Race Day Nutrition for Endurance Athletes Ep 92

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. Hey y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Christina Fiumara Newport. I am so excited that you are here. Today's topic is all about race day nutrition for endurance sports lasting longer than 2 hours, and maybe even we could say longer than 3 hours. And the reason why is, of course, all of the races are coming around, and it's exciting that it is race season. So I want to make sure that you are confident and well-practiced going into race day so that you can feel good about your event, you can feel good about your training. And so here we are. So common things that happen to athletes— so endurance events longer than 2 or 3 hours, so we're talking marathon, half Ironman, maybe Olympic distance triathlon depending on your ability, and certainly Ironman and beyond. Of course, there's the dreaded bonk. Check out our podcast from last week talking all about glycogen, but certainly there's GI issues. We've got upper and lower GI issues. Upper GI issues could be nausea, vomiting, burping. Lower GI issues, certainly things like diarrhea or like gut cramping, but common things that we don't necessarily think about. Overhydration is actually a big one. You definitely don't wanna gain weight when you're exercising. Certainly over or under fueling, that can be an issue. But oftentimes these issues come from a lack of an actual tested plan. Some of it also comes from a lack of your specific personalized body, like your genetics, your, how much you sweat. Et cetera. So we're gonna get into some of those pieces, and certainly all of this is in our fueling and hydration bootcamp that starts in May. So if you wanna get on the priority list, would love to have you in there so that you and I can work together to actually create this personalized plan. So head over to theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp. So first up, I wanna emphasize that there are differences in what happens in the laboratory. And what actually is your real-world race day scenario. So in the lab, for example, they oftentimes will study cyclists and they'll stick 'em on the bike for say 2 hours at 60% of their VO2 max and just cruise 'em along. And they'll have different groups. One might be a placebo, one might be a glucose-only solution, and one might be a glucose-fructose solution. These aren't necessarily products that you can get on the market. Some of them might be. But oftentimes they're not. And then they'll do some sort of, say, like a 40K time trial of an all-out effort and see who performed better based on what they were ingesting. That's one way that they can test things like osmolality or different carbohydrate sources or different transporters and seeing how is the body able to use the energy that you put into your body for exercise, but then we have actual race day scenarios. So you are likely not going to be fed something specifically by, you know, laboratory personnel in a room. You are having an actual race day scenario, right? You are out on the road or in the dirt or wherever your race scenario might be, and you might be leaning more on what products the race actually provides or carrying things that you know work best for you, and you're likely mixing things too. So say you have a gel and a bar and a sports drink. I'm not saying any of that is necessarily wrong, just know that you are unique, and that's why it's important to definitely get some practice. All right, so I want to get into some carbohydrate absorption basics. If you haven't heard me talk already, just want to chew to know that carbs are key. I mean, at the end of the day, that is what helps you go faster. It was what helps you be less fatigued and feel better in a race day scenario. It's also what helps that continual process of going from your consumption to actually deliver to working muscles. So what is some of the important things is that carbs are important for delivery to working muscles, but more carbs doesn't necessarily mean it's better. This is kind of an interesting, tricky one. So when we look at exercise, certainly in terms of, say, like a 2-hour event, so let's say we're doing a longer sprint triathlon or say half marathon, you can consume anywhere from, let's say, 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour. You got a lot of glycogen on board. You're likely not going to run out of energy unless you're on some sort of specific diet that limits your carbs, which would limit your glycogen storage. But then as we get into these longer events that are 2, 3+ hours, now we're looking at potentially running out of glycogen. Now we need those carbohydrates. So now we're looking at, can we do 60 grams of carbs per hour? The reason why that's kind of a magical number is because over and over in the lab, we have found that that is the optimal, or your body's ability to oxidize carbohydrates. So in other words, when you consume a carbohydrate from a gel, from a banana, from a sports drink, then it has to make its way from your mouth to your stomach, gets all mixed up, and then sends it to your small intestines. Now we have to rely on our gut, on our small intestines, to make that absorption or oxidation process actually happen so that it goes to the bloodstream and thereby to working muscles. We have found that that limit is about 60 grams of carbs per hour. But when you use multiple type of carbohydrates, so specifically adding in fructose, you will be able to take in more fuel. So in other words, you're sort of saturating the transporters that are letting glucose into the bloodstream and then be able to send them to working muscles. If you add fructose, you're using a different transporter so it can get across the gut a little bit better. So right now where we're at in the literature is, hmm, maybe it's a 1:1 glucose to fructose blend. And this can look a lot of different ways because glucose is also in a product called dextrose. That's what you'll also get in an IV. Fructose is isolated from fruit and it is what oftentimes makes things sweet. So you have to be prepared for that. And there are, again, slow and fast carbohydrates, similar. So fructose is slow, glucose is fast. So that's kind of one of those things. Okay, what