Josh Tostado

Endurance Mountain Bike Athlete

  • Home
  • Sponsors
  • Race Schedule
  • Results
  • Photos
  • Contact

Infinit Nutrition & Durango Dirty Century

July 22, 2020

Durango Dirty Century

I get a lot of people that ask me about fuel for racing and training. There’s really no cut and dry answer to what you should use on any given training ride or race. For the most part I use my custom Infinit nutrition blend. Through the years I’ve worked with Infinit to create a couple of custom blends that I use for all my training and racing. For people that don’t know about Infinit Nutrition it’s basically customizable drink mix, you can take all the ingredients that the body needs to preform athletically, carbohydrates, protein, sugar, electrolytes and control how much of everything you want in that personal mix. For me personally I have two different blends, a race mix with caffeine and a training mix with protein, I run similar levels of ingredients for both blends running on the high side of electrolytes because I tend to be a heavy sweater. Having everything your body needs in what your drinking eliminates the need for food; i.e. bars, gels, salt tabs and any solid food. Why would you want to just drink all of your calories? Well your basically getting an IV of calories and nutrients straight to the blood stream without having to use energy for digestion, leaving all the energy for what you’re out doing. In a perfect world just being able to drink my Infinit all day is my go to, getting my 275 calories or so an hour is when I feel like my engine is working perfectly.

Durango Dirty Century 2

Doing training rides and races between 3-6 hours I can usually carry enough drink mix to keep me going strong the entire time. For races longer than that there are usually aid stations and spots for resupply and a lot of times I can have more drink mix waiting for me ready to go. This is not always the case with training and racing, sometimes there are factors that make it hard to have your perfectly formulated go juice with you at all times. In those cases I will use my Infinit as a baseline nutrition and add calories with gels and chews from Honey Stinger. Would I prefer just Infinit? Yes, but its not always a perfect environment for having exactly what you need.

Case in point, last weekend I did a race/ride called the Durango Dirty Century. Its a backcountry mountain bike race that’s 100 miles of mostly high altitude single track riding, very demanding riding that took me just over 11 hours. I decided to do the race fully self supported, meaning I carried everything I would need for 11 hours and had a water filter so that I could filter water out of mountain streams along the way after I had run out. I started the ride with 100 oz of water in my pack and another 25 oz on my bike, that translates to about 1400 calories of Infinit that I started with. Not being able to get a resupply along the way I also carried another 2000 calories of Honey Stinger products.

The first 6 hours I felt great! I was drinking my Infinit and was really going fast, If I could have had a resupply of the same amount of Infinit after that I think I could have continued my pace the entire time. I really noticed that I was slowing down when I ran out of Infinit where as in a lap race when I can pick up more drink mix I stay much more consistent the entire time. The difference between drinking something and eating something as far as the time it takes is drastic as well, when your on technical single track opening a wrapper to eat something is next to impossible so stopping to do that takes time and again the body will use energy to digest those calories.

Durango Dirty Century 3

I also notice the energy highs and lows when I have to eat my calories as apposed to drinking Infinit. It’s less of a consistent energy and more of a spike then a drop, you eat something else and another spike then a drop and so on and so forth. The type of racing for me has always been the long endurance mountain bike events, usually 100 miles or more. The difference in all of those races is vast, one race will be totally different than another even though they are similar distance. The trick is to find the best way to fuel for the type of race you are doing, best case scenario is you have a fresh bottle of Infinit waiting for you around every corner but life and racing is not always perfect so you have to roll with punches and do the best you can to keep the calories flowing. Interested in making your own custom drink formula? Go to Infinit and do a free consultation with one of their nutritionist and they will help you create a custom formula to meet your specific needs.

Durango Dirty Century 3

Filed Under: Race Reports

24 Hours of Old Pueblo – 2020

March 3, 2020

I have been wanting to do this race for a very long time, in the past I’ve always taken the winter off from riding and skied, at least for 3 months anyway. I love skiing and always will, it used to be what riding bikes is to me now but slowly over the years that […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Marji Gesick 100 – 2019

September 30, 2019

Marji-Gesick-2019-dark

The Marji Gesick 100 has gotten quite the reputation over the past couple years as the hardest 100 mile race in the country. Now that’s a pretty big statement… but I will cut right to the chase and say that I fully endorse that statement! Now here’s where I have a bit of a hard […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Butte 100 – 2019

August 6, 2019

This was my second year coming to the Butte 100, I do love experiencing a race for the first time, everything is new you have to figure out where the best place to camp, the course is a mystery every turn is a new experience. All of that unknown can bite you in the ass […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Oregon 12 & 24 – 2019

July 18, 2019

Oregon-12-24-happy-josh

I had scheduled a pretty significant break from racing the entire month of June, I love to race but sometimes you need a little break to get those competitive juices flowing again. The first race after my break was supposed to be the Tatanka 100 on July 7th, but for unspecified reasons that race was […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Salida 720 -2019

June 11, 2019

salida 720 2019 josh tostado run

When I look at putting a race schedule together, usually in the first couple months of the year, I have to take a lot of things into consideration. Racing mostly 100 miles or longer recovery is a huge part of putting a schedule together and making sure there’s plenty of down time somewhere in the […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Royal Gorge 12 Hour – 2019

May 27, 2019

josh tostado royal gorge 12 hour rolling

I always try to do new races when I can, especially on trails that I’ve never been on before. A big reason why I love mountain biking is to constantly be exploring new places to ride and visit. You could spend a lifetime exploring all the places to ride a mountain bike just in the […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Buena Vista 720 – 2019

May 8, 2019

Buena-Vista-720---2019

I’ve always loved the Buena Vista area, this part of Colorado has such a beautiful landscape and striking contrast. You can be down in the high desert valley riding your mountain bike through a maze of rock formations and pinion pines while the collegiate range with its snow covered peaks guards the valley from incoming […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

Sedona Big Friggin Loop – 2019

March 28, 2019

I’ve been coming to Sedona for over a decade, the place has changed a lot in the time that I’ve been coming here. When I first started coming to Sedona I was riding a 3-inch XC bike with tubes and really skinny tires… I got away with a lot because of youth and athleticism but […]

Filed Under: Race Reports

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 11
  • Next Page »

2020 Race Schedule

February 15-16th – 24 Hours Of Old Pueblo, AZ
March 14th – True Grit Epic, UT
March 28-30th – Moab Rocks Stage Race, UT – POV Filming
April 16-19th – Sea Otter Classic, CA – Working For Infinit
April 24th-26th – Whiskey 50, AZ
May 9th – 12 Hours Of Mesa Verde Duo, CO
May 16th – Royal Gorge 12 Hour, CO
June 6th – 12 Hours Of E-Rock, CO
June 20th – Baily 100, CO
June  23rd-25th – Outdoor Retailer, CO – Working For Infinit
July 25th – Butte 100, MT
July 30th-Aug 2nd – Downieville Classic, CA
August 16-21st – Breck Epic, CO – POV Filming
September 18th-20th – 12 Hours of Albuquerque, NM
October 22nd – AZT 300, AZ

Sponsors

Thanks to all of my sponsors for this race season!

Santa Cruz Bikes

Maxxis Tires

shimano
infinit sports nutrition swiftwickergonavalanche sportshoney stingernite rider

Race Reports

© 2021 Josh Tostado