Food, gear, etc

Everybody’s favorite question is “what do you eat?” Even the experienced people are looking for new ideas, so here’s what I managed, roughly in order. (Remember, I can’t eat gluten, so there’s entire categories of food I don’t dare touch.)

Food

Friday:

• A red bull
• Powerbars
• Coffee
• A banana
• Salami and cheese and “crackers”
• Cold steak (it was so good I almost ate it all and then I remembered: never eat the last of the rider’s food, even if you’re the rider)
• Ham and cheese
• Chicharrones
• Pasta, sausage, and rice noodles

Saturday early:

• 1/2 red bull
• 2 powerbars
• Some pecans

Saturday midday:

• Two eggs
• GF snickerdoodles
• Grande mocha
• Potato chips
• Cold steak
• A mango drink
• Cheese and crackers and salami
• String cheese
• More cookies
• Pineapple
• Chocolate pudding (where we’re going, we don’t need spoons)

Saturday dinner and beyond:

• The rest of the steak (I’m so glad I saved it)
• Chicharrones (not very good for the first time in my life)
• Rum and coke
• Dark chocolate m&ms
• Hot chocolate 
• Rum and diet coke (FUCK NO)
• Peppermints
• Kaity’s energy chews - what were they?
• Dark chocolate espresso beans (maybe never again; I don’t think they made me queasy but I ate them right before I got queasy, and URK)

Everything tasted great or at least passable, except as noted. I didn’t eat ~enough~ out of my saddlebags, but I swear to god having great crew means you have enough time to eat enough at the checks. I cannot thank Kaity’s family enough. 

I drank 80-90% of my camelback between every hold, and I took two Hammer Elite electrolyte pills whenever I’d think about it. 

Dixie actually wanted wet mash, which is a little unusual for her. If she’s well-hydrated, I usually offer her a dry mix of LMF Gold (high-fat high-protein grain) and Elk Grove Stable Mix (low NSC but very palatable hay pellets). If she’s not interested in eating it dry, I pour in enough water to make it a milkshake. At this ride, she scarfed down the milkshakes. I usually crumble up a Nature’s Valley granola bar on top and offer any carrots or apples I can find, and she gets to eat whatever hay strikes her fancy. 

The best way to get her to stop eating, I’ve found, is to offer beet pulp. To hell with you and your beet pulp, human.

Between Kaity and I, we had some very fine stemmed alfalfa, some boring grass, some other boring grass, and some three-grain, and both horses went for all the hay according to their tastes. 

I electrolyted her the way I’ve been doing for the past year: half a scoop of Enduramax, half a tub of applesauce, fill it the rest of the way with water and dose her right before we leave the check. I’m going to switch to my friend’s (hi G!) secret sauce, which includes ProCMC, but I didn’t want to change it up at a big ride like this. 

One side of my saddlebags has people food, ride card, etc, and the other side has nothing but carrots. I can cram about 3 lbs in there, and when we get discouraged or she hasn’t eaten recently, I “insert carrots for more time.” Carrots are perfect food for desert rides:  they’re really easy to transport and feed from the saddle, and they’ve got a little water in them. And they can take more abuse than apples!

Gear!

I mentioned that Tami and Dave glued boots for me again, and I really need to give them another shout-out for the amazing job they did. Virginia City was the first time I’d (had her) glued, and she fit pretty perfectly in 0’s all around. This time? 0.5’s on the fronts, 1’s on the back. 

I thought her feet looked exactly the same. It’s really hard for me to see changes because I see them so regularly. But Tami said her feet looked better, and they’re certainly not bigger because they’re flared, so:  cool. The front right boot looked very wonky to me, but Dixie moved out perfectly in it and they weren’t even close to failing when I went to pry them off. 

It just looks so bulge-y at the toe!

And no filling in her legs. The footing is better than Virginia City (but really, VC is unbelievably rocky; y’all just don’t know if you haven’t been to Nevada), but it’s not easy terrain. I think the squishy Goober Glue in the soles of the glue-ons makes a tremendous difference in their comfort level. I know from my own barefoot-shoe running that an extra 2mm of sole makes me far more comfortable, and the squishy support in the frogs probably helps stimulate them. If you don’t glue for long rocky rides, you should consider some pour-in pads, perhaps? 

I took a lot of (somewhat random) pictures of Dixie’s Easyboot glue-ons and Kody’s Renegade glue-ons, to show you the difference in them. I am really happy with how she goes in the Easyboots, but I think I’m starting to see the reasons you’d pick one brand over the other. I’m not really ready to sort and describe and post the pics, but that’s in the pipeline. You can do a little more tweaking of the hard-shelled Renegades, especially if you have an overreacher. 

I know that I’ve spent a lot of time squee-ing about how wonderful my Specialized saddle is, but I’ve found the Big Problem with it: cantle bags. 

I had a purple Stowaway that I bought at some ride last year and never really used. I don’t usually ride with a cantle bag — one of the few times I’ve come off Dixie was when I was twisted around trying to get something out of one, and she shied from a rabbit (really?!) and I ate dirt. But they’re really a good idea for the longer distances, so I strapped it down on the saddle Friday night.

I ran the straps through the stirrup leathers, but the buckle looked like a world of hurt.

And I didn’t like how it looked. It was too far back, hanging off behind the pad, but worse, it looked like the buckles were going to be directly under the back of my thigh. I wanted to just set-and-forget the cantle bag and not try to strap it on at dinner, and I didn’t think I could do a hundred miles with something poking my thighs. 

So I muttered shit, took it off, and carried it over to Henry Griffin’s tack trailer. He had an English style that might have worked, so I stole temporarily borrowed one and tried it on my saddle. The pocket didn’t quite fit over the back of the seat, but worse, the velcro straps that go around the billets are about 4” too short. 

Double shit.

I returned the stolen bag and went digging in my trailer. Surely I had something I could make do with! In one of my early fits of “I need one of everything,” I’d bought the last old-style cantle bag Henry had. It’s a tiny duffle bag, with a big metal zipper and a bunch of D-rings. (And it’s so old it still has Henry’s Montana address on it, if that helps date it!) 

It fit, and if I strapped it down it wouldn’t bounce and it wouldn’t rub, so it would have to do. 

Wire from D to D, with bungees going from saddle D's to the center D on the bag.

One more shot, post ride. I'd threaded the bridle underneath the yellow bungees, with a carabiner for insurance, but the whole thing stayed very tight all day/night.

