Discussion: Racing and Camping Food

I'm curious to know what "portable foods" you guys like to eat during longer (2hr+ to multi-day races)? I'm thinking like carbo loading oatmeal, freeze dried (which company) etc? What's important? Carbs, raw calories, protein? Thoughts appreciated.

I've just about swore off "race food" for anything more than a few hours. I do, however, bring some easy to digest whey protein powder to mix with water for anything too long.

Besides that, I like to eat . . .
-Tortillas rolled up with crunchy peanut butter, jelly, and espresso beans (prepare a bunch before hand, peanut butter on the tortilla side to keep it from getting soggy)
-Soft pretzels (these are easy to load up on in Switzerland)
-Dried oatmeal packets (easy to mix with water, and convenient single-servings)
-Pizza (folded up in a ziplock bag, seriously -- but can be messy)
-CheezeIts

I'm sure you can find lots of scientific answers out there, but the one thing to remember is that if it's not palatable to you, it won't be that easy to eat it. Eating "real food" and variety is key for me, but maybe you can tolerate days of Perpetuem and gels?

Love the idea of espresso beans in a PB&J! For Untamed, I asked a similar question to collect new ideas for long races. The surprise winner was rolled-up tortillas with Nutella and cream cheese - it tastes like chocolate cheesecake!

Normally...

- For races up to 8-10 hrs, I'm fine with race food - bars, gels, potato chips, salted nuts, chocolate, small packages of old Cheddar (admittedly not on everyone's list of "race food"). I've gone off pepperoni sticks and meat jerky but some people like them in shorter races. In cold weather, peanut butter cups are awesome - sweet, salty calories that go down easily!

- For 24 hr rogaines, I pack a thick slice of salty pizza to eat after dark. Everything else is race food. The important thing is tons of variety and a good selection of savoury snacks to accompany the sweet ones. At some point in the race, I will crave one type of food and won't be able to face another type of food. I don't know in advance what those foods will be so it's important to have a choice. When I first started long races, I used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate total calories and percentages of protein/fat/carbs, but now I just play it by ear. Maybe it would matter more in a longer race.

- When I have access to a gear box, as in a multi-day race, I add kids' lunch stuff - fruit cups, puddings, string cheese, etc. and prepared food like Beefaroni, mac & cheese, and Starbucks canned double espresso with cream.

I don't use any food which requires preparations in excess of ripping it open, I don't like to worry about any fussing. I do have a golden rule though, if it has ever made me sick then I won't bring it.

These days the pack is filled with honeystinger bars and cubes, sharkies, ritz sandwiches, sun chips and doritos. Drink is usually nuun, and I am usually well equipped with electrolytes.

I used to dig the pizza, but then once it went bad in the heat and I lost trust of it. I love coffee beans and peanuts but I generally don't digest them well enough to use them on a race.

Anywhere in UK, it's relatively easy to get oatcakes, originally only available from Scotland. Just spent 5 days walking Hadrian's Wall west to east (can see Scotland across Solway Firth, west of Carlisle, but wall is NOT on the boundary between England and Scotland), with oatcakes & tins of fish or mussels or tubes of Primula cheese, tubs of rice pudding or custard, apples for daytime food. Not an adventure race, but such food is fine for AR, at least in transitions. On the move, muesli bars, bread sandwiches, tortilla wraps, trial mix etc all work well.

Ichiban noodles. FB brought these to the table and they are always a treat. Just pre-soak in a zip lok for 15 min with whatever water you got. No stopping.

interesting...

Now that I think about it, my favorite thing to eat is someone else's snack.

I actually usually go with the Mister Noodles (3 for a buck on special) and always have (at least) one in my pack... they weigh nothing (pre-water) and I always have some extra salt in the ziplock (courtesy of which ever fast food chain was closest to the race HQ).

..and drink dill pickle juice in TA's (difficult to carry on course).

these are just the things I commonly do that seem to be relatively uncommon from what I've seen

Pickle juice... to prevent cramping? I've had vinegar on standby a few times but of course I never cramped on those days.

I will second ...um third the instant noodles!!!! Unbelievable goodness and I will never head out on a multi-day race without from here on.

For the past year I'm on a bowl of oatmeal/day spiked with protein powder, frozen fruit, and cinnamon. pre-race, regular day, it doesn't matter. Anyone else into that for breakfast or anytime high energy food?

I haven't added the protein powder yet (although I've bought some to try) and I usually add fresh fruit, not frozen. But that is my standard winter breakfast, using steel cut oats when I have the time.

For anything overnight or longer, I have started using MREs by Meal Kit Supply Canada. Awesome, just awesome! Used them for the first time in Patagonia and it was great to have real food that you don't have to heat or prep in any way. Just tear open the pouch and much.

Check out this extremely cheezy video: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uETyRDDHvrM)

...to qualify that: we just brought the "entrees" and "sides" so they are quite small in the pack for their calorie value.

Harvest Foodworks are the best dried foods I've ever eaten, when volunteering on a Canadian youth project in Costa Rica 1992/3. I'm still using some of the ziplock bags I kept, but products are too expensive to ship to Europe.

wow. the things you do for sponsors phatty jr. Please don't ever get sponsored by a condom company.

I have a different YouTube login for THAT gig!