Fueling for a half distance triathlon is no easy task. I'm going to burn somewhere around 4500 calories propelling my body for 70.3 miles. According to data on this website I'll burn about 600 on the swim, about 2500 on the bike, and about 1400 on the run. I've seen the 4500 number thrown around on some websites as well. The human body can store about 1500-2000 calories, so I'll be about 2500 short by the end of the race if I didn't take in any nourishment. Actually, I would bonk hard if I took in nothing and more than likely would not finish. Figuring out what works for an individual is a bit of trial and error so I thought I would take the opportunity during my long ride yesterday to try some products.
I started with the cliff bar (240 calories). Good flavor and easy to eat but a bit chewy and heavy. I may practice with them some more. Then I went for the Sport Beans (100 calories). This was my second trial with them. They are like eating super sweet jelly beans. I love candy so the taste was great. They are hard to get out of the package at speed, so I think they are out. Lastly I ate the Gu Chomps (180 calories). They are like eating Dots candy (which I love) but they don't stick to your teeth as badly. They are easy to get out of the package and not to heavy. I think they will be making the trip to New Orleans, but Chomps alone won't be enough. On my next long ride I plan to try some Perpetuem.
Back to calories for a minute. I heard about horseshoe open faced sandwiches when I moved to Southern Illinois but had never had one. A while back Josh and I watched a man vs. food episode where he went to Springfield IL and ate a horseshoe sandwich. Josh and I thought that looked good and decided we needed to have that for dinner. A horseshoe is a piece of toast (or two) with a hamburger (or two) on top of it covered in french fries then covered with cheese sauce. I didn't add up the calories, but I bet it is north of 2000.
I was only able to finish 3/4's of it. Here is Sara's step by step.
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texas toast |
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| add the burger |
 |
| add the fries |
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| and the cheese |
They were delicious. The only thing missing was bacon and chili :-)
3 comments:
try throwing in a peanut butter and jelly in a wheat pita on yur next long ride. Cut in half in two ziplock bags fits nice in you jersey pocket.
I use gels, beans, chomps, et al but it also helps to have something a bit more substantial in the mix as well.
I've always found eating (and taking pictures) to be much easier on a bike than while running. I wonder if you could put the sport beans into some kind of a bottle or canister or something so you could just shake them into your mouth?
Patrick - good idea. I'll pick up some wheat pita bread before my next long ride.
Kate - good idea. If beans turn out to be a good fuel source for me, I can just come up with a better delivery system.
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