So You Think You Exercise A Lot? Check This Out…

While this topic does not have too much to do with nutrition, I wanted to post it because I feel it is an amazing physical accomplishment by my brother, Dustin Baker. Dustin is a great athlete who has completed many marathons, iron man triathalons, etc. But he is always looking for a new challenge. Well, he found it!

Here was the event: a 750 mile bike race in France called Paris-Brest-Paris. This race consists of a 750 mile, out-and-back bike race from Paris to a coastal town in France called Brest. The course is relatively flat near the start/finish, but includes a great deal of climbing as you approach and leave Brest. You have to complete the distance in 90 hours or less (or you do not finish the event in qualifying time).  There are 18 mandatory checkpoints along the way where officials track your progress. Total climbing for this event is 30,000 ft. Since you need to complete the event within 90 hours, it is nearly impossible to stop to sleep.

What did they eat? Of course, I was interested in this aspect of the race from a sports nutrition standpoint. Dustin says “from a nutrition perspective, this event forces you to consume a great deal of calories.  My friends and I figured we probably ate about 2,000 calories per meal 4x per day. This did not include food consumed while biking. A typical meal at the checkpoint would include: huge pile of either pasta or rice with meat sauce,  2 large baguette’s, bowl of tomato cream soup, small taboule salad w/ pasta, bowl (French tradition) of coffee, 1 – 2 cans of Coke, 2 pieces of pound cake, 1 cup of custard, and stuff for the bike jerseys.  We repeated this process 4x per day.  Believe it or not, this entire meal would be consumed within 15 minutes in order to be back on the bike as quickly as possible.  Within 30-40 minutes of leaving each checkpoint, we would begin eating on the bike. Eating on the bike consisted of energy bars such as Cliff bars and Power bars – about 300 calories of food an hour”.  Dustin consumed mainly water while riding as opposed to sports drinks because he was eating so much and did not need the extra carbs and electrolytes from a sports drink.

How much did he sleep? Since I am somewhat obsessed with getting adequate sleep, I was very interested in how much sleep he was able to get. Not much was the answer! Dustin biked for 30 hours and then slept for 2 hours. He then biked another 50 hours and slept for 4 hours.  He slept approximately  6 hrs. over a 76 hr. period.  The event provided sleeping cots at some of the checkpoints.  For 2-3 Euro dollars, you could rent a cot and blanket.  They would have someone wake you up at your preferred time.  There were hundreds of people sleeping in large gymnasiums for as little as 1hr. Some of the competitors chose not to sleep at all, or sleep on the side of road if they could not keep themselves awake!

The results: Dustin and his friends finished in 76 hrs. This year’s Paris-Brest drew 5,000 riders from all over the world.  Due to the inclement conditions, i.e. rain, wind, cold temps, ect… 25-30% of field did not finish in the qualifying time or was forced to abandon. It rained almost the entire event except for a few hours. Dustin and his friends were expecting to be about 5 hrs. faster, but the challenging weather slowed their progress

The next time you feel too tired to workout, keep this in mind: 
Dustin slept a total of 6 hours and rode 750 miles. Of course, this is not normal human behavior and I certainly would not expect the overwhelming majority of people to try it.  But the next time you are feeling too tired to drag yourself to the gym, remember Dustin’s story. Often times feeling fatigued is mind over matter!

Joel, Chip, Dustin and Jeff