is our strategy for being able to consume more carbohydrates and thereby consume more— what is our strategy for consuming more carbohydrates in order to be able to deliver more energy to working muscles and be less fatigued? And perform better, right? So if you are doing anything less than 2 hours, you really don't have to push that number at all. It's kind of pointless, right? You got enough, you've got enough glycogen on board. If you want to, you certainly can, but if you're gonna go over 60 grams, which I definitely recommend starting to play with if you're doing anything 3+ hours long. So this is where it gets, you gotta start planning. This is where you gotta start getting into different products, making sure that it actually feels good for you. So similarly, I know so many people complain about having GI distress. This 1:1 blend actually in the lab resulted in not only improved performance, but actually people complained less about GI stress. Kind of interesting how that works. Anyhow, if you may not want to go the sports drink route, That is okay. We actually, in the lab, have found, and I've also found it in my practice, some people find it easier to do some sort of fluid, say water, and then add something like a gel or a bar, so long as the bars and gels are low in fiber, fat, and protein, which are things that slow gastric emptying, which means that your stomach cannot empty into your small intestines as quickly, which is where the magic happens. That's where you take all that nutrition and hydration too, and send it to working muscles. All right, so both actually work. So if you have a particular gel that you have an affinity for, fantastic. Same thing with bars. You definitely need to try these things out. They don't necessarily have to be anything that's expensive or fancy. But certainly you can try various different things. Oh my gosh, there's so many different bars on the market. Here's the long and the short of it. Your gut is so adaptable and you really need to train it just like you train your muscles. So if you're going out and doing these long 3, 4, 5 hour, or whatever it is, endurance events in training, make sure that you have your planned fueling and hydration. With you so that you can practice and adapt your gut to your trained muscles, and thereby racing nutrition is just going to be that much easier. I do want to mention something about drinking to thirst because a lot of people are like, oh, if you're thirsty, go ahead and drink, or if you're hungry, go ahead and eat. Certainly I want to make sure that you are listening to your body and honoring its needs for sure. But if we go in as that being our only strategy, that's basically going in without a plan, and you're likely going to fall behind and not perform your best. You're likely going to be the one who gets dehydrated faster, or you're going to bonk faster. So it is ideal if you have a race plan and strategy that you have practiced, not that you've just written down on paper and are thinking, oh yeah, this looks like a really nice plan on paper, but then you don't actually execute it or try to execute on a race day. We need to switch that. So writing it all out and then actually practicing it multiple times if possible. I like for people to, to make sure that their race day nutrition strategy is dialed in no later than 4 to 6 weeks prior to your race. If you're still tweaking things 2 weeks, 3 weeks prior, we, we might be having a little bit of a tougher time. Certainly your periodization of your nutrition should align with the periodization of your training plan. So if you are in the off-season and you're training your race nutrition, eh, probably not the ideal time to do that, but certainly as your intensity and as your volume of training training is ramping up, that's where your race day nutrition needs to come into play. So if you're doing anything, if you're planning on doing a race over 3 hours and you have workouts that are over 2 or 3 hours, that's the time that you wanna be doing that. So that's where you can start to take notes, see how things tasted. Maybe you didn't like a particular product. This is what we do in the Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp is help you to track those things. Determine your actual losses, lean into the things that feel good and taste good to you, and then start working through logistics and actually writing out that plan, starting to practice it, and then getting feedback through our live calls. So again, that's theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp if you wanna get on the priority list so that you can dial this in. So speaking of things that influence your plan, I kind of mentioned them a little bit. Hydration needs change, and this is one of the things that we do with our sweat testing. Hydration needs change with heat, with humidity, and we very clearly say, and we have it in a fueling calculator that we show you that you are, uh, welcome to use and it belongs to you so that as you log your history, both heat, humidity, and we give you a tool to do that. It's super easy. And your time and your intensity, then you can determine your sweat losses. Because remember, your sweat losses will change with increasing intensity and increasing dew point. Wind can also be a factor. We had one guy who was working out in his garage, and again, this is very similar when you're looking at a laboratory setting. He was sweating gobs on the bike and Then we encouraged him to use a fan to stim— or simulate race day conditions with wind. And his sweat rate went down. Easy peasy, right? So there are some things that we can certainly manipulate. Clothing is another one, making sure that you have clothing that is going to deflect if you are going to be in the sun quite a bit, that is not going to absorb as much heat. So like white things, things that are very breathable, certainly not doing anything cotton. And genetics, that's one of my favorites because I get people who come into sweat testing all the time and they just say, oh my gosh, I just sweat so much and I'm covered in these salty crystals. And my friends that I run with are just, you know, barely breaking a sweat. And I'm just like, my shoes are squishy. I, I hear ya. I hear ya. And guess what? You are unique. That