Trick or Treat Rules, And Race Nutrition?

Oh yes, Halloween. Not a fan. Not a fan of Trick Or Treat either. BUT you have to play by the rules in this neck of the woods or you'll find your car on the business end of a tire slash. TorT has sort of degraded into pan handling for candy.
Here's a pic of me and Wolverine. I wanted my secret character name to be "The Shocker" (A.K.A. Mr. 2 in 1, 1 In The Other). I told Wifey that and almost got a forearm to my wigged head. So I just went with "Brennan's Geek Dad"). BTW, my P-Tec lights on blinky made great lighting for the front porch during Trick or Treat.

Trick or Treat can enrange me. Many kids don't even wear a costume, mother's bringing infants, etc.. In MY rule book You MUST have a costume to get the good stuff from me. If you show up at my house with no costume and a pillow case, you get Milk Duds. Teenage mother with infant? You get Mike & Ikes. Why? I hate Milk Duds and I hate Mike & Ikes.

Same rules apply for kids with parents that are smoking cigarettes . Sorry kid, if your mom or pop is smoking, you have more important things to do than eat candy. Like research how all that second hand smoke is gonna rip up your lungs. And it looks trashy.

The last group of kids that get the shitty bottom of my candy bag, are kids older than 12. Dude if you're older than 12 and not thinking about anything but free candy, you need to really embrace puberty and talk to a girl. Eeesh. In contrast to those rules, a kid who has a killer costume gets 2 or more treats of the good stuff, a kid that says "Trick or Treat", AND "thank you" gets called back for more, followed by a happy Halloween! A dad or mom with a small child or infant who is cute, in a costume, and NOT acting like I MUST give their kid something also gets extras of the good stuff.

I Have Too Much Time On My Hands....

Then there's the treats that never make it to the front porch. Some treats enter the house in disguise. But I KNOW better!! They're race and ride eats! This past season I learned a few things about race nutrition. I learned to STOP believing the hype that is the marketing that Power Bar, Hammer, Clif, etc., feed us (no pun intended).

I learned that for ME those bars don't cut it. Trying to eat a Power Bar or Clif Bar while riding is about as easy as trying to swallow a whole chicken bone. I mean sometimes I think that these companies put no real world research into who uses their products and how and when folks used them.

Don't get me wrong. I dig a Clif Bar with a yogurt for lunch once in a while, and Vanilla Power Gel is gel from the heavens. But when it comes to solid food, I found what works for me is a good ol' fashion' candy bar.
Check out the stats (I really need to ride more)

#1 3 Musketeers (Fun Size, Marketing Speak for "small").
Serving Size: 1 Bar
Calories: 63
Fat: 2 Grams
Carbs: 11.3 Grams
Sodium: 28 MG
Protein: 0.3
Fiber: 1
Ease of Eating: 9/10 Any easier it would be a gel. You could chew this with you gums.
Taste 10/10


#2 Milky Way (Fun Size)
Serving Size: 1 Bar
Calories: 76
Fat: 3 Grams
Carbs: 12 Grams
Sodium: 27.5 MG
Protein .5 Gram
Fiber: .03 Grams
Ease of Eating: 7/10 (Caramel brought it down)
Taste 8/10 (Caramel again)

#3 Snickers (Fun Size)
Serving Size: 1 Bar
Calories: 80
Fat: 4 Grams
Carbs: 12 Grams
Sodium: 50 MG
Protein 1.5 Gram (I'll take it.)
Fiber: .02 Grams (Great. No one wants to Race Dump)
Ease of Eating: 6/10 Peanuts require more chewing and digestion.
Taste: 7/10 Caramel and Peanuts. You might not be in the mood. The peanuts
help give the Snickers the highest marks for protein out of the candy bars.

Fun Sized Candy Bar Averages:
Calories: 73
Fat: 3 Grams
Carbs: 11.7 Grams
Sodium: 35 MG
Protein: .07 Grams

Versus The Most Common Enemy:

Power Bar Performance
Serving Size: 1/3 of Bar
Calories: 80
Fat: 1.16 Grams
Carbs: 12 Grams
Sodium: 67 MG
Protein 2.7 Grams
Fiber: .03 Grams
Ease of Eating: 1/10 You could die while trying to eat this and ride. Sort of like eating hard taffy. Power Bars are the Milk Duds of the Sports Nutrition World.
Taste: Hmmm. 1/10 Depends on how desperate you are.

The clear winner for me based on taste, ease of chew, is 3 Musketeers Bar. These bars are great for unsuported rides too because you can just pop the whole bar in your mouth. Not need to worry about pulling a muddy, dust and sweat covered Power Bar back out of your jersey pocket.

I sometimes like Balance Bars, but at about $1.20 a bar, I can buy a whole bag of "fun sized" bars for about another $1.00. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, simple sugars, crashes, blah, blah, blah. BALLZ! Keep a bag in the pits. 1 bar each time you come through to keep a little solid in the gut, a gel on course, sip on a Carbo Pro/Gatorade cocktail to keep the body with running with more complex carbs and more electrolytes, and try to stay hydrated (my down fall) with Heed and/or water.

Take note: EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT! This is just my opinion on eating some solids during a race. It took several years, a lot of choking, and some serious bonks to realize that I need something more solid, that tastes great, is EASY to chew and I WANT to eat in order to keep going. What works for me might bake you sick as a beaten dog. My next test might have to be Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans. Zip-zip-zang, yummmm.

To the forest roads of the mountians tomorrow. Must say no to single track again. Poop.

Later.