Best saved for sessions on the trainer.
How “heavy” were these rides?
Proper training? Or just a ride?
For my normal rides, 4 hours is my usual Sunday ride length (when I’m not ill!) and I have;
Breakfast 75 minutes before leaving; fried egg/sausage/bacon sandwich, two slices of toast with peanut butter, porridge oats with millennial toppings and shizzle.
Ride; banana first 25 minutes. Sip on High5 for first half, switch to Zero after that. That’s 1.3l - 1.5l of fluid.
Eat a Trek bar in three goes.
I carry two emergency Wiggle Cola gels (think I paid £6.97 for about 100 of them 
) and some Clif Shot Blox (free)
For an actual training ride, with power targets and the like, I’d switch out the Zero for another High5, and carry some more bars - maybe NutriGrain, as they’re easy to chew 
But I wouldn’t have more than 2 gels and those Clif Blox, unless I’m trying to get nutrition down 
There’s a can of Coke, mini pork pie and sandwich waiting for me when I get home, or it’s a quick shower and immediately out to the pub for lunch
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Well, I’m trying to simulate a long, self supported hilly ride. Capping the power, but not too leisurely. Carry as much as possible to avoid having to stop.
Who has time for that? If I’m not out the door with 30min, then there is something wrong.
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How long is long???
And how hilly is hilly?
Sorry - just trying to see what rides I’ve done that might be similar and what I did in the past.
I can only offer a “what I did” with no science, but I do know one thing…
DO NOT HAVE A CHORIZO SCOTCH EGG BEFORE THE MAJOR CLIMB OF THE DAY
I’m usually up at 6:15am, out by 7:30am if I’m riding longer. I try to get home no later than 2pm✅
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Well 180km and 2,700m eventually.
But 110km / 1300m and 120km / 1000m this weekend.
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Gotcha
Although, I wouldn’t class those as “hilly” 
That’s a pretty normal summer/dry 4hr - 5hr Sunday ride.
I’d just follow as above for that
But I only do 25kmh for that, so if you’re doing 30kmh, then you are probably going to want some
Proper “stuff”
180km 2,700m is similar to IMUK, right?
For that, I’d probably do a proper nutrition plan.
Like eat every 25 minutes.
Real food
Stop after 100km for a stretch and to refill bottles.
Couple of High5 sachets, pork pie, Coke, set off again.
Agreed they weren’t specifically hilly this weekend, infact Saturday was a strava created ‘flat’ route so surprised it hit 1000m, no real climbs to speak of, just rolling roads.
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Was going to say 2700 is Bolton/Tenby territory isn’t it. I’d say they’re fairly hilly, what’s the general consensus on what’s a hilly ride?
Most I’ve done is over 3k ascent over 180kms
ETA - don’t mean to derail the thread
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Yes, I’m doing Tenby LCW. It doesn’t derail, as I think the climbs can change the approach, when and what to eat, how much to carry. I try to eat/drink on climbs as a way to cap the power, but that’s not practical if the climbs are steep. Also, can’t drink on steep, technical descents. so could easily miss a planned feed if doing it purely by time.
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Ah, right, gotcha
My “normal” rides are as above.
I have never “hit the wall” and felt weak/empty.
“Training” rides would be 4 x 750ml High5, whether I was thirsty or not. It’s all about getting it down
Probably take two-three caffeinated gels, from hour 2 to hour 5. Once I’d demolished my solid foods (banana and Trek bar). Clif Shot Blox as “back up”.
Also have a few spare gels, JIC
Even on a “training” ride, I’d need to stop at a Shell/BP to mix up two new bottles. Which is when I’d have a pee and my Coke
I tend to find that breaks up the monotony.
I had that break time down to 9 minutes 
@adam - “hilly” rides for me is going up a damn kerb
But I reckon 200m per 10km is “fuck me. This is hilly”
100m per 10km is “I can keep up on this undulating/rolling terrain”
150m per 10km is “be nice to me on these ferocious hills”
@buzz - I’ve not done Tenby, but I wouldn’t class Bolton as “hilly”, more just relentless ups and downs. Not sure if Tenby is the same sort of course???
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Any ride without several long flat sections.
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Ouch!!! 
Looks similar to IMUK, but it’s always super hard to tell from a profile graph. Right?
Is it downhill into a 90° turn on potholed roads?
Or smooth glass like surfaces straight into the next climb, allowing momentum to carry you up???
But thanks for this!
I’ve been looking back at my lockdown rides, which generally involved every hill around here.
And my comments on them are positive!
Which makes me wonder when I started hating them so much?
So thanks, some introspection for me
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The other week I did 73km with 1365m of climbing but using 39/23 gearing made it harder than it needed to be.
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My rule of thumb is:
100m in 10 miles is undulating
200m in 10 miles is hilly
300m in 10 miles is alpine … e.g. Norseman bike (3200m over 180km)
I’ll leave it for someone else to go metric on distance (sorry, can’t think distance in km or ascent in ft).
There’s a super alpine option too which would be > 4 / 5000m over 100ish miles … think Marmotte or Maratona
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Lol,
You’ve done a combo of the two
So 100/200m over 16km - undulating/hilly
It’s roughly what I had in my head where I’d say getting 1000 metres of ascent in 80km would be ‘hilly’
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Any amount of metric by Imperial is fucking heresy - you should be burned at a ‘hilly’ stake.
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Apparently I have just done an alpine Back Yard Ultra 70 miles and 2600m (sorry @joex mixing metric and imperial - it’s a uniquely British skill)
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It really depends on the time I’m out there. For a fast (ish) 50km trail and sub 6hr, I’ll go mostly gels, as whenever I run a road marathon I do the same thing. Take 5 gels, one about 15 min before then at 9, 18, 27 & 36kms. Works for me.
However, some 50kms can take the best part of 10hrs, so for me that will be a mix of real food but I always have gels with me, mostly for the end where everything hurts and even chewing is a monumental effort.
Anything longer, either in distance or time largely depends on what will be available at aid stations and stuff I know that works. I tend to use Mountain Fuel Raw for liquid calories but that’s only because when you are going through the night with gloves on, it’s so easy to not want to take them off, so drinking calories at least gets something in.
I do pretty well on spuds in salt, non claggy sandwiches (usually jam or Marmite), I avoid PB generally. Nuts and sweets are all good, you just need to experiment. The problem with real food is that it’s bloody heavy and bulky. I did try rolled up balls of malt loaf once, which was ok to a point. Flapjacks are generally good for me, especially any with ginger in them.
The hardest part is repeatability. You can do do any amount of 50-60km long runs on a weekend and think you have something that works but that’s a completely different story to being 20hrs into something with 100km and 5,000 vert in your legs. You simply can’t train for that feeling and the race becomes your experiment.
I always use salt tabs, even in winter (fewer of them then). Crisps can be ok but I crush them first, as they hurt my throat if I try and run after eating them ‘normally’.
If I’m doing regular road 20-25km training run, I don’t take anything except water and some salt tabs if it’s relatively hot.
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You guys are wild. Anything that involves me having to change gear or stand out the saddle more than once I will classify as “hilly” 
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