What's your powerbar?

My family has roots in VA-WVA (coal miners). My mom told me that most families couldn't afford butter but kept pigs. Hmmm. Rendered pig & toast. During the time I lived in Germany (mid 1980s), it was considered to be quite a delicacy & we know the Germans don't have the same rate of heart disease that we do. Maybe we can git tagether & swap some hillfolk stories one a these days... -- mel

For PowerBars, I think the Chocolate Chip is delicious.

I have a pretty fussy stomach, so most of the bar options are out. So if it is just to put something in my stomach before a practice, I'll go with PB on toast or GU. My absolute favorite thing when I'm really in need of a boost is GU espresso love 2X caffeine. Now that I don't drink coffee the caffeine really has a great effect on my system. I can go from dragging butt to feeling spunky in about 10 minutes, and it doesn't make my stomach too funky. I have tried the Clif Shots Blocks for running, but not yet for swimming. They remind me of knox blox with electrolytes (and caffeine in some flavors). The margarita flavor is my favorite!

Well 2000 yards later I feel like crud. Stomach pains; I still bonked at training and didn't get what I wanted to do done. I think I'm worn out Sunday: 4 hours tiling floor, Monday: 3800yards, Tuesday: not enough to eat, Wednesday: Bonked in training. SwimDud Heather will be happy to hear my fly sucked tonight!

I think the closer it gets to pool time the simpler you have to go. And if its during a meet, it had better be close to straight starch or fluids with no more than 8% glucose. I think bagles, GU, or Cliff shots are the ticket. This is an interesting topic, since most of the energy bars are made for longer aerobic events. And since so many of us want to get out of the pool after 30 seconds, (right Fort?) we can't really be claiming to doing an endurance or aerobic event at all. BTW, none of the labels on the sport drinks will do the calculation of % carbs for you. You have to take the # of grams of carbs per serving and divide it by the volume of the serving in ml, times 100 for the percentage.

I get these www.21stcenturyfoods.com/page5.html They are great tasting, softer than a regular bagel and yet have less junk in them than a traditional energy bar. I get up at 4am, eat a banana as I get dressed, in the car by 4:10 and I eat the bagel energy bar on the way to practice. So far no problems of it coming back up. I used to buy these at Costco but they stopped carrying them so I go directly to the maker. I get the apple and the blueberry ones. They are so worth the money to me :) Alison

I get these www.21stcenturyfoods.com/page5.html They are great tasting, softer than a regular bagel and yet have less junk in them than a traditional energy bar. I get up at 4am, eat a banana as I get dressed, in the car by 4:10 and I eat the bagel energy bar on the way to practice. So far no problems of it coming back up. I used to buy these at Costco but they stopped carrying them so I go directly to the maker. I get the apple and the blueberry ones. They are so worth the money to me :) Alison That is ENTIRELY TOO EARLY! Blech ... I cringe when my alarm goes off at 6 am ... that being said when I was in my crazy, world domination quest phase of swimming and did doubles (it was short lived) I was in the pool by 6 which was way too early for me and probably a big part of the reason why that didn't last very long ...

I never eat during a workout, usually a balance bar an hour beforehand. If workout is 60 minutes or less usually only water, over an hour of training and a bottle of cytomax. For me recovery time is key: eat/drink within 30 minutes after workout.....bagel w/peanut butter & a banana, or a recovery drink. For meets a decent size breakfast (oatmeal, yogurt, banana, some toast and possibly a hard boiled egg). During the meet, Gu & cytomax if it runs less than 3 hours.....if it goes over a balance bar as long as I have at least an hour before the next swim. Ohh.....and Starbucks at breakfast and a double shot or 1/2 a Red Bull 15 minutes before a race! Most importantly the post workout or swim meet dinner; pasta, nice pinot or cab.....but not much on desserts.

Now Matt, I would think this thread wouldn't have enough swimming related material for you ... As for me, bring on the dessert!! YUM!! My friends always request a dessert menu for me when the waitress checks in because more often then not I'm getting dessert. I blame my VERY THIN chocoholic mother for my dessert cravings ...

Clif and Luna bars are good but my favorite: Zone Perfect orange/cranberry. Tasty and not too heavy (seems to work for me anyway). I use it before swimming and running. What I will NEVER eat again: the South Beach Diet bars. One day, kind of in a hurry, stopped in a store and that was the closest thing they had to energy bars. Regretted my choice throughout my run. I think if I swam after one, I'd sink. Or everyone at the pool would wish me to sink. :blah: