North America
Breakfast
- Porridge or granola (depending on weather).
- 1 x cold meat & peanut butter bagel or muffin or corn tortilla.
- 1 x ‘berry yoghurt (with such a wide choice of berries here, my favourites are blueberry & boysenberry).
- 1 x banana.
- 1 x tea or coffee.
Lunch
- 2 x cold meat & peanut butter bagels or muffins or corn tortillas.
- 1 x breakfast bar (usually peanut butter).
- 1 x banana (often with other fruit, mainly oranges, apples or kiwis).
- 1 x pint of milk.
I sometimes go to a supermarket deli and have my main meal at lunchtime e.g. rice or potatoes with roast or grilled chicken or Chinese dishes like black bean; or have a steak or burger from a local eatery.
Dinner
- Pasta, rice or noodles with a can of chunky soup e.g. beef stew.
- 1 x breakfast bar (usually peanut butter).
- 1 x banana (often with other fruit, mainly oranges, apples or kiwis).
Snack Breaks
I regularly snack throughout the day on:
- bagels or muffins or corn tortillas.
- fruit.
- breakfast bars.
- chocolate.
- trail mix — made up of things like peanuts, raisins, almonds, cashews, dried fruit & chocolate powder.
- raw carrots.
I drink between 3 and 4.5 litres of water a day. I add two scoops of Gatorade powder (electrolytes) for each 1.5 litres I drink.
I can’t resist stopping for at least 1 coffee and 1 pastry a day. I certainly need the calories — not sure about the caffeine, though.
Mexico
Breakfast
Very similar to North America:
- Granola or bran, as instant porridge is very hard to find here.
- 1 corn or maize tortilla with refried beans & cheese.
- 1 x yoghurt — any flavour that is available, preferably strawberry.
- 1 x banana.
- 1 x tea or coffee.
I sometimes have a breakfast of ‘huevos rancheros’ (fried eggs served upon lightly fried corn tortillas topped with a tomato-chilli sauce, refried beans & slices of avocado or guacamole) at a local eatery.
Between 1 & 2 hours into my ride, I’ll stop at an eatery & have a bit of a 2nd breakfast … a coffee — sometimes filtered; sometimes instant — with a couple of or a mixture of:
- ‘Burritos’ (a flour tortilla wrapped or folded around a filling of either refried beans, Mexican rice or meat.
- ‘Gorditas’ (small, thick corn cake made cornmeal prepared as a pastry, which is wrapped around the numerous fillings available — my favourite is chicken with green peppers)
- ‘Quesadillas’ (made primarily of cheese inside a folded corn or wheat tortilla & cooked until the cheese melts. Sometimes a 2nd ingredient is added, such as eggs or refried beans).
Lunch
Now often my main meal, I’ll stop and eat at a local eatery & have a large home-cooked meal of something like chicken or roast pork with refried beans, vegetables & eggs.
Dinner
When I don’t cook / eat out at lunchtime, this becomes a few tortilla sandwiches of refried beans & cheese with tomato or avocado.
When I cook, I have noodles or pasta with tinned vegetables & things like tuna or Vienna sausages.
Snack Breaks
I regularly snack throughout the day on:
- corn tortillas.
- fruit.
- chocolate bars or biscuits.
- trail mix — made up of things like peanuts, raisins, almonds, cashews, dried fruit & chocolate powder.
I drink between 3 and 5 litres of water a day. I still add two scoops of Gatorade powder (electrolytes) for each 1.5 litres I drink, but I’m about to run out so will move to a Mexican version called ‘Fresky’ or ‘Zuki’.
I still can’t resist eating 1 or 2 pastries a day.
Central America
Breakfast
I continued with my favourite type of breakfast right through until the end in Panama City.
- Granola or bran, as instant porridge is very hard to find here.
- 1 corn or maize tortilla with refried beans & cheese.
- 1 x yoghurt — any flavour that is available, preferably strawberry.
- 1 x banana.
- 1 x tea or coffee.
As prices plummeted, I would more often than not have a 2nd ‘typical’ breakfast of eggs, beans, rice, bananas & anything else that came with it. Prices varied from a little as a $1–1.25 in El Salvador to $3–4 in Costa Rica.
Lunch
I practically stopped cooking at this point. I’d stop and eat at a local eatery & have a large home-cooked meal of something like chicken or roast pork with refried beans, vegetables & eggs for between $2.50–5.
Dinner
Dinner would then depend on how the day went, but regularly became a variation of lunch for a similar price.
Snack Breaks
I continued to snack throughout the day on:
- corn tortillas.
- fruit.
- chocolate bars or biscuits.
- trail mix — made up of things like peanuts, raisins, almonds, cashews, dried fruit & chocolate powder.
I drink between 3 and 5 litres of water a day, at times even more as the heat & humidity became almost unbearable at times. I stopped adding any form of ‘electrolyte’ & went back to just water, as an experiment to see if it diminished my performance. I have no evidence that it did.
I still can’t resist eating 1 or 2 pastries a day, or what has sometimes become my treat — a small tub of Pringles.
