in the recent triathlete or inside triathlon (can’t remember which), there was an article about nutrition. I’m paraphrasing here, but I thought that they were basically saying you could get all your nutritional needs during a long event from something like accelerade/gatorade. I was wondering if any of you have tried this, and how it worked for you…or if it’s even possible for a half/full ironman.
I know this from experience…my body doesn’t like trying to digest really dense foods (like cliff bars, powerbars, etc)…while i’m working out hard. It doesn’t bother me as much on the bike, but when I get to the run it can become a nightmare very quickly.
I’ve been experimenting with this. As an example I went for a 85 mile bike yesterday and I only used gatorade. I felt strong throughout it, though a bit hollow. I know M2 suggests that you can eat very little solid foods for an ironman and be fine. Any thoughts??
If it’s just an issue with solid foods, you can always spike your gatorade with some CarboPro. It’s basically just a tasteless powder that adds calories to your beverage.
For my longer rides, I add a couple scoops of this to my gatorade for extra calories to make sure I’m taking in enough.
As I understand it, there are some basic needs to consider: Carbs, sodium, calories, and water. Each athlete’s need varies and at different rates of consumption/digestion. For long course racing, Gatorade might work for some, while others might be starving by T2 and bonking by mile 1.
I did an entire Ironman on Perpetuem - I mixed it 6-8 times stronger than directions (had 2nd bottle in special needs bag) picking up water at the aid stations. It worked well … until the run - that had nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with the +100 degree run
I’ve kind of figured as much. I think I’m going to try the carbo-pro and see how that works. I’d just rather avoid solid foods while working out. I’m sure I would have crumbled if I had to go much further yesterday.
at 8% CHO - a 28 oz big bike bottle can only carry 265 calories - or if you want to eat 265 calories/hour - you need to drink 1 big bike bottle of water/hour. Now if you bump up to 400 calories/hour - then you need to drink 1 1/2 28 oz water bottles/hour = a lot.
Now what if its a cool/cold race - even 28 oz fluid/hour can be a lot. How do you get enough calories without peeing every hour?
Seems like most people recommend pushing the bike calories up towards the 350-400 cal/hour to make up for lower cals on the swim/run. People like to say that 260-280 cals/hour is the most you can absorb but practical experience from a lot of others seems to suggest that a lot of people can do more…
Yes I agree. In my initial post I did say it was on the low side. The rule of thumb I follow is to go for 300-400cal/h on the bike, but really, REALLY stick to max 60g CHO/l on the run.
I used Perpetuem made into a paste, flavored a little with some Orange Hammergel, and put it into flasks…about 450 calories per flask. This way, I only need water on the course, and with Perpetuem’s salt content, there’s not so much need to supplement with salt unless it’s REALLY hot. Took 7 flasks with me on the bike, set my watch to alarm every 15 minutes, and took one big gulp. Takes about 4 gulps to get a flask empty for me, so it worked out great as the ride took me about 6 hours. Perpetuem really agrees with my system.