How To Avoid The "Endurance 15"

Read a good article on why so many people gain weight despite training so hard.  This is known as the "Endurance 15", which is very similar to the Freshman 15.

I'll summarize the article the best I can:

Nutrition

As training increases to 10+ hours a week, the athletes mentality is to decrease weight and body fat.  Thus athletes have a tendency to cut back on calories despite the increase in workout volume.

"...because the body is not being fueled right, these athletes find themselves having uncontrollable food cravings. This can result in significant overeating or binge eating, and many times this will occur later in the day and late at night. This will lead to significant weight gain even during bouts of high-volume training."

I know I defintely feel this binges, especially when I swim.  One of the things I've finally cut out of my diet is poptarts.  That was my go-to breakfast on the way to the gym.  It's now a 150 calories granola bar, which I like too, just doesn't have the sugar bite the poptart did.  However, the poptart was also 400 calores.  For lunches I've been eating Cliff Energy Bars (2 of them).  I'm going to be moving away from this since it does lead to starvation by the time dinner time comes around.

"Be sure to fuel the body properly starting immediately upon awakening and every 2.5-3.5 hours throughout the day. This will help to keep the body fueled and “keep the fire stoked”. Also, be sure to fuel the body during training and avoid the “diet on the bike” mentality. As your training volume increases, be sure that your eating frequency and caloric intake adequately support your training."

Heart Rates

This part of the article focuses on training at too high of a heart rate level, thus the body is not 'learning' to use fat as the primary energy source.

"During endurance training, it is critical to train in the proper heart rate zones in order to facilitate burning fat as your primary fuel source. As endurance athletes, we want to teach the body to spare glycogen (fuel stored in your muscles and some stored in your liver) and to burn body fat instead. Too often, athletes have not improved their efficiency and they train at too high a heart rate, too often. When we train at too high a heart rate too often, we are not maximizing the body's ability to facilitate fat as our primary fuel source.

But here is the reality: when an athlete is moving at a very slow pace/speed in their lower heart rate zones, this simply means that the athlete needs to significantly improve their fitness and efficiency, and they are just not as fit as they thought they were. (And this is ok--we can work on improving one’s efficiency so that in time, the athlete will be training longer, harder, and faster, at the same or lower heart rate). This is where we as athletes have to check our ego at the door. Ignore pace/speed, and focus on training at the right heart rates."

Weight Training

The taboo subject of weight training.  A topic of fierce debate in the triathlete world.

"If you desire a lean physique, weight training is a must. Keep the weight training intense and vigorous. It does not have to be for a long duration; you can knock out a great weight training circuit easily in 30 minutes. Attack the weight training with the same ferocity and intensity that you would your hard swim, bike or run workouts."

I do weight training almost everyday and keep the intensity high by using slightly lighter weights and cranking out around 20 reps.  I have very little rest between sets, thus my HR does increase during these workouts.  I am not looking to bulk up, I'm looking to get lean.

"Perform weight training, upper and lower body, at least two days per week. Be sure to give your weight training on your schedule the same priority you would your swim, bike and/or run. Scheduling weight training does not mean “more training.” The key is to adjust your endurance training so that the weight training fits in seamlessly."

Sleep

This is an activity I'll embrace with open arms.

"As athletes, we focus so much on "getting our workouts in" that the focus on good, quality sleep can fall by the wayside. Endurance athletes trying to fit in all of their workouts tend to become sleep-deprived. Sleep deprivation can easily lead to weight gain; again, no matter how much working out and how many calories we are burning.

When we become sleep-deprived, hormones and neurotransmitters within our body become adversely affected; namely, hormones such as Ghrelin & Leptin and the neurotransmitter, serotonin. When these hormones and neurotransmitters are disrupted due to sleep deprivation, it affects our mood, appetite, food cravings, etc. This hormone imbalance can also greatly increase our food cravings which can then lead to binge eating, which of course leads to weight gain. You can see how easy it is for a vicious cycle to start when we become sleep-deprived."

Ironman Steelhead: Nutritional Collapse

During my recent Ironman Steelhead 70.3, I had a nutritional brain fart of epic proportions.  This nutritional failure resulted my worse race performance to date.  Swim and Bike were fine, but once I hit the run, my nutritional plan (as executed on the bike portion) caught up to me, resulting in a bonk of biblical proportions.  I am usually very precise about my nutrition, having the requirements broken down into certain time frames and even having my Garmin set to alert me when it’s time to take nutrition.   The three problems I ran into was not adequate testing in training, not adjusting for race temperatures and taking way too much sodium.