is one of those things that not only your sweat content that you lose is unique to you, but how much you actually lose in fluid volume is unique. But again, that's easy to work with. We just have a really simple log that measures not only your, again, your time, intensity, the mode of exercise that you're doing. So running versus cycling is gonna be a little bit different. Even swim is an interesting one, especially depending on whether you have a wetsuit on and the temperature of the water. You would be surprised that you, uh, lose a little bit, maybe not quite as much as you would certainly biking or running, but those are things that we get those answers for, which is kind of cool. So also thinking about, we just talked about hydration needs. Now thinking about carb needs. Carb needs certainly depend on, and I think of them separately. So with a sports drink, I totally get that it's so super convenient to have fluid, electrolytes, and carbs all in this one beautiful package. And that may actually work really well for you. There may also need to be some level of manipulation so that you get everything in the right amounts into a bottle. Say, for example, so you may start with the basis of a predetermined type of drink, like a Scratch or a Gatorade Endurance or a Tailwind. We don't have any affiliations with those products. At the end of the day, we want you to make sure that you are getting the product that works best for you. I don't care what you use as long as you are using it in a strategic way. Determined by your event, by your intensity, by your goal, by your sweat losses and your carb needs so that we can put all those pieces together so that you can perform your best. That's what I want to see out of you. And I know you can do it, which is why we did this bootcamp. It's so fun. So those carb needs depend on the duration of the exercise. Remember, really anything less than 2 hours, you shouldn't need to have more than 60 grams of carbs. And another little pro tip there. Because you're not going over 60 grams of carbs, you can only— you can get that from one type of carb. You can get that just from, if you want to go the more natural route, say dates for example. You can get that just from your favorite type of gel, which oftentimes gels do have two different types of carbs. Not always, just depends on the product. Or you can go with a specific sports drink if you like that. So if you are not saturating those glucose transporters, which is happens at about the 60 grams of carbs per hour mark, then just one type of carb can work and whatever makes you happy in terms of your flavor of your gel bar, sports drink, natural food, whatever that personal preference and tolerance is. And then also knowing your history of gastrointestinal issues, if you have any history. I have some people who come to me and they're like, ah, my gut is made of steel. And then I have other folks who come to us and say, oof, even thinking about a gel makes me want to go to the porta-john. So everybody's different. That's totally fine. I get that. So we put all those pieces together of what are the things that are going to affect your hydration and electrolyte needs, the heat, humidity, the wind, clothing, your genetics, your intensity, and then what's going to affect your carbohydrate needs— the duration of exercise, the intensity of exercise, your GI history, your personal preferences, your personal tolerance. So then we start to put those pieces together and actually write it out into a plan that is based on the timing of how often you should consume it. So what we try to work through is, okay, here are the products that we need. And some of those products, just to be clear, right now we have over 140 different things in our fueling calculator. And some of those are everything from natural products to engineered products. So everything from Gatorade to cola to applesauce to dates to raisins, bananas, pretzels, Tailwind, Precision Hydration, like we really, we put it all in there. And then you can pick based again on your personal preferences and what your event is and what your intensity is gonna be. You put in the total things by this little dropdown menu and it does all the calculations for you. It's super cool of what you're gonna need for the total event. Then we make our way over to separating it out by when you're going to actually consume it. So having this timing, um, calculator, if you will, so that you know how often you need to consume something. The long and the short of that is what they'll do, at least in the literature. There was an interesting research study that I just saw relating to gastric emptying. So again, that's how quickly your stomach empties to deliver that energy to your small intestines and thereby to the blood and then to working muscles. They used ultrasound to determine, okay, somebody drank something and then they see how much is actually in the stomach. And then 15 minutes later, they'll do it again and see, okay, how much actually did your stomach empty to start to deliver to working muscles? So kind of cool how they did that study, but you can very clearly see that when you are consistent with your fueling, You will consistently empty your stomach, and then you will consistently give energy to your small intestines, thereby to your blood, and then to working muscles. See how this process works? So where most people are going wrong with that strategy of digestion, certainly during exercise, is that they're not fueling frequently enough. You know, they're like, oh, well, it's, you know, it says to take my gel once every 45 minutes, and then they're not taking every anything else any other time. So things slow in your stomach to actually get to working muscles. So we want to make sure we've got that nice consistent timing and then figuring out, are you going to do something pre-race and what's that strategy during? So just to dial in some of these key strategies that we're talking about right now, let's first make sure you know your sweat rate. That's really important. You're going to have some consistency more than likely across different seasons. So you're going to have a pretty consistent sweat rate in the fall or winter, and then a relatively consistent sweat rate in the summer. Right now in