What are your energy bar choices for the hill?

Hi Rebecca,

I’m not a great fan of energy bars, maybe because they didn’t really exist when I started going into the mountains, and maybe that’s why I don’t actually eat a lot when exercising even on a long day. I remember back in the mid 70’s doing an epic 19 hour route in Chamonix on some oatcakes and cream cheese – dinner that evening was needed!!!

On a single day out, I tend to just raid the fridge and make a sandwich with whatever is there, and add a banana and/or apple. If I’m going to be out for several days in a row I tend to make sure I have a nice salami sausage and a chunk of hard cheese, both of which I nibble across the days with either a nice whole meal bread or some oatcakes. I also will make sure I have a good supply of dried fruit and nuts, and possibly a banana or two. That works for me (maybe I’m naturally fat adapted) but I do eat well at the end of the day.

As an FYI, I also road cycle a fair bit through the summer months and will often do and easy 4 – 5 hours without anything other than water, but if it’s a hard fast run of greater than 3 hours I’ll use up to 4 energy gels with caffeine. Once home I always start rehydration immediately with semi skimmed milk and take on some food – usually whole meal toast with sardines or mackerel.

I’ll be interested on your views of above – don’t hold back :-)))

Derek

PS …. none of above is competitive other than against myself.

I’m too lazy to make my own and too cheap to buy brand name… So I like the convenience of medjool dates for most outings and sometimes halva for longer sessions, especially in the winter. The dates, in particular, give a nice 30g/hour CHO drip (per your recommendations).

I tend to not eat fancy energy bars, though I will eat generic cereal/granola/museli bars. (choose the name appropriate to your nationality)

My go to food involves pepperoni sticks, chucnks of cheddar, flour tortillas with peanut butter and either small chuncks of chocolate or chocolate cream cheese. I also like homemade slices -usually savoury or one with dried fruit that isn’t too sweet. I generally carry something a bit faster acting – such as chocolate – but may not eat it.

I like stroop waffles if I’m working a bit harder but I refuse to pay more than 2Euro a 10 pack. 😉 Cheap cookies are an alternative.

I can’t remember the last time I had a gu, but a couple of years ago in Peru while I was still acclimatising I struggled with eating fattier/heavier snacks, so was suplementing with chocolate syrup.

And I just find dried fruit and nuts more hassle than they are worth for while I am on the go. I do like them in my breakfast though.

I agree with most folks that given perfect fat adaptation and zero laziness that bars would be unnecessary. I try to get as much of the macros appropriate to the activity as I can from something real, tasty, and full of veges. But reality being what it is, I eat a lot of bars as well. For me there’s four main use cases for bars/gels:
1) Sugar + complex carbs for strength training. For time-limited morning strength workouts (couple hours bouldering or general strength in the gym), where discovering 20 min in that I didn’t eat enough dinner would derail the entire session, getting a mix of simple and complex carbs from a bar is nice insurance. Usually regular clif bars (on top of a complex-carb-ey meal). Sucrose from candy seems less effective than maltose in (many) bars.
2) Concentrated protein for recovery, either just after a gym session, or at the end of a longer day. Most good real-food sources of protein either have too much fat mixed in with the protein (fat is great generally, but is largely just extra calories from an immediate recovery perspective), are perishable, and/or hard to transport. For instance nut butters, chicken, tuna, and low-fat cottage cheese. Trader Joe’s whey protein powder is great, although I’ve moved to “Pure Protein” bars since they’re a bit cheaper and don’t require a container/mixing/cleanup.
3) Laziness food. If neither 1) nor 2) apply, I want to get a roughly even mix of fat/protein/carbs, and while this category is the easiest for which to use real food, I really like always having a stash of “Balance Bars” with me as insurance against poor real-food planning. This usually takes the form of either not bringing enough real food, or misjudging the macros in the real food (e.g. my bag of nuts and dried fruit turns out to in fact contain only nuts). Clif Builder’s Bars also work for this, but 290 calories is really an inconveniently large unit (Balance Bars are more like 200).
4) portable caffeine. It’s kind of dumb to get so much sugar when I really just want the caffeine, but clif mocha shot gels are tasty as @$#$! and packed with lovely drugginess.

This isn’t as easy as a bar and it does require refrigeration or a cooler, but this is my go-to fueling for long races. Works for me for marathons and upwards (I usually max out with 6-7 hour events though).

Overnight oats:

My recipe is simply a half cup of steel-cut oats, with a half-cup of high-quality milk.

Add a third-scoop/serving of protein powder (too much and powder overwhelms the milk).

Flavor with raisins and a squirt or two of honey. Any dried fruit works here.

Let sit in the fridge or a cooler overnight.

Eat that at least 2 hours prior to the event if relatively high intensity (marathons or Pikes Peak Ascent, etc). Can eat closer to the event for lower-intensity work (training runs or longer races like 40 milers etc).