Internal Mono(b)log

In an attempt to step away from heavily processed food stuffs for race nutrition, I’m experimenting with home-made “energy bites” for some solid fuel on the bike.

Experiment Version 1:

• 200g dates
• 100g dried cranberries
• 50g raw cashews
• 20g chia seeds
• sprinkle sea salt

Dehydrating for several hours…  will divide into 16 “bites”.    Each bite breaks down nutritionally as 86.25 calories (16.625g carb, 1.8125g protein, 1.8125g fat, 2.125 fiber).  The dates and cranberries will give me some immediate energy, the chia and cashews some fat for longer term fueling and to slow the carb uptake a bit and a little sodium for replenishing sweat losses.

Pre-dehydrating they taste alright: not super sweet.  I’m most concerned with them being too sticky or too crumbly.  I guess I’ll see in a few hours 😉

Follow-UP

So, the bites dehydrated overnight.  They’re about the density of a caramel and not very sticky.  They kinda taste like Christmas Fruit cake (which is good by me 🙂 ).  Riding 90k today @ 200w average, so I guess I’ll see how they sit in my belly 🙂

It’s no secret that I love FirstEndurance’s nutrition and supplement products.  I’ve raved about them here a lot.   Recently in my training and racing, especially where I need to carry a lot of calories in a small space, I’ve been doing something new (for me):  I’ve been diluting a couple of flasks of Liquid Shot (400 calories/flask) with water in a water bottle on the bike.

In a 750ml water bottle, the double-flask of liquid shot diluted with water takes on a milk-shake-like consistency that while being easy to pull up through the straw in a aero-bar-mounted drink system (Torhans or the ilke), is thick enough that it doesn’t spray everywhere when you finish drinking from the straw or hit every bump in the road.

This approach also works better than my previous choices (4 scoops of carbo-pro + 4 scoops of EFS drink in water) because it can be difficult to get all that powder to dissolve in water, but EFS Liquid Shot is already liquid form, so diluting it does not present the same sort of challenge.  Also with the high concentration of amino acids and electrolytes in EFS products, I don’t need to worry about carrying salt pills and have never cramped (even in the crazy heat/humidity recently in Panama).

On my run, I still carry a flask of Liquid Shot and EFS drink in my Fuel Belt.  On the bike, especially for long rides where I’m burning about 700calories/hour, having the ability to easily carry 1600-2400 calories of Liquid Shot is a big win!

Wow, getting to the big day so quickly.  Today’s training was just a 30 minute light run to keep the legs moving and more mental prep/visualization.  I also have to pack today because tomorrow I move from Richard and Jamuna’s place in Playa Coronado where I’ve been since I got here on the 1st, to Panama City and the Ironman Village.  The biggest challenge from Friday onward will be sticking to my plan and not getting pulled into the hype and hysteria in the village.  I anticipate a lot of time solo, in my room, with the lights dimmed and chill music playing. 😉

Tomorrow is also carb loading day.  I like to do this on the day 2 days from the race, not the night before.  The night before I find that I’m frequently just too heavy feeling heading into the race.  2 days gives your body time to digest and synthesize as much glycogen as possible and refill those muscles.

Normally, I try to maintain at a daily 500 calorie deficit which, to me, represents a bit of a slush fund because I don’t weigh and track everything.  It probably really reflects 100-200 calories of deficit/day.  Yesterday and today, I aim to eat to a zero deficit or perhaps a small surplus.  I drop my dietary fibre intake from it’s normal 70+g/day but keep my diet essentially the same.  In fact, other than dropping the fibre intake and any spicy/challenging foods, I don’t change my dietary constraints heading into race day _at_all_.   This follows my Coach Approved “don’t change anything” philosophy.  Much as you may want to try the super tasty food from the street vendor, this is not the time!

There’s been a lot written about carb loading.  A couple of recent articles that I really like are this sweatscience.com article and this one in the Globe and Mail.  In general, there’s little doubt that carb loading works and recent studies seem to imply that between 7 and 10 grams per kilogram of body weight is the right amount.

Given that, my aim for Friday will be to get 500-720g of carbs into me, along with my usual 150g protein.  With a little good fat in the mix, and my super reduced activity level due to the taper,  this will be a definite calorie surplus day. That’s ok though: It’s not like I’m not going to need it and burn it off in a couple of days 🙂

For me, since I don’t eat grains (bread, pasta, rice, etc.) the carbs will be in the form of sweet potatoes, fruit, veg, coconut water, and likely some sport drink to bring the total grams of carbs up and add some electrolytes to the mix.

Today is another light day of heat/humidity acclimatization.  Pretty much the same as yesterday’s, but today I plan on hitting the beach and doing a bit of an ocean swim rather than the pool.

