On Raclette, White Wine, and Group Rides

Sunday bike rides are not as common as Saturday bike rides so when I committed to the Eysins Raclette event I thought it wouldn’t matter. I didn’t count on having a Sunday bike ride.

Before a bike ride I like to have a high protein, high carbohydrate meal. I like to have plenty of energy to burn the next morning, in the hope that my endurance will be good enough to last for the ride, with some bars or gels along the way.

On Saturday, instead of having rice and chicken, like I usually have, I had potatoes and Raclette cheese. I also had white wine. Although cheese is high in calories, it is not good for exercise.
The reasons are that it’s fatty, so it makes you more sluggish, it contains salt, so it dehydrates you and that it’s low in carbohydrates. This trifecta, combined with white wine is enough to make a bike ride the next day challenging.

So challenging, that, for the first time in a while I felt like aborting the bike ride. I felt low in energy, in stamina, and in motivation. It was also cold and foggy.

I tried to eat potatoes in the hope that they would provide me with carbohydrates but obviously they were not enough. I suspect that I was dehydrated and low on fuel.

According to the Apple Watch I burned 1720 kcal of energy on Saturday and 1967 on Sunday. On Wednesday I burned 2814 kcal of energy.

Wednesday morning I woke up and I had doubts. I felt rough with a cold but chose to go on the morning group ride anyway. When the ride finished I had the opportunity to do a second ride. During the second ride when we got close to the top of the Jura I bonked. I had to stop and get some energy back. I had a raspberry chocolate thing and it tasted delicious.

I could feel that my legs were tired and that they needed a real break but we couldn’t really stop. I suspect that this influenced Saturday, and Sunday.

Hike or Cycling

I suspect that if I had gone for a hike, rather than a bicycle ride I would have been fine. Hiking is a gentler sport. With hiking you walk at a comfortable pace. You stay at between eighty to one hundred beats per minute, especially on a relatively flat route.

In my case, as a person who walks up to ten kilometres per day, almost all walks are relaxing, especially one that is just thirteen kilometres long. With hiking you can also carry snacks and a “meal” rather than energy bars and energy gels. You can eat, and drink more comfortably, and you’re walking with people that hike slower than you.

Most rides have people with thousands of kilometres of cycling for that year setting the pace.

And Finally

For years, when I have heard people suggest raclette or fondue I have thought “But that’s not a real meal, that’s not what I need” and yesterday proved it. For years I have read and heard about hiker hunger. Yesterday, and today, I got to experience cyclist hunger.

I cycled for six hours on Wednesday, then several on Saturday, and then several more on Sunday, and with this endurance challenge, the need for proper nutrition made itself visible.

It’s rare for me to get home, and just vegetate in front of the computer, and to be so knackered that a one hour siesta is required to recharge partially, before a full night of sleep.

I expected to be able to go skating, and socialise but I was knackered. Next time I will try to eat proper food, or hike instead.