Great ride...great Pinole

Thursday, August 12, 2010
So…I take my pinole into the office to let a couple of folks try it out and, of course, to eat myself. I grabbed a cup of coffee, something I have irregularly but figured would go well with pinole, and started to eat. I can’t say that it’s the best thing I’ve ever had, but it’s good enough and kind of addictive to the point that I ate quite a bit. Now I had all those chia seeds sitting in my gut and sucking up any fluids they could find. Since they absorb 9 times their weight in fluids, I’m sure they took on the entire cup of coffee and more. Bottom line: I felt full for the rest of the day and didn’t even feel like eating anything until about 5 p.m.

The idea with the pinole is that it is a complex carbohydrate that fuels endurance exercise. Because of the chia seed, it digests slowly and releases its energy over a much longer period of time than your standard energy foods. That’s a good thing and may be part of the secret of the ultra-marathon running success of the Tarahumara Indians. On the other hand, I can see where it might serve as an excellent dietary aide in that it really quells the hunger pangs. I’d equate the way I felt to having eaten a couple of really big and juicy cheeseburgers…I just wasn’t hungry again for a long time. Since it doesn’t have that many calories, is nutritious and fills you up…well…I guess it should keep you from eating the wrong foods throughout the day.

I went home and made up another batch using eggs to help hold it together since I was finding it was quite crumbly. I pulled it out of the oven to cool and headed out for a bike ride. It had been three days since my last ride, which had been a disaster, but I figured with all that rest it would go well. It did. It’s the strongest I’ve felt on the bike since the spring, climbing hills effortlessly and finishing a course that normally takes over 90 minutes in 85. I’ll ride again tomorrow and then it’s off to the Adirondacks for more climbing. The new batch of pinole will join me and here’s the recipe I’m using now:



John’s most excellent Pinole recipe

• 1/2 cu. Cornmeal (toasted dry on the stove for 5 minutes in sauté pan)

• 1 Tbsp. chia seeds

• 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar

• 1 tsp of cinnamon

• 1 egg

• 2 Tbsp. of Smucker’s strawberry syrup – just a little tastier than the maple syrup

I mixed the dry ingredients together and then added the egg and sweetener. This made a pasty substance that was firm enough to put on a cookie sheet I’d sprayed with Pam. I shaped into something resembling a cow pile…but smaller. I suppose it was about the size of a giant cookie and about a half inch thick. I baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and it came out a little firmer than a brownie.

Bike duration: 85 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120.
Calories burned during workout: 1275.