Last night I charged the GoPro’s, put one in the wrist mount and mounted the 2nd on my aerobars on the bike.  So, with some tech-luck, I’ll have some images/video footage to share tonight.  The wireless connection I’m on is Wi-Max and not super stable, so, whether or not I can successfully upload the images will be a different story, but I’ll cross that bridge later 🙂

So Race Day Nutrition:

I’m not talking here about carb loading, I will talk about that later, here I’m talking about what I eat and drink, and when, during the actual event.  I’m going to break this up into 5 sections: Pre, Swim, Bike, Run, and Post.

Pre

The night before the race I’ll probably try to get to sleep around 8pm.  I’ll sleep with a couple of bananas beside the bed.  I normally wake around 2am for a bathroom break and if I do, I’ll eat the bananas.

I’ll wake around 4am and have a BIG cup of coffee, this will be my first caffeine in 2 weeks and the coffee will help stimulate (ahem) nature’s call.  I’ll also eat a bunch of berries (strawberries and blueberries if I can find them) with yogurt for breakfast.  I’ll omit my normal bran buds from this morning’s breakfast as I don’t want the fibre in the way.

As I head down to the shuttle bus and checkin, I’ll start sipping a bottle with Hornet Juice and EFS Sport Drink.

Swim

Of course you can’t take on nutrition during the swim, at least not a short swim like this (sure if you’re doing a lake crossing or something you’ll figure out a way to eat and drink, but not here).

About 25 minutes before my wave enters the water, I’ll consume a flask made up of 1/2 flask of EFS Liquid Shot, 1 scoop of EFS Pre Race and water.  Ultimately I want these hitting my blood stream just as my wave kicks off and this timing seems pretty good.

Bike

On the bike, through experimentation, I’ve found that I can consume approximately 800 calories per hour without getting an upset stomach.  This can be a mix of liquid, gel or solids and it doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference; however, in the last 1/3 of the bike I try to switch to liquids only because my gut isn’t as nice to me when running 😉

My bike nutrition is made up of Hornet Juice, EFS Sport Drink, EFS Liquid Shot and, as a mid-race boost, EFS Pre-Race.  I’ll typically mix up very concentrated water bottles of:

• 1 or 2 Hornet Juice
• 3 scoops of EFS Sport Drink
• 3 or 4 scoops of CarboPro

Each bottle being approximately 800 calories of fuel.  A flask of EFS Liquid Shot is 400 calories and the 3 chia chargers that I’ll have represent another 400 calories.  With 2 bottles that gives me 2400 carried calories.  I burn approximately 700 calories per hour when riding at race pace, so if I consumed all my carried nutrition, I’d come into the run with a bit of a surplus.  Based on history, it’s unlikely that I will get through it all, but I try 🙂

Run

On the run my nutrition is made up of EFS Liquid Shot, and Hornet Juice carried in my FuelBelt.  Running I burn about 650 calories per hour and I’ll be carrying 900 calories.  Which, again, if I (unlikely) consume it all puts me at only a minor deficit out of the run.

Post

Post race I have EFS Ultragen waiting for me to immediately replenish some protein into the system.  I’ll look for some “real food”™ to eat.  Not eating grains or unidentifiable meat cuts (no hamburgers, ground meat, sausage, etc) probably means I’m eating whatever fruit I can find.  At this point, I’d kill for a grilled chicken breast or 2 on a bed of mixed greens with some other raw veg and no dressing, but I doubt that I’ll be successful in finding that at the post race.

Notes

I haven’t talked about hydration here, it’s super important.  I onboard water at every aide station on the bike, regardless of whether my speedfil is full/empty or anywhere in between.  There are 4 bike aide stations on this 90k ride so I have no excuse for running out of water.  On the run the aide stations are every mile.  At the run aide stations I typically just grab water to cool myself down and sometimes some water to drink.  I carry my own hydration to a point, but given the heat down here, I know it won’t be enough.  So I’ll likely drink some water at each aide station and rely on my carried water for the gaps between the stations.

I don’t rely on course aide stations for nutrition.  I have experimented with different gels, drinks, and solid foods and have discovered through, at times pretty uncomfortable, experimentation what works for me.  It’s been said a million times and I’ll add my voice to it: nutrition is very personal, what works for one person may not for another.  You have to find your optimal solution and check your limits to figure out what works for you.

Kim and I made Vegan Creme Brulee for desert tonight. A little off my eating plan, but a small (very small) diversion and OH MY GOD(!!!) was it good.

