Food Glorious food

I make no bones about it, I am a girl who loves her food.  Fancy or fast, healthy or dripping in saturated fats, I adore it.  I love to cook it, bake it, eat it and  I love to eat out....  Although when I say eat out, I am not sure I mean eat out of a zip-lock bag, in the middle of nowhere, on the side of a hill while hurtling down it at a hundred miles an hour, on a mountain bike.

So I think the time has come at long last to let you into my inner most thoughts on race food.  The first thing that happens is that food becomes fuel.  It is important for it's energy value and taste is secondary. 

Adventure racers are a pretty friendly bunch in my (limited) experience.  They share ideas and tell horror stories (they are worse than women with their birth stories) about various races and exploits they have got up to.  Yep, a pretty friendly bunch except when it comes to...food, specifically race food, that is a prickly subject.

Race nutrition has been at the root of many heated debates among the various groups of people I have trained with.   Some, doing shorter/ stage races don't use anything at all and there are those who recommend constant grazing from start to finish, no matter the length of the event.  There have been discussions on the use of energy drinks (ranging from they are rubbish, to they are vital) and gels (it would seem you either love them or hate them) and the meal replacement drinks....well!

I am no expert on nutrition in the capital N sense of the word.  I know a bit about it because I want to stay healthy and feed my family well but I am not a professional.  What I have learnt, I have gleaned along the way  and also because I am quite interested in food....particularly yummy food!

In our team we all have definite ideas on what we do or do not like to use for nutrition and energy while training and eating.  I think that the biggest factors in decided whether we believe something works are taste and texture, not maximum calories nor whether it is slow or quick release energy.
We will be using energy drinks but even then there are different opinions and brand loyalty! I am not fussed about the brand as long as they work and  I think they are fantastic and they seem to work for me.  They have the added advantage that they are something different from water and variety is good.  Also, I have experienced nausea when doing long term extreme exercise and that is when they really help.  I am also a convert to the zero cal electrolytes although I found it quite weird to drink a salty fruit flavoured drink but they really have helped me with cramping and replacing salts.  So far, so good.   Not much contention there...

Now let me type one little word:  gels! You know what they say about don't mention money, politics and religion....well among my racing acquaintances there are some who would add energy gels to that list.  Ross hates them.  It's a texture thing and I get that, I really do.  I think they are a necessary evil.   I hate jelly but I can cope with racing gels.  They are generally palatable, easily digestible (really important when you experience nausea.) and they are a good source of short term energy.  I know it is short term but they have their place, although I definitely wouldn't use them exclusively.  Too many and you get furry teeth and the inside of your mouth feels like it's claggy and coated with glue.  But, 1-2 an hour mixed in with other stuff is great.  Sadly, they do have a serious draw back: gel hands!  Picture this, it was my first ever 2 day stage race. It was a beautiful warm October day, I was in an all woman team and I was using gels as part of the nutrition regime for the race.  We had cycled to the top of the South Downs, the view was spectacular. I decided to have a little nibble so I reached round into the side pocket of my rucksack to grab out a black current flavoured gel.  I held it in one hand and ripped off the top with the other. Gel explosion!! It literally poured out everywhere, I tried to get it into my mouth and it poured down my chin.  My hands were covered, my face was covered.  I tried to lick it off my hands.  I needed the precious energy it contained...but although the gel is gone, the stickiness remains.  My hands felt like they had super glue on them. I tried to pour a bit of water from my hydration pack on to my hands.  That didn't work...flippin' bite valve... means I can't get the water out without using my teeth on the opening.  So I was having to suck water out of the tube and spit it on my hands... I rubbed away at the gel but to no avail....now I had spit and gel on my hands.  I gave up and tried to wipe them on the back of my cycle shorts which I had forgotten are slightly muddy.  Now I have a heady mix of mud, spit and gel on my hands.  I gave up.  I decided it was time to carry on and so I reluctantly grabbed on to my handlebars.  I was stuck to them!! My hands have been glued to them by the gel. 

