Q - Eating breakfast before commuting

"HarryB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an old
wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at about
5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision to
commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

Probably part of it depends on how fast you ride, but
personally I avoid eating just before riding, not because of
cramps but mostly because I'm afraid I'll hurl (as I did
once after going on a _very_ hard ride, with two people with
much lighter bikes, right after eating).

Instead I bring to work something nice and portable like
cereal bars and little orange juice containers and munch in
the office.

"HarryB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles.

It is A-OK. If you find you have problems -- stomach cramps?
then try: o Eating first, then getting dressed, to give a
little time to digest o Picking foods that are digestible,
like a banana and hot rice cereal

I've tried so-called bonk training, where you wake up, have
a caffenated beverage, and then do a hard hammer for 30-60
minutes. It's supposed to be great for losing weight. I felt
so miserable, though, I knew it wasn't for
me.

At first, you'll probably have a second breakfast upon
arrival at work. After awhile, though, you'll get used to
the ride, and you'll find that won't be necessary.

Bicycle commuting is the greatest -- I hope you really enjoy
it as much as I
mf.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗
Email me re: the new Tiferet CD (tiferet.nettiferet.netOpen ↗)

HarryB <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles.

Your breakfast is not going to digest in the time it takes
most people to ride 10 miles. You're burning energy stored
from last night's dinner. Drink some orange juice or hot
chocolate to hydrate yourself a little and provide some
quick calories immediately before you ride. Eat an energy
bar when you get to work to replenish your muscles.

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:38:34 -0800, HarryB <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Since I would need to leave the house at about 5:00am,
it might make a difference in my decision to commute if
I would need to wait, let's say an hour, between eating
and riding.

TIA, Harry

Try it both ways. On the weekends, maybe. It's a good idea
to do test runs of your commute at low-traffic times anyway.
You will be familiar with the roads and more confident.

I won't ride after any significant food. I find it better to
wait until afterwards. Or during. Rather than only eating
before or after, you could do some eating while riding. You
won't gain much for the ride itself, but it's a way to get
some food moving into you without loading yourself down.
Some nibbling while riding in and then a bowl of cereal or
whatever when you get to work.

A bike ride is a great way to start the day. I hope that you
can work out some of the details.

"HarryB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that

is

Quoted message said:

an old wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the

energy

Quoted message said:

to ride 10 miles without a breakfast. Since I would need
to leave

the

Quoted message said:

house at about 5:00am, it might make a difference in my
decision to commute if I would need to wait, let's say an
hour, between eating

and

Quoted message said:

riding.

TIA, Harry

I don't like to eat before riding to work because my body
wants to start digesting the food instead of powering up my
legs. I just have a cup of coffee and go. Instead I take
granola bars with me and eat after I get to work. My commute
is 17 miles with about 1000 feet of climbing and 800 feet of
descending and I'm only a little younger than you, at 45
years old.

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an old
wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at about
5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision to
commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

It shouldn't be too tough to figure out if you can go 10
miles without eating in the morning- try it and see! What's
the worst that can happen? Probably just a mild case of
bonking, although at 5am, I doubt your body would even
recognize the symptoms :>😉

I'd just bring along a pack of gu or something else that you
can digest really quickly, just in case. But for what it's
worth, I do a 31 mile ride (with just over 3k feet of
climbing) twice a week, leaving the house at
7:30am, and eat absolutely nothing beforehand. My only fuel
while riding is a bottle of Cytomax, and I rarely feel
bonked or really hungry at the end of the ride. Maybe an
hour or two after, yes, but not during the ride.

This, of course, is one of those your-mileage-may-vary
things. I know others who can't believe I don't eat before I
ride. In general, I can do about a 100k morning ride without
food first, providing I drink Cytomax (although I will most
definitely start feeling a but hungry towards the end). Of
course, I could be carrying more reserves than you!

