What's Not to Like?

I have sat on this secret for a long time but conscience will allow that no longer. Individuals have been allowed to peek behind the curtain and people who have worked my swims are aware of my endurance secret. I have discovered THE endurance food. Really, I have.

I'm amazed when I read long Facebook threads on Did You Swim Today? or on Evan Morrison's Marathon Swimmers' Forum, about long swim nutrition. Product after product is mentioned but mine never makes the list. How can it be that I'm the only one who knows the perfect swim food? But it's true and I decided to go ahead document my practice and let the world know because I figure one day this is going to hit the news and no one will believe me then when I say I've done it for years.

Are you ready? Drum roll-- the ultimate endurance food is ice-cream. Allow the good stuff to melt and pour it into a squeeze bottle. That's all you need. What's not to like? 

Over the years I have gradually gone more and more to drinking this good-tasting liquid during my extreme endurance events. I first did it while on one of my adventure runs, years ago, when I took refuge from the heat inside a small country store. I bought the usual Gatorade but as I was leaving the business, I noticed the ice-cream freezer by the front door and those ice-cream sandwiches threw a craving on me. I purchased two, not one, consumed them with glee, and then proceeded to reap the benefits for miles to come. They went down easy, tasted great, and gave me noticeable energy. What's not to like?

There are limitations with stuff, however, but not from a nutritional standpoint. Ice-cream has everything your body needs to be like the Energizer Bunny and just keep going. It is dense with calories containing copious amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat; it has moisture enough to keep me peeing after eleven plus hours of swimming; it has all the electrolytes your body needs and lots of them; and best of all it tastes good, really good. In the past, I have done marathon swims on Gatorade and gels. Flavor fatigue always became an issue and feeds became a chore. Not so with ice-cream; it always goes down easy and makes feeding fun. In the recently completed Chicot Challenge, I swam from feeding to feeding. "I get ice-cream in thirty minutes. I get ice-cream in thirty minutes," was the soundtrack of my mind. What's not to like?

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this is not standard practice in running as well as swimming. I predict one day it will be and when it is you can say you heard it first here on EndangeredSwimmer.