endurance racing Paleo? Kurt did it at AZT

[robotfury]

 I was reading Kurt R's Salsa blog report about his recent AZT. He writes

"I started the race packing 17,500 calories, enough to get me to the finish. I finished with 2,000 calories and didn’t need to head off route during the race to resupply. I’ve been living and racing on a paleo diet since January and maintained this for the 300, eating more nuts and meat and less simple sugar than ever before in an ultra. And my stomach felt good the entire time."

Just wondering what food choices specifically one would make to come up with 17,500 calories on a strict Paleo diet? Lots of nuts, jerky... and I imagine a food intake that is basically grazing. 

Thoughts on integrating a paleo diet with sustained endurance efforts? I can't imagine not having pancakes a burger or a coke or ice cream, but certainly anything made by Hostess proved to be a massive mistake.

M

[mbeardsl]

Well, you could do 17,500 cals of nuts for starters Seriously though, I think you'd simply pack as much calorie dense food you could that would also keep.  Are you already on a paleo diet or asking for basics?

[syntheticreality]

There are still high sugar foods you can eat such as dates that are easy to pack and keep well. Nuts are an obvious high calorie food. Cooked bacon should keep for a while because it's cured. I can think of lots of things to bring, but maybe that's because I eat paleo most of the time.

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[robotfury]

I am not challenging the Paleo choice. I am really curious. I guess I am asking what would be the more calorie dense choices best for a 3 day plus event. Dates seem good, though I am not a huge fan. Nuts and trail mix are an obvious choice. I was eating a lot of nuts during the SC400. Kinda tore at my mouth after a while. I find myself getting a voracious appetite. Burritos made a bigger difference. I would think you would need to prepare the foods at home and take to the race. I am curious about go to Paleo choices when you are relying on markets and gas stations only. I am not going to race far on Slim Jims and jerky and nuts. So what else? Is someone going to race with pounds of nuts on their back?

[mbeardsl]

Maybe Kurt will chime in on this sometime.

I think you have to bend the rules a little depending on how "strict" you want to go.  Generally paleo wants to minimize dried fruits like dates etc as they have a ton of sugar, cured/processed/smoked meats like bacon, honey, etc.  That being said, to race or be athletic at all on paleo it's generally accepted to modify the paleo diet to include non-paleo carbs before/during and immediately after exercise.

You said you don't like dates, but a simple thing to carry would be a bunch of lara bars in different flavors as they're basically just dates and nuts, won't hurt the mouth, and have enough moisture to be able to eat them while riding.  For 17,500 that's approx 80 lara bars, which would weigh 8.4 lbs so you'd want to take some more dense foods to minimize weight/volume needed to carry that much food.  Outside of that, jerky, nuts, and dried fruits are all pretty calorie dense.  Hard boiled eggs could work, but I'm not a fan so wouldn't pack them.  And of course there's oil and nut butters - some folks have been known to simply take a gallon (or more) of olive oil or peanut butter (I'd do almond butter) as their only source of calories but I'd find that disgusting for multiple days.  17,500 calories of almond butter would be ~6.6 lbs, olive oil would be something closer to ~4.5lbs (1 gal = 30,000 calories).

[Adam Alphabet]

I'm not at all a nutritionist and don't subscribe to any particularly 'named' nutritional plan I do create guidelines for myself.  I don't think it's as simple as picking caloric dense foods in a typical 'back packers'  state of mind, nor am I implying that that is how simply the conversation has been stated above. I will add...

It comes down to energy systems and how the body has adapted to foods as fuel. When adapted to a ketogenic diet the body becomes extremely efficient at utilizing fat and proteins as fuel, especially for steady state 'diesel engine' type activities like ultra endurance cycling where huge, quick power outbursts are limited (approaching anaerobic levels or high heart rates at anytime not ideal) This is partly why (from my understanding) the lack of need for quickly burned sugars. A high level athlete such as Kurt who has been on this type of nutrition plan for a number of months leading up to the event is primed to utilize that energy extremely efficiently.  A hostess would be wasteful and likely bring on unnecessary inflammation to his system, both digestive and other.

Something I've done on trips (have yet to bike pack race) is to supplement with protein powders and drink mixes that are easily mixed with water and easily consumed and digested, skipping the mouth shredding chewing. I think it'd be really hard for me to give up peanut m&m's though!

It would be great if someone from a nutritional or other related background could add to this discussion as it is something I am also interested in.

[robotfury]

Kurt's blog caught my attention because Paleo has been around, but I have never seen it described as part of a race strategy in any ultra endurance event.  I have seen a little chatter on ultra running, but not for races like ours where you can pack a lot, but also rely on markets and gas stations.

Huge fan of Lara Bars actually - very dense and delicious. So I guess I like dates after all.  A small tub of almond butter could easily fit in a feed bag too. I have thought of that. Not so nice in the heat, but I would love to challenge myself to not like almond butter anymore. Might be impossible. I will definitely play with more paleo food choices going forward. 

Addy - I think that is a spot on observation regarding the needs of a steady state engine. You just really need need to constantly stoke the fire and keep from getting hungry. 

A lot of my curiosity comes from out of my first multiday. I was so looking forward to eating anything and everything, but after day two things like cakes or zingers that I thought would be fun reward foods - not foods to actually sustain myself on - began to taste like plastic. My tastebuds just totally rejected them, something that didn't happen on 100-200 mile training rides.  I actually wanted hoagies and McDonald's big breakfast and pizza. I still enjoyed race meth (coke) and ice cream, but craved breakfast burritos and pizza. Things I don't ever really eat.

So now I am looking for a cleaner approach and for foods that won't bog down the digestion.

Thanks for your replies.

[Flowingelements]

I am interested in this feed because I have been paleo for 2 months now. Going bike packing next week and am a bit nervous about getting hungry. Just recently started feeling like maybe my caloric intake isn't high enough for the amount of riding. Curious if any of you have any experience bike packing paleo?  I have dehydrated a few paleo dinners. But what do you eat for breakfast when you're trying to minimize weight? Any tips appreciated. Thanks.