First, I didn’t completely test my nutrition with the appropriate brick workouts.  I do recall a couple of bricks where I bonked hard, thus made the appropriate adjustments.  I also found the nutritional products that my body agreed with, thus not sending me into a code brown.  The problem was not having brick workouts that mimic a 70.3 race.

Second, my training is usually done mid-day, which means the temperatures were the highest.  Most of the time, the temperatures exceeded 85 degrees.  Race day was 70 degrees, peaking at approximately 75 degrees.  This changes the sweat rate, which should result in a nutritional adjustment, which I didn’t do.

Expanding on above, we come to the third problem:  Too much sodium.  I’m a heavy sweater, however given race day temps, I should have adjusted my sodium down.  I’ll go into more detail on this below.  But before I do, let’s start with info on what you should and shouldn’t do.

After some simple research and guidance from triathlon forums, I learned that an athlete should never try to replace the calories, sodium, etc, that is loss during the race.  From Hammer Nutrition:

"To suggest that fluids, sodium, and fuels-induced glycogen replenishment can happen at the same rate as it is spent during exercise is simply not true. Endurance exercise beyond 1-2 hours is a deficit spending entity, with proportionate return or replenishment always in arrears. The endurance exercise outcome is to postpone fatigue, not to replace all the fuel, fluids, and electrolytes lost during the event. It can’t be done, though many of us have tried."

"The human body has so many survival safeguards by which it regulates living one more minute, that when we try too hard to fulfill all its needs we interfere, doing more harm than good.”

What really stuck out from above quote is how nutrition isn’t about replacing what is loss, but postponing fatigue in order to have a successful race.  The really hard part is determining the best nutritional plan that will accomplish this. Hammer Nutrition goes on to give suggested guidelines, but the intangibles are an individuals weight, sweat rate, etc.  With that said, let’s look at the guidelines.  The picture below shows how much is burned during exercise and how much can the body absorb.  This is based on 160-165 pound person:



Given the assimilation rate, here are the guidelines per Hammer Nutrition:



Again, this is based on a 160-165 pound person.  I weigh 200 pounds, thus I need to adjust this figures slightly.  So let’s look at what I consumed during Steelhead.  My assumptions are as follows:

1. Per my Garmin 910xt, calories burnt: 993 (Swim), 1872 (Bike), 1477 (Run), 4342 (Total).  The Garmin does use HR to determine calories burnt, however there is still a margin of error.  Let’s assume it’s off by 10% for each sport.


2. Given my weight, I am going to assume I burnt 2300 MG of sodium per hour and 3500 ML fluids per hour.


3. I will use the ideal replenishment figures, less 5%.

So let’s start:

Breakfast (3:00am – 4.5 hours before race)

620 calories, 900mg sodium, 130g carbs, 900mg potassium, 16g protein.

1-Hour Before Race Start

360 calories, 580mg sodium, 64g carbs, 295mg potassium, 15g protein. (Includes 24Oz sport drink)

15-Minutes To Swim Start

100 calories, 280mg sodium, 20g carbs, 83mg potassium.

Total before race started:  1080 calories, 1760mg sodium, 214g carbs, 1278mg of potassium, 31g protein and approximately 1500ml of fluids.

Swim Time = 42:48.  Thus I burnt: 844 calories, 1630mg sodium, and 2480ml of fluids.

Per the guidelines, I should replace 295 calories, 489mg of sodium, and 694ml of fluids.  However, given my excessively high pre-race nutrition, the only real thing I’m low on is fluids.  Simple water should have gotten me through the first 30-45 minutes on the bike.

Bike Time = 2:37.  Thus I burnt 1591 calories, 5450mg of sodium, and 8750ml of fluids.

Per the guidelines, I should replace 557 calories, 1635mg sodium and 2450ml fluids.  Total consumed on the bike: 660 calories, 1595mg of sodium and 1900ml of fluids.  The calorie count I’m okay with.  I remember last year I became really hungry on the bike. This year, I brought 1/2 cliff bar, which I almost choked on trying to eat while riding.  Given my high pre-race sodium intake, I should have cut my sodium in half, at least.  In addition, I should have drank more fluids.  I could accomplish both by removing salt sticks from nutrition and adding more water.  It is on the bike that my nutritional mistakes ruined my run. 

