I rode my bike for about 11 1/2 hours today, from Council Grove to Osawatomie, Kansas, along the splendid Flint Hills Nature Trail. Unlike Saturday, when I rode for a similar amount of time, I did not bonk today. I rolled into mile marker zero of the Flint Hills Trail feeling like I had a few more miles in me (and I used them, biking around town trying to find a place to spend the night). What did I eat to fuel today’s happy ride?
Note: I am resisting the urge to quantify everything about my trip. I’m not counting calories. I just drink when I’m thirsty and eat when I’m hungry. If you ride the Flint Hills Trail (and you should!), your mileage may vary. Heck, my mileage may vary!
Sunday night fuel-up, supper at Pizza Hut:
- “Zesty” side salad: Lettuce, ham, pepperoni, Italian dressing, croutons, yellow jalapeños.
- Baked chicken alfredo: a little scarce on chicken bits, but I ate 7/8 of the dish.
- Four breadsticks, with lots of marinara sauce.
Monday ride chow:
- Two Sunbelt chocolate chip granola bars, made by the good people at Little Debbie, who need to start making the big granola bars available in the box again and not just individually app gas stations.
- Two cherry pop tarts: not the original Pop-Tarts, but the Walmart knock-offs, which have more red goo and taste better cold than their name-brand counterparts.
- One small but brave little apple that had written in my handlebar pack since Saturday, finally getting its chance to make its contribution to my Kansas ride on day three. Good apple!
- Three seasoned turkey sticks, from Walmart. Alarmingly, the package said refrigerate after opening. I opened them Saturday. No effects yet!
- One slice of Casey’s breakfast bacon pizza.
- One Casey’s cherry pie (I think they acquired the recipe for Old Home pies, which were the standard snack of my long ago youth).
- One pint of chocolate milk, (16 g of protein! more than those turkey sticks, which has to make you wonder what they’re feeding those turkeys).
- One and a half quarts of water loaded with two Nuun electrolyte tablets.
- 2 quarts of regular water.
That’s probably not optimal Tour de France cuisine, but here I am in Osawatomie, alive and well and ready to ride again tomorrow. Woo hoo!