I was wondering if any of your consume foods like potatoes or sandwiches or fruit when competing? What do you look for, what do you avoid? I am just trying to avoid the gels. I get so tired of that sweet stuff, that includes clif bars. I was thinking baked potatoes with salt. Any other options? What do trail runners eat when they are out there for 50 or 100 miles?
The Garmin-Slipstream team blog had some good posts by Dr. Lim about their food. Rice balls and baked potatoes are the recipes that I remember in particular (they may be the only two actually, I never checked how far back the posts go).
Personally, on my 100+ rides I usually eat a snack pack of crackers+pb just for the satisfying crunchiness of solid food.
What do trail runners eat when they are out there for 50 or 100 miles?
Read Dean Karnazes’s book. He is known for eating entire pizzas during his ultramarathon runs.
eating that much fat, from the cheese, would make me feel like crap! I read that too and I can’t see how he can do that. Then again I never tried to either. But just sitting down and eating pizza makes me feel SLOW!
I did IM Canada eating peanut butter pretzels and Fig Newtons.
I have done a few Ultras and boiled potatoes are the absolute best. I’ve used them on long training rides as well, but they
are not quite as magical then
I like red potatoes, they’re a nice size, and I boil them for maybe 15 minutes (check that…). Once they cool, slice them in
half and liberally season with sea salt, and put them in a sandwich bag. An Ultra makes even an IM seem like a red-line sprint,
you are mainly just shuffling along so digestive issues are not a problem at that low intensity. YMMV at higher intensities.
One year at the JFK 50 I ate two chilli dogs about mile 35 with no ill effects…although the folks trailing me may not completely agree.
I have used cut up PB&J’s in my bento box for HIM and IM races, until ST made me realize what a fashion faux-pas a bento box was.
It is a nice way to add variety.
Over the last few years, mainly in the interest of stripping down my race-day logistics, I just go with a few bottles of Infinit and
grab some bananas on course
Blasphemer!
Nutella on whole wheat in my Bento.
Nuts and dried fruit. Make your own trail mix with almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, whatever you can find.
I did IM Canada eating peanut butter pretzels and Fig Newtons.
i was just going to say that (well not the IMC part). I never knew how great those two things could be until an aid station had some at mile 18 of one of my long runs.
A good orange or a couple clementines are a gift from God during a long hot ride.
PBJ. Rice balls. Cookies.
+1 for Fig Newtons, and some of the organic granola bars with nuts in them
.
I usually make pancakes for the family on saturday mornings and find that they are great cold later in the day or on Sunday. If I remember I put a few raisins in the extra ones whilst I am cooking them to keep to one side or if I forget, they are pretty good with some nutella between a couple.
It is sweet, but much much nicer to eat than another gell or powerbar. Otherwise I find slated almonds are good to have in your pocket for long, hot sweaty rides.
Figs baby, they’re easy packin and go down good.
Also Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Cakes are nighty fine.
When I’m on a long ride and looking for more calories at a gas station, I usually grab some fig nutens. They’re tasty and go down easy, plus lots of quick carbs.
My 2 fav’s when training long (long rides or 3-4 hr trail runs) are -
-
peanut butter & honey sandwiches - I use potato bread and put the PB & honey on one half and fold them over to make little half sandwiches. a little protein & fat from the PB, some sugar from the honey, and the potato bread is easy to digest
-
raspberry neutons - I can’t stand the flavor of figs
JM
1.) Nutter Butters (still sweet though)
2.) Uncrustables (yes, it’s PBJ…but in the freezer and it’s super handy)
http://www.smuckers.com/products/category.aspx?groupId=3&categoryId=46
3.) Rice (you can buy a rice cooker for $15 at Target. super easy to make…Jasmine rice is the best)
i wouldn’t know where to find them other than the candy/nut wholesaler’s retail store down the street from my office (david roberts foods), but roasted & salted green peas are tasty. almost like pistachios without so much fat.
cheers!
-mistress k
I’m amazed nobody’s mentioned a can of Vienna sausages…man, that juice is good…
Fig Newtons are good, but still sweet. I actually had some mini-pretzels during IMC and I think that saved my race. They have salt, but don’t make you go insane from more sweet crap.
There’s a video in a past thread about making potatoes for long rides. That probably works well.