Alpha: Ironman Nutrition Planner (HT to Kate!)
Folks, we have come a long way talking about nutrition...which is awesome...but there is such a long way to go. I am at Ironman Wisconsin right now and 2 days out from the race, some of your teammates have NO IDEA how much sodium they are taking in per hour. Or why i recommend chewing glass before considering a Bonk Breaker bar. 
The spreadsheet download below is meant to be a tool for you to add up all your calories and actually SEE if the math makes sense.
Feel free to modify or edit as you see fit...this is your own copy to download.
Here is an explanatory screencast so you can see exactly how the sheet works...thanks!!
#1 - I'd like you feedback on how to make it better...hell you can download, make it better and send it back.
#2 - I'd love a more comprehensive list of food in the sidebar...if you add stuff maybe drop it in here in a reply (just the stats!) and I can add to a master sheet.
Thanks folks!!
Patrick
Comments
As an unashamed spreadsheet nerd I like the direction you're going. I think you can do a lot with the the interface to make is super user friendly. I made a couple of quick changes & attached the spreadsheet (hopefully I've attached it correctly) to this reply just to give you an idea of what could be done - there's a lot more cool stuff that can be added.
I've added a couple of drop down lists (data validation lists) for the food selections you've already got entered (the drop downs are in the cells are highlighted orange - pick an option and the enter the quantity per hour) & then based on what the user selected it will automatically fill in the nutritional information from the data you've got listed via a vlookup formula.
The spreadsheet is pretty "busy" and I think you can take the idea and make it a lot cleaner and slicker! I'll play around with it to see if I can come up with a version 2.0 that takes the concepts and makes it look even more awesome!
Great job on getting this together!
- David
Love the attempt and sure it will get refined in the days/weeks to come!
IMLOU was the first time I systematically thought about food/liquid/calorie intake, and I thought a spreadsheet was a really valuable tool. I shall definitely use this again in the future, even for RRs to dial in nutrition.
One thing that I think would a valuable addition to the spreadsheet for post-race analysis is an "Actuals" and "Delta, Planned vs Actuals" column -- plans look great in spreadsheets ahead of time, but come race time, that 11th bottle of Perform might not be so appealing anymore. Some modifications made in the heat of the race may appear minor at the time, but writing them down afterwards (assuming one can somehow remember...) can be quite revealing, so being able to compare actual fluid/calorie intake after a race with what was planned can be helpful for understanding impact on race effort.
K.
Also perhaps a tip on how to add new nutrition values / content to the sidebar? Thanks!!!
Patrick
As a Board Certified Sports Dietitian working with endurance athletes I agree with there needs to be a plan in place to calculate how the athletes will get their sodium. However - everyone as a unique sweat rate and a small less muscular athlete will get by with less that 1000 mg/hour. That would be a lot for a 120 pound female. I find that athletes over 190 pounds need 1000mg just to off set the sweat loss.
The calorie requirement is very dependent on the type of daily diet one has, altitude, heat and intensity of the pace. Glycogen is used at a faster rate at altitude and in the heat (to facilitate cooling). But, too many calories and the gut will shut down. Over 320 calories per hour and the athlete may have gut issues.I agree that liquid calories are best but many age groupers are on the course for up to 16 hours and taste fatigue sets in. Nibbling on a low fat low - fiber food is a good option for those athletes. It can be as simple as a Honey Stinger Waffle (Trader Joes's has a their own cheaper version) or 1/4 of a banana.
On the run estimating a person's burn rate is a simple method to figure calorie intake. Just take in about 25% of what you burn per hour.
Example: Most burn rates are 90-100 calories/mile. Run 7 miles/hour = 630- 700 calories burn rate. Take in 25% .... 158-175cal/hour.I have found this to be easy for athletes to use.
I like the idea of a spread sheet. It will open eyes on the importance of a PLAN!
Question -- Is this "Higher calorie" plan also recommended for half iron distance. Previously, fewer calories for half iron distance were recommended due to increased pace, IF, etc compared to Ironman distance. Is there a recommeded reduction?
I did a race rehearsal a few months ago and took in around 300 cal per hour without any problems -- This was more than the 200-220 Ive taken in before but still less than the 362 recommended in the Wiki.
Thanks!
Let me know what you think.
- David
Thank you!
This will be extremely helpful!
Spreadsheet nerds are the best!
I 'm not good at the set up,love the features!
I concur with David about the confusion
I vote for user friendly (hitting the like button a million times)
page breaks for print out, Drop downs (perfect) Kates suggestion would be fantastic " Planned vs Actuals"
Love to help, I put some food in the side bar. David can you tell me how to insert the sheet? like the one on the bottom of your reply.(IMfoodcalculator_Master)
Mark and Sheila made mention about calories being higher then what they use. When I calculated my calories they were also a lot higher. I 'm going to try it tomorrow on my oly race. "planned vs Actuals" will be the key for me!
Love it!
I got some good feedback on my version 2 of the nutrition spreadsheet & have made some adjustments and fixed some of the formula problems. You can download version 2.1 from my website - http://davidleventhal.org/2013/09/1...readsheet/
Thanks!
- David
@ David, this all totally new to me. The 2 most recent links you have posted are password protected on your blog. Can you message me the password or is there another way to get to the updated spreadsheets? Also, my version of Excel on my Mac will not support the Macros (for sorting - not sure what else, that is as far as I got). Any suggestions? Thanks.
Hi Antoinette - the password for all the EN blog post on my website is "workworks" (without quotes). Typically - all versions of Excel will support macros so long as the user enables them. I could be wrong...but I'd look for some sort of "enable macros" or "allow macros" button.
Have fun!
Awesome! Thanks so much. This is going to be HUGE help for me!