I was hoping to get outside for my three hour bike ride today, but I woke up to find two inches of snow on the ground. I knew it was supposed to warm up later, but I decided that I should get my ride over and done with, so down to the basement I went.

One aspect of long rides, is that they give you the opportunity to experiment with nutrition.  Consuming enough nutrition during the bike portion of the race, is critical to having a successful long course triathlon race.  In turn therefore, it is important to figure out during your training, what nutrition works and what doesn’t.

We are all different when it come to what our bodies will accept during exercise.  I am quite fortunate, in that not much seems to upset my stomach.  I have typically gone with an all liquid nutrition plan for my races. I use a custom blend, that I have developed with help from the experts at Infinit.  I usually make bottles at 2-3 times the recommended concentration, so that I can carry enough calories for the whole race, with me on my bike.  I am able to take a few mouthfuls of concentrate and follow it with a good drink of water, which is readily available on the course. 

The only problem I have encountered with my approach, is one of variety.  I just get sick of the same taste and texture; my body accepts it and it works, but after hours on the bike, drinking this concoction just becomes a chore.  With this in mind, I am experimenting with other ‘food’, to see what might work.  Today was a day for one of those experiments.

My nutrition for the inside ride today was a bottle of the custom blend Infinit, an Rx Bar and a Stinger Gel.  I had two full bottles of water as well.  The Stinger Gel was fine, which wasn’t surprising, because I use these on the run.  The Rx bar tasted great and didn’t upset me, but it was very ‘chewy’.  It was just hard work to eat.  I know that this won’t work for me during a race, so I did learn something today.

What other food items should I try?