I feel totally, totally justified in all my hoarding tendencies. I will buy anything I see in a checkout line that looks like it might work on an endurance ride one day, and at some point I’d picked up these adorable tiny bungees from REI. And I had some wire that I’d saved from changing out a fluorescent ballast. Between the wire and the bungees, I got that bag down tight. 

Inside the bag, I had two spare Gloves, two of the biggest space emergency blankets I could find, an extra flashlight, an extra multitool, some wire and baling twine, some toilet paper in a ziplock, and a tiny roll of duct tape. Garbage bags work almost as well as emergency blankets, and I wanted two because if we got stranded and I got cold, Dixie would get cold too. 

So, if you’ve got a Specialized, what works for you on the cantle? If you haven’t tried a cantle bag yet, I think you could do some minor surgery on an English-style Stowaway (fix the pocket size, replace the velcro straps with longer ones), but to be honest, I’m not thrilled with the idea of straps under the billets. If I didn’t have that one rare and wonderful Griffin’s pommel bag, I’d try to mod a tiny camping duffel from REI and strap it down, but right now I don’t know of an off-the-shelf solution.

Anyway, getting that straightened out took hours, and I had no time to hang out with Evelyn The Tights Lady! But she gave me a big cheer on our way out of camp at 65 miles — thanks, babe! 

I started fully tacked up: halter, bridle, bit, and running martingale. Dixie knows that she can’t properly express her feelings about the pace I choose when she’s in the running martingale, and she has to content herself with angry little head-shakes instead of wildly flinging her head around in the hopes I’ll let her run. She hates it, precious, but I hate having the reins flipped over her head more! The martingale came off and went in my saddlebags at the first check, and it never ended up going back on. I didn’t start with a crop, but I did grab it when we headed out at 65 miles, when I knew she would be extremely unmotivated. Took some whacking to get her to the top of the ridge in the dark, but once we quit climbing, she got with the program and moved out with just an “ok trot” or a bit of leg for the rest of the night. 

I tied Mel’s Lucky First Hundred Rump Rug to my pommel when we set off after 65 miles, and the luck clearly rubbed off. I didn’t want to try to attach it to the maze of bungees on the cantle unless I was going to use it.

Things I need to change: 

Dude, I am so done with that one headlamp. I've got three: a really heavy complicated one, an extremely reliable middleweight one with no red light setting, and a nice new-ish ultralight headlamp with a red light. Twice now I've yanked the newest one out to find it's dead — last time I got batteries from Lucy and thought it was a fluke, but this time it was dead again so it's dead to me. I don't know if it really sucks battery that fast from disuse, or if the switch is just in a bad spot and it gets turned on accidentally, but it's unreliable. Ended up starting with the white light, but I couldn't turn it on without blinding everybody, and at 91 miles I swapped with Brenna for a red light. (Also I need to store spare batteries in the trailer, or at least in my camping duffle.)

I told y’all that I rode half the distance in just a rope halter. I didn’t use my favorite halter, the blue-and-purple paracord one from Mrs. Mom, because it doesn’t have rings. I pulled out my backup rope halter (hoarding: justified again), made of yacht rope with sidepull rings, and rolled all day in that. It worked; she went fine without a bit and seemed to appreciate the freedom, but it won’t do long-term. It’s got those “control knots”, and it’s fairly rough rope, and I just don’t want it yanking on her facial nerves. Also, it’s not sized right for a TWH head, and at the finish I noticed she couldn’t quite open her mouth wide enough to yawn — I had to re-tie it a little looser (and lower on her nose) for her to get a proper yawn. 

So I need something custom, and I think I’m going to get ATG to make me a biothane halter fitted precisely to her head, with bit hangers or a snap-on headstall. I need to get with them and get the measurements I need to take, but I actually have plenty of time before the Derby (or even NASTR).

And I need new stirrup leather covers. I bought the velcro kind, because the tube kind are so horrendously hard to fiddle with, but the velcro is rubbing. When I was scratching Dixie all over on Monday, I noticed two little rucked-up patches of hair on her ribs. So Tuesday I apologized, promised I wasn’t really going to ride, and threw the saddle on. Yep, the hard plastic velcro backing was rubbing her. No heat, swelling, or tenderness, but it’s one of those things that will only get worse.

More on boots later when I feel inspired to write again!

VC post-ride

I've got two main thoughts that have emerged from our try at VC:  I'm getting closer to getting it figured out, and I don't think Dixie has peaked yet.

I was right about one thing, earlier this year when I started planning my season:  Virginia City is way, way harder than Sunriver.  I had such an unfortunate experience in Oregon, but I'm glad I went - the trip was super fun with my Worst Crew and Special Auxiliary Worst Crew, and Dixie made such a good* show of it.

* By West "to finish is to win" standards, which is all I've ever cared about.  Racing is awesome if you can do it, but there's plenty of good company wandering along at the back of the pack.

Endurance has really been an amazing journey for me.  I just can't think of a way to talk about it that doesn't sound cheesy as hell - blah blah personal growth - but it really is.  I had to learn to be brave to get started, and I had to learn to be a badass to push through 50s, and now I am learning humility as I try hundreds.  It's hard.

It's such a deceptively easy concept:  get your horse really fit, make sure your tack fits, and ride well for hours.  Nothing to do once you cross the starting line except watch the clouds and make sure you stay balanced, right?  But really, you're thinking very hard about a million things from the time you get to ridecamp til the time you unload the horse at home.  As soon as you get the physical mostly nailed down, you switch to the mental part of the game.

And my horse just keeps bouncing back stronger.  Dixie felt great, great, triple-word-score GREAT all day at VC.  I'm pretty sure I could've asked her for more and kept riding and maybe squeaked out a last-minute finish, but you know... I've rehabbed a tendon.  I want to never rehab a tendon again. She's an honest mare, and if she says she's tired I'm not going to push her.  She didn't choose this life, and she's not out to prove anything to anybody, and I'd rather live to fight another day.

Anyway, you're here for tack and stuff.

~*~ Tack and Stuff ~*~

Fortunately Lucy got a pre-start picture of us; unfortunately we're just blurry ghosts with glowing eyes.