Run Time = 2:40.  Thus I burnt 1591 calories, 5450mg of sodium, and 8750 of fluids. 

Per the guidelines, I should replace 557 calories, 1635mg of sodium and 2450ml of fluids.  Total consumed during the run:  410 calories, 940mg of sodium, and 800-900ml of fluids.  The accumulation of sodium from race start was just too much for my body.  Couple that will low fluid intake and my body was forced to take water from my muscles to absorb the sodium.  This left my muscles dehydrated, which led to the leg cramps and sick stomach. 

My nutritional plan is be rewritten.  The starting point will be going back to basics: water and gels.  I need to increase my fluid intake, especially during the bike.  At the same time, I need to significantly reduce my sodium by either sticking to just gels or waiting until the run to start with the salt tabs. 

Fueling For 70.3

This is from a September 2012 Lava Magazine article written by Ben Greenfield.  There is no direct link to the article since Lava requires a digital subscription.

Completing my first 70.3 event this year, I spent a lot of time researching how to fuel during the race.  Sprint triathlons are fairly easy to stay properly fueled.  Olympic triathlons are very similar to sprint distance, the only difference is the frequency in which one fuels.  However, jumping from olympic to half-ironman (HIM), there is a big difference.   The first thing I learned was to front-load the calories by doing the majority of my fueling during the bike leg.

"Ultimately, if you've kept your calories topped off on the bike, you won't need to concentrate as much on fueling during the run, and your goal is to give yourself just enough hydration and sugar to get by so that you can concentrate on maintaining a high run intensity"

Ben does recommend a starting point for calorie consumption:  Women: 250-350 calories per hour on the bike, followed by 150-200 calories per hour on the run.  Men: 300-400 calories per hour on the bike and 200-250 calories per hour on the run.  Again, these are starting points that need to be perfected during training.  Since I weigh around 190 pounds, my consumption was higher than the recommended amount.  Not by much though.  Per my HIM race report:

"I had my GARMIN set to beep every 15 minutes to remind me to hydrate.  I had four water bottles on my bike: Two behind the seat and one on the seat tube.  These were filled with nutrition.  I had one bottle between the arms filled with water.  There was also a salt tab dispenser under that water bottle.  Every 15 minutes I’d drink, every 45 minutes I had a salt tab and a gel.  It worked perfectly.  Thank you GARMIN."

I felt my nutrition was perfect, except I did get very hungry on the bike.  I'll make an adjustment by adding a solid food to my bike fueling.  I did carry much of my fuel with me because I had no idea how my body was going to react to the fuel at the aid-stations (Ironman Perform).  Ben Greenfield agrees with my approach:

"I tell many athletes I coach to stick to their own fuel on the bike and then switch to aid station gels and Coke for the run.  You can get away with this fuel switch because you will be consuming far fewer calories during the half-marathon."

During the run, I did not carry any fuel other than gels and salt-tabs.  I normally run with a fuel-belt, however there was an aid-station every mile, thus no need to bring the belt.   I lived off of Coke, Gu Chomps and pretzels.  I had no GI issues at all.

As stated earlier, the calorie recommendation is just a starting point.  However, Ben Greenfield does give a sample fueling strategy in the article:

1. 5-10 minutes pre-swim: 1 gel or 4-6 ounces of sports drink.


2. Coming out of T1: 1 gel every 20-30 minutes (or concentrated sports drink).  Break-up the monotony of gels and liquids with chewable fuel sources at the end of each hour (this is where I made my mistake).


3. During the bike ride:  Drink plain water when thirsty.  Continue fueling and do not go into T2 hungry (oops) or thirsty.


4. Coming out of T2: Eat 50-100 calories if you have not had any fuel in the past 15 minutes.


5. During run: 1 gel every 20-30 minutes or small sips of Coke at every aid-station.  Drink plain water when thirsty.


6. Final miles:  Intensity usually increases so limit fueling.  Otherwise you could run into GI issues.

My Food Vices and Diet

Like everyone else, I have my weaknesses when it comes to certain foods:

Diet Coke:  If it’s ever declared that this causes cancer, I will accept the fact I am toast.  I drink tons of it, but I also drink tons of water.  As a matter of fact, I am always drinking something.

Sugar Free Red Bull:  I usually have one of these per day on the way to the gym.

5-Hour Energy: At one a day.  Better than coffee, but I still wonder what is really in these little red bottles.

