Ok so I am doing the 24 Hours of Booty and plan on riding the full 24 hrs. in preparing for future endurance races.
What are some the of food suggestions and scheduling when to eat?
*Easy on the comments here…
Jon C.
I’ve had good luck targeting 300-400 cal/hr w/ a fair amount of solid food. PB sandwiches, turkey and cheese sandwiches, beef jerky, and pringles are some of my favorites.
chicken broth, ensure.
My wife and I did this ride last year and are signed up to do it again in a few weeks. I came with a bag full of “energy” food and other things, but I didn’t touch it. The Booty folks had tons of real food throughout the night and the next day. Since I wasn’t planning on getting my heart rate up at any point, I figured as long as I kept myself hydrated, my stomach could digest pretty much anything. I made sure I drank plenty of water with good amounts of coffee and coke. I also made sure to keep myself topped off on salt so my body would absorb most of the fluids. I probably stopped every hour or so to refill my bottles, pee, and eat something that was provided. My favorites were chunks of Great Harvest bread with honey, the breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, and the subs for lunch.
The key for me was to stay hydrated and pace myself. All in all, it was a blast and I loved riding through the night. In the end, I put in 285 miles over 16 hours of riding in about a 20 hour period. My goal was 200 miles, but we ended up leaving a little early since both of our butts were killing us from sitting on our bike seats. This year we’ll be armed with some chammy butter, but we have to head out around noon to go to a wedding that evening. Hopefully I’ll be a bit better about staying on my bike all night and hit the 300 mile mark in only 17 hours of being there.
Just for reference, the first few hours were pretty crowded, but it started to thin out around 9:00 or 10:00.
Adam
For the 24+ hour adventure races I’ve done my teammates and I have taken the approach of eating what we crave. We pack foods that we think we will want to eat even at 2am when lost. I’d say variety has been a lifesaver for us. Like someone else mentioned, we aren’t often going so hard that our heart rates are up there, so we could stomach pretty much anything.
Thanks everyone for the input. That is pretty much what I was thinking.
I will bring the usual suspects of Clif Bars and Accelerade/Gatorade; but will add in the good stuff like PBJ’s, bananna’s, apples, etc. I also figured that the event was well stocked and I can get a sub or two and breakfast. Small guy - fast metabolism!
Jon C.
It really depends on what your target heart rate is going to be. If you’re planning on taking it nice and easy and just pace your way through it then you can rely on more solid “real” foods i.e. PB&J, etc. If you’ll be racing it then stay primarily all liquid, I prefer Infinit with low protein and very high electorlytes then have a banana every 6 hrs just to fill your stomach.
I raced Laguna Seca solo in June. My biggest mistake was believing that my Ironman nutrition (almost entirely liquid) would be successful for 24 hours.
In speaking with Yuri Hauswald after the race, he REPEATEDLY emphasized that solid foods are critical for success over 24 hours. While I was eating maltodextrin and turning out 1:30 laps (which led to massive gastro-pain), Yuri was having egg/bacon wraps and spinning 1:05s enroute to victory.
Obviously, everyone has personal preferences…Obviously, you should try whatever you are going to do in training.
With that said, I’d recommend that you have a broad selection of solid foods at your pit and plan on consuming around 200 Kcal of solid food per stop (yes, this will leave you feeling a bit heavy for the first 30 minutes of each lap, but you’ll also be “ahead” of the game WRT calories–Remember, it’s harder to stay on track on a MTB due to the challenge of the terrain which makes regularly scheduled nutrition/hydration less controllable). You can get the remaining 100-200 Kcal per hour by consuming a few energy drinks or having some liquid diet.
The key to success in a 24 hour race is to focus on the fact that it’s actually a 25 hour race where you hope to minimize stop-time. Don’t think about laps or mileage. Just focus on continuous forward progress. The pit is your enemy…Stop, get food, change clothes, get away from it. Do not sit down. Do not waste time telling stories…
Good luck,
Puskas
Bring a huge crate containing everything and anything you think you might like to eat.
Bring a brace of paper cups.
Fill a whole bunch of the cups with an assortment of food.
Everytime through the pits, grab a couple of cups with whatever looks good at the moment. Pound one down on the spot, pocket a couple more, and get out of the pits.
Support crew keeps the cups full, and varies the assortment.
liquids: paper cups full of coke, V-8, Soymilk, tea or coffee, and plain water. Waterbottles full of electrolyte drink, camelback(s) with water. I bring three camelbacks, and rotate them (third pack is larger to handle the light rig.)
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