What have you been doing with your race/ride food to balance health and performance? What’s worked for you that’s a little more unique?
While not unique I loved trying everything in the feed zone portables book. My favorite is the bacon rice egg bar… So much so that I proudly display this scratch sticker:
My favorite unique food was dried sweet potatoes. Super tasty, high carb, easy to chew and ton of calories
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Because I’m wary of stuffing pure sugar down me (diagnosed pre diabetic 12 months ago- now reversed thankfully) I’ve started using a Dutch replacement food bar (Jimmy Joy Plenny Bar) They appear not to have too much junk in them, taste ok and aren’t ridiculously expensive. I use Xert on my Garmin and start consuming them after an hour so and look to consume 1/3 to 1/2 of the carbs that Xert says I use. Seems to work for me. Each bar has 40g CHO , 20g PRO and some FAT
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Disclaimers: 60+ recreational rider, very low-sugar diet off the bike, mostly gravel, usually happy to stop and eat instead of trying to eat on the move.
As Trevor said, nuts and dried fruit(dates, figs, apricots, mango) are easy and have the advantage of long life in your bike stuff bag. A good way to make dried fruit less sticky is to put some oat flour in the bag.
Homemade energy balls and bars: There are a gazillion recipes online. I’ll often improvise with some combination of dried fruit, oats, nuts or nut butter, salt and spices such as cinnamon or ginger. If I want a chocolate taste(and those chocolate flavinoids) the dried fruit is sweet enough that cocoa powder of unsweetend chocolate(100% cacao) works well.
Rice bars, like the now-classic Allan Lim bacon & egg that Smashsquatch mentioned above, work well for me. It’s nice to have something savory. I make a Pad Thai-inspired version by cooking the rice with minced fresh ginger and garlic and then adding natural peanut butter and fresh lime juice.
I tried using brown sushi rice for more nutrition but it didn’t stick together as well. I recently found Haiga rice, which doesn’t have the bran but does have the germ.
Cubed and pan-roasted yellow potatos with a bit of salt and olive oil and grated cheese or seasoning(rosemary) are tasty. Roasted sweet potato is good but mushes more easily.
If you like a cookie or brownie, there are ways to make those healthier. Substituting oat flour for wheat flour aids nutrition and digestion, and has a sweeter taste. For example, there’s a killer recipe in Rocket Fuel by Matthew Kadey for chocolate mini-muffins that use cooked mashed squash or sweet potato as a base. In combination with oat flour you don’t need to add a lot of sweetener to make them tasty.
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For packaged food I try to go with bars with recognizeable ingredients. A small local producer makes the O.W.L. bar. Example:
Ingredients: certified organic gluten free oats, raw honey, almond butter (dry roasted unblanched almonds), figs (figs, rice flour), walnuts, organic pumpkin seeds, vanilla extract (alcohol, water, and select Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla beans), flaxseed meal, sea salt.
For something widely available RXbars seem like a reasonable choice.
Other workouts: I’ve used dates or other dried fruit as a bribe/reward during interval sessions on the trainer. Finish an interval, eat a date.
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Before a ride/run I blend up whole oats, dates, raw coco powder, fruit (blueberry, strawberry) & soy milk. Acts as fast acting carbs.
During a ride I just eat dates/nuts/banana/cliff bar & smoothies. My reading of the science is that as long as food comes along with the fibre and phytonutrients you’re good. So don’t do juice, do a smoothie during a ride. All the fibre and whole fruit goodness.
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Love all of these posts! Thanks everyone for responding to this Forum question. You’ve given some great suggestions to the rest of our listeners!
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Couldn’t agree more. Loads of sensible options here that people can consider. Going to try a few of these myself. Thank all!