Alternate Race Fuel Plan (Sugar Reduced)

Coach Patrick

In talking with many of you pre/post race it's clear that doing with the EN Standard Race Fuel Plan (here) isn't always an option. 

Sometimes it's your choice, sometimes it's your diet, or the effect of all that sugar on your system. Right now many of you are just making it up...and I'd like to apply some more attention to this to find out what your options are, in a race, to fuel properly for performance. Please share anything you have!

It doesn't have to be a full race plan...it could be a food source you use / have good experience with. 

Many thanks in advance,

~ Coach P

Coach Rich

Good thread.

For me it's not so much sugar/composition of calories as it is about sodium. I've learned I only need about 500-600mg of sodium per hour and bad things happen when I go above that. So relying mostly on Gatorade Endurance for fluid + calories + sodium is no-go for me as it quickly puts me above that sodium range. So for training I'm usually water, some Gatorade, and a mix of Clif Blocks (luvs those things) and gels. Race day will be lots of water, blocks, and gels, and then viewing GE as similar to taking an extended length salt tab, if that makes sense. 

In other words, by separating my nutrition into fluid, calories, and sodium sources I'm able to be more in control of how I mix / use them across the day based on my needs. For example, I'm able to take in many more calories early on the bike vs later, but will quickly get into trouble if I rely on GE solely for that. 

But for me, the simplicity of fueling off the course is the primary driver. 

Dino Sarti

Two years ago, I switched to water and chewable food only. NO Sports drink at all either in training or on the course.

The issue for me with sports drinks it that you may need liquid to fight dehydration, but not those calories. Especially on hot day when fluid needs are much higher than caloric needs. When you relay on gatorade, you can't separate the two.

I prefer to fuel "ala carte". Water fights dehydration and keeps my stomach fresh. Water is very easy on the stomach. I then use, cliff blocks, bonk breakers, cliff bars and protein bars for fuel. By separating hydration from calories you can then dial them up and down independently of each other based on feel. At Placid it was hot day and I was really hungry and thirsty. I eat on course food and drank water the whole ride. I pee'd 6 times on the bike. I could have NEVER processed that much gatorade.

When relying on Gatorade, you are stuck with their ratios of fluid, to calories, to sodium. If their ratio does not work for you, you are stuck. For me Gatorade is harder to digest than water, so I am stuck with bloat and other stomach issue on the run. With water only on the bike, I have never had any of the stomach issues I had before.

Another note is that this diet is EASY. 90% of what I eat is available to me on the course for free in crazy abundance. Every 10 miles, there is new opportunity to fuel. In my bike top tube bag, I keep a small cache of emergency food (didn't even touch it at IMLP), that if I eat I replace at the next aid station. There is special protein bar I like. I keep one in that bag as a little treat at mile 56. Other than that, it all on course nutrition. Super simple.

Douglas Sutherland

I do not have enough experience yet to really understand nutritional cause and effect over a race day but I agree with Rich - it pays to eat whats on course. I remain impressed the lengths people take to bring their own nutrition/lytes.

Something I find most interesting is how many people do not tolerate G-aid well. It is really impressive. Previously I did not count myself one of them, but at IMC, I suspect G-aid confused me. Using the 'drink till you burp it back up' philosophy, I clearly became dehydrated. I got down a total of 7 bottles of the stuff (and 1-2 waters). I now believe I had the bloat Dino is referring to, and stopped drinking too early as a result. I plan to use more water in the future.

I have struggled with liquid calories - using liquids/gels primarily fails to keep the stomach full. This may just be my endomorph genes, but I have definitely decided to keep solids in the mix throughout the race, tapering down from early bike to early run. JW's Larabar idea worked for me.

rlh2000

+1 on larabars. I know many warn against them due to fat and fiber content, but they've never caused me a problem! Other bars certainly have... another go to solid (has sugar but isn't drinking pure sugar) is Environkids crispy rice bars, essentially a slightly healthier (?) rice crispy treat. My run special needs always has salty rice crackers and Trader Joe's candied ginger. Maybe it's a placebo effect that those calm an unsteady gut, but at the very least they are a nice change from the overly sweet tastes we get inundated with.

