qq_tracker_code_advanced_default

Posts Tagged ‘efs’

Olympic Triathlon Nutrition Plan

Friday, June 17th, 2011

I think I have finally done it. After soaking up as much race nutrition info as I can and testing out what works for me (and failing several times), I realized after Quassy olympic  that I may have perfected my  nutrition plan. That isn’t to say that there won’t be bumps in the road or changes in the future, but I think I’ve got 90% of it down.

Here is my own personal plan:

General Nutrition Principles

1) Dont over think it. I used to obsess over how many calories of different mixes and gels I would take at different points of the race. Carefully calculated timing, caloric density and nutritional make up was the name of the game. It didn’t make me any faster and actually distracted me from racing smart.

2) Focus on quality, not quantity. I used to tape a half dozen gel packets to the top tube of my bike frame along with two water bottles full of calories. WAY too much for a 25 mile bike. I could have survived out there for days and had backups in case my backup nutrition dropped off and fell on the road.  For a 2-3 hour race, your HR is going to be so high that your stomach won’t have the ability to digest very many calories the first place. My legs have enough stored energy to go about 2 hours without any supplemental calories at all, so my race nutrition doesn’t have to be very calorie heavy. Since my stomach will only digest a finite amount of calories during an olympic distance race, don’t give it any more than it needs and choose my carbohydrate, sugar and electrolyte sources wisely.

Pre Race Nutrition

Since my race nutrition strategy is all around taking in only what little calories my stomach can absorb, pre-race nutrition is key. It is also important to stick with what my stomach is used to. On the average morning, I’ll wake up and have a bowl of Frosted Flakes and water. If my pre-race butterflies are kicking in, I’ll substitute cereal with sipping on a flask of EFS Liquid Shot and wash it down with some water. (Total ~300 Calories)

Race nutrition was designed to go down smoothly under harsh stomach conditions, why not use it when you aren’t even racing yet?

30-60 minutes before the race start I’ll finish off a water bottle of EFS with one scoop of Pre Race. (Total ~100 calories) Pre-race is an awesome supplement that helps your muscles work harder with less fatigue. Despite the name, it is also great to use for key high-intensity workouts too. It is also loaded up with caffiene, so if you aren’t a coffee drinker, make sure you test it out before race day. Coffee can make me REALLY jittery since I don’t drink it often, but PreRace gives me a nice smooth boost. I don’t feel like I’m disoriented and unfocused like I would if I pound a couple of espresso shots.

caffeine triathlon

Here is a whole mess of research on the ingredients in PreRace if you are interested in geeking out: http://www.firstendurance.com/pdf/pre_research_packet_1.4.pdf

Race Nutrition: The Bike

Exiting the water, I’ll grab a cup of water just to wash out my mouth. Once I’m out of T1, I’ll keep it simple, I only loaded one bottle of grape EFS  (two scoops) on my bike. (Total ~200 calories) I suck down as much as I’m feeling I need, but make sure I’m at least 3/4 of the way through the bottle at mile 20 of the bike. That gives me time to absorb anything that is left in my stomach before I start out on the run.

Race Nutrition: The Run

The run is the simplest of it all. Because my HR is higher, I won’t be able to absorb much at all. Plus, by the time I take something in at mile 1, it’ll just barely have time to soak in and feed my legs by the time I get to mile 6. With that, I don’t take in ANY calories at all because they’ll either sit in my stomach like a brick or will only make me feel stronger AFTER the finish line.

I’ll take in water at aid stations as needed to keep my mouth from drying out, but that is it. Skip the sports drinks and gels completely for the run.

Post-Race Nutrition

I’ll usually have a water bottle with two scoops of Ultragen Cappuccino (no water) waiting for me back at my transition area. I’ll head over there within 20 minutes of finishing, fill it up with cold water, shake and chug. Gotta replenish the legs ASAP so I can recover and get back to training for the next race!

Optimized with InboundWriter

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Posted in Nutrition, Triathlon | 3 Comments »

Half Ironman Triathlon Nutrition Plan

Friday, June 4th, 2010

This weekend I’ve got some revenge planned for the Rev3 triathlon half course. And it all started with a completely reworked half ironman nutrition plan.

Last year I came unprepared and suffered. The short story is that while my training was pretty solid, I started off the race drained and with not nearly enough water in me. Starting a race already in the red is a great way to spend the day in a 70.3 mile triathlon suffer fest.

This year, everything is different. Ditched the coach, got a whole new ironman plan, a fancy new carbon bike, a whole new race nutrition setup and I have a whole mess of nutrition lessons learned from painful race mistakes to hopefully get me to the finish line a little faster and a whole lot happier on Sunday.

Here is the plan.

The Day Before:

  • Bring my full Camelbak with me while I volunteer at the Oly run course aid station with two scoops of EFS. Slurp away slowly all day to have plenty of water in my system at all times.

Morning:

  • Glass of juice
  • Cereal
  • Fruit
  • Bottle of EFS when I wake up
  • Bottle of EFS while hanging out in transition
  • First Endurance MultiV
  • First Endurance OptygenHP

Swim:

  • Avoid getting kicked in the face and chomping on people’s toenails
  • Suck down cup of water on my way to T1

Bike:

  • Drink one bottle of Liquid Shot mixed with water in the first 40 minutes (400 Cal)
  • Drink two more bottles of a weak EFS mix (~100 calories) every 40-45 minutes after that
  • Continually suck from another 400 calorie Liquid Shot flask throughout the rest of the bike.
  • Grab another water bottle from an aid station and polish that off 10-15 minutes before rolling in to T2

Run:

  • Slurp down water at every aid station
  • Mix it with a sip from a new EFS flask (400 Cal total)that I’ll pick up in T2

Post-Race:

  • I’ll have a bottle with two scoops of cappuccino Ultragen recovery goodness waiting for me back at transition. I’m leaving it without water, so that I can just grab the bottle, fill it up with water somewhere at the expo and suck it down and hope that it helps me be able to walk normally on Monday morning. I love that stuff and it hasn’t let me down yet.

That is the plan that I’ve tested and seems to work pretty well in training. I’m pretty confident that it will work on race day, but there is only one way to find out.

Training wise? I think my bike is a LOT stronger than my run lately, but as long as I can get to mile 5 of the run feeling good, I should be able to bring it all home feeling good.

UPDATE:

Note, I’ve tweaked the order of what I consumed on the bike. Instead of starting with a heavily concentrated water bottle on the bike, I decided to start with a more diluted drink to let my heart rate settle before increasing my caloric intake. More information behind that decision can be found HERE.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Posted in Ironman, Nutrition, Training Log, Triathlon, Videos | 3 Comments »