By Ryan Riell
OK, so for many of you, the Chicago Triathlon will be your first triathlon, which is usually accompanied by anxiety and nervousness. That being said, we have created a pre-race checklist that covers just about everything that you will need for your first triathlon in addition to some tricks of the trade.
Pre-Race:
Pre-race preparation should start the day before your race. Using the checklist below, it is highly recommended that you layout all of the equipment, clothing, nutrition and anything else that you will need for the day. Once it’s all laid out, then you can check it off your list and start packing it up for the next morning. Ideally, you will have all of your bags packed and ready to go by the middle of the day so all you have to do is relax and eat dinner before going to sleep.
o Sweat Pants
o Warm up Top
o Beanie
o iPod
o Water Bottle (sports drink)
o Snack (granola bar, Powerbar, etc…)
o Comfortable shoes/sandals
o Socks (throw away)
o Heart Rate monitor wrist watch
o Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap
o Transition bag
o Dry Clothing bag
o Time Chip with ankle strap
The key with the pre-race clothing is to be as comfortable and warm as possible. Sweat pants and a warm up top should be comfortable and will keep you warm. Some people prefer the beanie to keep their heads warm and the iPod should be loaded up with a mixture of calming musing and then a playlist with some motivational music for the last 10-15 minute before you start. You should have a water bottle that is filled with either a sports drink like Infinit Nutrition or water. Make sure you bring a snack, there is usually a lot of hurry up and wait in the morning. The dry clothing bag is something like a trash bag- you will put your pre-race sweats, iPod and all that other stuff in there before you race. When you get dressed in the morning, don’t forget to put your HR chest strap on, you can swim with it on. Last, but not least, put your timing chip and ankle strap on before you leave your hotel room or house- that way, it’s there and done.
Swim:
For the swim, make sure you know where you are going to (start line) and what time you are supposed to be there. Make sure you are lubed up with either Body Glide and/or Suit Juice. Don’t forget to apply sunscreen.
o Swim suit/ race suit
o Wet suit/ swim skin
o Towel(s)
o 2 goggles (1 clear/ 1 tinted)
o Goggle defogger
o Sunscreen
o Body Glide/Suit Juice
o Race Swim Cap
Bike:
When you get to the transition area, make sure you setup your area immediately. Once that’s done, you will have plenty of time to relax and listen to the iPod. Make sure you lay out your area in an organized and systematic way so everything is where you need it. A good piece of advice is, put your helmet, upside down, on your aerobars or next to your bike if you don’t have aerobars. Then, put your sunglasses inside your helmet and then your race belt on top of that. If you are going to carry the spare tire kit(s) in the back pocket of your jersey, put that in the helmet too, along with whatever gels or bars you are going to carry.
When you get into the transition area from the swim, SIT DOWN to take off your wetsuit, it’s easier. Dry off your feel, put your cycling shoes on and then stand up. From that point, you taking stuff out of your helmet and putting it where it needs to go. The gels, bars and spare tire kit goes into your back pocket. The race belt around our waits with the number on your back side, sun glasses on your head. The last thing to grab is the helmet, which you NEED TO BUCKLE immediately. From there, grab your bike and head out of transition.
o Bike
o Bike Shoes
o Sunglasses (clear or tinted)
o Helmet
o Race Belt
o Race Number
o Spare Tubes
o CO2 cartridge(s) w/ adapter
o Tire Lever(s)
o Bike Pump
o Water Bottles (filled)
o Nutrition (Gels, bars, etc…)
o Socks
o Baby Powder
o Sunscreen
Run:
Once you get back into transition, rack your bike and sit down. Take off your helmet and immediately replace it with your hat or visor. Then take off your cycling shoes and wipe off your feet, put your socks on then your running shoes. Remove and/or add what you need from your back pocket. From there, stand up, turn your race belt so the number is in the front and off you go.
o Running Shoes
o Socks
o Hat or Visor
o Run Nutrition (Fuel Belt, gels, water bottle, etc…)
Post Race:
When you’re done, it’s time to get comfortable and relax! Make sure you change back into your comfortable sandals and put on a dry top (if possible) and whatever else you find comfortable. Pack up your gear and enjoy the post-event party!
o T-shirt
o Shorts
o Money
o Recovery Drink
o Pre-Race sweat pants, warm up top and sandals
Showing posts with label multisport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multisport. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
What is a "Healthy" Carb?