Cereal before I go to bed: Every night I have a bowl of cereal.  I just get so hungry and it’s the easiest thing to make.  I do it so often my dog get’s upset when I don’t have it (he drinks the left over milk). 

Payday candy bars:  Always after a workout. 

I also have another big issue.  I don’t like 99% of fruits or veggies.  Exception is banana, carrots and lettuce.  To accommodate this, I take a multi-Vitamin as well as a mix drink from GNC that contains multiple servings of fruit and veggis.  Not the greatest tasting drink, but it does the job. 

To help control my diet I use an Iphone App called My Fitness Pal. There are many apps that track diet, but this is the most popular.  What is great about it is the bar code scanner.  Just scan it with the camera and it enters in all the data.  Takes just seconds to enter in a meal.  You can also track it online.  Livestrong has a great app as well, but no scanner. 

The main thing I learned using this app was the amount of sugar I take in.  It’s definitely a goal to get that down, but tough to do when one is eating Frosted Flakes. 

Olympic-Distance Race-Day Fueling Strategies

This information is from an article written by Lance Watson.  I'm not sure where it was published since that part of the page is missing.

During an Olympic (Oly) distance triathlon, the athlete will burn anywhere from800 to 1200 calories in approximately 2-3 hours.  It is almost impossible to replace what you burn during the race, so the real challenge is to help supplement muscle glycogen stores by consuming simple carbs. The article states that a carb rich diet the day before is ideal and that the athlete does not need to 'carb-load' for this distance.  However, I would think that is more athlete specific than a general statement.

Pre-Race Nutrition and Hydration

As with any race, stick with foods that you KNOW work for you.  About three hours before the race, consume 300-500 calories of carb-rich foods like bagels, energy bar or banana.  But again, make sure you eat foods you know will work for you and not send you into the woods clinching your butt cheeks.  If you're a coffee drinker, this is the time to consume your caffeine.   The article states that many athletes formulate a breakfast shake high in carbs because the liquid is easier to digest.  I may try this for my next race.  Before the race, sip on water or a carb drink but be careful you don't over hydrate.

Before The Swim

Since you won't be eating again until you get on the bike, you can take in more calories about 10 minutes before the start of the race.  If it worked for you in training, try taking a caffeinated power gel (I use GU but the article mentions PowerBar, which I use to take).  The caffeine is minimal enough to be easy on the stomach (practice this in training) and should kick in half-way through the swim which is perfect.

During The Bike

As with all triathlons, the bike is the best opportunity to get nutrition into the body.  Your muscles can store about two hours of glycogen, thus replenishing carbs is necessary to perform at optimal levels.  Fueling depends on factors such as intensity of the race and the heat.  Generally aim for 30-60 grams of carbs and 24-32 ounces of water every hour on the bike, starting the first 15 minutes of cycling.  Be strategic in how you consume the calories.  Consume in 15-minute intervals, but also on down-hills and other optimal areas.  During MTB races and Xterra's it is extremely important to know the trail so you can determine when it's safe to take in fueling without running into a tree.

The article goes on to suggest mixing a gel with water and putting it in a flask for Oly distance race (for spring nutrition is purely liquid).  I may try that strategy during my next training ride.  Note, the main reason athletes miss calories is because they fail/stumble opening food packets, thus make sure you pre-open all packets.

During The Run

Aim for sips of water during the run. Have a gel 20 minutes into the run and again at the 45 minute mark if you run longer than 60 minutes for a 10k.  Sipping on cola's or other soft drinks is okay as long as you know it works for you.  Hot weather will require additional fluids with electrolytes. 

After You Finish

Consume around 200-300 calories within 30 minutes of finishing the race.  This should include an energy drink, fruit, or gel.  Within two hours, you should consume 800-1200 calories consisting of 60-65 percent carbs, 20-25 percent protein and 15-20 percent fat.  This can consist of recovery smoothie or bar, chocolate milk or a full meal. Plan ahead so you properly replenish your body.  This is extremely important for recovery and future improvements in performance.  The article mentions nothing about beer, but damn an Oberon goes down nice after any race, activity, walk to the mailbox....well, anytime is a good time for an Oberon.

Everything You Need To Know About Gels

Summary of an article from triathlete.com

Personally, I had a hard time finding a gel that was effective to my body.  Nothing seemed to work, other than GU brand gels. Every person responds differently, so definitely try out different brands until you find one that gets your body to respond positively (as opposed to running into the woods).

