IMSG nutrition issues

msarten10

Hi,

Perfect timing on my trial membership. 

I just finished IMSG and had major stomach issues after mile 3 of the run.  I don't have any heart rate data to offer because my Garmin lost battery right before climbing the wall on the second loop. 

During the bike I took in 6-8 gels, Infinit, Perform, water, 1/2 banana, 1/2 Powerbar, and 3 salt tabs (350 mg/each).  Nutrition seemed fine on the bike (peed 3 times on bike course and 1 in T2).  My HR averaged about 130 for the portion of the ride I have data from. 

Once I hit the run, I probably started way too fast and my stomach shut down at mile 3.  I ended up walking the final 23 miles because of the nausea (but never vomited) and extreme pain from the stomach cramps. I initially thought the intense pain was gall bladder/appendix problems, but the pain moved bilaterally at mile 9.  I tried to remedy the problems with Perform, coke, broth, more salt tabs, water, etc., but the pain never subsided until 30 min. after I sat down after the finish. My stomach was still tender to palpation until after a bowel movement Monday morning.   

I know heat was a major issue since I had very few training days at temps above 70 degrees.  I did 3 20-24 mile runs in the last 5 weeks of training, so I don't think I was undertrained. 

So I guess my real question is, "Did I need more electrolytes or more water once my stomach shut down?"

TIA 

mattsull

Welcome,

Sorry to hear about your issues. I have been there! What you're describing are symptoms that usually come about from taking too many calories, possibly combined with not enough water.

Did you have a nutrition plan and did you practice it? Primarily, how many calories per hour were you targeting? How much water, sodium, etc. How much did you actually take in per hour?

jwpicciotto

@Mike, Looking at your post, "6-8 gels, Infinit, Perform, water, 1/2 banana, 1/2 Powerbar, and 3 salt tabs (350 mg/each)" it looks like you may have gone overboard on the caloric intake. On the bike you can generally take down more calories without too many issues, but when you get to the run, your stomach will react to the excess calories much more directly. The symptoms that you outlined sound like your GI tract shut down. General guidance for most amateur athletes is 200-250 calories per hour as the upper limit. Also, the frequency of urination is a good indication that you took down a lot of fluid during the bike as well that was not eliminated through sweat.

One of the things that we suggest everyone do is train their nutrition so that they have an indication of what will happen on race day.

Scott Alexander

Also, K.I.S.S.. To me, that sounds like an awful lot of variety and difference between what you consumed on the bike; gels, infinit, perform, banana, powerbar, etc. Can you rehearse and get away with a lot less items? Can you use Infinit 100% like a lot of us do around here?

That's probably a lot of extra weight (at least a lot of extra admin) to have on your bike for 112 hilly and windy miles.

Nate Parady

@Mike, Congrats on finishing IMSG...sounds like a realy tough course...

not sure you have full access to the Wiki yet as a trial member BUT there are a lot of great resources in the wiki that discuss how to execute nutrition on race day and how to practice and rehearse this plan during your training...

To add to what Johnand Matt said, I would also add that you were putting lots of different things into your stomach which, at least for me, can cause an upset stomach. Especially any solid type food... There are a lot of folks in EN who are using a bottle of concentrated Infinit solution (example: 3x concentrate for a 3 hour bottle) followed by water from the course. Idea is you take one swig of the infinit followed by 2-3 swigs of water to ensure it dilutes in your stomach. I have been using this for my training rides and it works like a charm...my formula has 250 cals, 500mg sodium, 2 grams protein per serving. Keeps things simple and clean and most importantly it is easy for your stomach to handle.

penlynwilson

@Mike: Great info from everyone else. I would ask as someone else did - what was your nutrition plan going in? Had it worked before? Did you execute to plan?

msarten10

Thanks for all the invaluable feedback.  Looking back on my training, I never took in more than 800 calories (gels and infinit) for my long rides (5+ hr). 

1) I plan on keeping track of my nutrition during workouts to find out what works

2) Practicing and then sticking to what works in training (nothing new on race day)

3) Keeping the variety to a mininum (I like the concentrated infinit idea a lot)

4) Doing a short run after some of my long rides (I neglected bricks in training, so I need find out what really works for the run) 

Thanks again.  It never occurred to me that I had too many different foods and calories, but it makes perfect sense now.   

 

Tom Glynn

I think you will find most people here have learned to eat less calories and also less variety of foods when racing. I drink Cytomax and gels for all my nutrition. Also watch the timing of food consumption. Let your heart rate settle after the swim before starting to eat, walk the aid stations to help get food down etc. Wash the gels and concentrated Infinit down with lots of water.

Coach Rich

Mike,

Welcome to your trial!

What you're seeing here is something that, we feel, make EN very unique in the trispace: we apply a HUGE amount of attention to detail and resources to teaching our athletes how to race. We do a very, very good job of helping new IM athletes skip all of the mistakes that we've all made until we learned differently, helping them race like vets vs noobs. In our experience, proper race execution is free speed and we, as a team, apply just as much attention to this opportunity as we do to training.

Many, many coaches out there provide nothing in the form of "how to actually race," and you will not find a more race-execution knowledgable community anywhere.

Norton

Mike,

Another thing to consider: almost all IM racers go too hard during the first 40-60 miles on the bike. This mistake often manifests itself during the run as gastric distress. Although it doesn't look like a direct correlation (especially at the time!) this pattern has been repeated at every IM; I'm sure you had plenty of company walking it in.

In any case, congratulations on finishing the damned thing: you are an Ironman!

Coach Rich

What Bill said. Lots of people talking about how nutrition product/plan x, y, z didn't work for them...but compartively little talk about how over-biking for the first 120' or running too fast the first 6 miles of the run impacted their nutrition and legs.

In short most of the IM world points to poor fitness and/or nutrition issues as the source of poor race day performance, not poor execution skills. In experience it's FAR more often the later vs the former.