We made 1/3 of the recipe, which was probably 1/2 as much as the 2 of us wanted, but realistically about as much as we should have at a sitting ;).  Cashews, Maple Syrup, Agar, Arrowroot Powder, Almond Milk and a little sugar… wow!

Rough nutritional analysis (per serving) via nutritiondata.com:

• Calories: 208
• Fat: 7g
• Carb: 31g
• Protein: 7g

Recipe via VeganGoodEats.com here: http://vegangoodeats.com/2010/07/la-creme-brulee-sans-la-dairy-pour-le-vegan/

Nutrition is one of those topics that is done to death, and I think there’s a very good reason for it:  Everyone is looking for the “one true way”.  I don’t believe there is one true way for everybody.   In fact, I think that beyond certain truisms, like “eating fewer calories than you expend will cause you to loose weight” or it’s converse, nutrition is a very very personal topic.  I believe that what works well for me, may fail terribly for you.  This may be true for genetic, cultural or societal reasons. I can’t say.  I also may just be full of shit, I’m ok with that too.  I’m not a nutritionist, but I have experimented a lot with my diet and nutrition and, through trial and error, I’ve found what works for me.

Read more… »

Today I’m enjoying every sip of every coffee, every slurp of Yerba Mate peppermint tea, every nibble of 99% cocoa solids chocolate. I may even have a caffeinated tea at some point and if I do I’ll make sure to slowly savour and enjoy it as well.  Today is my last caffeinated day until the morning of IMPanama.

I don’t drink a LOT of coffee (typically a cup or maybe 2 a day).  In my training, especially before intense workouts, I may use an ergogenic aide like First Endurance’s Pre-Race to help push hard and reach conditioning levels at the top ends of my current abilities. But, for the next 2 weeks, I’m doing a reset.  If my body has built any tolerance to these substances, the next 14 days will be enough to undo some of that habituation and allow their full effects to be felt and capitalized upon.

Does caffeine make a difference?  Well, based on a number of scientific studies, research papers, and other scholarly works there’s no clear answer.  In my laboratory of 1 (i.e. me) I know that coffee has a laxative effect (that I’ll certainly miss over the next 2 weeks), but that it also has a performance enhancing one.  First Endurance Pre-Race has been clinically shown to improve performance and one of it’s ingredients is also caffeine.  We also know that many of these ergogenic substances, over time, work to deplete your adrenals.  Giving my adrenal system time to recharge has got to be a plus.

So, I look at it this way:

• since my experiments have shown it beneficial for me (even if only psychosomatically), and
• given that I’ll be on vacation from work starting Tuesday (i.e. not having to wake at 5am to workout before work, being able to nap when I’m tired, etc), and
• given that doing a detox every now and then is generally a “good thing”.

My 2 week caffeine fast can do nothing but good.

So, over the next few weeks, while you’re enjoying your morning brew, have a sip for me!  I’ll be drinking peppermint or some other herbal tea, Caflib, coconut water, almond milk or juice.  I’ll join you in a “Cup o’ Joe”on the 12th!

Kim and I just made raw thai coconut cacao pudding in the blendtec. So good and so easy.

Ingredients:

• about 100g fresh young coconut
• a little coconut water to help blend
• about 2 tbsp cocoa powder (or nibs – we used powder because Kim doesn’t like the grittiness of nibs)
• agave or honey to taste
• pinch of salt

1. blend the coconut flesh to small chunks
2. in a small bowl mix the sweetener and cocoa
3. mix the coconut and cocoa mixture in the blender add pinch of salt and blend til smooth
4. refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes to set up.

Such a wonderful, tasty, healthy and low cal treat! Yum!  This will be made again for sure!

I just read this: Agave Nectar is Bad for Your Health and I’m sad.  Back to honey, maple syrup and stevia.

I guess if you mixed agave with a glucose source, it’d be “less bad” but really, it’s, from what I read here, just as terrible for you as high fructose corn syrup. 🙁

Well hell!

It’s kinda like Buckley’s Mixture “it tastes bad, but it works”.

Yup it’s true, PreRace is probably some of the nastiest tasting stuff you’d intentionally put in your mouth, but it really really works (I’ve already reviewed PreRace here).  FirstEndurance has many clinical studies posted on its effectiveness, but I can tell you from this personal laboratory of 1, it works really well.

This morning I had to do a 40 minute time-trial in the pool and I was feeling pretty sluggish, I take PreRace before my events, so figured that this would be appropriate timing to also take some.  But it tastes BAD!

Today I mixed a scoop into 1 oz of unsweetened cranberry juice with 1 oz of water and, to my joy and amazement, I couldn’t taste the PreRace!!!

Oh, and my time trial?  Lets just say I’m happy with the results 😉