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Texas Marathon Canoe Racing
"Fueling the Fire" from WaterTribe
Steve Isaac
Re: Fueling the Fire
"CaptJack" Krohn
I am a 1995 finisher and I'd like to share what not to eat. Four of us competed in the novice class in two aluminum canoes. The youngest in our group (30) took Cheetos, Doritos, and sandwiches. Us older (I'm now 52) and "smarter" participants took some high tech, powdered protein drink purchased from GNC stores. We calculated the calories we would need, pre measured the mix, vacuum sealed the powder, etc. etc. At 3:00 a.m. on the first night a "blue northern" storm brought sheets of cold rain and lightning bad enough to drive us to the bank. Somewhere in the storm my protein drink either got contaminated or went rancid. The stuff would probably make a good media for culturing bacteria. Anyway I got food poisoning and puked for twelve consecutive hours. Paddle, and puke, paddle and puke...much to the chagrin of my partner. We pressed on and ultimately finished in 74 hours...but the experience took some of the fun out of the race. One partner took military MREs (Army jargon for Meals Ready to Eat) and enjoyed the combat rations, even cold. The youngster did fine with his junk food. My partner and I buried the rest of the powder somewhere near Victoria...I didn't eat for over 50 hours...until the banquet at Seadrift. The bottom line is your body is messed up enough from the unusual exertion and the sleep depravation. Eat something your body recognizes as normal food. Let the duel blade paddle, Kevlar, four man, open class studs focus on high tech fuel. Good luck!
Larry Roach, P.E.
The comments I make really only apply to races where only fluid is ingested. From what I gather, the Texas Water Safarir is a very, very long one. In a race that long (over 4-7 hours), It would be better to eat salt containing foods (sandwich, pretzels, etc) and use a diluted sports drink. The reason is that for really long races you start needing calories more and more and it's easy to take in enough sodium in ingested foods if you eat "real american foods" and not only fruits and low sodium energy bars. So, the fluid you then take can be diluted or lower in sodium. This is one subject I know quite well. It really depends on how long the race is and how much you're sweating (effort, humidity, air temp.). When running or cycling at race pace, you should consume between 30 and 60 ounces per hour. Paddling, being less aerobic, is a little lower, maybe 25 to 40. If the drink is adequate, solid food is not really needed for several hours. By adequate, the drink must replace the sweat and the water lost by exhalation. It also must replace the sodium and provide an energy source - namely a sugar. That's it. Potassium is not important to worry about, nor is protein, nor fat. The concentration of sodium to water is very important. Too little sodium, and you're just running the water through your kidneys into your bladder and it's not doing you any good. The goal is to maintain blood pressure and sodium is the only ion that your body needs and requires to do that. All sports drinks on the market that I've seen are way off with the exception of Gatorade. Some even advertise "low sodium" which is fine as a snack drink and for those with kidney failure, hypertension, etc., but horrible as a drink while exercising. Those who drink diluted sports drinks are having to stop and pee every hour, or not drinking enough. Here is the formula: aim for about 500 - 700 mg of sodium per liter/quart of sport drink. The reason for the (500 - 700) is because some people lose less sodium than others. Also, 1/4 teaspoon of table salt (not lite saltor low sodium salt) has 600 mg of sodium. So, add up the side panel of your favorite sport drink and figure out how much sodium you need to get the total up to 600 and then you're finished. Gatorade has 440 mg, so I add 1/8teaspoon per liter. It's a small amount but very important. For sugar, I think they say 5-7% sugar concentration is what you want for calories and easy absorption. Most drinks are that anyway and it'll be plenty of calories for 3-5 hours or so. The drink won't taste too salty, but you'll barely taste the salt. Will this quench your thirst? No. Which is good. So, you'll end up drinking more - the proper amount. If it's too watery (too little sodium) your thirst will be quenched too soon. You'll then be well "hydrated" but your total plasma volume in your bloodstream will stay too low (not enough sodium to hold onto the water), your vessels to your muscles will be constricted and your cardiac output will be suboptimal. There are fancy expensive sports drinks on the market but I don't think they're any better than Gatorade or its clones. Your body favors glucose. Anything else just has to be broken down to it anyway. And it's impossibleto get sugar highs and rebound lows when aerobic exercising (unlike at rest) so the slower release sugars only make sense if you only drink once an hour.There are many papers written on this - and it's old news - but, for some reason, athletes have not gotten the word. Try it. What you'll find is that it will extremely delay or remove the "bonk".
