I have my first IM in a few months time and I’m starting to look at my nutrition. I’m looking for advice on what to eat on the bike and run.
I’ve been primarily been eating dates on my long bike rides. Specifically, I’ve been eating 5-6 large Medjool dates (66~ calories per date per hour), with my longest ride being 4.5 hours. After about the 4 hour mark I start getting gut rot. And I’m afraid that having to run a marathon after the bike that I may end up with severe stomach pain.
I’ve already tried numerous different gels, which also cause gut rot.
Please don’t derail this thread merely for the fact that I’m vegan.
Having all of that said, what are vegan athletes eating to fuel through an IM?
Racing, I use First Endurance EFS and/or Gatorade Endurance (on course) for liquid calories and add in a few gels to target about 60g carbs per hour total. Depending on race pace/effort, can also add in a Picky Bar or similar for more solid/“real†food. IIRC, GU/Clif/Hammer probably some others, all vegan.
In training I tend to eat a lot more actual food during indoor rides, especially aerobic stuff, as all that stuff gets expensive. Fruit, bagels, whatever I have around. Save the simple carbs for harder efforts.
My stomach tends to handle most anything without major issue. YMMV.
Please define “gut rot”… I know some vegans like to bring up mythical theory that meat causes gut to rot… really it’s the stomach bacteria rotting the meat. Almost all gels are vegan anyways… maybe some animal based one’s with amino acids. And I guess if you are religious vegan , avoid honey based gels
Not a vegan but mostly plant based so take with a grain of salt. First of all dates also have fiber, that could be why they are bothering your GI tract. You could try pairing them with some nut butter for some more calories (because one an hour isn’t many calories) but they still have fiber.
I am ramping up my training for a half and eventually a full later this year, so I eat lots of wholegrains, beans etc. You will definitely need a lot of extra calories so keep that in mind, always a good idea if you can prep a few things in advance. I made a huge batch of quinoa salad a couple days ago that has lots of vegetables and nuts in it so great recovery meal just waiting in my refrigerator. Have good snacks around ( nuts, etc). I also try to plan ahead for healthy pre made lunches to take to work. We go through a couple jars of nut butter a week.
For what it’s worth, I am on the light side so I will eat junk like Pop tarts etc on long rides to switch it up and to make sure I get enough calories ( I realize there are healthy ways to do this, but…) kinda sounds like you just need to experiment.
Is it possible you just aren’t getting enough fuel on the long rides/runs?
I have never done a full Ironman but for very long rides (4-5 hours) for food I use a mix of gels and dates. Dates in the second part when I get a little “tired” of the gels. For gels I found that Huma gels (made with chia seeds, I’m not affiliated) is a brand that, so far, has never bothered my stomach differently from other brands. I use the plus type that contains electrolytes, some including caffeine. They are vegan obviously and they claim only with natural ingredients.
Please define “gut rot”… I know some vegans like to bring up mythical theory that meat causes gut to rot… really it’s the stomach bacteria rotting the meat. Almost all gels are vegan anyways… maybe some animal based one’s with amino acids. And I guess if you are religious vegan , avoid honey based gels
I’d love to hear about the sooper accurate, peta funded, scientific basis for this “gut rot” as well, as it may make me change my meat eating ways!!!
Curious, what is a “religious vegan” mean? I know from your previous threads/posts that vegans and veganism rubs you the wrong way.
Religious vegan is one who doesn’t eat foods sourced from animal labor - honey from bees. But honey, is not an animal so technically vegan
Actually you mean ethical vegan. Many ethical vegans are not religious (going to church, reading the bible, believing in a God, following Christianity, Islam, or whatever…).
Please define “gut rot”… I know some vegans like to bring up mythical theory that meat causes gut to rot… really it’s the stomach bacteria rotting the meat. Almost all gels are vegan anyways… maybe some animal based one’s with amino acids. And I guess if you are religious vegan , avoid honey based gels
It wasn’t my intention to bring up any sorts of mythical theories into this thread.
You should check-out the Base Performance bars at ‘baseperformance.com’. These bars are the on course bars provided at all Ironman North America events. I think it is good practice to use the on course nutrition during your training, that way you don’t have to carry all your own nutrition products for the event. It the past I used figs and dates as solids during long rides and events but I could only consume them in small quantities before I experienced GI distress. Once I switched to other fuels such as First Endurance, Base Hydro or Infinite Nutrition drinks with supplemental bars or gels I solved my GI distress issues. I understand that it is expensive to train with these products all the time but for longer training and racing sessions it sounds like you need to change something.
You should check-out the Base Performance bars at ‘baseperformance.com’. These bars are the on course bars provided at all Ironman North America events. I think it is good practice to use the on course nutrition during your training, that way you don’t have to carry all your own nutrition products for the event. It the past I used figs and dates as solids during long rides and events but I could only consume them in small quantities before I experienced GI distress. Once I switched to other fuels such as First Endurance, Base Hydro or Infinite Nutrition drinks with supplemental bars or gels I solved my GI distress issues. I understand that it is expensive to train with these products all the time but for longer training and racing sessions it sounds like you need to change something.
Matt Miller of Base Performance replied to my email a couple years ago after I inquired about which products were vegan. Here is his response:
Base amino is duck feathers
Omega is fish oil
Bars have honey
I have serious stomach sensitivities. There are a lot of Skratch products (skratchlabs.com) that are vegan and pull me through distance races without any gut issues. They have great electrolyte drinks (with or w/out caffeine), energy chews and bars. It sounds like you need to add an electrolyte and more calories at a minimum. There are also other completely liquid vegan products like Ucan where you don’t eat anything else with exception of adding salt.
Only vegetarian but I take one cliffbar/ hour for the first 3 hrs and then switch to liquid where I put about 600 cal of powder in one bottle as concentrate for the additional time.
Most Cliff bars if not all are vegan (I think there used to be one with honey or something else). The poster was saying he/she’s vegetarian (not vegan). That’s all.