Re: ride food

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Glenda R. Snodgrass wrote:
> 
> Since my first appeal, posted on Jan 1, only garnered 4 replies with one
> food each, I am assuming (hoping?) it simply got lost in your collective
> holiday email backlogs and was deleted without being read first. <g> I
> actually got more "I'm so glad you're asking this question" replies than
> I did answers. :(
> 
> So, here's the deal:  I'm looking for suggestions of good foods to eat
> just before and during a ride -- things that will stick to your ribs
> without upsetting your tummy, things that keep well, pack well, etc.  I'll
> collect the responses and put them in a FAQ that maybe Steph could post on
> endurance.net.  So far this is what I have:
> 
> pop tarts
> cold milk
> applesauce & mandarin orange slices
> Honey Peanut Balance bar
> 
> Oh, yes, Tracy said to be sure and NOT eat "hotter than hot" enchiladas :)
> 
> So?  Favorite foods or simple recipes, please!
> 
> Glenda & Lakota (25 down, 1000s to go!)


Well, okay, here's mine---before the ride, I found an Instant Breakfast,
preferably made with warm milk really is easy to get down and keeps me
going.  If you mix a teaspoon of instant coffee into the chocolate
flavor, you get the caffeine (mandatory in my case) and turn it into a
sort of cappucino-tasting thing that's really good.

At a lunch stop and after a ride, nothing sits as well as chilled
fruit---honeydew, watermelon, grapes, bananas, etc.  Pasta salad, or
even just cold spaghetti is pretty good.  If you send out cold pasta in
an ice chest or something, don't make the mistake of using a high-fat
sauce---there's nothing worse than trotting down the trail trying to get
congealed grease off the roof of your mouth.  If I have to send a
non-chilled lunch out on the truck or even carry it in my bag, oranges
survive well amid bouncing.

On the trail itself, I found a nifty little goo-bottle and holster at
REI that I velcroed to the saddle pommel, so I can just squeeze a bit
into my mouth every now and then.  It tastes marginally better than
Power Bars and doesn't have to be chewed, just sort of slurped down. 
The bottle is small and unobtrusive, but still holds several of the Gu
packets without having to mess with wrappers, etc on the trail.

I also found out that those little cans of Ensure are life savers. 
Someone handed one to me a couple years ago at Tevis when I was really
bottoming out and it worked wonders.  Maybe another cold can of Instant
Breakfast would also work, I haven't tried them mid-day.  Probably
would.

I remember one hot ride after which someone handed me a smoothie made of
bananas, fruit juice, ice and umm, well, an awful lot of rum and I
thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  Maybe making up something like
this (with or without rum) ahead of time, freezing it solid and keeping
it well buried in ice so it wasn't totally defrosted by the end of the
ride would work.  

At the other extreme, the sickest I've EVER been at a ride was after
someone gave me an ice-cold soda after the finish and I chugged it
down.  An hour later I was doing the technicolor yawn aka Laughing at
the Ground alongside the road and wishing someone would just shoot me. 
Never again.

Susan Garlinghouse