ride fuel: the breakfast sandwich

I don't remember when I started making them, might have been since moving East.

But they are somewhat of a regular in the breakfast rotation for a few folks in the house.

I made six of them for the wed ride to Woods Hole and back.  Russ and Myles took up my offer and pocketed one each,  I stuffed four of them in the jersey pocket, along with two Margarita Cliff Blocks and two chocolate cherry clif shots.  The latter remained untouched but the rest was consumed before I got to the house.  Add to that four of russ's mini-rice bars.

Bottles started off with iced coffee I brewed at the office on Tuesday. Drank almost two bottles of water with lunch (ham, turkey, pickle, lettuce, chipotle mayo, hot pepper spread on white bread from the Market in Woods Hole), filled them both up again.  Dumped one of them out and filled it with iced coffee from Coffee O, added one more bottle of iced coffee at the Starbucks on the Mainland side of the Bourne bridge.  We were all empty of water at some place (you can see it on the map if you look closely enough) I drank two more bottles of water there, and left with both full.  That I think was about it for the fluids.  At the water stop I added a stick of marg blocks for the sodium.  Never wound up touching the gels.

So yeah that's the water consumption.  It was hot.  And very windy on the way home.  We were staying cool but at a price.

Back to the sandwich.

English Muffin toasted
grated about 14g of cheddar cheese on it
put one medium fried egg on it
one thin slice of wellshire farms black forest ham (lightly fried in a dry pan to add flavor)
a bit of turmeric and black pepper for a touch of flavor and anti-inflam
extra salt for, well, salt.

break down in calories and "nutrition"
300 calories each
11g fat
520mg Sodium (not counting added salt)
29g carbs
22g protein

Figures are estimations and summed from published nutritional labels (aka who really knows for certain and they probably don't add up to 300 cal exactly).

Very easy to eat, chew and swallow. Except that one time I tried eating while those guys ramped up the pace and I wound up getting some egg up my nose.  Managed to snot rocket it out.  But for the most part, easy to get down.  Total chill in the stomach, no issue.  But then provided it is real food my stomach generally survives most anything, kind of lucky.  But I've tried a few things and the long rides this year using this sandwich as primary fuel has been great.

I did really eat as much as I could on Tuesday to prepare for the ride.

Before showering (well honestly Russ went to get in the shower) I made dinner.  Didn't even change out of the kit.  Got home, started cooking.  Red Sauce with some tri-color pasta.  Had a couple five bowls of that before sleeping.  Ate more food in the morning (pancakes, a big batch of fluffy ones), ate a huge container of the pasta for lunch, then a cliff bar (was hungry, had no more food, they are there at the shop) on the way to the TT.  Came home from TT and made burritos from scratch (no cans lined with toxic plastic to leach into the food were opened for this meal).  Chowed down four burritos (smallish tortillas)...

This morning back to normal, no breakfast, just coffee, burrito bowl from left overs for lunch.  Had to TT home because I was late.  Into a monster headwind, found a new position on the CX bike that is more aero and stable and comfortable.  Probably not a new position but it worked.  Made it home in less than 25 minutes on the CX bike, with a backpack, into a headwind. AFTER this week.

Really pleasantly surprised with how well I've responded to the monster ride.  Sure it has 10k less feet of climbing than anything Matt Roy has done lately but the headwind... did I mention we had a pretty bitching headwind for the way home?

Can't thank my friends Russ and Myles enough for joining me.  Alone it would have been brutal.  Avg speed probably would have been a bit lower.  A ride like that is made for sharing.  There were so many cool things we saw from the Rooster that tried to take out Russ, to the pure New England vistas and harbors and the lighthouses....

It was really really awesome.

Now to read some Lost Cyclists.  For some reason that book has been in the to read pile for a while.  I thought I started reading it but just couldn't get through it, must be thinking of one of the other books up there in the pile.  So far it has been solid.  but then i'm not that far into it yet...

heddwch
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