Ironman Race Nutrition Review
Many TeamEN athletes experienced nutrition issues at IMCDA. We’d like to use this as an opportunity to review the basic, but critical, nutrition advice we give you that has been proven to work across many, many athletes.
Nutrition Webinar (link here): a crazy comprehensive resource that you must, must, must review before your race. Do...Not...Pass...Go!
The Basics:
- Plan ahead so that you begin race day with a mostly empty, nothing funky hanging out in your digestive tract.
- 175-275, maybe 300 cal/hr, depending on body size. Smaller peep = the lower/left side of that scales, bigger folks on the upper/right. Test this during your race sims.
- Liquid or very easy to digest semi-solids (gels) are best.
- 500-1000mg of sodium across all sources based on the conditions and your experience with sodium needs.
- Generally, about 1.5-2 full bottles of fluid per hour, again, depending on conditions and your experience.
Practical Application:
Pre-Race:
- Drink lots of sports drink and salt your food the day before the race, pre-loading your body with sodium and fluids.
- Largest meal of the day is lunch. Dinner is light, easy to digest. See non-funky digestive tract note above.
- Breakfast: Basically by 4:30am at the latest, you will want to have 700-1000 easy to digest calories in your body. Your goal is a clean digestive tract and YOU are in charge of what goes into it after the 7a start. As always, test with your race simulation and “B” or “C” level races.
- Option 1 = The Two Part EN Method (Coach Rich’s Plan)
- 2:00am meal of easy to digest calories. You may not like to wake up and shot gun 2 x 350cal Naked Juice Smoothies, or whatever else you plan to do, but this 2am dealio has worked for THOUSANDS of athletes since about 2002. Just sayin’....
- 4-4:30 am: wake up, have a VERY light second breakfast and/or just take in another 200-300cal before the start as more sports drink, a gel or two, etc.
- Option 2 = The Sleep-In Breakfast (Coach Patrick’s Plan)
- Wake up at 3:45, to start eating by 4:00am latest.
- 4 cups of applesauce + 1 scoop protein powder mixed in. 1 banana. 1 16 oz sports drink.
- Option 1 = The Two Part EN Method (Coach Rich’s Plan)
- Pre-Race: On site and en route to the site, you’ll be sipping water and sports drink. About 20 minutes before the swim start, take in 2 x non-caffeine gels plus water. Then head down to the swim area to cross the timing mat and get seeded.
The Bike:
- We recommend you don’t eat anything, or just lightly sip a sports drink, for the first ~30’ or so. Let your body settle into the bike before you start to feed. The only exceptions to this rule are folks who swim longer than 1 hour and 45 minutes (or slower). You might need some calories sooner.
- Feeding on the bike: Our experience and opinion is that your body needs, on the bike:
- Fluids (water or sportsdrink) -- Approximately 1.5-2 bottles per hour is pretty safe for all but the hottest conditions.
- Electrolytes -- Sodium. Again, about 500-1000mg depending on conditions and your experience with sodium needs.
- Calories -- This is the big one. Again, 175-300cal/hr, depending your body size. Within this guidance:
- #1 -- Less Is More. We’ve never seen an athlete legitimately “bonk” during an IM, as in, didn’t eat enough calories, ran out of glycogen/carbs needed to burn fat and therefore switch to a much less efficient energy system. If you’ve been there, you know the feeling...and we haven’t seen it in an Ironman. Hopefully you have experience with/a goal number of calories per hour, within our range, that you’ve experimented with in training. We recommend you start on the low end of that plan and go up only if you are feeling exceptionally good. The less you eat (within reason, see our scale above) the less you give your body to do or process while it’s racing.
- #2 -- Simple Is Best. Liquid form, sugar...and that’s it. There’s a movement out there to add protein to sports drink. Our experience is that it works for some, not so good for others (can lead to gas and bloating) but, more importantly, it’s generally just not needed during a race. It complicates things and, again, your body wants simple energy.
- You’ll also be tempted/will get advice that you might want a special “treat” in your BSN bag -- a candy bar, twinkie, beef buritto, whatever. Understand that the further you deviate from our plan of simple, relatively light calories, the more you drift into an area of unpredictability. This goes for all Ironman participants regardless of your race day speed or goals.