As endurance sports athletes, we hear a lot about good and bad carbohydrates (CHO). So what the heck does that mean and what exactly does CHO do for us?
Carbohydrates are the foundation of any diet for an endurance sports athlete- they provide a rapid source of energy to support your daily activity and training, in addition to replenishing your muscle and liver glycogen stores. Failure to replenish your CHO stores WILL compromise your training, making it harder and harder to recover until you reach a state of burnout. 60% of your daily diet should be carbohydrates.
There are two main types of CHO: simple CHO or sugars (one or two molecules) or complex CHO or starches which can contain thousands of molecules. The old rule of thumb was: simple carbs are bad, complex carbs are good is an outdated concept. The current scientific data suggests we should be far more concerned with the quality of the CHO we ingest, placing an emphasis on wholesome CHO instead of refined CHO.
Wholesome CHO contains vitamins, minerals and fiber where refined CHO in processed food have a much poorer nutrient content, leading to empty carbs. The main thing that we want to be concerned with how the CHO affect our blood sugar and blood glucose levels. Current research indicates that each carb has it own blood glucose profile, based off a ranking system that describes the blood glucose profile- the Glycemic Index (scale is 0-100).
In general, CHO that his high on the glycemic index is >70, medium glycemic index CHO between 50-70 and low glycemic index CHO being <50. style="font-style: italic;">High Glycemic Index:
Instant rice, baked potato, wheat bread, waffle, watermelon, white bagel, pinto beans and black beans
Medium Glycemic Index:
Pineapple, couscous, raisins, brown rice, sweet potato
Low Glycemic Index:
Grapefruit, peaches, apple, whole wheat spaghetti, kidney beans, yogurt, skim milk,
To check the glycemic index of a food that you like, please go to:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
And click on the “GI Database” tab on the left.
If you can slowly switch the majority of your carbohydrates to low and medium glycemic index CHO, you will see your energy levels increase dramatically during the day and the quality of your training sessions increase dramatically.
Carbohydrates are the foundation of any diet for an endurance sports athlete- they provide a rapid source of energy to support your daily activity and training, in addition to replenishing your muscle and liver glycogen stores. Failure to replenish your CHO stores WILL compromise your training, making it harder and harder to recover until you reach a state of burnout. 60% of your daily diet should be carbohydrates.
There are two main types of CHO: simple CHO or sugars (one or two molecules) or complex CHO or starches which can contain thousands of molecules. The old rule of thumb was: simple carbs are bad, complex carbs are good is an outdated concept. The current scientific data suggests we should be far more concerned with the quality of the CHO we ingest, placing an emphasis on wholesome CHO instead of refined CHO.
Wholesome CHO contains vitamins, minerals and fiber where refined CHO in processed food have a much poorer nutrient content, leading to empty carbs. The main thing that we want to be concerned with how the CHO affect our blood sugar and blood glucose levels. Current research indicates that each carb has it own blood glucose profile, based off a ranking system that describes the blood glucose profile- the Glycemic Index (scale is 0-100).
In general, CHO that his high on the glycemic index is >70, medium glycemic index CHO between 50-70 and low glycemic index CHO being <50. style="font-style: italic;">High Glycemic Index:
Instant rice, baked potato, wheat bread, waffle, watermelon, white bagel, pinto beans and black beans
Medium Glycemic Index:
Pineapple, couscous, raisins, brown rice, sweet potato
Low Glycemic Index:
Grapefruit, peaches, apple, whole wheat spaghetti, kidney beans, yogurt, skim milk,
To check the glycemic index of a food that you like, please go to:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
And click on the “GI Database” tab on the left.
