Fueling for a race is similar to putting gas in a
vehicle. If you have 400 miles to
travel, you wouldn’t just put half a tank of gas in your tank would you? And
you wouldn’t put bad gas in your tank would you? NO, you’d want to fill your tank with the
best gas so that you’d make it to your destination in plenty of time and
without problems. Well, our bodies are
much like a vehicle. It needs to be
fueled with the proper nutrients to perform at its best.
I’ve done races in the past where I didn’t really focus on
what was going in my body days leading up to the race much less on race day and
let me just tell you that I suffered for it.
Have you ever finished a race where you didn’t just feel tired or achy
from the physical part of the race, but you also just felt plain sick? It can be stomach problems to just plain
feeling like you have the flu. I’m not an expert and I would never try to tell someone exactly what to eat. I will say that you must find what works for
you and it’s VERY IMPORTANT to fuel your body properly. Not just on race day but days to weeks
leading up to a race. Honestly we should
all thrive to fuel our bodies every day with GOOD stuff. I’m not saying cut out chocolate cake. It’s good to have a treat, but we don’t need
to do it every day all day long.
When I started this ironman training I began reading and
researching anything and everything from training programs to nutritional
programs. Yes, I’ve fueled for a
marathon before, but this is a tad different.
First of all it’s going to probably be a much longer day of physical
exertion than what it takes for me to do a marathon. Its 3 different sports all rolled into one
day!
Now I’m the type person that must practice in training what I
plan to do on race day. I can’t just
wake up on race morning and hope that I’ll remember to fuel properly. I must practice it for it to become part of
my routine. So in all my reading on
fueling for a triathlon they talk about eating while you are on the bike. It makes sense. You can’t eat while you are swimming and you
don’t want to eat much while running because your stomach is bouncing up and
down. So that leaves the bike. It will be a LONG day. At least 10 hours. Yes, the half ironman time limit is 8 hours
30 minutes, but you have to think about the time you’ll spend in the morning getting
to transition, setting up your bike, then going to wait to start your swim
wave. It’s going to be a long day and
you’ll need to fuel properly to finish the race without totally collapsing at the
end. "PRACTICE DOESN'T MAKE PERFECT. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT."
So for weeks now I’ve been practicing eating on the bike. I take peanut butter crackers, etc. in my
little fuel bag and try to eat something every 30 minutes. Now, I’m not eating a hamburger and fries.
LOL I’m trying to put stuff in my body
that is good for me. Things with protein
and carbs. I read the book “Against The
Odds” after doing my first 50K trail run a couple years ago.
John Pendergrass is a guy from my local area who in his sixties competed in six of the world’s toughest triathlons across six continents. He talks a lot about nutrition and his
training. He wasn’t the fastest and most
people didn’t think he could accomplish what he did, but hard work and
dedication paid off for him. It’s a
great book.
I was almost giddy the other day when I found a new “alert” on
my Garmin watch. It’s called EAT. J I have it
set on my bike settings to alert me every 30 minutes to eat. The first time I tested it out and it beeped
it kind of scared me. The tone was
different than my distance alert and I wondered what the heck. But when I looked at my watch I just
smiled. The alert had worked at exactly
30 minutes into my ride. I tell you
these gadgets are so dang smart! It’s like a tiny little computer all on your
wrist. Well, I guess basically it is a
computer. I mean it’s a GPS, tracks ya
distance, ya pace, ya time, you name it.. it tracks it. J
Last week I even found a new data screen that's called “multisport”
time. I’ve got to test this out. This will be cool if it works the way I think
it works. I can set it on my run segment
of the TRI and it should give me the total time that I’ve been going so far in
the race. We are all focused on
finishing before our 8 hour 30 minute time limit is up so this should help me
to make sure I’m staying within the time limit on my last activity of the
TRI.
So back to nutrition. I
love this comment.. “When it comes to endurance events, a properly fueled
twenty-year old Nissan can beat an under-fueled Ferrari every time.” Many people think they need to cut carbs, but
the truth is that endurance athletes need to eat carbs to do what we do. Now there are good and bad carbs so do your
homework. Ever heard of “the wall” when
talking about a marathon? Well, some
people say its lightheadedness or dead legs.
Hitting the wall is a common reason people end up having to DNF (did not
finish) in a race. Here’s some math for
you. (I got this from one of my
nutrition books for triathletes) The
human body can store around 2,000 calories worth of carbs, which roughly
translates to the energy needed for twenty miles of running… sound familiar.. “The
wall”. Most people hit the wall around
here, exactly when their fuel tanks would be depleted without proper pre-race
fueling and fueling during a race itself.
I’m not a nutrition expert so I’m not going to go into tons of
details. I urge every athlete to do
their homework. Some people simply like
to take GU gels when running. My stomach
can’t handle too many of those or I will have really ugly stomach issues after
a race. So I try to stay away from
taking those every 45 minutes as recommended.
My best advice is to test your nutrition before race day. That way you will have a great race. J And
remember the phrase… “The bike sets up the run” according to most for a half
ironman distance.
Oh and if you haven’t heard, Chocolate milk is a great
recovery beverage. I usually take it
with me in a small ice chest when I train.
Chocolate milk provides the perfect ratio of carbohydrates to protein,
just what our body’s need after a hard session.
After a 15 mile run Saturday, a brick workout (bike then run)
on Sunday and a 2,100 yard swim this morning, I plan to take the night off from
exercise and eat some good food to fuel my tank for tomorrow. J I've got some veggies from my dad's garden. Going to be so good except I've got to scrape it off the cob first. :) Happy
training to you. J
"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start
having positive results." Willie Nelson
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