Erik Borgnes If you are only going to finish why not take real food? Two years ago Smitty, Bodwin and I carried a propane backpacker's stove and used it to boil water to make instant meals (like from REI) the coffee was great but it seemed to upset people who paddled past while we had picnics every six hours. We finished in 72 hours. Real food can make a real difference. The tough part is all that weight you carry down the San Marcos. What everyone has to understand is that nothing work for everyone. Here are few of my "must have's": viena winners, crackers (any kind), hard sugar candy, beef stew, peanutbutter crackers, fig newtons, MIX FRUIT (go heavy here), marshmellows (hard to keep), and granola bars. Ted Slaughter It isn't too Late! to lose 10-20 lbs before Safari.
The good news is that we know all we need to about healthy and fast weight loss and training. We've got about 15 weeks before June 9! We what we know you can easily lose 1-1.5 lbs per week. Here is the ultimate diet. I got it from 3 individuals close to me who each took off 45 lbs and kept it off. My strength and endurance have gone up while I followed this approach. The bad news is we're a nation of oinks because of our lifestyle. We won't be slender and stay slender without changing that style. The 3 major elements are:
John Stockwell Two-edged carb loading:
It's limitations are that you can only load maybe 1500 calories (some fuel in your tank 9a, Sat., June 9!!). But without discipline it can backfire during training. We see a number of Safarists gaining unwanted pounds during the spring. I gained 8, stoking up for long training runs and overeating during those runs. 2 pieces of pecan pie and ice cream may total 2000 calories, and they are generally loaded with simple sugars and bad fats. Pasta is better. John Stockwell Phil, Let's approach it this was...consider my comments on Safari food as a starting point. I don't consider myself to be an expert on Safari food, I only do the race occasionally. Safari food is a matter of practical sense and what you can stand. Many people work primarily off of a liquid diet i.e. powdered Ensure, Gatorload, Ultra Fuel and personal concoctions ect....cut down 50% or more by water. Other favorites: bananas, fresh fruit that will keep such as apples and oranges, trailmix, candy, Powerbar type stuff, Fritos, bagels w/peanut butter, Dinty Moore Beef stew (really!) and prepared pasta dishes. Weight is tough (how long will you be out there? 40, 50, 75 or 100 hours?), the better tasting stuff tends to weigh more which is an issue. A mix of lightweight stuff to keep you alive and stoked plus a smattering of tasty treats that you can stand to eat makes sense. The main thing is: have a reasonable estimate of how long it will take to do the race and plan to eat a small meal at least every 90 minutes or less and plan to drink constantly and remember your electrolytes. Count your calories, paddlers may ingest hundreds every hour. It is better to start off with too much food. If things go well you can toss food out at a checkpoint later. You cannot take on food during the race. Lee Deviney Lee is right, you need to start trying out what kind of powdered drinks will go down smooth during your training. I like Met-RX ORS strazzberry. My teammate likes something else, the strazzberry makes him sick and his drink makes me sick. I drink it from the start of the race till the end. Bring stuff you like to eat. I found a company in Ohio that makes something called a Heater Meal. You can add water to a small heating element and have a hot meal in 15 minutes. My partner and I would split one of these twice a day. Make sure that your food is sealed up tight or it will get wet and be worthless. Peanut Butter crackers are nice and provide lots of sodium. Starburst fruit chews are one of my favorites. They seem to settle my stomach when it starts feeling bad. Skor chocolate bars are good lots of calories and light weight. I start taking Aleve pain killer one every 12 hours at 6:00 PM. I take a Pepsid ac starting at Midnight every 12 hours. Need to make sure you take lots of water with both of these medicines. Good luck. Mike Stinson Beanie weenies, impure puss (ensure plus) and a mint after dinner. Sugar, lots of sugar. It goes by many names, Gator Aid, GU, Carboplex, UltraFuel, CarboMax, Cytoplex, Oreo's, Candy Bars, etc. Sugar by any other name is still sugar. When you get totally sick of sugar and want some good old fat and salt, Regular Fritos or shoe string potatoes are guaranteed to his the spot. Unfortunately when they hit the spot, they often bounce and end up being regurgitated all over your partners back. Oh don't forget the Zantac and pass me the Saltine Crackers my stomach is getting upset just thinking about it. Sincerely, Robert Youens, 18 time Safari finisher and multiple record holder This is Tommy Yonley from team Young and Foolish. My favorite food is pretty much any gel because they don't have any kind of real flavor that can be upsetting. My LEAST favorite food is what I was repeatedly offered (by Bill "Polecat" Stafford) when I went with the Cowboy Team -- Polish sausage. However most of the calories I consume are from my drink mix. Tommy's Drink mix: The best feature of this mix is the beautiful purple color.2 Quarts of water 6 scoops red powerade (fruit punch) 2 scoops blue powerade (mountain blast) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 "Prelief" dissolvable antacid pill (get the "Prelief" brand, "generic" antacid is awful) This mix was developed under the guidance of Tom Goynes, Peter Derrick, a Sports nutrition book or two, and a lot of taste testing. My advice in choosing safari food or drink: Go for what tastes good. It doesn't matter how many thousand calories that super-Carbo-monster bar has when you are up-chucking it over the side. Tommy Yonley Robert, I can't think what I could say that would be of benefit. How to eat food to go slow? That's not most people's goal. This year I'm eating lots more real food. On this week's night run, I had a mexican fiesta of chicken fajita meat, spanish rice with melted cheese, and olives on the side. I'm afraid people would think I was lying - I can't say anybody's seen me eat that at a table with a knife and fork. How would I explain it tastes best coming out of plastic and savored en la aqua? Later-
