I posted this on another thread, but someone’s question reminded me of a friend of mine who packed a turkey and swiss bagel sandwich…he had some digestion problems on the run. It was his first triathlon ever (1/2 IM) and he new very little about the sport.
I’m curious…anyone have any good stories about things you’ve seen newbies do in terms of nutrition, perhaps someone wants to fess up for something they’ve done?
My biggest learning experience, was on my first 1/2 IM, I had nothing except a couple bottles of gatorade - no gels or anything.
In a race a number of years ago, as is the custom, I stuck a few chunks of Powerbar to the top tube of my bike. As the race progressed, I peeled off the chunks and ate them. I looked down at the top tube once just before we got to transition at the end of the bike and noticed that on where I peeled off one of the chunks a big chip of the bike’s paint had come off and I guess I had eaten it to!
Not my story, but I knew a guy who went ~10:30 at the Great Floridian eating boiled chicken that he had “salted the hell out of”. He said that he had a big ziplock bag full of it to munch on while on the bike because he could not go that long eating on sugary type foods.
A long time ago, I bonked badly on an early season ride. Even though I was only a few miles from home, I stopped at a stadium and rode around it until I found one door that wasn’t closed properly. Inside, most cabinets were locked but I found a huge bag of popcorn that was left out. I sat on the floor behind the counter with my bike and had a nice meal.
Other riders have told me that they would go into dining establishments and take packs of sugar, jelly, etc. Some even took food left on tables that the waiters hadn’t picked up yet.
Back in the 80’s, a bunch of us made an annual ritual out of riding to the beach and back which was typically about a 160 mile round trip depending on where in town the ride started. The last time we did the ride nobody checked the weather and at the 45-50 mile point, a fast moving cold front moved through the area and was precedded by a dramatic drop in temperature, gusting tailwinds (later this would be an unrelenting headwind), and a lot of rain. Seeing as we were all die hard road racers of varying abilities, we were undeterred in our quest - or were simply too stupid to admit it was time to turn around - by a little bit of inclement weather and so we pressed on. Another hour passed and everyone was cold, wet, miserable, and very hungry so it was decided to stop at a McDonalds resturant. The manager of the resturant took pity on all of us when she let us have a bunch of apple pies although I think they had exceeded the required hold times in the hot box and were about to be thrown out. She was also nice enough to let us have some large trash bags which were then fashioned into impromptu rain gear. The real binge fest occurred once we made it back to the starting point having battled 30-35 mph headwinds the whole way (average speed was about 14-15 mph). We headed to a nearby Blackeyed Pea resturant and spent the next hour or so relaxing and ordered nothing but hot tea, cocoa, and coffee but scarfed down enough of their complimentary wheat dinner rolls to feed three times as many people.
I posted this on another thread, but someone’s question reminded me of a friend of mine who packed a turkey and swiss bagel sandwich…he had some digestion problems on the run. It was his first triathlon ever (1/2 IM) and he new very little about the sport.
I’m curious…anyone have any good stories about things you’ve seen newbies do in terms of nutrition, perhaps someone wants to fess up for something they’ve done?
My biggest learning experience, was on my first 1/2 IM, I had nothing except a couple bottles of gatorade - no gels or anything.
As most people already know, in the very first IM I stopped in at McDonalds at the halfway point on the run.
One of my training buddies and I stopped at Time Out, a local grease pit that’s open 24 hours a day and does it’s best business around 2:00 am when the bars close. We were finishing up an early season base ride and decided that bacon egg and cheese biscuits were just what we needed to make it back to the house. Needless to say, the rest of the way home did not feel all that great.
I’ve done the GFT twice and each time I supply my “special needs” bag with 2 McD’s hamburgers, a couple of gels and a Hersey’s Chocolate bar!! The Burgers never tasted as good as those in the bag!! I love solid food when I do HIM’s and IM’s!!
Back in 2002 when I did my first NYC Marathon, I decided to top off my fuel tank before the start of the race by eating some frosted shredded wheat. I was munching on this fiber laden snack up until an hour before the start. I washed it down with plenty of water and Gatorade.
My stomach was ok through most of the race. At around the 23 mile mark, I noticed that my bowels were starting to complain. At mile 24 I noticed a runner in front of me who appeared to have shit his shorts and prayed that it wouldn’t happen to me.
I made it to the finish line without soiling myself, but soon after I crossed it, I felt a tremendous urge to go. I couldn’t find a porto-potty anywhere, so I started to run around like a chicken without a head looking for a place to go.
Finally, like a ray of sun shining down from the heavens, I found a very large bush and tree that made sort of a hidden area. It was along a slope that leads down to the path where everyone was exiting the park. As soon as I pulled my shorts down about my knees my ass exploded with the force of an open fire hydrant. The sludge that emerged flowed down the slope with the swiftness of hot molten lava. It was all I could do to keep the flow away from my shoes. All of this was happening while hundreds of runners passed by me unnoticed as they exited the park.
I have since learned much about pre race nutrition – FIBER BAD.
For a 24 hr AR last year, my buddy (racing on another team) showed up with 2 whole stuffed pizzas, cut into slices and ziplocked in bags, along with a dozen and a half mixed varieties of bagels. Plus lots of other assorted stuff.
He actually intended to share all of this bounty with us, and was very surprized when there were no takers in the TA.
I do hafta admit, the rice krispie treats were tasty.
I think he is the first person ever to gain weight during a 24 hr race.
That’s so gross it’s hilarious! Yeah, fiber gets the bowels moving all right.
No strange nutrition stories for myself, but I’m wondering whether it’s really wise to have hamburgers in your special needs bags, or eating chicken over 10 hours after sitting out in the sun? Seems to me like it could be an invitation to some serious problems after the race. Of course, with all the preservatives McD’s puts in their “food”, might not be a problem.
In 1987 I had just graduated from High School and did my first tri. It was a 1.2 mile swim/50mile bike/10mile run. I didn’t know about the race until about 2 weeks out, but since I was a cross country and track runner I thought I was in pretty good shape and would be fine.
No concept of race nutrition whatsoever. I put a bottle of Gatorade in transition to chug after the swim, I also tied a tiny little baggie of figs on my top tube for bike nutrition -that was it. I’m sure you can imagine that the lack of preparation and food made for a long miserable day. Talk about an empty tank - I did finish that sucker though; I still have my 2nd in AG award (there were probably only 2 in my age group
By the way, I was so inspired that I didn’t do my second tri until 2003.
After drinking all night at “He’s Not Here?”
Yep. Or Spanky’s (tended bar there), 4 Corners, Hamm’s. In those days, I wasn’t picky about where I drank. Come to think of it, I’m still not.
You can buy very little coolers from Walmart. They are about 4x6 inches. Place a small frozen baggie with ice in with the burger and it’ll still be frozen when you get there. I’ve done this twice in the Florida heat and it works like a charm. BTW - the Chocolate bar was still frozen too!!
This is before high-tech race nutrition we have now. No gel, no Powerbars. Cookies, oranges and Gookinaid E.R.G. in the aid stations.
I have a 1985 Colnago Victory. During the race I am simply peeing on the bike as I go, and I have not yet learned the proper way to hygenically urinate on a bike, so consequently and without my knowledge I am peeing on top of my waterbottles.
