Race Day Nutrition

First of all let’s go over the basics. Your race day nutrition starts months before the race; before, during and after your training sessions. Being properly hydrated and fueled before training, practicing taking in liquids and nutrition during training AND consuming high quality nutrition after a workout are all critical. Not only will practicing proper nutrition consumption allow you to train better and recover more quickly, it will also tell you exactly what your body will and will not tolerate. Nutrition is highly individualized and what works for one, or even most, might be kryptonite to another. Experiment, practice, plan and execute.

Race day; eat what you always eat before a hard workout – nothing new on race day. In-race fueling is important for any race over an hour and a half and absolutely critical for half and full ironman distances. We all start with near 2,000 calories of glycogen stored in our liver and muscles, but 2 hours of intense racing will pretty well wipe that out. Your body is prepared to draw on reserves, but needs carbohydrate replacement to keep pace with the hours of demand that longer distance races place on our bodies. Replacement then is the key and the subject of volumes of sometimes contradicting evidence and information.

Absorbing calories during the intensity of a race is more difficult than normal absorption. During intense physical exertion blood is diverted away from the digestive tract and to the extremities. Too many, or the wrong kind of calories will create a backlog of undigested food and that food has its own way of solving the backlog, and that will be either up or down…. Both unpleasant during a race.

The key then is to determine what and how much is the proper nutrition for you. The calorie range is generally between 200 – 350, and that is a good starting point, but if you would like to get more scientific start with 0.6 grams of carbohydrate, per hour, per pound of body weight on the bike and half that for the run. Less on the run as the bouncing makes digestion even more difficult. Don’t forget sodium either, the content of your fuels should be at least 8 milligrams per gram of carbohydrate.

Gels, drinks, bars, blocks and even normal food are all options. Test them on long rides and runs, and especially long bricks and race previews. See what works for you, have a plan and race your plan.

Hydration is also critical and as highly individual as caloric intake. There are sweat rate tests and scientific formulas that are available, but what it comes down to is that you have to know your own body and match your personal needs to the race day conditions; temperature, humidity and course difficulty all factor in. My solution is the “P” test. I drink at constant rates, a watch timer is great, and make sure I have to pee once on the bike during a half ironman distance race and twice for a full. It is highly unscientific, but is simple and it works for me and many successful athletes.

Tip – All quality races advertise the type of nutrition available on the course. Find out early and give those items a try in practice. If you can tolerate those items and can work them into your plan, you will not be forced to carry the extra weight or have the inconvenience of having to stop for a special needs bag somewhere on the course.