When do you start introducing sugar on zone 2 rides? If the ride is shorter than 2 hours, I won't use any fueling. If I'm going longer than 2 hours I definitely feel like I need the fuel for the long zone 2 rides.
Hey @ridegreen78 Great question! Thank you for that. Remember you have a lot of energy onboard in form of fat storage. If you can access those - you don't need sugar. Remember too, that you can fuel with protein and fat rich foods. Nuts, beef jerky, nut based home made bars, etc are great sources for fuel without massive sugar content. You should look up the new study by Prins et al (2025) for more reading on this. "Carbohydrate Ingestion Eliminates Hypoglycemia & Improves Endurance 2 Exercise Performance in Triathletes Adapted to Very Low & High 3 Carbohydrate Isocaloric Diets"
I understood that I am jeopardizing my important zone 1 and 2 training as soon as I digest sugar during the session. Basically that's fine for me for rides up to two maybe three hours, but that won't work for even longer rides of three, four, five hours. In addition I thought I had to practice nutrition for my long distance triathlon during those long training rides. So I'm a little bit confused tbh.
Hey there! Reflect on what is the most important aspect you want out of the session. Is it base season and you want to improve your fat oxidation? Well, then you may want to drop those gels/sugars and work on fasted rides, or fuel with more protein and healthy fats vs. sugar. Is your race coming up shortly and you want to practice your race day nutrition? Then you can occasionally work on ingesting race day nutrition. Does this clarify it at all? Let me know! Remember, it is definitely a process and you cannot expect to be able to do fasted riding or no-sugar riding if that's what you are used to. Allow yourself plenty of time to get adapted. Once you do, it is pretty amazing how good it feels!
When do you start introducing sugar on zone 2 rides? If the ride is shorter than 2 hours, I won't use any fueling. If I'm going longer than 2 hours I definitely feel like I need the fuel for the long zone 2 rides.
Hey @ridegreen78 Great question! Thank you for that. Remember you have a lot of energy onboard in form of fat storage. If you can access those - you don't need sugar. Remember too, that you can fuel with protein and fat rich foods. Nuts, beef jerky, nut based home made bars, etc are great sources for fuel without massive sugar content. You should look up the new study by Prins et al (2025) for more reading on this. "Carbohydrate Ingestion Eliminates Hypoglycemia & Improves Endurance 2
Exercise Performance in Triathletes Adapted to Very Low & High 3
Carbohydrate Isocaloric Diets"
I understood that I am jeopardizing my important zone 1 and 2 training as soon as I digest sugar during the session. Basically that's fine for me for rides up to two maybe three hours, but that won't work for even longer rides of three, four, five hours. In addition I thought I had to practice nutrition for my long distance triathlon during those long training rides. So I'm a little bit confused tbh.
Hey there! Reflect on what is the most important aspect you want out of the session. Is it base season and you want to improve your fat oxidation? Well, then you may want to drop those gels/sugars and work on fasted rides, or fuel with more protein and healthy fats vs. sugar. Is your race coming up shortly and you want to practice your race day nutrition? Then you can occasionally work on ingesting race day nutrition. Does this clarify it at all? Let me know! Remember, it is definitely a process and you cannot expect to be able to do fasted riding or no-sugar riding if that's what you are used to. Allow yourself plenty of time to get adapted. Once you do, it is pretty amazing how good it feels!