Facebook Friday! The Oddest Food I Ever Ate On A Ride Is...

I seriously thought it was a dirty diaper, but he doesn’t have kids I thought. How come it doesn’t smell. At the midway point of a 50 mile ride this spring my buddy pulled what appeared to be a day old Pampers out of his middle jersey pocket. He began to unwrap it. Nearly gagging and horrified, I watched and the puzzle began to unravel. No. Wait. Fhew. It’s just a plastic bag with a brown soaked paper towel inside. “What the hell is that?” I asked. “It’s a Belgian waffle,” he exclaimed as he took a chomp. “With syrup?” “Yeah!” he muffled swallowing.


I’ve eaten some weird stuff on rides. My favorite is a heat lamp meatloaf sandwich they sell at a Marathon truck stop in Mentor, KY. It’s nothing delicious, a plain ‘ol brown man sandwich, meatloaf with some tacky sauce on a bun. Maybe it’s the combination of being 50 miles from home and drained of calories, but that meatloaf sandwich does wonders, especially with an ice cold Coke. It’s never caused me problems on the way home either. It may not even be real ground beef. Maybe that’s why it appears to digest as fast as any other energy food. I get it everytime I do that long ride down to Shaboberle hill. There’s nothing better than sitting on the curb outside, watching traffic go by on the AA highway and enjoying that sad excuse for a sandwich.


Thinking of the dirty diaper and meatloaf, certainly I can’t be the only one to enjoy a bizarre treat on a bike ride. So, we put the question out to the Facebook Fans of The Best Bike Blog Ever*.


"The oddest food or food combo I've eaten on a ride is..."


Corey I didn't eat it, but a friend had Creme Brulee from the downtown convenience store in Felicity, OH.

Judi Oatmeal cream pies (they have lots of sodium!)…sour gummy bears and airheads.

Charley
Pickles at the aid stations during the Ouachita Challenge in Arkansas.


Harold
Tried celery with peanut butter, each one foiled individually. Twas' good! Reeses cups in my jersey pockets on a 90 degree day--epic bad.


Ryan
In college I had 2 double cheese burgers from Burger King in my back jersey pocket. It was literally one of the best rides I ever had in college. Somehow I managed to hang with the "A" racers on the climbs…


Rick
I eat peanut butter and bacon bagel sandwiches. Sounds weird but once you try it you're hooked.


Butch
The same meatloaf sammi @ the same Marathon as u! lol! Apparently its a staple out there!


John  Ate crawdads while on Cycle Zydeco. (TBBBE says: "Ah-yeee!")

Facebook Friday: Favorite Post-Bike Ride Cravings

It’s Facebook Friday on The Best Bike Blog Ever*.  Every Thursday Facebook friends answer a burning cycling related question and every Friday the answers are posted here.  If you’d like to join the fun, send a friend request with a note about “Facebook Friday” via the facebook link on the right side-bar.  Today’s question is:

I’m so hungry, when I get home from this ride I am so going to devour a feedbag, trough, plate, bowl, pail of this:

Marty: Chicken Singapore noodles with 2 dollars of extra veggies!!  Damn fine meal.

Kate:  Chipotle!

Bridget: (1) bottle of Clementine Izze and half a box of Back to Nature Choc Chip Cookies...or the Fudge Stripes ;-) 

Jaden: Bagel w/ Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and a shake with OJ, yogurt and protein powder. Doesn't matter if it's an AM or PM ride always the same thing afterwards. Well unless there is a Chick-Fil-A on the way home. . .

Bob (or maybe Bobbie or Bobbette or Mrs. Doubtfire):  SUSHI!!!!!!! or a big ol' mess of HOT Cajun Somethin' (Red Beans N' Rice, Gumbo, etc....)

Dan: Chipotle. Ckn fajita burrito w/ a little bit of corn, a little bit of mild salsa, little bit of cheese, guac, and lettuce. Nantucket nectar on the side!  Mmmmmm chipotle!

Eric: Starts with a reverie about a burger from Terry's Turf Club (with some special truffle sauce and caramelized onions), but then I have to tell myself to stop it and get realistic. Then I start thinking how cool it would be to get home and cook rosemery and garlic chicken. I usually finish my ride around 9:00, so this is not practical, so a Currito "Summer" buritto is usually the result.

Candace: After a long ride, it used to be a Chipotle burrito bowl with black beans, rice, fajita veggies, corn and tomato salsa, a little bit of cheese and guacamole. Always yummy with a tortilla on the side. Maybe chips if I have someone to share them with. Mmmm. I miss Chipotle. Lately it's just a chocolate protein shake with pb and a banana.

Andy: Chocolate protein shake with pb and a banana!?! What has he done to you?

Me:  Egg Sammich on an everything bagel with ham and cheddar cheese with a smoothie and Wavy Lays chips on the side.

Mean Cuisine, Zingers and Combos

290 Calories

36g Carbs

20g Protein

7g Fat

Are you kidding me?  For chicken with angel hair in basil cream sauce?  Load up the cart honey!  They’re ten for ten!  “Ooh you always eat so healthy,” my coworkers gush as I heat up my Lean Cuisine with a yogurt, and diet soda visible in my lunch box.  It smells so good.  What a sensible meal, they think.  They and I are horribly wrong.  The box may say 290 calories.  The yogurt, raisins, granola bar, and fruity snack bites might bring the total of my lunch closer to 700 calories.  Still a reasonable number. What my coworkers don’t see and what are not listed on the Lean Cuisine Nutrition Facts are the calories and fat content of the Zingers and Combos that I’ll no doubt eat at 2:30pm to compensate for the caloric deficit I’ll be running mid-afternoon. 

Damn I love Zingers and Combos.  I think I hooked up with Dolly Madison in a previous life.

I did some research.  I studied the Lean Cuisine box even more closely.  Guess who’s listed as the distributer of Lean Cuisine on the box?  Nestle.  Uh huh.  Now I’m not saying there is a conspiracy here, but I would hedge a bet that right next to Dolly Madison’s Zingers and M&M/Mars’ Combos in our vending machine is a product from Nestle full of chocolaty goodness.  No doubt if we ran out of Zingers and Combos, a Nestle snack would be next on my afternoon feeding frenzy radar.

This has happened to me at least 3, if not four times in the past few weeks.  I pack a lunch for work with a Lean Cuisine.  “Ooh I’m so healthy,” I think as I try to cram the box in my lunchbox along with a yogurt, soda, granola bar, a box of raisins and a tiny 80 calorie bag of Welch’s fruity bites.  It’s seemingly so much food, I can barely zip the top closed.

Then at 2:33pm when I’m biting into the icing on my third devil food Zinger, reality sets in.  That lunchbox, although stuffed so full the zipper is tearing, only contains roughly 700 calories, barely enough to keep Eva Herzigova alive.   The typical man my size needs about 2000 calories a day to function, not including the 1600+ I’ll burn on a two hour ride after work. 

I have found a man-sized lunch that doesn’t leave me wandering toward Satan’s vending machine.  It's two open face veggie burger sandwiches with cheese on a big ass bagel.  I’m not sure on the exact calories, but I’d bet that big fat everything bagel packs over 400 calories.  Combined with two slices of cheese and veggie burger patties, is more like an 800 calories.  Add the yogurt, raisins, granola bar and fruity snacks and I’m packing a 1200 calorie relatively healthy lunch. 

You know what the difference is between a 1200 calorie lunch and a 700 calorie lunch?  About three Zingers and a bag of Combos.