

Re fruit smoothie: If it works for you, go for it. The issue I see is that the fruit takes up a lot of space. All centuries/GFs I have done have rest stops with plenty of real food (if that is what you are looking for), including fruit. During the ride portion, I prefer the pre-packaged stuff (engery bars, gels) for space efficiency. Alternatives for self-supported rides include sandwiches.

As for the carb loading, you may want to check the composition - not sure that beans and corn give you enough carbs. My night prior preference is always pasta as it is easy to digest.

Sounds like a pretty big day! And yes, if it works for you keep doing it! But i really would prioritise water.

So why not focus on fresh juices? You don’t need a juicer either. Grab a bunch of oranges, melons or any citrus/veg!

For a cheap ghetto sports drink… All you need extra is a fine sieve or a nut milk bag (cheap and very useful!). Small part juice to bottle of water, with a pinch of salt. Tada you have electrolytes, some carbs and vitamins​:metal: and less gunk to clean out of your bottle :grimacing:

When you say space, you mean in the tummy or on the person?

I’m thinking of the fruit smoothie in the second bottle as an alternative to a water/carbo power mix, I hope that makes sense.

My mistake - I thought you meant that you were going to carry the fruit separately and make the shake during the ride. So it makes more sense now.

Definitely try it out on a long training ride first. When I do/did GFs, I definitely had some fruit at the rest stops, but I’m not sure I could tolerate a full bottle of it for its acidity. Also, most pre-made nutrition snacks have a combo of glucose and fructose (I think the recommended combo is 3:1). You may want to check on what a pure fruit-based drink would have.

Overall, my/the recommendation is to experiment on training rides. For a while, at the recommendation of my son I would make PB or PB&J sandwiches for long rides (to get real food in me). Now I’m mostly too lazy for that :slight_smile:

1 Like