Goop Update

In my hydrating goop post, I theorized that:

The goop would be lots more effective with some meat in it for protein.

The goop would also make a good marinade. Both ideas worked out.I put a little ham in, and it does work clearly better for recovery
now despite the samllish amounts. A cat suggested I should try some
tunafish as well, since it should last well also.

Oh, and yes, it makes a good marinade, too. First I tried it with
some cheap steak, but though it DID marinate well, the flavor wasn’t
so great (IMHO, too sweet for steak). But I just put it into ground
beef that went into enchilada filling, and that, I thought, came out
well. I suspect it might also work well for meatballs.

Rehydration Goop

I just compounded some of my special rehydration goop. In order
to bike much beyond half an hour a day, I’ve had to compound a
special rehydration compound. I drink a little over a bottle per hour
of vigorous biking. The recipe is enclosed at the end.

If I just have Gatorade, I have to drink over two bottles of it to
recover from an hour of biking outside, and chow down on a salted
banana and some other fruit. EVERY DAY, while tired, or face cramps.
Or I drink a bottle of goop, end of story.

I could just buy stuff that’d fill the need, but it’d get expensive
(>$5/day?). So I make it instead, needing to spend an hour and $4-5
per week. Plus, I can fiddle with it. And, maybe it’ll even work out
as a marinade (see post two previous).

Because it does take work to make it, I also drink alot of Gatorade
and other retail sports drinks as well.

Now that I do most of my biking indoors on a trainer setup, this isn’t
quite as necessary. I could conceivably live without it by drinking even
more Gatorade and eating more bananas. BUT it’s vital whenever
I bike outdoors. My neighborhood is hilly, and I live in a windy
region, though since bike-friendly, non-major, roads are usually
less level, I suspect lots of bikers face plenty of hills. It does
feel good to get to the top of them.

The Recipe:

This is a high-intensity rehydration mix. It’s basically a slightly over
double-strength hydration recipe, using pureed fruit as a base.
Because it’s a pain to make, I make a week’s worth at a time.

Interestingly, I’ve found that I need to to add a little bit of oil to
the standard hydration recipe for it to work for me; well, it’s not
surprising that the fat-intolerant medical industry would ignore that
need. BUT I binge on much more and less healthy fat if it’s not in there.

Even this isn’t quite complete for me. I also need a small amount of
meat afterward that I should try adding.

Ingredients:

Because of allergies, I use a filtered water pitcher as the water
base. Allergies to things in water are worse when biking (though air
allergies are easier, go figure).

TO MIX INTO 5 3/4L GATORADE BOTTLES)
==============================
5 cups fruit / whole bananas / whole apples
1 3/4 cups sugar
6 tbps salt
3 tbps canola oil

To make:

Get out blender
Get out liquid measure, w/filtered water
Add some fruit and blend in batches, dding enough water to blend completely
Once it’s all in, blend for 2 1/2 min
Add salt, oil, sugar, blend
Taste mixture for sugar/salt balance, add one if needed.
Divide mixture equally into bottles
Fill bottles w/filtered water, using liquid measure
Cap, shake, clean, and refrigerate each bottle.

The original hydration recipe I started with:

TO MIX WITH 1 LITER
===================
1/3 cup + 1.5 TBPS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup fruit or banana