How They Work

Most of us know that our energy comes from fat and carbs.   Unfortunately, fat burns to slow, thus the body relies on carbs.  The problem with that is our body stores a limited amount of carbs in our muscles.  Gels are used to replace the carbs we burn off.  However, keep in mind that not all the carbs from gels make it into the muscles.

“Simply speaking, energy gels are designed to replenish carbohydrate stores that are depleted when running. Sounds like energy gels are a savior, right? Unfortunately, energy gels don’t provide a simple one-to-one replacement (something you won’t read on the label of your favorite gel) because the glycogen we ingest from gels doesn’t always make its way to the working muscles. So why use them?” Source

Why Use Them?

Carbs are stored in both your muscles and your blood.  On race day, you need the carbs in your muscles.  To get to your muscles, you need to digest the gel and work its way through the intestinal wall and then absorbed by the muscle.  This isn’t a quick process.

What gels can do quickly is increase your mental sharpness, which relies on your blood glucose.  As your muscles starts to absorb more blood glucose, your brain get’s less.  Thus you get that ‘hazy’ feeling during a run.  A gel can act quickly to replenish this blood glucose and get your mental focus back.  You may feel more energized, but gels won’t stop the ‘bonk’ in your legs.

When Should You Take Them?

“…energy gels help replenish the glycogen and calories you’re burning when racing hard. However, they aren’t very efficient or a simple one-to-one replacement, so timing and frequency are critical factors to avoiding the bonk.” Source

Timing is something each person needs to work on individually.  For some, they can feel it immediately, while others it takes a few minutes.  It all depends on how your stomach reacts to the gels.

“This variation in absorption rate has to do with how well your stomach reacts to the gel. When running hard, your body often diverts blood away from the digestive track to help your legs continue to move forward (your body naturally conserves resources). Sometimes, however, your body shuts the stomach down completely while other times it just slows down. This is why it isn’t uncommon to see runners throw up fluids or gels right after ingesting them late in the race.” Source

The article recommends taking the gels early in a race, exactly when depends on how your body reacts to gels during training.  So practice.

How Often Should You Take Them?

As mentioned earlier, you body may shut down your stomach, thus you do not want to overload your digestive system with gels.  It is suggested that you wait 45-60 minutes before taking another gel.

“The other aspect to keep in mind is that your digestive track is trainable like most every other part of your body. So, if you eat gels in training, particularly if you do it at set intervals that correlate to when you will take them during the race, your body will learn to keep the digestive track running and you will digest the gel more readily. This is why it’s critical you practice your exact fueling strategy as often as possible in training.” Source

Important Advice

If you find your stomach having a hard time digesting gels, only take a portion of a gel in short intervals.  A suggestion is 1/4 of the gel, then wait a bit for you stomach to digest this before consuming the next 1/4.

ALWAYS take water with your gel.  This will speed up the digestion of the gel.  NEVER use a sports drink with your gel.  This could load your stomach with over 60 grams of simple sugars, which could cause you to go running into the woods. 

Best Indicator Of Healthy Weight

I recently purchased the Omron Full Body Sensor  to track my weight and body fat. It tracks a bunch of other stuff as well, buy I mainly focus on those two.  There is debate on the accuracy, but the scale is consistent.  This allows me to track changes.  I do weight myself first thing in the morning, but may add a second weight right before I go to bed.  I did ask a question regarding hydration on Beginner Triathlete and received some great responses there as well.  One of the responses included links to articles that actually tested the scales against a Bod Pod analysis (which is considered the most accurate).  Unfortunately my scale wasn't included, buy that's fine.  A link to the articles:

Test #1
Test #2
Test #3 

Below is a graph from Test #2 that summarizes the test.  These numbers are average percent differences when compared to the Bod Pod.  The 'A' and 'N' refer to 'Athlete Mode' and 'Normal Mode'.   The averages are based on nine individuals tested.

The one factor that should be noted is that these averages don't take into account individual differences.  Some athletes were over 10% different while others under 1%.  Below is a quote from Test #2:

"Perhaps the most important aspect in this entire two part series is the one I haven’t mentioned yet: Consistency is more important than accuracy.  Meaning, if your scale consistently measures your fat at a given level and changes as you do things to affect it (increase or decrease) – that’s more important than having a one time scientific measurement that’s accurate.  In an ideal world these electrical impedance scales would be more accurate.  But they simply aren’t across a wide spectrum of individuals.