By the way, the only reason I don't eat prior to a morning
ride is simply that it allows me to get up a bit later. I
put a high value on being able to set the alarm for 7:05
(for a 7:30 ride) instead of 6:45am. Then again, it's well
known that I'm simply not a morning person.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

HarryB said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an old
wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at about
5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision to
commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

My suggestion would be to eat just fresh fruit. This is
the only meal that works for me before exercise. Fruit,
especially acid fruit like berries or citrus, passes
through your system in about half an hour. There isn't
that heavy, performance clogging effect that comes from
eating concentrated foods. The only hick is that if you
don't wait for it to pass, you will need to stop to pee
after you set out.

EFR Ile de France

In article <vHR3c.2388$i76.42698@attbi_s03>,

Claire Petersky said:

"HarryB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles.

It is A-OK. If you find you have problems -- stomach
cramps? then try: o Eating first, then getting dressed, to
give a little time to digest o Picking foods that are
digestible, like a banana and hot rice cereal

I've tried so-called bonk training, where you wake up,
have a caffenated beverage, and then do a hard hammer for
30-60 minutes. It's supposed to be great for losing
weight. I felt so miserable, though, I knew it wasn't for
me.

De gustibus non disputandum est, and if I knew more Latin,
I'd make a joke about not being able to dispute one's
stomach either (de gastronomus non disputandum est?)

Quoted message said:

At first, you'll probably have a second breakfast upon
arrival at work. After awhile, though, you'll get used to
the ride, and you'll find that won't be necessary.

I ride to work, barely 30 minutes away (it used to be
farther, but I got faster), on nothing but the water in my
bottle. I eat a sandwich shortly after arrival, though. It
seems to work best for me. I used to eat before going to
work (cold cereal, usually Life brand), but found I was just
as hungry when I got to work whether I ate at home or not.

I think the current exercise theory is that you eat some
carbs and protein as soon as possible after exercise to
replenish glycogen stores and rebuild muscles. I don't know
much about physiology, and sometimes I just eat 5 or 6 big
cookies at a time because, you know, I just rode my mountain
bike for over an hour, and there were cookies at the
function I attended. So what I'm saying is that while I give
advice, I'm not exactly Lance weighing his pasta during the
training season.

--
Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden]
sfu.cawiredcolaOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an
old wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned
about not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at
about 5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision
to commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

It shouldn't be too tough to figure out if you can go 10
miles without eating in the morning- try it and see!
What's the worst that can happen? Probably just a mild
case of bonking, although at 5am, I doubt your body would
even recognize the symptoms :>😉

I'd just bring along a pack of gu or something else that
you can digest really quickly, just in case. But for what
it's worth, I do a 31 mile

ride

Quoted message said:

(with just over 3k feet of climbing) twice a week, leaving
the house at
7:30am, and eat absolutely nothing beforehand. My only
fuel while riding

is

Quoted message said:

a bottle of Cytomax, and I rarely feel bonked or really
hungry at the end

of

Quoted message said:

the ride. Maybe an hour or two after, yes, but not during
the ride.

This, of course, is one of those your-mileage-may-vary
things. I know others who can't believe I don't eat before
I ride. In general, I can do about a 100k morning ride
without food first, providing I drink Cytomax (although I
will most definitely start feeling a but hungry towards
the end). Of course, I could be carrying more reserves
than you!

By the way, the only reason I don't eat prior to a morning
ride is simply that it allows me to get up a bit later. I
put a high value on being able to set the alarm for 7:05
(for a 7:30 ride) instead of 6:45am. Then

again,

Quoted message said:

it's well known that I'm simply not a morning person.

Me too often do 3-4 hours rides without eating before the
ride. Only bring a bottle of sports drink an a banana and
never bonk. This normally happens during weekends when I
want to have breakfast with the rest of the family when back
home. During weekdays I allways eat some cereal before
taking off to work (2 hours ride). Never had any problems
with that either. Hjalmar

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:22:22 -0800, <rcousine-
[email hidden]>, Ryan Cousineau
<[email hidden]> wrote: \snip

Quoted message said:

So what I'm saying is that while I give advice, I'm not
exactly Lance weighing his pasta during the training
season.

Lance's people pay somebody to weigh his pasta for him. Poor
ol' Fab just looks at the pictures on the box and guesses.