If you can slowly switch the majority of your carbohydrates to low and medium glycemic index CHO, you will see your energy levels increase dramatically during the day and the quality of your training sessions increase dramatically.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The History of the Science of Hydration and Human Beings
Lets take a few minutes to explore the history of hydration and endurance sports. The below discussion is based off a paper by Dr. Timothy Noakes, who is professor of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Cape Town and a leading authority in the discipline exercise physiology.
Believe it or not, prior to 1969, runners who were competing in marathons were advised against drinking during exercise and accepted recommendations for cyclists were “avoid drinking when racing, especially in hot weather. Drink as little as possible, and with the liquid no too cold. It is only a question of will power. When you drink too much you will perspire, and you will lose your strength… Four small bottles for a long stage (of the Tour de France), it is frowned upon to drink more.” The thing that is most amazing about this- there is NO published data that shows in either case, that the athletes performance suffered. In a book titled “Racing the Antelope,” Bernd Heinrich put forth: humans have evolved specifically to undertake prolonged exercise in the heat: “the fact that we, as savannah-adapted, animals have such hypertrophied sweating responses implies that, if we are naturally so profligate with water, it can only be because of some very big advantage. The most likely advantage was that it permitted us to perform prolonged exercise in the heat… What we do need sweating for is to sustain running in the heat of the day- the time when most predators retire to the shade.”
Noakes puts forth: since early humans likely ran in condition in which water was scarce, it seems highly probably that this evolving capability must also have included the capacity to preserve water stores and to resist the adverse consequences of developing a water deficit.
In 1977, Wyndham stated: “Dehydration materially affects the ability of the human body to regulate body temperature. This is well shown in studies in my laboratory. Those runners who drank sufficient water to keep their dehydration <3% of body mass had rectal temperature of around 38.5oC (101.3o F) at the end of a 30km race… in those who did not… there was a significant positive correlation between increasing rectal temperature and the extent of dehydration.”
Later that year, Costill put forth “In general, it seems that the large sweat losses incurred during training and marathon competition are adequately tolerated by the runner, with concomitant adjustments in the water and electrolyte distributions of the runner’s body fluid compartments.”
There were two significant events that stimulated new guidelines for fluid ingestion during endurance exercise:
1. The development of sports drinks with the goal of “replacing fluids that were lost due to sweating, which would cause a loss of circulating blood that would adversely affect the ability of the body to dissipate heat.“
2. The aforementioned work by Wyndham that implied “dehydration from sweating places humans at risk of heat stroke unless they drink sufficiently to maintain <3% and especially <5-6% dehydration during exercise.”
In 1992, Montain and Coyle presented work that was widely interpreted as proof that athletes who do not drink at sweat-replacement rates during exercise are at a disadvantage since they finish with a slightly higher body temperature and heart rate.
All of the aforementioned work lead to the 1996 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to issue new guidelines:
1. Individuals should be encouraged to consume the maximal amounts of fluids during exercise that can be tolerated without gastrointestinal discomfort up to a rate equal to that lost from sweating, without reference to the dictates of thirst to optimize an athletes performance and minimizes their risks of ill health.
2. “It is clear that perception of thirst, an imperfect index of the magnitude of fluid deficit, cannot be used to provide complete restoration of water lost by sweating. As such, individuals participating in prolonged intense exercise must rely on strategies such as monitoring bodyweight loss and ingesting volumes of fluid during exercise at a rate equal to that lost from sweating, i.e. bodyweight reduction, to ensure complete fluid replacement.
3. The fluid intake range of 600-1200 mL/hour given in reference to maintaining a steady source of glucose during prolonged exercise.
Two major issues with the ACSM’s guidelines are they are not taking into account the number of slower athletes who take the time to ingest large volumes of fluids and that they are blanket guidelines for the rates of fluid replacement for all athletes regardless of gender, mass, surface area, level of fitness, acclimatization, sweat rate, intensity of exercise and environmental conditions in which they exercise.
The science behind these assumptions made by the ACSM has some flaws, which are:
• The 1992 study by Montain and Coyle did not measure the effects of drinking at different rates and how that impacted exercise performance.
