Activity Points Question about Endurance Athletic Event

[Guest guest]

I'm a backsliding Lifetimer, who wants to get back to goal weight and stay

there.

Next week, I'm doing a week-long bike ride, riding something like 50 miles a

day, and then doing a lot of physical effort, walking, setting up tents, that

sort of thing.

I NEED to eat additional points to get through the ride. generally don't ride at

an all-out pace on these sorts of rides, and it's gonna be flat Florida, so I'll

probably be riding about 14-17 m.p.h., with few hills. There are rest stops

every 15-20 miles, generally stocked with Gatorade or Powerade, as well as

bananas, powerbars, that sort of thing.

I won't have any problem eating my five servings of fruit...that'll be bananas.

I know that for breakfast, they generally serve fried eggs, pancakes, that sort

of thing, and I haven't pre-ordered any breakfasts.. I'll stock up on

Cliff-Bars, they taste good and are about 5-6 points each.

In the past, I've found that I really need to eat about six points of food each

hour that I'm riding in order to avoid bonking. Bonking is running totally out

of energy, you feel like crap. Don't want to bonk. But, on the other hand, I

don't want to eat too much, because I'd love to lose a few pounds of fat with

all that exercise. I've done these week-long bike rides for years and it's more

common for me to eat with abandon and come back with a weight gain, which I

don't think would be accounted for by additinal muscle mass, although my muscles

sure do get toned up after the week.

Did I mention we also enjoy drinking a lot of beer in the evenings? Gotta

replace those fluids, you know. Oh, and no matter how many miles I've pedaled,

if there's a band playing, I'm gonna dance...guess that's more activity points,

huh?

Your thoughts, especially marathon runner Tory?