I had a lot of trouble "training" myself to like gatorade, and almost gave up when I finally seemed to adjust to it. But I won't do it again- this sport is suppose to be healthy and fun. Forcing myself to drink a disgusting drink that cannot be good for you (yeah yeah, electrolytes...) just seems dumb. I think I'll take more of the water approach in the future.

Nemo Brauch

This is probably the equivalent to starting up a holy war, but here goes. I've been training with UCAN (vanilla with protein) and intend to use it on race day at IMNC (would have used it at Roth- but, well, never got that far). I've used in in Half IM's with success as well, but have learned that while it works really well for me on the bike, I simply can't stand it on the run (and I've tried variations with other flavors etc, I just get gassy and can't stand to take it). Along with the UCAN on the bike I'll eat a banana with Almond Butter (Justins little single pack) within the first half of the bike). Like others, I've also found G-Aid (and other similar sports drinks) don't work well for my stomach over a long day. So I keep hydration and nutrition/calories separate. I drink only water and use BASE for electrolyte/salt (I actually really like BASE and look forward to those little licks). In prep for Challenge Roth, I had to come up with a plan that didn't include the option of a SNB (because there is no such thing at Roth). So my plan was to live off the course on the run with the gels they provide (a variety not available in the US, so I had to special order it to try it out). Even with a SNB option, I'm going to keep things simple and use the same plan at IMNC. No worries about if my SNB is or isn't there- and no need to stop if I don't need some emergency item (spare tube, warm shirt, etc).

Scott Alexander

I've gone through quite an evolution of my nutrition/hydration in my tri career. Here are the highlights:
-started with old school full-strength Gatorade (I didn't know any better back then!), with gels on top of it.
-moved to Accelerade, but had lots of problems, which I finally figured out that it was due to too many calories like Dino said.
-switched to Infinit, and liked it for several years, but got sick of the flavors when they got any degree of warm (hello, I live in TX!)
-last few years, I completely separated my hydration and nutrition, like many others above have. Now I use water w/ Nuun for hydration. I've switched between Larabars and now I'm on Honey Stinger waffles.

I'm seemingly lucky, that even for a long bike ride (in an IM or not), I can survive with minimal calories, usually no more than 200/hour (first few hours I don't need anything if I get a good breakfast) without consequence.
On an IM run, I can survive on one gel/gu per hour usually, with some occasional snacks at the rest stops thrown in for variety.
Guess being a bigger guy means I have more calories stored to use! haha

Nemo Brauch

Scott- that "evolution" looks a lot like my own (up until the Lara bar/ Honey Stingers)!

Keith Wick

I've been using rice cakes over the past several years. They are bland and provide little stomach issues for me. Depending on what I make, they have between 160-300 calories with limited processed sugar. Examples of what I've made are PB &J (higher calorie), eggs & salt, blueberry & chocolate chip, or cinnamon apple. I have 1 per hour on the bike, starting with eating the first one as I'm running to get my bike in transition. I start the bike with 2 bottles of skratch and have 2 at special needs (along with 2 rice cakes). This leaves me with about 1.5 hours before special needs to use a combination of gatorade and water, and then about the same on the second loop, leaving about 30 minutes before transition to let my stomach empty before the run. I bring 2-4 rice balls (smaller) on the run and then try to manage using what's on the course for the first half before I start my coke addiction

Bonowrangler

Wow Keith! You beat me to it!

IMCA night before, I made 12 Rice Balls. I brought my own rice maker from home and used good quality, sushi grade, steamed white rice. One table spoon of rice on a 6x6" nonstick aluminum foil. Teaspoon of jif creamy peanut butter, teaspoon of local honey, pinch of base salt, and a banana splice. Role it up in a square form (this takes some practice to fold it into something that is easy to peal open and shove in your mouth while in aero). For my 6:21 bike, I ate one every 30'. Per serving: 300 cal, 150mg sodium, potassium, 7g prot., 55-65%water. There is a reason Allen Lim from Skratch Labs feeds this to his cyclists in the tours. They are much more easy to digest then a bar that has 7% water. And just proves you can't compete in a Tour on PEDs alone .