• The studies have not taken into account the effects of the eight penalty incurred on performance
• None of the studies have been compared to the usual practice of drinking ad libitum (free drinking to personal thirst satisfaction).
In a review of the currently published research shows that drinking ad libitum produces at least equivalent outcomes to drinking to replace all the weight lost as sweat.
Another erroneous conclusion is that when an athlete who has lost eight during exercise collapses, then the weight loss (dehydration) must have caused the collapse. The problem is, most athletes who do not collapse during exercise have also lost weight and are also dehydrated. Therefore, dehydration cannot be the exclusive cause of collapse.
A 2004 study by Sharwood (Weight changes, medical complications, and performance during an Ironman triathlon) has provided NO evidence that those who finish prolonged exercise with the highest degree of weight loss are at the greatest risk of illness in ironman triathlons. Instead, the studies have consistently shown that athletes who lose the most weight during triathlons finish faster than those who lose little or gain weight.
Maintenance of body weight is not the only variable that is physiologically regulated during exercise. Perhaps a more important physiological variable that is regulated is fluid balance to ensure a constant plasma osmolality before, during and after exercise. The mechanism that controls plasma osmolality is the thirst mechanism, which is triggered to ensure the regulation of plasma osmolality.
With that being said, Noakes recommends that: “slower athletes need only to be advised to drink according to the dictates of their thirst during exercise, but not to ignore thirst. When athletes drink according to thirst, the risk that they will over-drink and so develop exercise-associated hyponatraemia is minimized and there is no evidence that they are at any significant disadvantage from the 3-5% level of dehydration that they develop as a result.
So what does this mean to you? In endurance sport events that last longer than 1.5 h ours, carbohydrate (CHO) replacement becomes important. As we get up to the 4+ hour mark (marathon, half-ironman, ironman and ultra-distance events), CHO replacement becomes essential to maintain performance. A normal source of CHO during endurance sports is in the form of a sports drink due to the ease of ingestion while moving. So there is a fine line between drinking to thirst, while still taking in enough calories. The take home message is, drinking to thirst (ad libitum) is the way to hydrate during endurance sports as long as you have a nutritional plan to consume enough calories to sustain your performance.
Noakes TD. Hydration in the Marathon. Sports Med 2007; 37 (4-5): 463-466
Believe it or not, prior to 1969, runners who were competing in marathons were advised against drinking during exercise and accepted recommendations for cyclists were “avoid drinking when racing, especially in hot weather. Drink as little as possible, and with the liquid no too cold. It is only a question of will power. When you drink too much you will perspire, and you will lose your strength… Four small bottles for a long stage (of the Tour de France), it is frowned upon to drink more.” The thing that is most amazing about this- there is NO published data that shows in either case, that the athletes performance suffered. In a book titled “Racing the Antelope,” Bernd Heinrich put forth: humans have evolved specifically to undertake prolonged exercise in the heat: “the fact that we, as savannah-adapted, animals have such hypertrophied sweating responses implies that, if we are naturally so profligate with water, it can only be because of some very big advantage. The most likely advantage was that it permitted us to perform prolonged exercise in the heat… What we do need sweating for is to sustain running in the heat of the day- the time when most predators retire to the shade.”
Noakes puts forth: since early humans likely ran in condition in which water was scarce, it seems highly probably that this evolving capability must also have included the capacity to preserve water stores and to resist the adverse consequences of developing a water deficit.
In 1977, Wyndham stated: “Dehydration materially affects the ability of the human body to regulate body temperature. This is well shown in studies in my laboratory. Those runners who drank sufficient water to keep their dehydration <3% of body mass had rectal temperature of around 38.5oC (101.3o F) at the end of a 30km race… in those who did not… there was a significant positive correlation between increasing rectal temperature and the extent of dehydration.”
Later that year, Costill put forth “In general, it seems that the large sweat losses incurred during training and marathon competition are adequately tolerated by the runner, with concomitant adjustments in the water and electrolyte distributions of the runner’s body fluid compartments.”