It’s fine if you want to slam some yogurt pretzels (or a bratwurst!) on your training rides. But on that training ride you likely weren’t nervous for days, got 3-5hrs sleep the night before your ride, did a 2.4mi swim in very chaotic conditions, are now locked into the aerobars with no stops at gas stations, water fountains to get off the bike for just a couple minutes and, most importantly, didn’t have to run a marathon afterwards.
On race day we recommend you follow a very simple, easy to execute plan that has been proven to work across many, many athletes.
The Run:
You get off the bike and you’ve now been moving and racing continuously for 6, 7, 8, 9 hours. Your body is very much on the edge of...a lot of stuff...and now is the time you REALLY want to keep it simple. But it’s exactly the time that you now start to hit aid stations every 8-12’ vs every 30-40’ on the bike. It’s very, very easy to over-feed yourself on the run if you’re not careful.
This is especially critical on the run. You’re very likely a little to very dehydrated by the time you hit the run course. If you start eating calorie dense foods, your body responds by pulling water from your blood stream into your stomach to help process those calories...but you’re dehydrated. The net is that absorption slows down dramatically, or shuts down all together, and you are unable to process anything -- calories, fluids, even water.
RnP are water, sportsdrink, and/or Coke...and that’s it. If anything you want to decrease your cal/hr on the run, relative to the bike, until you’re sure that all systems are go. Then hit the sportsdrink, coke, maybe a gel or something similarly easy to digest...with water of course!
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Comments
---Ann.
WERD!
You described my IMCDA nutrition plan to a T. All liquid calories- Infinit @ ;250 cal/hr on the bike (6', 190#) and nothing but water,perform and coke on the run. I have never had a better nutritionally based race.
I changed my nutrition plan to this plan AFTER the 4 keys talk on saturday- risky I know- but it worked perfect and I will never go back to solid food during a race.
Are there any general guidelines for adjusting your plan for calorie intake for extreme temps. Like over 90 degrees or less than 40.
Example, I climb out of mirror lake and find that its 40 degrees outside and my body is shivering...does this equal less or more calories.
Sounds exactly like Lake Placid 2008. I got out of the swim and it was pouring down rain and 57 degrees. Only had on a singlet and shorts (big mistake), and by the time I descended into Keane I was shivering so badly I could barely hold on to the aerobars. I never got warmed up during the bike and also found that despite sticking to my nutirion plan --250 cal Infinit/hr, I became very hungry by the 2nd half of the bike. I burned though all the calories I had on me including my emergency Cliff bar with little improvement.
Starting the run I initially felt pretty good but around mile 5 started to completely crash. No energy, heavy legs and beginning to feel somewhat disoriented. I knew I wasn't dehyrated as I had taken in plenty of fluids on the bike so the only thing I could determine was that I was bonking. I quickly pounded several gels in a short time period (with water) and bounced back well enough to keep running and finish.
I'm not certain if we burn more calories competing in cold weather but I'm fairly certain that prolonged shivering would increase your caloric requirments.
Fortunanely, as has been mentioned, a calorie deficit can be corrected quickly and predictably. Trying to undo overconsumption is much more difficult.
I will most likely have something warm with me as an option to put on...
Most of the time weather is a little more reasonable but you never know......
@Nate -- Yeah it was not the most fun day. From the people I talked to most of the bigger athletes, diesel engine types didn't have a problem with the cold. I'm 5"9 and was barely 140 lbs on race day so I didn't have much protection from the cold. I saw Desiree Ficker walking the marathon that day wearing a trash bag and I know there was at least one male who dropped out with mild hypothermia. On the other hand, many EN athletes had great days that year -- including several who qualified for Kona.
Id like to underscore how easy it is to take in TOO MANY calories on the run. Imagine you are going 10 minute miles, meaning you hit an aid station 6 times an hour. Then, it's a WARM day, say 80-85, so you are upping your fluid intake, say two cups of fluids (coke, H20 or Perform) per aid station. That's about 6 oz each cup. 12 oz coke = 120 calories, 12 oz Perform = 105 calories. 4 cups in 1 hour ... BOOM, you're at your limit.
If you're running faster, of course, it comes at you quicker. 8 minutes miles, 7-8 aid stations an hour, it adds up awful fast.
