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Posts Tagged ‘half ironman nutrition plan’

What Goes In, Must Come Out

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Since I wrote up and posted a detailed nutrition plan for Rev3 Quassy, I figure it only makes sense to report on exactly how it went.

Before and during the race, I felt great. I hit everything right on target and my stomach felt good. I could have used a little more EFS for a few spots on the run where I felt a little drained, but I was able to cross the finish line knowing that not only did I hit my plan, but it worked pretty well for me. I hydrated perfectly, peed on the run and avoided any major bonking. A happy day.

That was at least until I got in the car and started to drive home. My stomach started gurgling something angry. In the middle of nowhere, there isn’t anywhere to make a pit stop so I had to just grab onto the steering wheel tight and kept on driving.

Let’s just say that once I got home, it was clear that all the water I was taking in didn’t make it into my system and went right through me. Apparently there is such a thing as Runner’s Diarrhea. Who knew? Google it…

This was a major red flag since I want to figure out what is going on in my stomach so I don’t have to rush to the port-o-john mid-marathon (or bike) at the FullRev in September at Sandusky.

Normally I have never had ANY GI issues when training/racing, (except for some similar issues after my HIM race simulation workout) and I needed some more advice from smart people. And what better way than to go directly to the guy that designed every calorie that I took in both days, the co-founder of First Endurance, Robert Kunz. I love that FE has its own nutrition focused social network with people posting questions and tips. It is a great resource for not only info on FE products, but any endurance nutrition tips.  Definitely hit up http://team.firstendurance.com/ if you ever need some nutrition advice.
I posted some info on the nutrition I took on during the day and here is the response I got from Robert:

Thanks for taking the time to seek some help here at team.firstendurance.com. At first glance, I suspect its just a matter of just a bit high on the concentration. Take note that your ability to absorb nutrients changes throughout the race. Right out of T1 your body is transitioning from blood to the upper body, to shifting to your legs. At this point its a good idea to go light on the nutrition and fluids and consider just some light sips of water. Typically 20-30 minutes into the bike athletes start to feel much more efficient, the breathing becomes more rhythmic and you settle into your bike. At this point and throughout the rest of your bike is the best time to consume your calories, though try not to go more than about 10% solution.

Out of T2 its the same story..your body movements change from cycling to running, so for about 20 minutes focus on your form and trying to get comfortable and don’t force the calories in. During the run consume about 25% less calories per hour than on your bike at it is more difficult to absorb calories while running than while biking.

For your full Ironman your pacing should be slower than HIM, so the consumption of calories on the bike should be easier.

Ease into your nutrition just like you would your pace on each portion. I know Pro Michael Lovato likes to have water the first 45 minutes of his bike during Ironman since its super light but does tell his stomach that it needs to keep blood in the digestive system so nutrients can get absorbed. Small, frequent sips following T1 and T2 until you find that easy rhythm may help considerably.

So that is the new plan. Instead of starting out of T1 with my concentrated 400 calorie bottle of Liquid Shot, I’m going to switch it out and have either water or diluted EFS. Back to the drawing board.

I have no problem with little mini failures like this as long as I can learn something from it. It just means that I’m THAT much closer to knowing enough to nail every last mile of the Cedar Point FullRev…

Tags: , , , | Posted in Nutrition, Triathlon | 6 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 »