There were two significant events that stimulated new guidelines for fluid ingestion during endurance exercise:
1. The development of sports drinks with the goal of “replacing fluids that were lost due to sweating, which would cause a loss of circulating blood that would adversely affect the ability of the body to dissipate heat.“
2. The aforementioned work by Wyndham that implied “dehydration from sweating places humans at risk of heat stroke unless they drink sufficiently to maintain <3% and especially <5-6% dehydration during exercise.”
In 1992, Montain and Coyle presented work that was widely interpreted as proof that athletes who do not drink at sweat-replacement rates during exercise are at a disadvantage since they finish with a slightly higher body temperature and heart rate.
All of the aforementioned work lead to the 1996 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to issue new guidelines:
1. Individuals should be encouraged to consume the maximal amounts of fluids during exercise that can be tolerated without gastrointestinal discomfort up to a rate equal to that lost from sweating, without reference to the dictates of thirst to optimize an athletes performance and minimizes their risks of ill health.
2. “It is clear that perception of thirst, an imperfect index of the magnitude of fluid deficit, cannot be used to provide complete restoration of water lost by sweating. As such, individuals participating in prolonged intense exercise must rely on strategies such as monitoring bodyweight loss and ingesting volumes of fluid during exercise at a rate equal to that lost from sweating, i.e. bodyweight reduction, to ensure complete fluid replacement.
3. The fluid intake range of 600-1200 mL/hour given in reference to maintaining a steady source of glucose during prolonged exercise.
Two major issues with the ACSM’s guidelines are they are not taking into account the number of slower athletes who take the time to ingest large volumes of fluids and that they are blanket guidelines for the rates of fluid replacement for all athletes regardless of gender, mass, surface area, level of fitness, acclimatization, sweat rate, intensity of exercise and environmental conditions in which they exercise.
The science behind these assumptions made by the ACSM has some flaws, which are:
• The 1992 study by Montain and Coyle did not measure the effects of drinking at different rates and how that impacted exercise performance.
• The studies have not taken into account the effects of the eight penalty incurred on performance
• None of the studies have been compared to the usual practice of drinking ad libitum (free drinking to personal thirst satisfaction).
In a review of the currently published research shows that drinking ad libitum produces at least equivalent outcomes to drinking to replace all the weight lost as sweat.
Another erroneous conclusion is that when an athlete who has lost eight during exercise collapses, then the weight loss (dehydration) must have caused the collapse. The problem is, most athletes who do not collapse during exercise have also lost weight and are also dehydrated. Therefore, dehydration cannot be the exclusive cause of collapse.
A 2004 study by Sharwood (Weight changes, medical complications, and performance during an Ironman triathlon) has provided NO evidence that those who finish prolonged exercise with the highest degree of weight loss are at the greatest risk of illness in ironman triathlons. Instead, the studies have consistently shown that athletes who lose the most weight during triathlons finish faster than those who lose little or gain weight.
Maintenance of body weight is not the only variable that is physiologically regulated during exercise. Perhaps a more important physiological variable that is regulated is fluid balance to ensure a constant plasma osmolality before, during and after exercise. The mechanism that controls plasma osmolality is the thirst mechanism, which is triggered to ensure the regulation of plasma osmolality.
With that being said, Noakes recommends that: “slower athletes need only to be advised to drink according to the dictates of their thirst during exercise, but not to ignore thirst. When athletes drink according to thirst, the risk that they will over-drink and so develop exercise-associated hyponatraemia is minimized and there is no evidence that they are at any significant disadvantage from the 3-5% level of dehydration that they develop as a result.
So what does this mean to you? In endurance sport events that last longer than 1.5 h ours, carbohydrate (CHO) replacement becomes important. As we get up to the 4+ hour mark (marathon, half-ironman, ironman and ultra-distance events), CHO replacement becomes essential to maintain performance. A normal source of CHO during endurance sports is in the form of a sports drink due to the ease of ingestion while moving. So there is a fine line between drinking to thirst, while still taking in enough calories. The take home message is, drinking to thirst (ad libitum) is the way to hydrate during endurance sports as long as you have a nutritional plan to consume enough calories to sustain your performance.