I'm still loving the Specialized saddle.  Dixie's so comfortable with it that she trots about 10% of the time, instead of the 80% she was trotting with the evil old saddle.  I kind of wish I'd sprung for the full seat cover instead of seat + leathers covers, and I may pick up a used full seat cover at the convention next spring to try it out.  I get (painless!) bruises on my thighs, just below the seat and above the stirrup leathers - not a big deal, but not ideal.  A full seat cover would prevent that, I think, but sometimes a full cover makes the twist too wide and causes its own set of problems. I'm willing to try a used full fleece, but not really willing to shell out $$$ for a brand new one.

We're still rocking the discount pad and girth.  I often think about buying Dixie a really nice pad, like a Supracor or a Haf pad or something, but her back isn't the slightest bit sore so I'm not going to change what's working.  (Nothing says love like how much money you can spend on - wait, horses do not care about that.  Horses want food, companions, and fun.  They don't want status-symbol gear, unless that's the gear that's most comfortable for them.)

Most of my biothane is American Trail Gear at this point.  Somehow I'm still using the same Zilco headstall I've used since I gave up leather, lo those long years ago.  When I'm spending imaginary money, after I get a fancy pad I get a blue/purple halter bridle with stainless hardware, but again, the rope halter + snap-on bridle works well enough.  Dixie gets sweaty and itchy with just that minimal amount of hardware, and I don't want to strap even more itchy bits of plastic to her head if what we're doing now works.

I'm getting the hang of the extra-long rope reins + running martingale.  I really like it, but reins / tailing ropes are very idiosyncratic so you might hate climbing rope reins.

I don't usually ride with a cantle bag - I sored a horse with one once and I'm pretty paranoid about letting it touch the horse's back, and if you've got it strapped on tight enough to not touch the back it's almost impossible to get shit out while you're riding.  But it's great for hundreds/night rides, to hold all your emergency gear and the spare boots you probably won't need but can't go without.

I still love/hate my Griffin's pommel bags.  They're so big and floppy, ugh, but they're so big!  They hold literally everything I could ever want.  I can shove like two pounds of carrots in one side and still have room for my food, my camera, my vet card, the fly mask, etc. in the other.  And they have velcro pouches to hold vet cards and powerbar wrappers and crap.

I'm pretty happy with the diabeetus socks, too.  We were too tired to sock her directly after we pulled, and she got a tiny, tiny bit of fill in all four legs overnight.  We socked her Sunday morning and I left them on til Tuesday morning with no problems.  The front socks could be a bit smaller and they sank about an inch, but they're not so tight that they caused any problems.

I was really sore Tuesday, and I wussed out and asked Orlando at the barn to pull them, and he had no problem yanking them off.  They really are easy to use.

Dixie is in small front / XS rears, which are the smallest sizes they offer right now.  Somebody told me they're thinking about making even smaller socks, and for $40 a pair I might get a pair of XS fronts when they're available.

~*~ Me ~*~

I've got my outfit pretty nailed down.  Running gear for my top half - a sports bra that clamps the girls in place, some technical running shirts, and however many more layers I need to stay warm in the Inevitable Snowstorm.  Butt Butt'r, Tights Lady tights, good wool socks, and that one pair of shoes that has never done me wrong.  No underwear.  Death to underwear.

I added gaiters at Virginia City.  Dirty Girl Gaiters is a little shop that makes custom ultrarunning gaiters - these are not the clunky things that keep out goatsheads and rattlesnake bites, these are super thin and come in patterns designed to soothe the soul of endurance riders.  They hook on to your shoelaces at the front, and attach to the heel of the shoe with velcro at the back.  After I put them on, I literally never noticed them again til I was trying to get undressed the next evening.  And instead of picking up a rock every time I got off to run, I got one tiny bit of gravel in one shoe the whole day.

I got way, way behind on hydration.  I had the water, I knew I should be drinking the water, but it was so pleasantly cool all day that I just didn't drink it.  Every time I saw Mel she was like "you're not drinking enough" and I was like "yeah yeah I'm on it this next loop dude" and I was so not on it.  I paid the price, too, with the worst DOMS I've ever had.  I know what wikipedia says, but for me, DOMS is very strongly correlated with dehydration.  If I drink vast amounts of water and take my electrolyte pills, I'm just a little sore; if I badass on through without enough water, I'm crippled.

I did eat pretty well.  Mel says I should have eaten even more, and I could've, so I will next time - but it felt like I was eating a lot, anyway.  One of the nicest things about having crew is that you can spend virtually the entire hold eating without worrying about anything else, and Mel was constantly shoving tasty food at me.  Except once when she shoved the nastiest Totino's-looking pepperoni at me, and I got the bag open before I realized it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen, LOL.

Things I ate:

• Almond Goo - this time I went with crunchy fresh-ground almond butter about 4:1 with nutella and salt to taste.  Crunchy was interesting; I usually use smooth.  
• Powerbars - Cliff Builder bars, chocolate peanut butter.  They're AWFUL.  They're vile.  I hate them so much, but they go down and stay down and that's as good as it gets.
• Nuts - I think I had some nuts too.  I hate nuts, but again they go down and stay down.
• Hard boiled eggs - shit yeah, as long as somebody's willing to peel them for me when I get too stupid to operate them.
• Freeze-dried strawberries.  Unexpectedly delicious.  Didn't realize the packet contained bananas too til I'd eaten most of it - I kept wondering why some of the strawberries were so UGLY, but I ate them anyway.
• Chocolate covered espresso beans - smart crew pours a handful in the rider's hand every time they head to the out timer.  Rrrrrr nothing fires you up for the sleety SOBs like a handful of espresso beans!
• Hot food - when you've done your 50 miles and you think you can't possibly go on, eat something hot and get back on the horse.  
• Mini Babybel cheeses - they're pretty tasty, and like hardboiled eggs, they are individually wrapped so they don't get too manky in camp.  Pro:  they are easier to open than eggs. Con:  I bet they're reprehensible if they get hot.

Things I didn't do:

• For all of my threatening and whining and complaining, I did not drink anything alcoholic the whole day.  Nothing hurt so badly I wanted to take the edge off, and I didn't want to lose what few wits I had left.  Like I said at the beginning, it's a really thinky sport at the longer distances.  I was too busy thinking about Dixie to drink - was I pacing right, was she comfortable, how long can we stand here and eat/drink before she starts to cool down and stiffen up, etc.  I reserve the right to drink the water-trough beers on 50s, however.

One of the things They Warn You About when you start talking about hundreds is how you just can't keep eating all night.  It's true.  At a certain point your stomach phones your brain and says "Excuse me?  We're closing for the night, you may want to finish your business with me."  It's weird and I can't describe it any better than that - I just knew that at some point soon I wouldn't be able to eat any more, so I started shoveling the food in even faster.  