North Carolina, it is starting to get hot. And this is right about the time when I start hearing athletes start to complain about, oh my gosh, that was so much harder. Yes. Now we need to heat acclimatize. We need to start getting used to being a little hotter. That does take some time, but knowing your sweat rate is a really important part of this process so that you know, of course, how much hydration and electrolytes you need to get. The electrolytes part, we do that by sweat testing because that is so vastly different person to person. The other tip we want to think about is topping off your glycogen before the race. I know I haven't talked a whole lot about this, but this is important, not just fueling and hydrating during your race, but actually a little bit beforehand. So some of the messaging, and we have this in our Runner's Fueling and Hydration Cheat Sheet that you can get for free on our website. There's actually quite a few. We've compiled them all in one place. You can get, go to theenduranceedge.com/freebies. It's under our resources if you're on our regular homepage, and then you'll see the freebies page. That's where we have all of our different freebies, our hydration guide, our Runner's Fueling and Hydration Cheat Sheets. A bunch of different stuff on there, some recipes and whatnot. So anyway, you can go there, check that out. But the typical messaging is 3 to 4 hours beforehand you're having more like a meal, and then 1 to 2 hours beforehand you're having maybe more like a snack. All of that strategy is tied into topping off your glycogen stores. It doesn't mean that that's how you have to do it. As long as you have been well fueled with good quality carbohydrates, good protein in the days leading up to your race, similar to what you would do leading up to a heavy training day, then you should be good. It's not just about like stuffing your face full of pasta the night before. As long as you have practiced that, if that's your strategy, that's fine. But certainly glycogen does take a little bit of time to restore. So even 2 days prior is a nice time to make sure, am I getting these good quality carbs? In my diet so that I don't have to wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning to have a meal. I have heard of people doing that and then they go back to bed, like just to stay asleep. It's just so much better for your metabolism and it's just better for you to get continuous sleep so that you can perform best on race day. But oftentimes, especially for folks who don't like to eat right before race day, the mental training part is huge as it relates to this too, because your nervous system is very connected to your GI tract. And if you are overly stressed, which is oftentimes the case going into a race day, your gut is gonna respond. And oftentimes it responds by needing to run to the porta-john quite a few times, or it responds by oftentimes being really constipated. So making sure that you're testing out your strategies, you're also doing mental performance training. That's really important to do that with the sports psychology so that you can feel really good and actually take in that nutrition and not be over, uh, adrenalined, if you will. I think I just made up a word. You're welcome. Prior to race day. So anyway, so my point of that is topping off your glycogen before race day. If you don't have a large meal before your race, that's okay. If you just have something right before you start and then you have a really great strategy during your race for fueling and hydrating, don't worry about it. So many athletes I find just will stuff themselves with a ton of stuff before race, and then they're just feeling kind of ugh. Now, that being said, this should be tested in training, just like you test your fueling and hydration strategy. That's part of it is what you have beforehand, and just as much part of it as you do during, right? So practice, practice, practice what you're gonna have Pre-race, practice what you're going to do during, know that sweat rate, know your carb needs, know what products work or do not work for you, and then if you can, have a little bit of a backup plan in case things go sideways. So you never know what's going to happen. Maybe you'll lose a water bottle. What are some backup things that you can have ready for you? So quick takeaways: more carbs are better up to a certain point, up to about 60 grams of carbs, and then you're you're gonna have to have multiple sources of carbohydrates, over 60 grams of carbs. What we're finding, a nice happy place is somewhere maybe around 90 grams of carbs. You can basically push that up to your personal tolerance. Carb blends, again, just kind of what I was telling you, over 60 grams of carbs help with better absorption and hydration. Make sure you have a tested plan and make sure you are training your gut. While you are training your muscles and body. All right, so hopefully that is helpful for you as we head into race season for your running, cycling, or triathlon event. I wish you all the best of luck and also would love to see you over in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp to help you put all this together and actually pick out, based on your electrolyte losses, based on your sweat needs, based on your carb needs, an event and intensity that you're going to be going at, we together will put together a fueling and hydration plan for you. I have like due dates for all of this and making sure that you guys are actually submitting your stuff so you're committing to actually practicing this, doing it. We do live calls, we've got modules, we've got worksheets, we've got all kinds of good stuff in addition to the sweat testing. And you also get some bonuses. So if you head to theenduranceedge.com Fueling Bootcamp. That is theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp. You can get on the priority list. The doors will only open for a few days in the end of May. So I do not want you guys to miss out on this so that you can have an amazing, solid race day nutrition for all of the different events. We've got worksheets for every different event so that you can rock and roll. I believe in you. You're amazing. Good luck and catch you next time. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.