Sports Nutrition For Endurance Athletes

Triathlon Nutrition – Fueling Your Way To A Perfect Race

Going into an important race, or even a long training session, it’s essential to map out a nutrition strategy. This is not the time to be winging it.

The first step is to determine how much liquid you’ll need to keep properly hydrated. Obviously this will be affected by your body type, your level of exertion and weather conditions. But a good rule of thumb is 24-30 ounces per hour.

The second step is to determine how many calories you’ll need to take in. You absolutely must keep fuel in your tank, or you risk bonking. The amount of calories you’ll need obviously will also vary from person to person, from body type to body type — and you will need to experiment to see what works best for you. But a good baseline is 300-400 calories per hour of intense exercise.

A petite racer might opt for something a little lower — say, 250 cal/hour — but be careful about exceeding 400 cal/hour. That’s generally accepted to be the maximum that your GI system can ingest.

Let’s take my next half-Ironman as an example. I’ll likely finish in about six hours. Since I’m on the larger side, I should approach the upper hourly thresholds of 30 ounces of fluid and 400 calories. So over the course of a six-hour race, I’m looking at having to take in 180 ounces of fluid and 2,400 calories.

The next part of the plan is to figure out HOW THE HECK you’re going to take in 2,400 calories and a gallon and a half of liquid during a triathlon — especially when for a good portion of it, you’ll be in the water! It’s actually quite doable.

Best to break it down by hour, and by the three disciplines. Of course you can’t take in anything during the swim, but you can factor in what you have immediately before your race (but not including your breakfast). I recommend taking a gel or two and about 12 ounces of water about 10 minutes before the gun goes off.

During the bike and run (and transitions, if you choose), you can actually get a lot of your calories from your sports drink. Gatorade will get you 120 calories per 20 ounces — something like Infinit could get you a lot more and really simplify what else you need carry to supplement. Assume about 6-8 ounces in a standard cup of fluid at an aid station on the run. Bars run about 200 calories, gels about 100. If you like ShotBloks or Sport Beans, factor those in as well.

Figure out your preferred menu and make sure it all adds up!

At the vendor expo before my Eagleman half-ironman, I was excited to see a booth for Infinit Nutrition. I’d seen their ad in a Triathlete magazine and remembered that they customize their drinks to each athlete’s needs/wants. You can go to their website and experiment by adjusting a series of sliders on topics such as calories, flavor, flavor strength, sodium (for cramping prevention), protein, electrolytes, etc. Seemed like an awesome idea, but I’d forgotten about it.

The rep at the booth asked me a bunch of questions — How long is my normal workout? Do I ever get muscle cramps during training or races? Ever get drowsy during long rides? — and said he’d be in touch. A few days after the race, sure enough I got an e-mail from him with a formula customized just for me.

I ordered it and will let you know what I think. (I saw that Infinit now has a questionnaire on their site to help you customize your own formula. Or you could probably just call them directly if you’d prefer to deal with a live person.)

[Post Update: This just in.  The folks at Infinit Nutrition saw my post and are offering a special discount code for readers of this blog.  Click this link to get your Infinit Nutrition coupon code.]

I’m psyched about a nutrition product tailored to my unique body type and needs (Clydesdale w/ some muscle cramping issues and a good reaction to caffeine). No more sticky gel packs to deal with. No Gatorade-induced tummy issues! And a consistent source of calories, rather than a spike in the middle of a race when I’m likely already depleted.

More later!

This year I completed my first half-ironman race — the Eagleman in Cambridge, Md. The course is pretty flat, which was welcome for a 70.3 newbie, but the weather on Maryland’s Eastern Shore can be blazing hot and humid in June. Sure enough, at the race, I had to endure a 13.1 mile “run” on exposed, sun-drenched roads with temperatures in the 90s.

