The first was the all liquid diet during RAAM, which should probably be on "Mythbusters". Veterans will sometimes talk about using an "all liquid" diet during the race. I use Perpetuem, but during really long events, I feel really hungry and almost empty inside, like I need some solid food. So, I feel real inadequate that I can't stomach the "all liquid" diet. I was under the impression that maybe I needed to start using the all liquid diet before the race (meaning instead of breakfast, lunch and dinner drinking my calories). Steve says that very few people actually use an "all liquid" diet and that as long as I use Perpetuem in training I should be fine during the race. He said he prefers to use solid food as a reward, like "get to the next time station and we'll give you a turkey sandwich" kind of reward. I've been pretty successful rotating powerbars, hammer bars, clif shot bloks, and perpetuem, so I'm always getting some food in different forms.

I've also been worried about my body fat percentage, using the altitude tent, I dropped a few pounds, which I wasn't aware was a side effect. Last year there was a coach making his athlete eat Lard and other heavy calorie foods to bulk up 6 kilos (13 pounds) before RAAM so that he would have enough fat stores to complete the race. I don't really want to be carrying an extra 13 pounds over the Rockies. He assured me that I would be ok at 10 - 12 percent bodyfat. He's started RAAM at that percentage and was able to finish.

He also told me to take the 600 km brevet really easy and then once I get home to not even touch the bike. If I do touch the bike to just spin easy in the small chainring. Works for me. I've got a ton of bike and house maintenance to do.

He's also sending me a Hammer Kit (jersey, shorts, etc) and some Hammer Bars for the race.