Noakes TD. Hydration in the Marathon. Sports Med 2007; 37 (4-5): 463-466
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Road to Kona; Chicago Edition #5
I have to admit that this year’s Tour de France has captivated me. After we get up and take our dogs out, I turn on Versus to catch the live action. You can see all the top professional riders sail up the mountains with grace and speed. Who wasn’t amazed to see Alberto Contador climb the Pyrenees? I of course was rooting for Lance to follow Alberto, but those days will come in the Alps.
I often think of myself on those rides. Then you actually look at course profiles. The 112-mile Ironman leg seems like a warm up to most days on the Tour. Even the famous 12 mile climb to Hawi woul
d be a nothing to the pro teams. Of course, I am not 120 lbs like Alberto or even the 160 lbs of Lance. As you can see from the photo, I am more like 5’9” and185lbs. Not exactly the body type of a climber. But I do have a love of riding at my speed and my abilities. The past few weeks we’ve been riding 3 to 3 1/2 hours on the weekends for my personal tour. While I might not fly up the hills, I make it up all the same. My overall goal for Kona is to finish, and getting through 112 miles on my bike will be a great accomplishment.
This past week I also started to focus on my swim with Break Through's Triathlon Swim Program. Mostly I have been swimming by myself at the West Loop Athletic Club, While they have a nice pool, there really is no substitute for group swims. I particularly value Ryan’s individual attention and small group sizes. Hopefully I can see a big improvement from my 1 hour 20 minute Ironman Arizona swim time…
Till next week - Go Lance!
I often think of myself on those rides. Then you actually look at course profiles. The 112-mile Ironman leg seems like a warm up to most days on the Tour. Even the famous 12 mile climb to Hawi woul
d be a nothing to the pro teams. Of course, I am not 120 lbs like Alberto or even the 160 lbs of Lance. As you can see from the photo, I am more like 5’9” and185lbs. Not exactly the body type of a climber. But I do have a love of riding at my speed and my abilities. The past few weeks we’ve been riding 3 to 3 1/2 hours on the weekends for my personal tour. While I might not fly up the hills, I make it up all the same. My overall goal for Kona is to finish, and getting through 112 miles on my bike will be a great accomplishment.This past week I also started to focus on my swim with Break Through's Triathlon Swim Program. Mostly I have been swimming by myself at the West Loop Athletic Club, While they have a nice pool, there really is no substitute for group swims. I particularly value Ryan’s individual attention and small group sizes. Hopefully I can see a big improvement from my 1 hour 20 minute Ironman Arizona swim time…
Till next week - Go Lance!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Nutrition for a 3+ Hour Brick in Hot and Humid Weather
An athlete I coach who is preparing for her first Ironman in Arizona this year asked me this question earlier today: "How should my nutrition be for tomorrow...should I just drink water and have GU...do I drink water with that nuun or that other thing with gu? Do I try and eat a bar while out there?" The workout she is referring to is a 3000 meter swim, 2.5 hour bike and 30 minute run off the bike in St. Louis where the heat index is supposed to be around 96 degrees with the humidity in the upper 50% area. My reply is below.
For nutrition, you want to start out with a bottle full of carbohydrate solution per hour- something like Infinit's Ironman Distance Formula. You can get 20% off your order on Infinit if you click the Infinit logo on the
Break Through Multisport homepage. You can supplement your fluid intake with water or water with Nuun or Zym. I prefer the Nuun or Zym since it gets some extra electrolytes into your system. If you like the gels, pop one 45' into the bike and chase it with at least 6-8 ounces of water (not sports drink) and then again at 1:30 and again at 2:15 (every 45'. Make sure you are drinking water with each gel to prevent dehydration.
Once you get off the bike, you can carry a water bottle or if you have a Fuel Belt, that is good too. Load the FB with half the bottles with water and the other half with a sports drink. If you go with the water bottle only, I would go with water since the run is only 30'.
So another key issue is what you eat and drink AFTER the workout to set you up for success on Sunday. You NEED to drink a LOT of water and eat some healthy food all day after the workout to make sure you get rehydrated and refueled. Chocolate milk is a great recovery drink prior to hopping in the shower after the workout. After that, healthy carbs, lean protein and more water all day.