Everybody does what works for their own physiology, so YMMV, but I can't run on carbs.  I hate the sugar rush / crash, and I crash harder than other people, so I try to eat balanced food - lots of protein and fat to fill out the carbs.  Maybe you can negotiate a deal with your stomach where you keep eating those pure sugar gels, like the Honey Stingers, all night, but I can't manage it.  Anyway, eat a lot all day, cause you probably can't eat much in the dark.

~*~ Boot Talk Time ~*~

So I went with Easycare Glue-Ons for VC.  Glueing boots is a leap of faith - "never do anything new at a ride," but who wants to go to the trouble and expense of glueing boots for anything other than a hundred/multiday?  At some point you just have to leap and hope the net is there, yknow?

Tami kindly glued for me.  I was busy hand-feeding Dixie tiny bits of hay to keep her mind off of whatever weird shit was happening to her feet, so I didn't get any pictures.  Both Easycare (pdf) and Renegade have really good articles about how to apply glue-ons, so if you're interested in the nitty gritty, check their sites.  The tl;dr version follows:

Start with freshly trimmed hooves.  Clean them up, make any last-minute tweaks, and rasp the outside of the hoof wall.  Roughing up the hoof wall gives the glue something extra to stick to.  Put squishy rubber stuff in the sole of the boot and hard-setting epoxy stuff in the walls and slap the pre-sized boot shell on the hoof.  Run an extra bead of epoxy around the top of the boot wall to help seal it.  Hold up another foot and distract the horse, so she won't wiggle and torque the boot sideways as it cures. Repeat three more times, and voila!  Glued.

Glue-ons fall off unpredictably.  It has something to do with the age of the epoxy, or the quality control on that batch of epoxy, or the moisture content of the hoof, or the horse's way of going, or the alignment of the stars; no one's really sure how all those variables come together.  It sounds like bullshit, but I've seen some real bullshit with shoes, too - the first ride I ever volunteered, somebody (hi L!) had to walk like five miles back to camp when her horse half-pulled a shoe.  It got stuck half-on half-off out on the trail - she couldn't even pull it to boot him.  Sometimes shit just happens.

Easyboot glue-ons come in boxes of four and they're about a hundred bucks (or less) per box.  You also need two kinds of epoxy and two kinds of epoxy glue guns.  It adds up to probably what you'd pay to shoe for the ride - but again, it's not the kind of money I want to spend to try them out at an easy 50.  The Renegade glue-ons are less expensive, but they're very much one-shot deals.  

I'd heard a lot of horror stories about trying to pry off the damn glue-ons a week after the ride, and after I fell I really wasn't looking forward to boot removal.  I actually called the farrier, yall, but when Thursday rolled around and he still hadn't happened to come by my barn, I pulled the boots myself. With Easyboots, it's not that hard.  (And again, I'm so glad I'm free from the tyranny of farriers.)

Get your mallet and the widest flat head screwdriver you can find.  Put tasty food in front of the horse and explain to her that she is only required to stand still.  Start tapping the screwdriver down between the boot and hoof and prying.  This is where the Easyboots really shine - the Renegade glue-ons are solid "plastic" and Easyboots are flexible "rubber."  (They're both high-tech composites, not plastic and rubber, but you know what I mean.)  You can pry the hell out of the Easyboots and they won't tear or distort too badly.

 After you pry the glue loose all the way around, jam the screwdriver down to the sole and pick the foot up and pry the whole thing off.  If the glue's loose all the way around it will pop off magically.

The rubbery stuff will still be packed in around the frog.  Pry that shit out.  It's stanky.

PRO TIP:  if you didn't fall off your horse earlier that week, this is the ideal time to trim.  Everything is stinky and mushy and you've got a lot of new growth.  If you fell off your horse you can skip this step and go have a lie-down.

I was really, really pleased with the glue-ons.  You're not supposed to re-use them - it's hard to get them clean enough for the glue to stick to the boot again - but you can turn them into Gloves, which is my plan.  

The shells are the exact same shells used for the Gloves, so all you need to do is buy gaiters and drill a couple holes and you can re-use them.  I happen to own seven 0.5's that no longer fit and two 0's that do, so I am really happy to have four shells that I can turn into 0 Gloves.  

Renegade glue-ons are slightly different.  They're harder material, so they don't flex.  This means the glue seal at the top doesn't break as easily, and depending on all the other factors (see above re: epoxy, stars, etc) they might stay on longer.  But removing them is more like removing glue-on shoes, with a lot more destruction and cursing and yanking.  There's no way to reuse them, FWIW.

I was really, really happy with how Dixie's legs looked after VC.  She's pretty badass and she's used to long miles on shitty rocky trail, but I think the cushioning effect of the squishy glue in the boots really helped a lot.  

I feel much improved from this time last week.  I will still go to great lengths to avoid sneezing or coughing, but I've got full range of motion with minimal soreness.  I'm not quite ready to trim, but hopefully later this week I'll be able to get started on all that new growth!

~*~

Maybe there's something big I forgot to talk about, but I can't think of anything else right now.  Hit me up if you've got questions.  I'm working on a big post about How To Trim, since I've had a few questions about how I learned to trim, but it's not ready yet.  

TRR wrapup

I guess I'll start with (new) gear.

• Liz made me some new reins!  They're old climbing rope, cause she's a badass rock climber, and they're super extra long so I can (theoretically) tail with them.  The rope is quite stiff and coils nicely and I love the way it feels in my hands.  With my old beta biothane reins, I always needed gloves because they got slippery if my hands were sweaty, and the reins were just a little too short - I had to lean forward to let Dixie graze, and that gets old fast.  I can sit up straight while D gets a snack, and the rope just wants to fold itself in a neat little circle when we're trotting along and I need to take up the slack.  Love them.  A++.
• Lucy convinced me to buy a Salamander helmet visor a couple months ago, and no, I never bothered to put it on until this ride.  It rocks!  I didn't need sunglasses, it didn't obstruct my view, and I didn't look dorkier than usual.  
• I hit a sporting goods store last month and bought a bunch of new purple running shirts - tanks, tees, and long-sleeved technical fabric, plus two new sports bras.  They are comfortable.  The girls are well contained.  They're supposed to be heat gear, but I don't know how well they keep me cool because it wasn't a hot ride and Oakland is never hot.  (God, yall, it was 81 yesterday and I was dying.  I got in the truck and drove to REI in Berkeley where it was 69 to cool off.)
• Fleece velcro stirrup leather covers.  OMG, they're wonderful.  I am no longer scared of my leathers and my seat is so much better - even with half-chaps, I'd been unconsciously flinching my legs away from the risk of getting pinched or rubbed on the leathers, and I didn't even know it.  Now my legs wrap gracefully around D's barrel and everything is just so much better.  (Also, running is way easier without half-chaps.) 
• Riding fly mask.  That bitch of a horse has developed a head-slinging habit that's worthy of its own post, and one of the things I'm trying is a fly mask.  I don't want to punish/prevent the behavior if it's a physical problem, so I'm trying a bunch of little fixes to rule out any physical discomfort.  Anyway I can slap that fly mask on from the saddle at a walk and she can see just fine, so there's not much more to say about its performance.  

