What do sled dogs and Motomarathoners have in common? They both need to eat for endurance. In 2008, my husband John coined the term Motomarathon. Motomarathon ™ is about riding your motorcycle on as many twisties and scenic roads as possible, over four full days. It is how we have spent our summer vacations since 2008. Staying alert but relaxed enough to enjoy it and be able to do it involves eating right and staying fit.
John during the 2010 SoCal Motomarathon.
Each Motomarathon season we average between two to five organized rides across North America riding with like-minded folks many of whom we are now happy to call our friends.
Riders meeting during the 2015 New York Motomarathon, near Lake George, NY.
A goal of Motomarathon is, yes, to grab the most checkpoints over a season/lifetime while taking in the scenery but another more important goal in our eyes is to achieve and remain in a state of Nirvana for as long as possible as we dive and dip and hunt the entrance, apex and exit of each twisty along the hundreds of miles of paved roads. And to get there and stay there–in Nirvanaville–you need to be in a state of relaxed alertness. That’s where all the good stuff happens!
So besides being in shape with a full, five-gallon tank of high octane fuel in your bike you need to eat to put yourself in a state to inhale, feel, smell, taste and see the world whizzing by you. I’m not talking about drugs here, although ibuprofen is a good idea after eight hours on a motorcycle.
Rose and her Beemer, at the 2015 New York Motomarathon. Rose rode over 1,100 miles over the four day ride.
Our old tried and true food intake for four days of Motomarathon riding had been: multiple glasses of water throughout the night with lots of wake up calls to go to the bathroom, a big greasy breakfast with a few cups of joe in the morning and an energy drink with beef jerky at “lunch” which kept us dehydrated and alert (not relaxed!) followed by a few drinks and a big meal at the end of the day. Then passing out and doing it all over again the next day.
We drink water all night because we don’t want to have to stop to go to the bathroom during a riding day except for once or twice and this cuts down on rest stops–getting off the bike and taking all my protective gear off and dragging it on the floor around a gas station’s public bathroom…you get the picture. There has to be a better way to eat!
So why should you care about Motomarathon, or for that matter, the dogs of the Taiga, you ask?
Because there is something in your life that is Motomarathon–something that requires you to stay alert and relaxed at the same time for days on end so that you don’t miss a beat, a move. So that you can enjoy this thing called life that surrounds you with all of your senses. You know, achieve and stay in a state of Nirvana…So how do you get into and stay in this state? You need to eat like a happy dog of the Taiga.????
Now I am referring to the movie from 2010 titled Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. We love watching documentaries like this one on Netflix and the title appealed–“Happy People”?–We all of us want the secret to being a happy person, right?
After watching the subsistence farmers of Siberia live through a winter in excruciating cold, trapping and eating their kill, without running water or electricity we decided none of them looked very happy–except for the sled dogs. Now they looked happy. So much so that we think the movie should be retitled The Happy Dogs of the Taiga.
And what is it that makes the dogs of the Taiga happy, energetic and makes it possible for them to run alertly yet relaxed for 120 miles in the cold while towing a sled with an unhappy Taigan on it?
Huge secret revealed (drum roll, please!): Besides a very light snack in the morning and some ice melted into water, the dogs of the Taiga only eat one meal a day, a large meal of raw, fatty fish along with some water and a long night’s rest.
Yes, folks, that’s right! Just one meal a day with a few snacks thrown in. Well, raw fatty fish set aside, in my post under Leave No Trace Cooking, we will explore the concept of motel cooking on the cheap to help you get into Nirvana for whatever it is that you need endurance for!
Thank you for reading along and I hope you enjoyed it!
Cooky
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