Quoted message said:

Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden]
sfu.cawiredcolaOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

Look Ryan, being His fan club president is great, but don't
you think He'd be better off first having a manager who
could land Him a decent contract so our boy doesn't have to
eat all that cheap pasta stuff in the first place?
--
zk

Try it. 10 miles in not enough to run down your storage, but
if you ride too hard you might upset your stomach since it
will get less blood flow to do it's job and it might cramp.
Having said that warning, I always eat breakfast before my
commute, and I usually ride in pretty hard. I also have an
iron stomach.

And enjoy the commute. It will make wonderful changes to
lots of things in your life.

Bruce

Bruce Frech said:

And enjoy the commute. It will make wonderful changes to
lots of things in your life.

What wonderful changes? I'm not a troll. I've been slowly
learning to cycle, with a lot of set backs lately, and have
more or less given up my daily 1.5 km to work because over
that distance it's so much less hassle to walk. But I may
have to start commuting seriously, 10kms, in the Fall, so
I'm curious about all these great life-changing claims that
are made for it.

EFR Ile de France

Well, I think it depends. Try a few things, listen to your
body, and do what is right for you. I can eat a full
breakfast, go for a hard ride, and feel the best. Others
wonder how I can do this...

"HarryB" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles.

Sure. It's also perfectly OK not to eat anything. Your body
has a reserve of energy, typically 2,000 kcal or so, which
is enough to ride perhaps 50 miles at an all-out pace. Your
commute wouldn't begin to dent that. On the other hand, if
you're hungry, eat. If you have problems with indigestion,
you may have to tweak your breakfast menu. Personally, I
prefer to eat later, I like riding on an empty stomach, but
then I'm usually riding very hard.

HarryB said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an old
wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at about
5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision to
commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

I never even considered not eating as an option honestly.
Whether my commutes been 3, 10, or 14 miles in the morning I
always eat. Have I noticed even a little bit of stomach
upset? No. It's not too difficult to work out. Try riding to
work, not a bad idea to do a trial on the weekend to get
used to the route. Try doing it after breakfast and seeing
how you feel.

I don't expect you'll have any problems. But the only way to
find out for you is to do it.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm'
without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to
jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

HarryB said:

Question: Presently I eat a cold cereal breakfast before
driving to work. I'm wondering if it is "ok" to eat a
breakfast just before getting on the bike and riding 10
hilly miles. (I've heard that one shouldn't exercise
immediately after eating a meal, but maybe that is an old
wive's tale?) It would be possible for me to eat a
breakfast after arriving at work, but I'm concerned about
not having the energy to ride 10 miles without a
breakfast. Since I would need to leave the house at about
5:00am, it might make a difference in my decision to
commute if I would need to wait, let's say an hour,
between eating and riding.

I never even considered not eating as an option honestly.
Whether my commutes been 3, 10, or 14 miles in the morning I
always eat. Have I noticed even a little bit of stomach
upset? No. It's not too difficult to work out. Try riding to
work, not a bad idea to do a trial on the weekend to get
used to the route. Try doing it after breakfast and seeing
how you feel.

I don't expect you'll have any problems. But the only way to
find out for you is to do it.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm'
without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to
jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

Quoted message said:

It shouldn't be too tough to figure out if you can go 10 miles without
eating in the morning- try it and see! What's the worst that can happen?
Probably just a mild case of bonking, although at 5am, I doubt your body
would even recognize the symptoms :>😉

I'd just bring along a pack of gu or something else that
you can digest really quickly, just in case. But for what
it's worth, I do a 31 mile

ride

Quoted message said:

(with just over 3k feet of climbing) twice a week, leaving
the house at
7:30am, and eat absolutely nothing beforehand. My only
fuel while riding

is

Quoted message said:

a bottle of Cytomax, and I rarely feel bonked or really
hungry at the end

of

Quoted message said:

the ride. Maybe an hour or two after, yes, but not during
the ride.

This, of course, is one of those your-mileage-may-vary
things. I know others who can't believe I don't eat before
I ride. In general, I can do about a 100k morning ride
without food first, providing I drink Cytomax (although I
will most definitely start feeling a but hungry towards
the end). Of course, I could be carrying more reserves
than you!

