Food

In my opinion, the one thing that has truly kept me from finishing the Colorado Trail is food/liquid intake. For the first time, I really think I have a good grasp on things. I am going to do several tests this year to make sure things are running smoothly. Soon I'm going to do a ride with my friend Marshal that shouldn't take anymore than 24 hours to finish (I hope not). I'm not entirely comfortable with doing this ride right now but, logistically, it worked out well since he wanted to knock it out too. He's going to start about 4 hours ahead of me just because I want to put myself in more unfamiliar territory by starting out in complete darkness and then riding through the night to watch the sun come up. My plan was to consume about 300 calories per hour. I made a list of foods I'm considering and that have worked well in the past. A lot of good food for me ends up being either salty or sweet and I've also found that I have to take in real food as well if I'm to survive and not break down mentally.

I just got back from the store where I walked around crunching the numbers. Everything on my list turned out to be 12, 260 calories. I'm anxious to see how much everything weighs. That's when I'll start to re-evaluate things and make changes.