When we did the race last year, we over did the food. We had all sorts of dried fruit, nuts, and chips. We also had some cut down ice chests with sandwiches in them. It turned out that the only thing we wanted to eat was the sandwiches, which we kept on ice the whole race. We also ate the chips we had brought along. All the other food was for not. Ralph Horrell Vittles? Most of my calories come from water-based sources (CarboPlex, etc.). I also eat lots of jerky. Gum and sunflower seeds help keep me going when I'm down. Jerry Brown Hi Lee! Food and peeing were the topics today b/n another paddler and myself. As for food, I shared with her that our team tries to plan for 300 calories per hour and half of that in liquid form (which I train with all year to be sure it is what I want). I personally have found that what works for me is to separate my food into salty and sweet "piles" which is how I pack them in the boat on race day as well. I package each item in waterproof seal a meal packets with the food crushed or cut up so that I can rip open the packet and pour it down without missing to many strokes. Over the years I have switched from purely junk food... i.e. Oreos and Cheetos to include cliff bars and goo, beef jerky and 1 "meal' either beenie weenies or dinty moore beef stew. Vanilla pudding is very good on the second day for a sour stomach and sore mouth, while some sort of chocolate meal drink is also good on the second day. I still take the crumbled cookies and cheetos but have not been able to consume raisons after my '91 race where I puked them out like a machine gun and cleared the sides of the boat. I take lots of gum that I chew when I feel nauseated which seems to help quite a bit as the saliva coats the stomach lining. Some sour candy and blow pops are fun and can break the monotony. On the second day I have trouble chewing for too long so I try to take this into consideration. Every one is so different though and it changes from year to year depending on the variables associated with a race this long like team compostion and water levels and the heat index...Oreos, Cheetos and blow pops have never let me down though so I am not taking any chances and will include those in my food bags in this year's race Safari 2000! Hope this helps...sincerely , Xena of team #180 Ginsie Stauss Ok ok ok. I'll talk about Safari food.. Stuff packed with calories: banana bread - will last 1st 24 hrs. Gu packs - vanilla and chocolate. I'd barf the orange. Cliff Bars - anything with chocolate. Forget the apricot stuff. Power Bars - anything with chocolate.Soothing and/or fun stuff: Saltines - saves me Ensure (2 cans) chocolate of course. Great for Sunday and/or Monday in the middle of the afternoon. Dinty Moore's Chicken & Dumplings (2 cans). Amazing how good this tastes on Sunday afternoon or night. deer jerky - exercises the gums & jaw. Makes you think this is a real meal. trail mix - just for variety
Other 2 bananas for my 1st meal. Cindy Meurer Lee,
Last year my friend & I attempted to do the TX Water Safari on a whim (the longest we had paddled prior to the race was when we did the Devils River from Bakers Crossing to Lake Amistad -45 miles in 2 & 1/2 days). We used a Coleman "Ramx-15" canoe that weighed 80lbs with nothing in it & Coleman aluminum rec paddles. The paddles were not only heavy but at night they would reflect your headlamp beam like a strobe light straight into your eyes. We had only run the 1st 16 miles of the river prior to the race. My partner weighs 100lbs more than me & sat in the stern. Now ,thanks to safari veterans like yourself, we understand the concept of trimming our boat & realize that running 6 & 1/2 inches deeper in the bow is not a good thing in terms of speed. I alone took about 30 lbs. of food including 1 dozen tortillas, 4 whole cooked potatoes(sweet & russet), 24 power bars, 5 lbs. of roasted soy beans, 12 individually wrapped fortune cookies, chocolate cookies, 1 pound of raw carrots, 1 Broccoli top, 1 cauliflower, 2 packages of saltines, and a few other things I can't remember of have blocked out of my memory. We also had a plastic skull masthead (powered by 2 D batteries)that lighted up & made a thunder sound whenever you activated it, unfortunately(or fortunately depending on your point of view) it stopped working about mile 25 because of wetness Needless to say we Did Not Finish. We made it to Gonzales(~82 miles from the start), decided to end our suffering & go back to the drawing board. We, of course, regretted our decision to stop almost immediately after dropping out of the race. The pain of the race paled in comparison to the pain of not finishing. Trimming our boat & using better paddles has given us almost 2 miles an hour more in speed ,with less paddling effort than last year, & we've run the entire river except for the bay (which we'll be doing soon). The advice of Safari regulars has been invaluable in helping us prepare correctly for this race. Maybe this time we'll finish.
