Another 20 degree January weekend and it seems like spring will never come. But training doesn’t stop for bad weather. The workouts for this weekend were planned to experiment with some new fueling strategies. During a 2.5 hr mountain bike ride on Saturday I tried out two new energy bars, both from Honey Stinger. The two flavors I had along in my pack were Apple-Cinnamon and Peanut Butter-n-Honey. About an hour into the ride I tried the apple-cinnamon bar, it smelled and tasted great, but the texture wasn’t what I expected. I suspect it was the subfreezing temperatures. I will have to try them again on a warmer day. At the end of the ride I ate a peanut butter n honey bar as a recovery snack. These are good, and have a chocolate bottom layer.
Back out again on Sunday, same weather conditions, but today is a trail run. Let me preface these notes by saying: I have never been a fan of gels. They always seem to be a nasty runny consistency and leave a taste/coating that has to be rinsed out with several drinks of water. Despite my doubts, I stuck a Ginsting Honey Stinger Gel in my water bottle zipper pouch to try. About an hour and 20 minutes into the run, I was feeling the energy drain. So I sucked down the Ginsting Gel. Tastes great and gives almost instant energy. It didn’t leave that bad taste or consistency that other gels had. It’s thick and tastes like honey, these will definitely be included in future races. I will never buy another brand of gel again. These are light years ahead of any other I have tried.
The thickness of the gels was because of the temperature. The first one I tried was on one of our rare "warm" winter days and it was much thinner than the one I used last Sunday. It would be nice to have an inside pocket to keep them in on such cold days.
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