Going into the race, I knew I’d have to not only increase my training, but also improve my nutrition planning. Toward the end of a shorter race last year in similar weather conditions, I fought off muscle cramps in one of my legs. And during one of my longest pre-Eagleman bike rides, I was starting to doze off! I wasn’t sure if I needed caffeine or just more calories (in hindsight, it was probably both), but I had neither with me, and it was long ride home. Clearly, sports drink and a few energy gels weren’t going to be enough for a half-ironman.

After some thinking, I decided on a race strategy that relied mostly on Gatorade and caffeinated PowerGels along with my secret weapon: a Clif Bar (white chocolate macadamia!) for midway through the bike. I tested this combination during a few longer workouts — which I highly recommend — and went to the race fairly confident. Overall, I guess it worked. I finished the race, and was somewhat pleased with my time.

But I didn’t finish strong like I’d hoped. Also, I was a little annoyed about having to stash all the used gel packets in my race jersey (I didn’t want to toss them aside in the nature preserve) and my fingers kept getting sticky and gooey no matter how carefully I tried to open them. The mid-bike Clif Bar hit the spot, I suppose, and gave me a bit of an energy boost. But it was a little hard to chew and swallow it while staying in the aero position. Also, as I’d heard about but never experienced beforehand, at a certain point your stomach starts to say “no” to more Gatorade.

I obviously still have work to do. And I’m already thinking ahead to another half-ironman, and possibly a full ironman, next year. I’ve been able to test out a variety of nutrition products now, some through trial and error from the local bike shop, and others from what was on the race course at other races or given away for free in the expos. I like some of them, others not so much. More later.

“On race day, its much less about the engine and much more about what’s in your fuel tank…”

They say the fourth discipline of triathlon (after swimming, biking and running) is nutrition. Makes perfect sense. You could build the fanciest race car. But without the proper fuel, you’d never go very fast. Or far, for that matter. For peak performance on race day, each of us needs to master the fundamentals of sports nutrition for endurance athletes.

Part of triathlon or any endurance sport nutrition regimen is eating healthy on a regular basis. You have to take care of your engine. I’ve found that by eating right, I sleep better, I have more energy and motivation to exercise, and I can trim and keep off unneeded weight. (And, hey, losing weight is free speed!)

There are plenty of websites to help you fine-tune your own personal diet. But you can basically boil it all down to (1) limiting (or eliminating) processed foods from your diet and instead getting most of your nutrients from (2) fruits and vegetables and (3) lean protein. As with most things in triathlon, you’ll need to find what works best for you. One big tip: Whatever changes you make, it’s easiest if you tweak your diet just a little at a time. It took me a lot of effort to kick my daily habit of eating a bunch of snack crackers and cheese at 11 a.m. (Turns out raisins and nuts are just as filling.)

But the other crucial aspect of nutrition is what to eat while exercising. Actually, what to eat before, during and after exercising.

With the right nutrition, you can maximize each workout and, most importantly, complete every race feeling strong. Every triathlete’s biggest fear is “bonking” during a big workout or race. “Bonking” is basically suddenly running out of all energy and having to call your wife or girlfriend to pick you up. I also used to cramp up a lot and get stuck in the middle of nowhere. In these cases, inadequate or improper nutrition is almost always to blame.

When I started training for my first sprint triathlon, I got by on just sport drinks and water. If I had a big workout or a race planned the next day, I figured that all I had to do was eat that magic plate of pasta and “carb up” the night before. It’s not that simple. And too many carbs will only leave you bloated, and could ultimately slow you down.

At races and on my local bike trail, I noticed other people using gels and mixing powder-based drinks, but I didn’t know what was in them or what the benefits could be. I remember walking into my local bike store and being amazed at and intimidated by the seemingly infinite selection of different drinks, powders, gels, beans (!), etc.

I’ve since learned that, especially in longer or high intensity efforts, consuming specialized nutrition in triathlon is crucial. There’s pretty good science behind it. And the more you learn about yourself during training, the more you can customize what nutrition you can take. And the better you’ll perform on Race Day.

And as with the other three disciplines of triathlon, you have to practice your nutrition to get it right. You’ll soon find what works best for you.