Eat!

It's a constant battle with The Family during our long rides. Eating! We bicker about it through out the whole workout, even though we stop for many shopping trips during the ride. No one seems to be eating enough and we are quick to call each other out. Often. Clear bottles give each of us the right to tell on another training partner. "Eat! Your bottle has barely been touched!"

Adult Supervision says I need 300 calories an hour, not counting what I ate for breakfast. During a normal activity, like sitting on the couch watching TV, I can totally do it. But on the bike, I struggle. My bottles, when filled with Perpetum specifically, tend to be when I leave them alone the most. Resulting in calorie deficiencies.

The problem is getting a woman to eat 300 calories an hour for four hours. That's 1200 calories before noon! To any human that's crazy... for a woman, it just flips your brain!

The Family has been known to easily consume 300 calories within the first hour after being done with our workout. This is courtesy of Goldilock's beer fridge and our Peachpit, Los Primos Mexican Restaurant.... But we don't have the luxury of hitching a sidecar on our bikes to tote along our keg and food during the race!

Eating that many calories is important though. If you don't then you have the dreaded "bonk". It's not pretty, it's not fun and it's exactly what I had the other week because I didn't eat enough for our 4 hour ride. One minute your enjoying your ride, talking to the horse, cows and dogs. The next you see tunnel vision, have the shakes and it's an effort just to hold your head up. Not to mention... I go quiet. Goldilocks probably secretly likes when we bonk... then he doesn't get bombarded with questions.

Back to this weekend, my solution (at least what worked 4 1/2 hour ride + 25 min run) was the following:

• Jimmy Dean DeLight egg sandwich (260 calories) for breakfast


• Coffee with milk


• Both bottles filled with (2) scoops of CarboPro + (1) Motortab = 285/bottle


• (2) servings of Cliff Shot Blocks (100/each serving)


• (1) package of Fig Newtons (200)


• (2) salt tablets


• Post ride = (1) scoop of recovery drink (160 calories)

I actual felt good. On the bike the whole ride, and after the ride during the run. (my heartrate was a different issue - we will deal with that later) However, even given this small victory, the problem is Ironman isn't a 4 1/2 hour ride with 25 min run. So how the heck am I gonna eat about 2100 calories?? And I'm not just talking eating it, I'm talking carrying it too! I'll be a packing mule by the time 8/29 comes around... calories literally hanging off me in an effort to consume them.

Death by numbers (at least when it comes to calories per hour).