I suggest practicing ahead of time to see how many oz of fluid you get with, say six sips while walking on a long run, then do the calculations of calorie intake ahead of time for your expected needed fluid intake - I sure can't do arithmatic 10 hours into an Ironman. You might be surprised how easy it is to go over 200 cal per hour while taking sports drink or cola on the run, to say nothing of anything you happen to be (unnecessarily IMHO) carrying wtih you on your Fuel Belt (or, worse, any pretzels or oranges you take. And don't forget the Chicken broth!)
As Ann says, it's harder to absorb calories while running than biking. Let's be careful out there!
Great tips everybody. I've got the bike covered with a concentrated bottle on the downtube and the rest water. My concern is the run. I lost 8 pounds during a 2 hour long run this week, almost 5% of my body weight. I never cramped but certainly didn't feel great. I did cramp severely at mile 6 of the run last year in Louisville.
I can't imagine my stomach being able to handle drinking enough to weigh the same after as I did before the race. Is that still something people shoot for after a full IM in hot conditions?
No, but here's what you should shoot for: it is possible to get off the bike without having lost any signficant water weight, as water/sport drink is easier to digest/absoreb while riding compared to running. Then, in order to keep running, you should try to limit your dehydration to no more than 2-3% by the end of the race. There are several tactics to employ to get there.
First, you can "train" your stomach to absorb greater volumes of water while running, by trying to increase how much you drink with each walking break on your long runs. You can use the above numbers to calculate your fluid needs per hour, and how much you would then need to drink per hour during the race in order to limit your losses to no more than 3% by the end of the race. Like any other form of training, start wherever you are, and each longer run, try to increase the amount you drink at each walk break. Everyone has a limit; mine (at 145#) is 12 oz per mile
Two, drinking as soon as you start walking at the aid station, and then starting back up after about 20 seconds of walking(after drinking), and accelerating slowly out of the aid station will give you GI tract a bit of time to take in the water. It goes without saying that H20 and simple sugar sports drink are MUCH easier to absorb than any solid food at this point.
Finally, you MUST slow down depending on the heat. Your body has a maximum temp it will let you achieve, and you WILL slow down one way or the other, sooner or later, by running slower of walking (or simply passing out). Part of the reason to slow down is to reduce and delay as much as possible the inevitable dehydration. Matt S. is in the IM Louisville Forum group and can give you details about the heat calculator he developed to determine how much to slow down, depending on the day's temp and humidity.
Hey Dewey! I have done the IM distance. I do something similar on the run like you. I carry a water bottle with Infinit instead of just water. I use one of those water bottle holders that slips over the hand. I keep another water bottle with Infinit mix (no water) in the special needs bag. At the water station right after or next to the Special Needs Bag station, I have the volunteers flll the bottle up with water. I avoid hot Infinit syndrome that way.
@Al and @Dewey- thanks for the tips. I rode 87 today and ran 4 and only lost 1/4 pound after drinking 9 lbs of fluid during the entire workout, although it was only in the 70s and rained the whole time. I will need some really hot days to fine tune everything.
Do you guys just do laps back to the house for fluids on long runs?
@ Chris, Nice Job on hydration. I've never been that close on long days. For long runs I use a hydroswift from Go lite ( http://www.golite.com/Product/ProdDetail.aspx?p=153001110&mc=&t=&lat= ) and I can carry a bottle with me. That gives me the ability to carry 3- 20-26 oz bottle ( total 60-78 oz) so I do not have to run boring loops. don't have to stop much, and do not have the temptation to stay at home. I am then free to just run any where I want to. I also have several parks around town that I can stop and refill if needed and I carry a few bucks with me in a plastic baggie so if needed I can stop at a store, which I rarely do. I will usually make 1-2 bottles of Heed regular or concentrated and the others plain water. I can also carry gels in the pockets, as well as a cell phone and other things. I'm a big dude at 260# so the extra weight is no a big deal for me only adding ~ 1% to my weight. The insulated bottle holders work well to keep the bottles cool and on hot days I will fill the bottles for the hydroswift half way and freeze then top off with water in the AM.
@ Rich Thanks for the tip. I will plan to use a simialr stratigy at IMLP next year. If I can get in.
I used to carry a Fuel Belt with 60 oz of H20, but got irritated (literally) with the chafing on my lower back, and would have to refill it anyway. So I just carry a 32 oz squeeze bottle. Luckily, my routine long run course has several strategically placed water fountains along the way. Don't forget a packet of Gu every hour or so, as well. I carry these, along with $, in a little removeable Fuel Belt pouch attached to a race number belt.