How I eat when I bike

Incentive.

You open any book about biking and they tell you how to eat. You slurp down some jelly-like concoction with just the right balance of nutrients and minerals that pump your legs for the next 50 miles.

Balderdash, I say.

Why bike if you can't eat those sinfully sweet items that you would otherwise have to shun?


I bike for Jack's donuts.

Rich beyond belief, these babies carry enough calories to fuel my hundred mile bike ride. I once was stuck in Indianapolis with no Jacks and aspirations for a day's century. I tried an Indianapolis donut and fizzled at mile 62.

I exaggerate.

I actually make sure I eat protein early in a long ride before my stomach shuts down (about mile 50). So it's egg-dipped French toast for breakfast. At my first rest  stop is a PB&J.

Next, the Jack's donut as a reward for all of my hard work. After that it's pure carbs - easy to digest and full of calories.
A cherry pie, chocolate chip cookies (preferably home-made). On a hot day I need to segue to salty snacks - Chex mix or pretzels.

I did find out, to my amazement, that I not only am allowed to eat a lot when I'm biking, I must eat or I bonk.

Bonk is when your body runs out of fuel and you just stop cold. I have had to lay down on the side of a road more than once to try to recover from a bonk. One time I remember lying down on the cold floor of a gas station 3 miles from my house trying to recuperate enough to limp home the last few miles.

So I eat.

But I eat like I bike...

...for the pure hedonistic joy of it.