Grrreat!

Adventure Racing, I do it for fun you know!

And,  gels are super....I really like them.

As I mentioned,  Ross, hates them.  He seems to favour trail mix.  I have to say, after 12 hours on trail mix during our overnight training session I had gone off it a bit.  It was the homogonized flavour I found distressing after a while. I make our own trail mix.  We favour salted cashews, salted peanuts, little bits of ginger and raisins and the odd jelly baby.  I package it up into small zip lock bags and we are set.  This is great for short training sessions or very short (sprint) races.   The other problem often experienced, is how after several hours of salted mixed nuts and raisins, the inside of your mouth starts to feel like it has been sandpapered....  It's horrible.

So there you are sandpapered, gluey mouth....sounds like the makings of fabulous gastronomy, doesn't it?

You thought it couldn't get worse?

You thought wrong...

The great horror is the meal replacement drink.  I mean who ever heard of replacing the delights of chewing with sipping and gulping?  And deary me, what a contentious issue it is.  The meal replacement drink... there are some very strong opinions about that. Andy comes down firmly in the no camp, whilst Ross is a yes-campaigner. I am on the fence and William being a teenager, will probably eat the packaging it came in, if he was hungry enough.

So, today I reluctantly received a delivery of 2 tubs complete meal replacement.  And, for the sake of not being sued by its makers, I will not be revealing its name.  I will use it because it works but it has to be said, I am not sure I like it.  You see, there is no gastronomic satisfaction in drinking your dinner.  You take a certain amount of this powder and mix it with the (correct) amount of water and tadaa! A Gourmet Treat!  It fills you up, it certainly provides you with the energy, vitamins and minerals that you need during intense activity but it doesn't leave you feeling fulfilled like dinner should.  You see, you can't get emotionally involved with a sort of milk-less milkshake the way you can with a muffin.  (I wish they made energy muffins but sadly there is still a huge gap in the market.

At least, the night before the race we have pasta bolognaise to look forward to.  This I will prepare in advance in Surrey and then we will drive all the way to Ireland with our dinner, in a hopefully water-tight plastic box (there's a recipe for disaster!!) .  That's ok.  I've no problems with that.  But then for the 40 hours after that this is what our meals will look like,

liquid dinner/breakfast
trail mix
cereal bars
salami (yuck!!sorry but I do prefer ham)
mini cheeses
pita bread
boiled eggs
boil in the bag food (This I have never experienced, I am a little afraid...)
jelly babies
energy gels
energy drinks
electrolyte drinks
pronutro (similar to redibrek)
more energy gels
more energy drinks
more liquid meals
dark chocolate
biltong (horrible salty shoe leather: sorry to my South African friends and relatives)
droe wors (dried sausage, marginally better than biltong)

(This list isn't in order and it isn't complete but truly when I looked at the menu that Ross has typed up,  I loss the will and the true horror of going without a proper meal and replacing it with a stream of energy producing nutrition, dawned on me.)

The problem is the overwhelming sweetness of energy foods. There is a brief nod to flavour but really these foods are fuel.  High octane unleaded fuel, but fuel non-the-less.  The gels for example come in fruit flavours as do the drinks and the cereal bars are maple flavoured. I have a sweet tooth but after a while, I just want a steak! A big bloody one with chips....That is why we have thrown in things like boiled eggs and cheese  (I know there isn't much comparison to steak but at least they aren't sweet and high a high protein and good nutritional value)

With endurance sports, I have been taught to eat every 20 to 30 minutes, a handful of nuts, a cereal bar or a gel helps keep your energy levels up at good levels instead of using it all up and crashing a burning and starting from scratch again.  But think of me when you sit down to your dinners while I am out there slogging it out on the hills and slopes of Ireland.  Think of me....

I really must remember, I am doing this for fun....I really am?!