Old gear:

• I have made my peace with my beloved Griffin's pommel bags.  With the old saddle, they hung directly over the pommel and worked fine.  I tried to hang them the same way on the new saddle, but the bags sat too far back and I banged into them and got that horrid bruise at Washoe.  At TRR, I hung them forward of the pommel, where the strap joining the two bags is resting on Dixie's neck, instead of on the pommel.  They worked fine that way.  No rubs on the horse (YMMV), no bruises on me, tons of room to carry junk.
• I used my ATG breastcollar and crupper, but honestly, I don't think I ever needed the crupper.  Every time I checked, it was floppy loose back there, and we did nothing but hills.  That leads me to...
• OMG, I love my Specialized saddle.  I can't get really good pics on a white horse, but her back muscles are filling out.  I need to check the fit again and maybe her right side doesn't need the shim anymore - but it ain't no thing, no need to call a saddle fitter or nothin'.  Specialized + fleeces = happy horse and rider.
• My shit-ass $30 Garmin 205 is almost entirely useless at this point.  The battery lasts 10 hours max, and of course I turned it on when I saddled up at 7:30 so it was dead before Marlette Lake. (Tracks here.) Instead of upgrading to a touchscreen Garmin, I'm switching to a Spot Gen3 tracker - G can track me in real time on a web app, and it's got an oh-shit button to summon the medivac helicopters if it all goes really sideways.  
• Everything else was unchanged or not used.  

Things I didn't do:  I didn't electrolyte, at all.  It just wasn't a hot ride, and the more I learn about equine physiology, the less often I give electrolytes.  I'm not anti-electrolyte, but it just wasn't necessary.  I didn't even braid her mane - I put pigtails in at 18 miles, but no aggressive cooling.  

Dixie didn't drink at 10 miles, but I think she started drinking at 12 miles, and she took good care of herself all day.  She wasn't interested in water at Red House at 32 miles or Marlette Lake at 42 miles, but she was grazing at both spots and she drank every other time it was available.  

Because we were starting so late, I waited til the morning to put her boots on, and they did not budge all day.  TRR isn't the biggest challenge to boots - I think slogging through mud is the hardest - but it was a lot of rock climbing.  Per Kevin's advice, I've gotten really aggressive about keeping her toes pulled back to the white line and her heels as low as I dare to take them, and her feet look better than ever.  I've gone from 0.5 Gloves (that never looked quite right, but never came off either) to 0 Gloves on her fronts.  Getting the gaiters done up is a challenge, and I have to walk her around for like a quarter mile before they will close, but I sure love them.

Oddly, she had one rub, on her back right pastern.  Never had a rear gaiter rub before.  Maybe a rock got caught in there for a few miles?  

I have a badass new hoof stand and I need to take pics of how beautiful her feet look, so try to contain your excitement - a Hoof Post is coming soon.

***

So we're going to tackle the Virginia City 100 in 5.5 weeks.  It's hard, but I think we have a good shot at finishing it.  Dixie's really evened out into a slow, steady horse who just chugs along for hours and hours, and I'm fitter than I've ever been in my life.  I feel like I've got our gear and nutrition under control.  I have good crew (Mel!) and good riding friends (Nevada!) and we're going for it.

I really want to do a hundred, and if you have to ask why I just can't explain it to you.  :)  My husband and I have the most rewarding & trusting relationship of my life, but Dixie and I are a very close second.  Me and her?  We can do things together I never imagined she could do, that I never imagined I could do.  

TevEd Gear Review

Before I say a word about gear I have to tell yall that I feel great.  I mean, really great.  I've never felt this good after any ride longer than 10 miles, ever.  And you know what I did?

I ate.

I hate eating before/during rides.  It's awful.  I don't get nauseous, thankfully, but I am completely uninterested in food.  I can go 30 miles on a powerbar without bonking.  I can do a 50 on two powerbars and survive.

But I feel like shit for several days afterwards.  I am wracked by starvation-level hunger pangs for several days.  I always get DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness, that horrible pain you feel two days after you go to the gym for the first time in a month).

And during the ride, my seat gets worse and worse.  That's the whole reason I made a vow to myself to eat at TevEd - because my horse deserves better.

Several of my friends told me to just make eating on the trail a chore - something I have to do, whether I like it or not.  So I made up 8 little packets of food for each day.  Each little packet was about 100 calories, and most of them contained some fat, protein, and carbs.  A lot of e-riders swear by stuff like applesauce packets, but I personally know that eating just carbs will crash my energy fast, so I must have some fat and protein too.  Your mileage will vary.

I checked my watch when we left Foresthill and every single hour on the hour I pulled out a packet and ate it.  I had: hard cheese, half-powerbars, beef jerky, nut clusters, and 2:1 almond butter and nutella.  Everything went down ok, and there wasn't so much food in any given packet that I got bored - eating a whole powerbar is just too much chewing when I'm thinking about riding.  But five little nut squares, or a finger-sized piece of cheese, that much I can do.

And I have had no DOMS and no famine-victim hunger pangs.  You really must eat and drink on the trail if you want to be a good partner.  You must at least try it.

***

Other gear:

Aarene loaned me a sheepskin seat saver.  It tied on to my saddle a lot more securely than I thought it would, and it never slipped or bunched up under my girlie bits.  I am ordering a full fleece but I don't think it'll show up before Sunriver.  Really looking forward to ditching the half-chaps - they look awesome but they hot me up when I'm running.

