What Runners and Cyclists Both Get Wrong About Fuelling

Running and cycling are different sports, which use different gear, and are a part of different communities with different training philosophies.

But ask both types of athletes about their nutrition habits, and the conversation gets surprisingly similar. Because for all their differences, runners and cyclists tend to make the same fuelling mistakes. And those mistakes cost both groups more than they realize.

The Mistake They Share: Waiting Too Long

If there is one fuelling error that cuts across both sports, it is this: eating too late.

Runners tend to underestimate how quickly they burn through glycogen at pace. Cyclists often feel settled on the bike and mistake that comfort for a sign that they do not need to eat yet. In both cases, by the time hunger arrives, the deficit has already been building for 30 to 45 minutes. You are not fuelling a current need. You are chasing a hole.

The fix is the same for both: eat before you are hungry. Set a schedule based on time, not sensation. For efforts over 60 minutes, something every 45 minutes is a reasonable starting point regardless of which sport you are in.

🏃 What Runners Specifically Get Wrong

Running is hard on the gut. The impact of each stride creates a level of gastrointestinal disruption that cyclists simply do not deal with in the same way. This leads many runners to under-eat on long runs because they are worried about stomach issues, which creates a different but equally damaging problem.

• Skipping pre-run fuel: Many runners head out on an empty stomach for runs under 90 minutes, assuming they do not need food for shorter efforts. But even a moderate run on an empty tank depletes glycogen faster, increases perceived effort, and compromises the quality of the session.
• Not adapting to race-day nutrition in training: Whatever you plan to eat during a race needs to be tested during training. Your gut is trainable, but only with practice. Trying something new on race day is one of the most reliable ways to ruin a result you trained months for.
• Neglecting recovery nutrition: Runners are often so relieved to finish that post-run nutrition becomes an afterthought. The recovery window is real, and missing it consistently slows adaptation over time.

🚴 What Cyclists Specifically Get Wrong

Cyclists have one significant advantage over runners: they can carry more food and eat more comfortably while moving. This should make fuelling easier. Surprisingly, it often leads to complacency.

• The bonk on a long ride: Cyclists know about the bonk, the sudden loss of energy. They have all experienced it at least once. And yet under-fuelling on longer rides remains one of the most consistent complaints from recreational cyclists. Knowing about a problem and solving it are different things.
• Relying too heavily on liquid calories: Cycling nutrition culture leans heavily on gels, drinks, and liquid fuel. These have their place, but real food with fat and complex carbohydrates provides a more stable and sustained energy curve on rides over two hours.
• Forgetting about the ride home: Cyclists often fuel the outbound leg well and forget that they still have to get back. Pacing your nutrition across the full ride, not just the first half, is something many recreational cyclists have never thought about deliberately.

The Thing Both Sports Need More Of

Consistency. Not just in training, but in nutrition.

The athletes who perform best across both sports are rarely the ones with the most elaborate fuelling strategies. They are the ones who eat real food, eat it consistently, eat it before they are hungry, and do not treat nutrition as something to figure out on race day.

A bar that combines carbohydrates, fat, and protein in a format that is easy to eat on the move works for both a cyclist on the saddle and a runner grabbing something at the turnaround point. The sport is different. The nutritional requirement is not.

World Bike and Run Day may have just passed, but the season is only getting started. Fuel both sports properly with our Chocolate Explorer Boxes and discover which flavour earns a place in your kit.