There are three main goals that you want to accomplish nutritionally immediately afterwards (within 30 minutes):
1. Replace your glycogen stores (carbs stored in the body): There are two types of carbs that we are going to want you to ingest:
a. High Glycemic Index (glucose based; sugars in potatoes, rice, grains, Corn Flakes, Cheerios, waffles and bagels): these will get into you system quickly
b. Low Glycemic Index (fructose based; fruit, fruit juices, milk, yogurt, apples, peaches, beans): provides a steady release of glucose into your system over a longer period of time. Make sure at least one serving of fruit is available, this will also help to re-equilibrate your bodies pH level.
We want you to get at least 3/4 of a gram of carbs per pound of body weight. The initial source should be in a liquid form (Infinit Recovery formula), the liquid version gets into you system faster.
2. Rehydrate and replace electrolytes after the workout: On average, endurance athletes will sweat out 1.5 liters of fluid per hour. It is difficult at best to replace all the fluids you lost in the first 30 minutes. You should try to replace 150% of the fluid that you lost during the workout over the first 2-3 hours post-exercise. Start out with 16 ounces of water (with Nuun) for each pound of fluid you lost.
3. Branched Chain Amino Acid support (BCAA's): BCAA's will assist in muscle repair. I would recommend some BCAA supplement pills, they are relatively inexpensive.
To determine your own sweat rate, click here to read an article by Assistant Coach Laura Koerner on calculating your sweat rate.
For nutrition, you want to start out with a bottle full of carbohydrate solution per hour- something like Infinit's Ironman Distance Formula. You can get 20% off your order on Infinit if you click the Infinit logo on the
Break Through Multisport homepage. You can supplement your fluid intake with water or water with Nuun or Zym. I prefer the Nuun or Zym since it gets some extra electrolytes into your system. If you like the gels, pop one 45' into the bike and chase it with at least 6-8 ounces of water (not sports drink) and then again at 1:30 and again at 2:15 (every 45'. Make sure you are drinking water with each gel to prevent dehydration.
Once you get off the bike, you can carry a water bottle or if you have a Fuel Belt, that is good too. Load the FB with half the bottles with water and the other half with a sports drink. If you go with the water bottle only, I would go with water since the run is only 30'.
So another key issue is what you eat and drink AFTER the workout to set you up for success on Sunday. You NEED to drink a LOT of water and eat some healthy food all day after the workout to make sure you get rehydrated and refueled. Chocolate milk is a great recovery drink prior to hopping in the shower after the workout. After that, healthy carbs, lean protein and more water all day.
There are three main goals that you want to accomplish nutritionally immediately afterwards (within 30 minutes):
1. Replace your glycogen stores (carbs stored in the body): There are two types of carbs that we are going to want you to ingest:
a. High Glycemic Index (glucose based; sugars in potatoes, rice, grains, Corn Flakes, Cheerios, waffles and bagels): these will get into you system quickly
b. Low Glycemic Index (fructose based; fruit, fruit juices, milk, yogurt, apples, peaches, beans): provides a steady release of glucose into your system over a longer period of time. Make sure at least one serving of fruit is available, this will also help to re-equilibrate your bodies pH level.
We want you to get at least 3/4 of a gram of carbs per pound of body weight. The initial source should be in a liquid form (Infinit Recovery formula), the liquid version gets into you system faster.
2. Rehydrate and replace electrolytes after the workout: On average, endurance athletes will sweat out 1.5 liters of fluid per hour. It is difficult at best to replace all the fluids you lost in the first 30 minutes. You should try to replace 150% of the fluid that you lost during the workout over the first 2-3 hours post-exercise. Start out with 16 ounces of water (with Nuun) for each pound of fluid you lost.
3. Branched Chain Amino Acid support (BCAA's): BCAA's will assist in muscle repair. I would recommend some BCAA supplement pills, they are relatively inexpensive.
To determine your own sweat rate, click here to read an article by Assistant Coach Laura Koerner on calculating your sweat rate.
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