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Macca Talks
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Race Day Nutrition
Probably the most common question I get asked by athletes who are doing their first Ironman race, is "Hey Macca, What should I eat during the race." Answering this question is correctly is almost impossible. There is no magic race day nutritional plan. Each individual athletes personal race day nutrition is developed and utilised over time and is built, learned and structured in line with a perfect training plan.
My personal race day nutritional plan was developed in conjunction with my coaching staff and is different depending upon, the type of event I am racing, the part of the season I am in, my level of fitness and of course the race day conditions.
So to answer the question for someone I don't know on exactly hat to take on race day is an impossible one. However there are some basic rules of the game that do conform to everyone. I will list these here and together with your coaches or via trail and error you can develop a bulletproof nutritional plan that will get you through your next event without the dreaded worry of "hitting the wall." Here are 3 basic rules to the game for everyone to follow, and although basic these will help you with planning your personal nutritional needs. For further information and a more detailed explanation on how to get your race day nutritional plans perfected please feel free to contact my coaching staff on MaccaNow2@Gmail.com. They will be able to help you put together a training plan and nutritional platform to work towards your next key event.
1: Hydration First - When the mercury climbs and heart rate is elevated, your body burns a lot of fluid to create energy. Not only is hydration the key to success in any endurance event, but also what you drink is important. Always hydrate with an electrolyte energy drink with a maltydextron carbohydrate base. The simple sugar base drinks such as Gatorade are Good but not great for athletes. Your body is an amazing machine and will utilise these simple sugars very well early in an event. But there are diminishing returns on their energy release as an event lengthens. A maltydextron based drink with solid electrolyte balance is a much better choice.
2: Carbohydrates equals energy. - Your body has enough carbohydrate stores in the liver and the muscles to sustain exercise for about 90 minutes. After this time we really need to top these stores up in order to ensure we don't hit the wall. Research shows that by doing this with carbohydrates we can sustain higher levels of performance for longer periods of time. Taking shots or gels during an event will benefit an athlete a lot. The basic rule of thumb is two shots or more for every hour of exercise will give you enough calories to sustain a reasonable exercise level. This number is different for every athlete, but less than two is definitely not enough.
3: Salt - Luc Van Lierde, the Ironman World Record holder once said, an Ironman can be won on sugar, water and salt. Two of these have been listed above but salt is definitely a key electrolyte in endurance racing as it is quickly lost in our sweat. In hot races in particular salt is a key electrolyte to be reconsumed. I always encourage athletes to take a buffered salt tablet, which has other key electrolytes in it. Getting this mix right is a very personal one but taking an extra electrolyte capsule every hour in an event will not hurt you and will aid in hydration. A rule of thumb is that water follows salt, so hydration can be enhanced by the intake of sodium chloride during an event.
Obviously the rules above are very simple and require much more explanation than given. But to give anybody an exact nutrition plan without knowing any of his or her history is an impossible task. The ingredients above are all that is needed come race day, but getting this mix right is the key to success. Contact MaccaNow at MaccaNow@Gmail.com or MaccaNow2@Gmail.com and we can go into more detail on this and help perfect your race day eating plans. What you eat before, during and after any event is important and this is an art that is developed over time between a good coach and athlete.
Chris McCormack
World Champion Triathlete
www.chrismccormack.com
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Challenge-Wanaka: |
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Challenge-Spain: |
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Rennen in
| 12. Juli 2009
