Into the great unknown: nutrition

Training for Challenge Fuerteventura is going well, or at least going, and whilst I need a few more long rides and runs under my belt to feel confident in my endurance, I am at least confident that IÂ'm heading in the right direction.

And so that leaves one of two great unknowns for me. One is climate and conditions, the other is nutrition. One I can do something about, so IÂ'll deal with that for now.

IÂ've not really done much endurance stuff, so my experience of the impacts of nutrition so far has been very limited. But as IÂ've been upping the ride time this winter it has however become very apparent that I will need to eat! My main challenges so far seem to be remembering to eat, and the trickiness of trying to get a bar out of my jersey, unwrap it and eat it, whilst wearing winter gloves, in a bunch, without cycling into the hedge/wobbling/getting dropped.

As it gets nearer the time, I am getting ready for eating. I think I need to eat little bits, of solid food, every half hour on the bike whether I feel I need to or not. I need to be able to do this without crashing. I need to drink little bits more regularly than that. I want to keep my food solid on the bike, and use gels on the run. I need to drink at every aid station (every 2.5k) on the run. I really really need to not run out of energy.

To make it as easy as possible IÂ'm planning on using a top tube feed bag to avoid yoga-type induced erratic cycling, and there will be no bunch to worry about. IÂ've also got some long rides and a few bricks planned where I can practice eating. I suppose itÂ's quite simple really Â- eat more often than I think I need to and IÂ'll probably get it about right.