One 24oz bottle of Skratch labs Hydration mix/hour. I use 2 scoops/24 oz water, which has 160 cal, 720mg sodium, 80mg potassium, 40g carbs, 40g of cane sugar. (*NOTE: this is about the same amount as gatorade!) Started with 30oz Torpedo BTA, bottle on down tube, and bottle behind seat. Drank 3-4 big gulps every 10'. This lasted almost to SNB where I had 3 more bottles 1/3 frozen from night before. First bottle was nice a chilled. Peed every hour on the bike. I had to force down the last gel, and I would like to blame it on the gatorade on the course, but who knows for sure. I think for the most part the fueling strategy worked well.

Also on the bike, one Gu gel with high caffein, sodium content every hour on the 45'.

Another Skratch in my running bag in a bottle strapped to my hand. After emptying the bottle in less than an hour,  I had to go with gatorade at the aid stations. I was fine the entire run. Neg split the second half. After the race I had a light nausea/upset stomach that lasted for about 20 min until my friend brought me some miso soup and I was fine.

 

William Jenks

I am reading this thread mostly out of curiosity, since I've never had trouble with the all-gatorade diet on the bike. 3 bottles an hour took care of all my fluid, salt, and calorie needs. (I may be a bit of an oddity...I have never peed during any of my many HIM races except one where i had terrible GI problems, and in each of my 3 IM races, I have peed once during the whole race...so take that for what it's worth.) I certainly see the logic of separating water from calories and salt. Makes total sense.

But to people reading this who haven't done the switch already, pay special attention to the ease of your set up. If you can do something where you can shove a couple things in your bento and then otherwise live off the course, that is a huge mental advantage over having to fuss with a bunch of stuff at special needs or have burritos taped to your bike. If you really do need something special, go for it....but I just have to think that when all other things are equal, simpler = better.

[Deleted User]

I have used and loved UCAN in the past.  I usually mix 2 scoops plain per bottle and mix in coconut water so each bottle is about 260 calories and 1 bottle per hour on bike with same bottle at run transition and run special needs.  Worked well for cool race IMCHOO but for Texas this year I knew I needed more electrolytes so I switched to EFS Pro which has all the electrolytes you need and has the same/similar low osmolality carb source as UCAN.  I used 5 scoops per 24 oz bottle (200 cals) and consumed 5 bottles in 4 hours plus lots of water and peed 5x on bike. For run 1 bottle EFS pro as above, 1 flask of liquid shot (400 cals) sipped on throughout run and coke/water/red bull at each aid station.  Occasionally had to take Gatorade endurance to poor on my arm coolers during run if I passed water station as that stuff goes nowhere near my stomach No extra salt ect needed and no cramps.  For IM Mary I may use  3 concentrated bottles EFS pro and just grab water at aid stations on bike.  I wont use BSN so in Texas I carried 3 bottles on frame and 2 bottle's in jersey pocket discarding bottle when empty at aid stations.  What I lost in aero I feel I make up in having my nutrition dialed in.  

[Deleted User]

and I forgot +2 for Lara Bars - coconut cashew is awesome and I don't mind the fat content early in training rides and may throw some in for IM Maryland

Julie hupp

Very helpful post. I have been working for more than a year on becoming better fat adapted, I have been tested several times and I am still buring 80% fat close to zone 3.

All my training for my upcoming ironman has been done fasted (under 2 hours). The longer ones I have used UCAN and lara bars. I have supplemented a bit on my longer RR rides with some pbj's or banana. I usually have about 200 cals per hour max.

I have never bonked and recover and feel quite well.

I am looking for some of you who have taken this approach into your race. How have you used UCAN and how many calories are you using.(ucan and other foods) I know my approach works for a long swim and a 7 hour bike but I dont know what will happen on my run. Since everyone else fuels with so much sugar and more calories, I am nervous about my approach.

Appreciate all feedback and experience.

Julie