I've been much less strict on long rides recently, and rather oddly (because I don't really know why it was - perhaps a couple of pints of beer last Wednesday was the cause) I was completely out of ketosis on Friday, scoring 0.2mmol in a morning test.
Audax-wise, we're onto the longer events now; events that are more than a day ride, so encompass actual mealtimes. We are both pretty accomplished at being able to ride long stretches on little or no food, without any negative energy impact; which must be down to much improved fat metabolism, even if full keto-adaptation is absent.
But low-carb eating is very inconvenient. Stop at a Costa for example, and you won't find anything on the menu that doesn't contain carbs. Garages are ok - Babybels are available, as are meaty treats - but I've been happy to revert to more conventional audax food such as a Ginster's sausage roll - it doesn't seem to affect things overall.
We were able to ride 240km of Saturday's 400 (at pretty high pace, averaging 28kph) before we had a sit-down stop, which was Tesco Cafe, Gainsborough. The place looked like it had been sacked - there were no hot food options, and we had to make do with toasties and panninis. More carbs than we'd like, but we avoided anything sweet.
We have, on the odd occasion we've actually ridden in conditions that one might remotely refer to as "warm", had an ice cream at a garage stop, but we generally avoid anything sweet.
At the 320km point on Saturday, we stopped at a pub, and shared a burger meal; fboab had the cheeseburger contents of the burger, and I made a chip-butty out of the rest.
Overall, we're both finding continued gain in energy management and flow on long rides. But we've both found the appetite management less effective. But then again, perhaps that's because we've upped the mileage quite a lot recently (600k weekend, then two weeks later a 400km) so perhaps we're just hungry!
Away from audaxing, we're still pretty strictly LCHF; I've stopped monitoring now, but my daily carb intake is probably 50g or just under - and if I'm strict with my milk-in-tea problem, probably more like 25 or 30g.
As I said a long way up-thread, I did this mostly for weightloss and energy management. In that respect having lost 15Kg since Christmas 2012, and being able to ride 250km of a fast audax on little more than finger food, I'd say it's continuing to be a success.