I tied my pommel bags so they hung completely forward, on Dixie's shoulders and off of the saddle.  That, plus the sheepskin, plus paying a lot of attention to my seat, let me ride the miles and miles of downhill without bruising myself.

So I officially love my Specialized saddle now.  I wanted to love it before, but it did me so wrong at Washoe -  I slipped forward and banged into the pommel and pommel bag seams and I got so bruised I looked like a DV victim.

I mentioned hooves already, but I gotta say the Easyboot Gloves just keep working for me.  My usual caveats apply:  they're not for everyone, they don't stay on some horses' way of going, and there are better boots (Renegades, Back Countries) if you can't/won't touch up your horse's trim.  But Gloves work shockingly well for Miss D.  I'd love to test-ride some of the new Renegade Vipers at some point, but I know Gloves stay on well enough for the next ride.

In general, I try not to tie on stuff I don't need, because it's just increasing your weight, heat load, and risk of rubs.  But I added a cantle bag, an old-school Griffin's model that looks like a tiny duffel bag.  I threw two old spare Gloves in it, and I actually used one - I lost one rear Glove entirely in the first couple miles of the trail.

My Kolorful Cages worked great; they didn't pinch or rub my toes at all.

In one of Mel's Cache Creek posts, she talked about how wonderful her "helmet skirt" was in the heat.  In the jumble of moving, I found a cooling helmet skirt I bought last year and never used, so I took that to TevEd and it was absolutely amazing.  When it was hydrated, it kept me quite comfortable - but when it dried out, it just trapped heat and contributed to my heat exhaustion.  I must remember to re-wet it at every vet check.  That particular model has four velcro loops, and I attached it to my helmet by punching holes in that mesh that covers the helmet vents.

I had my GPS, but as usual I hit the wrong button several times and the results aren't useful.  I don't know how much longer I'll keep carrying it.  I've gotten a decent sense of how fast we're moving, so I don't need it for that, and I've started wearing a watch.  I can check Dixie's pulse (one beat per second means the horse is down), keep track of when I should eat, and keep track of my overall pace pretty well.  I guessed we'd do the ride in seven hours, and we did it in 7:15.  When we left LQ, I looked at my watch and thought we'd make the finish at 1:45, and that's exactly when we came in.  :smug:

Sometime in April I lost my little crop.  I keep thinking it'll turn up in the garage or at the barn but perhaps it's gone for good.  I did Washoe and TevEd without needing it, so I guess it's off the usual roster.

Mel reports that her spackle recipe doesn't work in GoToobs, but my nutella/almond butter stuff works perfectly in them.  I, er, haven't actually cleaned them out yet so I don't know how awful that's gonna be, but it's definitely worth it.

Everything else was pretty much unchanged - Merrell Lithe Gloves on my feet, Butt Butt'r on my butt, a 1.5 liter Camelback that I drained between every vet check, Hammer Endurolyte pills with my mandatory food (probably should package the pills with the individual food packets, and up it to 2 per hour in the heat), a long-sleeved runner's shirt and gloves to keep me from getting too toasted.  C recommended me a new shelf-bra runner's tank top that worked wonderfully, but I bought the last size L in existence and that model is discontinued, so I won't taunt yall with a glowing description.

And no panties.  Death to panties.

Aftermath, gear, etc.

I don't mean "aftermath" in a bad sense, just that I certainly owe yall one more post about Washoe.

The drive home was fabulous.  It was 35 and spitting snow over Donner Pass, but the roads were just wet, not icy.  I've really gotten comfortable with how my rig handles and I had no worries at all.  I stopped at Gold Run, the usual rest area where I stop on 80, but it was still 45 and raining pretty hard so I didn't unblanket Miss Thing.  I drove on down to Davis, where it was 75 and sunny, and found a shady spot to park in a shopping center.  Dixie chilled out and ate hay without a bit of stress.

I met Mel for lunch and I didn't even let her sit down before I blurted out "I wanna do a hundred now!"  She laughed at me, because two years ago I couldn't fathom riding more than 25 miles in a day!  But something she said back then really stuck with me, because it's true and it's worth repeating to you future endurance readers:

You can ride exactly as far as you plan to ride.

Fifty mile riders doing an LD get to the end and think "to hell with getting back in the saddle." Hundred mile riders doing a 50 slither off at the end and think "stick a fork in me, I'm done."  You just go as far as you've planned on going, period.  I don't know if I could do an elevator ride (one where you can ride a 50 and elect to keep going for a 75 or a 100), because mentally, I'd be riding a 50 and I'd be toast at that point.

And one more, but I can't remember who told me this - maybe ~C?

They get stronger on the second day.

I was really hoping that'd be true for us, and it was.  Dixie was less amped up trying to race.  The second day was more calm, steady energy, just focused on heading down the trail.  The only thing she did that worried me on the second day was not graze.  But when she was hungry, she'd take carrots on the go, and they seem to work as well as mouthfuls of grass.  I carry a couple pounds in my pommel bags, and when I think about it, I'll pull one out and poke her in the shoulder with it.  She turns her head and slurps the carrot down or glares and me and keeps rolling, her choice.

Horse Gear:

I've already packed the scrapbook, so I can't do the side-by-side shot I'd meant to show you, but this ride represented a total gear replacement from our first ride.  Literally nothing was the same other than Funder and Dixie.  It's been piecemeal over 2.5 years, of course, but I slowly yet surely changed out my clothes and helmet and her saddle, tack, and footwear.

This was the big test for the new Specialized Saddle.  Of course it's not ideal to take a new-to-you saddle to your first multiday, but it seemed like it'd probably work, and you have to try your gear at new distances somehow.  The saddle fit Dixie perfectly - she had the faintest bit of edema at the bottom edge of the bars, but nothing that caused her observable discomfort.  Yesterday I beveled the edges with a knife - worked ok - then today I went over them with the fine side of my rasp, and they look great.

The saddle made my knees very happy indeed, and I feel very secure in it, but I need to try a fleece at the Tevis Educational.  I am a bad downhill rider.  I hate riding downhill, and the faster I have to ride downhills the worse I hate it, so in general, I get off and run the downhills.  It's a good chance for my horse to recover, and it's good for me, blah blah - but I can't get off and run the first 10 miles or so of a ride.  Dixie is too amped up and she'd trample me, freak out, etc.  So I had to ride some serious downgrades on Saturday.

