Found Treasures

My friend Iria showed me a cook book she recommended called the Feed Zone. When I looked for it on Amazon I found the same authors had written a book called Feed Zone Portables, which I bought. The focus of the book is creating portable, delicious, and nutritious food to carry on endurance rides. I get so sick of fast food and gas station cuisine and several of my riding family make the bulk of their own fuel, I decided this was something I wanted to explore.

The first thing I did was to buy a rice cooker. Amazon had a simple one from Panasonic at a great price and it makes much better rice than a saucepan can.

The book starts with a very detailed and well considered discussion on exercise nutrition. I had always known that drinking soda and Gatorade on a long ride would upset my stomach but I didn't know why. Apparently high concentrations of sugar in the gut cause water to move from my bloodstream into my gut which causes bloating. I don't agree with his stance on electrolytes (he stresses sodium over potassium), but overall I enjoyed this part.

The first recipe I tried was a savory rice bar but it had no flavor so I moved on to a blueberry and chocolate rice bar. It's really simple...

Cook three cups of sticky rice (I use Calrose brand). Add 3/4 cup coconut milk and 1/4 cup raw sugar to taste. Spread half in the bottom of a 8" x 13" pyrex dish. Add a layer of 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of blue berries (any berries work). Spread the rest of the rice. Press down hard. Chill, cut into squares and wrap individually in foil. Refrigerate. Absolutely delicious.

You get about 30 two-bite bars from this recipe with about 60 calories each. The nutritional profile is ideal for endurance events. The cost is 15 cents per bar. So for 30 cents you get the same calories as a $1.50 energy bar but it's delicious and only has natural ingredients. The only downside is that these bars don't have a shelf life of years. Don't worry - they taste so good they won't last to the end of the week.

Next week I'm going to try some polenta bars and then some two-bite pies.

On Saturday I went for a hike on a new trail called 1W10 that starts in Rim Nordic just off highway 18 between Running Springs and Big Bear. I was surprised to see so many fire roads and trails in this area. I had no idea. We started with a strenuous climb up to a mountain meadow. There was 700' of climbing in 1.1 miles!

We ate some of my rice and fruit bars part way through the hike and that really helped. By the time we ate about an hour later we weren't really that hungry.

On Sunday Amber and I rode from Anaheim to Irvine and back for a fun fifty mile night ride. Path of the Peters Canyon bike path has closure signs on it which we ignored. There is absolutely no reason for the signs - their only purpose is to inconvenience and endanger cyclists. They say the path will be closed until August of 2016 which impacts my 300k brevet. We shall see.