Phil Plata I have never done this race before but this is what we are trying. Meals Ready to Eat or MRE's 12 of them cost around $ 70 -$80 @ surplus stores and weigh less than 15 lbs. The military uses them because of the calories and nutrients for teams in the field. They do not need to be kept cold and come in plastic bags so you do not get them wet. The downside is that they can cause diarrhea so take some immodium with you. I have never gotten it from them but I have never eaten them for three days either. Slim-fast bars are a good alternative for the power bars. Only 20 less calories and 2g less sugar 5 g more protein quite a bit more sodium and almost double the important vitamins and minerals. Some also have an additive to suppress appetite usually caffine or some other stimulant great for staying awake at night. They are quite a bit cheaper than power bars and taste quite a bit better in my opinion. Protein drinks, power-aid, granola bars, fruit, peanut butter cheese crackers, vienna sausages, and sardines. The later however are terrible when they come back up. Like I said I am no expert on a marathon canoe race like this but talking to others and shopping around has gotten our three man team to this menu. Damon Reeves I've only tried the Safari twice but but we finished it on my second attempt. We took one MRE each per day and planned for 4 days (total of 8 MRE's). The MRE's are definitely the way to go as they are waterproof and contain around 2,000 calories each. I also took lots of jerky and peanut butter crackers. We had just enough food to last the 97-1/2 hours it took us to get to Seadrift. We did not suffer any ill effects from the MRE's and a hot meal is a real treat. The only other food items I will add on my next attempt will be powdered Gatorade (which we inadvertently left behind in 1998 when it was 110 degrees!) and more candy. Tony Ogle From my limited Safari experiences, combined with Ultra-marathon and other endurance events I have come to a couple conclusions (for me) regarding food. First, Within the first 8 or so hours I can handle sweets and good tasting snacks only. Second, after dehydration and drop of electrolytes set in I need food rich in salt and fat and of a much richer caloric density, yet is still items that I enjoy the flavor of. Third always drink, all along the way almost constantly. Both water and good sports drinks. That's my plan, I hope this helps. Examples of my first day snacks would be. chewey granola bars, poptarts, snickers mounds etc. Second day foods are aresol cheese, peanutbutter and jelly, crushed bags of patatoe chips etc. Steve Ayers Mayonnaise. Anything with real mayonnaise. Individual fast food packets are already packaged and cost a dollar less than GU. Whataburger in Cuero is my main supplier. Icing. Prepackaged vanilla icing in a toothpaste sized tube. Tied to the seat or Velcro to a thwart (for when you change seats). This is mostly what I eat, it's cheap and saves hours of Seal -a-Meal time that could better be spent training and scouting. John Dunn It's good to take along all the high tech solids and liquids you can stomach, but I also like to take some real food. I'll eat three large chunks of food at the times I'm used to eating my usual meals, then make sure I eat a few hundred calories every two hours or so. I alter my jugs between straight water and hyped up Gatorade powder. I prefer Dinty Moore chicken and dumplings, high quality beef jerky, altoids and a couple of cans of hyped up Ensure. Mix this with power bars, steel bars and some gu, then you can get to the moon. I'm with Lee: get used to all this well before the starting gun. West Hansen Twenty-four ot forty-eight hours into the race a swig of "honey" from a 35mm film canister is refreshing quick to get into the blood system and has no "after effects". Howard N. Sheward Jr Well we finished this year & even though we just wanted to finish the race & weren't really trying to compete we had a very fun time & came in 3rd place novice plus we were the 1st tupperware tub/plastic/royalex boat to finish (in 56 hours). Even though I STILL took too much food a few things worked great for me: -Powdered Ultrafuel mixed down to 40% strength, provided the bulk of
my calories.
Good Luck to any who attempts this race. Phil Plata
Last Modified: November 07, 2001 |