My form sucks and I let myself slip forward and bang into the pommel.  It was also the first time I rode this saddle with my pommel bags attached, and I repeatedly slammed into a little seam of bag material pretty good, and I ended up with a deep bruise inside my right thigh.  Then I protected and compensated for it for the rest of the rides, sigh.

I need to get good enough at riding downhill at a trot/pace (she does both, depending on the random dice roll in her head) to stay balanced and not hurt myself for an hour or two.  I think running downhill is a great plan for us, but I have to get good enough to ride downhill when I need to.

And I have to switch diagonals!  That's just stupidly hard for me, because when we're "training" and I try to switch, Dixie will just roll into a rack or a pace.  And if she's motivated (read: I keep posting the "wrong" diagonal), she can easily rack for ten miles.  But I've gotta do it.

Boots:  Last year at Washoe was the first time I tried Gloves.  Lucy helped me get mine fitted and even loaned me a second pair for her hinds.  I liked them and I've been using them, when I bother to boot, ever since.  They are NOT for everyone, but they've worked pretty much flawlessly for me, even though they technically shouldn't - they don't look like they fit right on Dixie's oval hooves.  I've lost boots maybe five times total in that year so I don't care what they look like!

But after a year, I figured I deserved new boots.  I couldn't believe how black and shiny and flawless new boots were so I took a picture to immortalize the moment.

They don't look like that anymore.  :(

I didn't even bother to tape her hooves, just slapped four new Gloves on and called it good.  One slipped off on Day One, but after I whacked it back on with a rock I had no more problems.  The old set still has plenty of tread, but the gaiters are starting to come to bits - they're good training boots, and one day I might foam them on for one last hoo-rah.

Speaking of hooves, they absolutely respond to movement.  She's grown at least 1/8" of wall since last week.  Time to trim again, bah!  I got a new Save-Edge rasp when I picked up the boots, so that'll make it slightly easier...

I'm rocking a lot of new biothane from American Trail Gear.  I got the new breastcollar and crupper at the convention, then when I got the new saddle, I called them up and got a girth loop (slips onto the girth, has a D-ring to attach the breastcollar, barely visible in first pic) and biothane-caged stirrups.  They're the same EZ Ride stirrups I'm used to, but the biothane cages are very flexible and didn't rub annoyingly against my toes.

That's a swanky pad I'm rocking in that picture, but I don't think it matters.  That's a nice fitted ECP pad with neoprene waffle stuff on top, and I got it locally.  I might've gone back for a second one, but when I was paying, the women who work there started making snide comments about "those Mexicans" and I'll be damned if I give them any more money.  Just on general principles, shut your racist mouth, plus those Mexicans keep my horse clean and well-fed and VERY happy.  I gave my barn guys some ride pics and a big hug, because I seriously could not do this sport without them.

Anyway, so I wanted another pad for Sunday, so I stopped at Greens and Sierra Saddlery in Reno. Greens is phasing out their English stuff, but I found a totally basic thin quilted square dressage pad (in PURPLE) at Sierra, and it worked just fine for Sunday.  A well-fitted saddle really doesn't need much pad, just like they say!

People Gear:

I can't remember if I've done a 50 in my half-chaps before, but now I've done 75 miles in them and they perform as advertised.  I only bought them because they look so stunningly cool, so that's high praise ;) I did 25 miles before lunch Sunday without chaps and I didn't get rubs, but I wouldn't want to do the whole 50 that way.

I broke my Camelbak - ripped the nozzle off dismounting - coming into the first check, but my friend was there with my old Camelbak that I'd left at her house a year ago, so I just filled up #2 and went on my merry way!  (Thanks, R!)  I didn't want to clean the Camelbak, and it wasn't ever hot, so I just ate handfuls of those Hammer electrolyte pills at the holds and drank 1.5 liters of water per loop and I was fine.

I didn't bring my crop - maybe it's at the barn?  I don't know - and I didn't need it.  Well, I really needed it to hit that hateful bitch in the head when she stepped on my leg at one point, but I did not need it as a go-faster tool.  It's my ugliest bruise, a big purple number just above my Achilles.  FFFFFF HORSE :shakes fist:

I did a terrible job eating on the trail and suffered greatly for it.  I have Plans to feed myself much, much better at Tevis Edu and Sunriver, but that's a whole other post.

I did both days in my purple Merrell shoes but they were so nasty and my feet were so swollen on Sunday and I'm really thinking about buying another pair a half-size larger for multis/100s.

Aarene is right:  commando is the only way to fly, time of month permitting.  Death to panties.

It just gets easier the longer you do this, guys, and I don't have much else to say about gear!  I don't think I could do a 50 in jeans, but I do think I could do a 50 with water bottles instead of a camelbak, or sweats instead of tights, or (urgh) a bra and a t-shirt.  You know what?  Death to all underwear.  It's all evil.  Wear non-jean clothes, wear a damn helmet, and go ride.

Washoe: gear review

Yall, I am so tired. It's the home stretch of packing. This won't be a very good post, but if I don't get it done soon I will forget to do it at all.



Horse gear:

The Gloves took some time to put on, but boy did they work well. No complaints. I wouldn't tape for every ride (and I will continue to train mostly barefoot when I can), but they get an A+ for competition.

I got a new cantle bag from Griffin's to hold my spare boots. That's what the leg strap of the blanket caught on during the early-morning near-death experience, but that's user error. I'm happy with the bag - between the length of my saddle pad and the way I tied it to the crupper D, it doesn't rub her loins, which was my only real concern. It's very plain, shaped like a mini duffel bag, about 18" long and 6" wide. And it was only $20!

The last NEDA ride I did, I got a scoop for a completion award. I took it at Washoe, but I only used it once - the weather was cool enough that I didn't need it. But it works well.

EDIT Damn, I'm so tired I forgot to put this in the original post. My rope halter? The paracord one from Mrs. Mom? Gets an A with bonus points. The woven padding on the crown WORKS - Dixie had no rubs from her near-death experience. And the paracord ties tight but unties easily. When we got home Sunday, I was sure I'd have to yank it over her ears or maybe cut it off, but a little fingernail action got it untied like normal. I don't remember how much it cost - under $50 - and it was money well spent.

The rest of my gear was the normal stuff I detailed in the Gear tab at the top of the page.

Human gear:

The Kerrits breeches (pretty sure I have these) get an A+. Very comfortable, and when I fell and gashed my knee, the breeches didn't tear. I didn't overheat in the afternoon, and I didn't get hypothermia at 6 am.

