Fueling firepower
Nothing
undermines several months of earnest training like failing to plan
nutritionally on race day. The Ironman potential that you earned
through so much sacrifice cannot be reached if the proper fuel isn’t in
place to support you. A small amount of nutritional knowledge and a
disciplined plan are required for you to access your highest sport
potential.
Carbohydrate depletion is one of the primary, and
most common, limiters in endurance sport performance, even among
top-tier pros. Your task is to avoid that limiter. This is easy stuff
to get right. Let your limiting factor be something more interesting,
like neuromuscular signaling failure, insufficient respiratory gas
exchange rates, or just not enough early-season training.
Knowledge is power
It
is impossible to replace all of the fuel that you will be using during
your Ironman, yet it is possible to obtain an intelligent goal-fuel
replacement plan. Specifically, your focus should be on replenishing
the limited carbohydrate stores in your muscle and liver tissues. The
general recommendation of replacing 0.50 grams of carbohydrate per
pound (1.2 gram of carbohydrate per kg) of total body weight per hour
(for events lasting more than two to three hours) is a reasonable
start.
Since
the stresses of racing usually reduce your ability to tolerate and
digest food, especially toward the end of the race, a more accurate and
field-tested number should be obtained. Starting with the personalized
carbohydrates per hour as calculated above, see how many calories your
body tolerates on your key long efforts (e.g., five-plus-hour rides,
two-plus-hour runs) that mimic race pace. Wear extra clothes if you
need to simulate heat conditions. (I became known around my bike
community as the “jacket and tights” guy all summer.) Note your body’s
tolerance of that carbohydrate level, and adjust your intake up or down
accordingly.
You now have a personalized and field-tested goal
of how many grams of carbohydrate per hour to ingest. This is premium
information few race-day athletes are armed with.
Power planning
WHAT to eat:
Your nutrition research and hours of training should teach you what to
eat when racing, but it is safe to assume that the majority of your
fuel will come from sports drinks, energy bars, and energy gels, in the
form of carbohydrates. A POWERBAR® PERFORMANCE® bar contains about 41 to 45 grams of carbs per one-bar serving, a POWERBAR® ENERGY gel about 27 grams per one Gel packet, and a POWERBAR®
ENDURANCE sports drink approximately 17 grams of carbs per 8-fl.-oz.
(240-mL) serving. For context, a common strategy for a 175-pound
(70-kg) athlete would be to ingest one of each of the above per hour,
plus adequate fluid to maintain hydration, for a total of approximately
87 grams of carbs.
HOW to eat: How to access those
calories is where creativity and practice are handsomely rewarded. The
bike should obviously be where most of your solid food is ingested
(most athletes find they can tolerate only gels and fluids during the
run), so let’s examine the leading options for this leg. You can store
food in a singlet or jersey back pocket, a food storage bag designed to
fit within your handlebar cockpit, or a gel flask mount for your bike
frame.
Another option that some Ironman athletes use is
placing solid food and/or gels directly on their bike frame! Although
POWERBAR cannot vouch for the cleanliness of your bike, if you want to
try this, divide a POWERBAR into thirds, and on race morning, as you
are setting up your bike for transition, stick the pieces right on your
bike’s top tube. Practice this one in training, or expect some of your
bar pieces to fall off at your first 20-mph bump. You can also
electrical-tape POWERBAR gel packets by their tear-tabs on your frame’s
top tube for quick access.
A fantastic option for your fluids
is an aero-bar-mounted bottle that allows you to drink while in the
aero position. These make tremendous sense, as you can hydrate without
having to work for it since the straw is always right in front of your
mouth. After five hours on your bike, you’ll probably want to cut out
as much extraneous work as possible!
During the run, you want
your gel flask to be as accessible as possible. Simply holding the
flask during the entire run was always my preference, as it required
minimal thought, yet being in my hand, it never drifted far from my
mind. Make sure the flask is always held with the opening facing the
ground so that gravity can keep the gel ready to leave the tube. A belt
with holsters for multiple flasks is also a popular option to wrap
around your waist at the bike-to-run transition.
Experiment
with what works best for you among these options while training,
keeping focused on convenience. Anticipate losing your appetite after
several hours out there, and expect fuel intake to become an
energy-requiring task. Choose the strategies you find easiest, so that
you can focus your precious energy on racing rather than fueling.
You
will be given ample warning of aid station locations, special-needs-bag
pickups, and products/flavors offered on the course. Integrate this
knowledge into your training and fueling plan — train with exactly what
will be at the race. You can definitely rely on the aid stations for
your liquid fuel and water, but you should plan on providing all of
your solid food and gels, and then use the course food in case of
emergency.
When riding through the aid stations, you will most
likely be replacing fluids. The stations can sometimes be disorderly,
so when entering them, you should identify the volunteers who have what
you want, then point at them and yell “Water!” or “Sports drink!” This
proactive contact will ensure volunteers are focused on you, and thus
you can maximize your chances of a successful handoff. Thank them, too.
At
every aid station, an immediate priority should be refilling your aero
bottle (and quickly discarding the empty aid bottle), then replacing
the bottles in your regular cages if needed. As your aero bottle
empties on the course, continually empty your caged bottle contents
into the aero bottle, allowing you to maximize the aero bottle’s
convenience. Small systems like this minimize chaos creeping into your
day.
You should also utilize the special-needs-bag dropoff. Do
not miss this station! Ride slowly through it. That single minute at 10
mph instead of 18 mph will have a far smaller impact on your overall
time than missing your 1,300-calorie sack. Two fresh bottles of sports
drink, a fresh gel flask, and two bars compose a sufficient bag.
Anticipate the handoff and arrive at the station with empty bottle
cages, an empty gel flask, and no bars. At the run special-needs
station, refills for your gel flask(s) should be adequate. If you are
wearing a belt for your gel flasks while running, you may be able to
skip this handoff.
WHEN to eat: When you ingest fuel
should, yet again, be planned. Aim for the most even intake
distribution possible to avoid “surges” of blood flow diverting away
from your working muscles to absorb carbohydrates. Remove the
calculating from your race day by eating a third of your hourly intake
(perhaps 20 to 30 grams of carbs) every 20 minutes, by your watch. This
can be achieved by fueling every time the minute display is :00, :20,
or :40. Don’t get derailed if this isn’t executed perfectly, but this
is a reasonable system to keep you on task.
Battle-ready
Armed
with knowledge and a field-tested plan, you are ready for the front
lines. This is not specialized information, yet ignorance of it slays
so many athletes in the heat of battle. Use these underappreciated
weapons to maximize your Ironman potential out there.