By the way, the only reason I don't eat prior to a morning
ride is simply that it allows me to get up a bit later. I
put a high value on being able to set the alarm for 7:05
(for a 7:30 ride) instead of 6:45am. Then

again,

Quoted message said:

it's well known that I'm simply not a morning person.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

I really got a kick out of this. I don't know how old you
are, Mike, but I suspect things might change as you get
older. I'm 48 and I'm riding between 250 and 300 miles per
week with the 25 year old racer dudes in my area. I can do
it, but I absolutely MUST have fuel. And being an old fart,
that leads to other absolute musts. Therefore, if the group
is getting together at 9:00 for several hours on the road, I
have to back out an hour to get there (I live out in the
sticks), an hour for nature to take its course and another
hour just to get up, feed the cats and prepare the mass
quantities of food I must consume ... a smoothie, canadian
bacon and cereal.

But ... I find that, when we get to the last hour of the
ride, I'm usually at the front most of the time and everyone
else is complaining that they're feeling wiped out.

You get what you pay for, I suppose.

Bob C.

Quoted message said:

It shouldn't be too tough to figure out if you can go 10 miles without
eating in the morning- try it and see! What's the worst that can happen?
Probably just a mild case of bonking, although at 5am, I doubt your body
would even recognize the symptoms :>😉

I'd just bring along a pack of gu or something else that
you can digest really quickly, just in case. But for what
it's worth, I do a 31 mile

ride

Quoted message said:

(with just over 3k feet of climbing) twice a week, leaving
the house at
7:30am, and eat absolutely nothing beforehand. My only
fuel while riding

is

Quoted message said:

a bottle of Cytomax, and I rarely feel bonked or really
hungry at the end

of

Quoted message said:

the ride. Maybe an hour or two after, yes, but not during
the ride.

This, of course, is one of those your-mileage-may-vary
things. I know others who can't believe I don't eat before
I ride. In general, I can do about a 100k morning ride
without food first, providing I drink Cytomax (although I
will most definitely start feeling a but hungry towards
the end). Of course, I could be carrying more reserves
than you!

By the way, the only reason I don't eat prior to a morning
ride is simply that it allows me to get up a bit later. I
put a high value on being able to set the alarm for 7:05
(for a 7:30 ride) instead of 6:45am. Then

again,

Quoted message said:

it's well known that I'm simply not a morning person.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

I really got a kick out of this. I don't know how old you
are, Mike, but I suspect things might change as you get
older. I'm 48 and I'm riding between 250 and 300 miles per
week with the 25 year old racer dudes in my area. I can do
it, but I absolutely MUST have fuel. And being an old fart,
that leads to other absolute musts. Therefore, if the group
is getting together at 9:00 for several hours on the road, I
have to back out an hour to get there (I live out in the
sticks), an hour for nature to take its course and another
hour just to get up, feed the cats and prepare the mass
quantities of food I must consume ... a smoothie, canadian
bacon and cereal.

But ... I find that, when we get to the last hour of the
ride, I'm usually at the front most of the time and everyone
else is complaining that they're feeling wiped out.

You get what you pay for, I suppose.

Bob C.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

...

Quoted message said:

I really got a kick out of this. I don't know how old you
are, Mike, but I suspect things might change as you get
older. I'm 48 and I'm riding between 250 and 300 miles per
week with the 25 year old racer dudes in my area. I can do
it, but I absolutely MUST have fuel. And being an old
fart, that leads to other absolute musts. Therefore, if
the group is getting together at 9:00 for several hours on
the road, I have to back out an hour to get there (I live
out in the sticks), an hour for nature to take its course
and another hour just to get up, feed the cats and prepare
the mass quantities of food I must consume ... a smoothie,
canadian bacon and cereal.

But ... I find that, when we get to the last hour of
the ride, I'm usually at the front most of the time
and everyone else is complaining that they're feeling
wiped out.

I think most of us old farts know our bodies much better
then the 20- somethings do theirs, and it really shows
during the longer events when we keep ourselves fueled and
paced better (usually, anyway).

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).