My seamless microfiber panties felt like tiny knives digging into my thighs at the thigh holes. F. F MINUS! They're great for LD or shorter distances! They didn't bug me at all the first loop! But the second loop was pretty painful, and the last loop was awful. My riding buddy L suggested bike shorts, so I'll try those or commando next.

My Ann Kratchovil custom blue and purple fringed half chaps were outstanding. I am still kind of embarrassed about them - the last thing in the world I need in order to ride is half chaps, what with the western fenders and all, but I fell hard for them when I saw her booth at the convention. In fact I spent my "custom breastcollar" fund on half chaps instead. No regrets. They really tie my shocking blue and purple look together, IMHO. I may spray paint my helmet metallic purple just to cement my "worst-dressed rider" award.

My shirt rocked. It's a New Balance longsleeved running T with a zip neck I found at Sierra Trading Post (but can't find online again, so maybe it's gone forever!) High tech fabric that works. Same with my underlayer, my New Balance built in real bra tank top. I love that thing so much I went back and bought another, and when they die I will weep bitter bitter tears.

I rode in my cheap "barefoot" shoes, and they were very comfortable. When I got off and led Dixie down one waterfall of fist-sized rocks, it sucked, but the rest of the time they were great. And it wasn't like "ow ow I can't do this," it's just that I knew I was walking on jagged rocks.

My Wal-mart knock-off Camelbak gets a passing grade. I suppose. I misaligned the threads at 5:45 am and when I put it on it exploded ice-cold electrolyted water down my back. Later, on the trail, when I went to drink from it, there was a kink in the tube and I couldn't drink til we slowed down long enough for me to unzip the backpack part and yank on the tube and unkink it. And it has a pitiful flow rate. But it kept me hydrated - 2 liters per loop means happy kidneys.

I ate a powerbar thing and some almonds on the trail, and an apple and a quarter pound of ham at lunch. I really wasn't hungry - most people aren't, on ride day - but you gotta try.

Wool socks and Costco gloves, as always. Except for losing that glove, they were up to my usual standards.

One day Real Soon Now I will do another tab of my gear. But for now, it's time to pack again. Tomorrow Dixie goes to the vet for a tooth floating so you'll get real content! And camping this weekend :D

EDIT forgot the halter review!!

Frenchman 2.5 - gear review

I love reading other peoples' gear reviews, so I like to mention mine whenever I test it.

Horse gear

Pro choice saddle pad: Passed with flying colors. It did not shift, even after all those hills. Dixie had minimal hair movement under it and very nice sweat patterns. It's quite a bit heavier than the Woolback, but we're talking maybe two extra pounds. It's not dirty enough for me to clean yet, so I can't tell you how easy or hard that is.

Renegade hoof boots: Still awesome. If they fit right, they stay put, even when you're due for a trim. Some of the shod horse riders were bitching about how they'd have shod with pads or booted over the shoes if they'd known how rocky it would be, but I was not at all worried about stone bruises. And she gaited very nicely in them - finally! The ride pics show her beautiful stepping pace. As soon as I dig them out of the trailer I'll post one for you.

I still love my Griffin's pommel bags. I had to use some string to get them situated exactly where I want on my saddle, but the zippers are amazing and each bag will hold a liter of water. There's a little pouch in the middle where you can stash your map or ride card, and side velcro pockets for your hoof pick, multitool, etc. They are a million times better than the comparable Stowaway product. Also he has a very nice shade of purple.

Camping gear

Cheap black-bag solar shower: Absolutely marvelous. Mel mentioned hers a while back and it sounded lovely, so I got one too. I set out the shower in the morning, then after the ride I hang it in the horse trailer. I stand in a muck bucket and scrub down with a rag and some of that biodegradable soap, and it is the best. Like clean socks at lunch, it's one of those things that feels utterly amazing and totally changes your attitude about everything. A 2.5 gallon solar shower has more than enough hot water.

Truck tent: The mesh roof gives great views of the stars, but leaks like a sieve, can you believe it? The rain fly is a little hard to get on, but it effectively keeps the rain out. Do not trust the National Weather Service.

35 degree Sierra Trading Post sleeping bag plus Coleman air mattress: Keeps you toasty to 50 degrees, even in the drizzle. Miserably cold at 45. The air mattress is much nicer than just the eggcrate, but next ride I will try air mattress, eggcrate, busted zipper sleeping bag, and 35 degree bag. Thank god I don't try to pack out; I'd need a string of mules to haul all my crap.

Camelbak with Vitalyte electrolytes: I attribute all my success to this. Yes, it makes my back sweaty, but everything else gets sweaty anyway. Yes, it changes your balance a little, but once you get used to it you won't notice. And just think, if you fall on your back it's like a back airbag! Two liters of fluids is barely enough for a 20 mile loop, but it definitely saved me from heatstroking out.

Square blocks of ice last way longer than the same weight in bagged ice. This is common sense physics, but it actually holds true in the real world too.

Camping gear roundup

Gear:
I was pretty sure my feet were going to blister. It was close - they were super hot and sweaty - but they didn't. Go go wool socks! I've had the same hiking boots for two years and they're getting pretty beaten up/broken down, so I give all the credit to the socks. I just bought some new knockoff smartwool-type socks at Sierra Trading Post.

My new women's Camelbak backpack worked just fine and fit much better than my old men's camelbak. It came with a reservoir with a baffle! You know how good water tanks and waterbeds have baffles to keep the sloshing to a minimum? The reservoir in the new Camelbak had a baffle. I guess it worked, but honestly sloshing never bothered me that much.

I bought Cersei a self-inflating roll-up travel dog bed at Costco, and she seemed to think it was acceptable. My summerweight sleeping bag was perfect, and I actually brought my own pillow from home - I slept amazingly well.

I last-minute splurged on a nonstick camping skillet. I'm glad I did - those eggs would've stuck like MAD on my existing steel camping skillet - but I have to get used to how thin camping stuff is and how hot propane travel stoves are. I am considering bringing my flame tamer next time! Any camping cooking tips?

I also bought a big cooler at Costco earlier this year. I dithered a lot about it - I had a perfectly useable small cooler - but it was only $30 and seemed like it would make my life a lot easier. I'm glad I did - a 7 lb block of ice kept a six pack of beer and a ton of random food cool for three full days with no problem. And I could bring the small cooler with Cersei's chicken in it without worrying about nasty chicken salmonella on my good people food.