So what’s my recommendations?  Well, get a scale that you like (be it because of the color of the scale, or its features) – and focus on one of three things: Making the number go up, staying the same, or going down.  Don’t focus on the body fat number itself unless you have something more scientific to baseline it against.  Yes it may be great to boast the single-digit body fat, but the reality is out of a room of really dang looking fit people – only two people fell in that category (interestingly, one was nearly 200 pounds)." - Source

Please read on:

With all that said, I'd like to add another method I read about in Men's Health Magazine (Feb. 2012).  Unfortunately I don't have a link to the article since I only subscribe to paper magazine not online version.  Per Dr. George Blackburn, MD, PhD, associate director of Harvard medical schools division of nutrition, individuals should calculate their waist to hip ratio.  This measurement can help indicate the level of visceral fat, the dangerous belly fat linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  To do this, wrap a tape measure around your waist between your lowest rib and hip bone.  Then wrap the tape around the largest part of your hips, which is usually around the butt.  Divide the waist number by the hip number.  Aim for a number below .9.

Further, the doctor goes on to say you should measure you weight to height ratio as well.  Per the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, this ratio is better than BMI, waist circumference, or waist to hip ratio for predicting your risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease.  Aim for a waist/height ratio of .05.

Caffeine

Source: Bicyling Magazine

Caffeine has long been demonized as a diuretic.  On paper, that means it should lead to dehydration and heat stress, especially when you consider that it also raises your heart rate and increases your metabolism.

A review of ongoing research recently revealed that caffeinated drinks don’t make you pee that much more than equal amounts of beverages without the buzz.  The stimulant also doesn’t worsen the effects of summertime heat.  In fact, caffeine makes you feel better.  Numerous studies have shown that it lowers your rate of perceived exertion while improving your strength, endurance and mental performance.  Even better, researches from the University of Birmingham, in England, found that riders who drank a caffeinated sports beverage burned the drinks carbs 26 percent faster than those who consumed a non-caffeinated sports drink, likely because caffeine speeds glucose absorption in the intestine.

Worst Drink In America

Baskin-Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake

2,310 calories
108 g fat (64 g saturated)
266 g carbs

Let's look at America's Worst Drink in numbers:
73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you'd need to spend on a treadmill, running at a moderate pace, to burn it off

You can find more here:   Men’s Health

Awesome Smoothie

I don't eat 'raw' fruits since I really can't stand the texture of them.  Thus the only way for me to get fruit servings is via a smoothie (and fruit serving supplements).  I also don't eat veggies since I  don't like them, so I take veggie supplements (both from GNC).  Anyway's, here is the current smoothie I am addicted too:

1 Banana
1 Cup of Strawberries (fresh or Frozen)
1/3 cup of orange juice (I use Pineapple OJ)
1 cup of ice

Blend on 'chop' cycle for 1 minute, then liquefy for 30 seconds.  Yummy.  Hint:  If you use frozen strawberries, defrost them first or blending becomes a headache.  I also substitute peaches for strawberries, depends on what I feel like.

Another smoothie I really enjoy is the following:

1/2 cup of Mango
1/2 cup of blueberries (Frozen or fresh)
1 cup of pineapple OJ
1 cup of Ice

This one tastes great, I just don't like chopping up Mangos.  They are a pain in the arse.

Pre-Race Meal

With race season quickly approaching I thought I'd link you too this great article Hammer Nutrition put out on what to eat on the day of the race.  You can find this article HERE.

Here is a summary of the article, however I HIGHLY encourage you to read the whole thing.

You work so hard throughout your training, making sure you tune your diet, supplement program, training, and recovery to exactly fit your personal needs. Following these steps regarding your pre-race meal will put the final touches on all of your hard work, giving you the best advantage for your important race.

• Eat a pre-race meal of 200-400 calories at least three hours before exercise.


• Focus on complex carbs, starches, and a little protein for your pre-race meal.


• Avoid high fiber, simple sugars, and high fat in your pre-race meal.


• If you must, consume a small amount of your supplemental fuel (Hammer Gel, etc.) about five minutes before exercise.


• Make sure that you re-supply your muscle glycogen by eating a good recovery meal after your workouts.

If you should choose to purchase some Hammer products, please use the link on the right sidebar to get 15% off your order.