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Ask any endurance athlete what their fueling strategy is for a training session or race and you will encounter a variety of answers,ranging from Coke and chocolate bars, to sophisticated sports drinks and carbohydrate based gels.
There is no generic right or wrong composition of sports drink that works for everybody at the recommended dosage per hour.
What works for one athlete and leads to a podium, may leave another athlete during a century ride vomiting on the side of the road.
An optimal fueling strategy achieves 3 objectives;
- Provides an athlete with sufficient calories to perform at a given exertion, in a given climate, for a specific duration, enabling them to perform at their respective optimum capacity on the day.
- Ensures that an athlete is able to optimally hydrate for the duration of the event, at the desired intensity, in the specific climate, enabling the athlete to perform at their respective capacity on the day.
- Satisfies points 1&2 without causing any GI distress.
A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
For the purpose of this article, we will use an example of a century ride, followed by a 20km run in 35C and high humidity.
Basically, a long distance biathlon.
As the audience here consists of not only cyclists, but also multisport athletes, this example includes the attached brick run to complicate matters !
Lets set the scene,think of South East Asia, Spain, Hawaii or similar. It is sweltering and any reasonable individual is floating in the pool with a chilled beverage or relaxing on the beach.
The athlete is 68kg (150 lbs), an experienced athlete and seeking a PB (personal best).
CALORIES REQUIRED PER HOUR
Calories per hour required to execute a specific ride, depends upon the athlete.
Body composition(kg), experience, intensity of riding, rate of perceived exertion(RPE), topography of the ride, climatic conditions (heat and humidity) and distance of the ride.
These all contribute to energy expenditure.
The longer the event, or the more challenging the conditions, the more precision is required to get this concentration correct.
In an extended time trial of this distance, the athlete will require a bare minimum of 350 calories per hour at an average speed of 32 kph.
Should the athlete be able to average 35 kph, they will be in the 400-450 range and so on.
If this were simply a century ride, where the rider would go all out and recover on the beach afterwards, perhaps 550-600 calories per hour could be ingested.
The difference in calorie consumption when executing a standing TT versus, a bike followed by a brick run,is as evidenced, a lower calorie intake per hour for the multi-discipline rider, who will be executing a run post bike.
This of course sounds contradictory.
Why would an individual who has additional energy requirements, wish to consume less calories on the bike.
Those of you who are multisport participants are well aware of the answer.
GI issues (gastro-intestinal) are all too common features for multisport athletes, often due to “guessing” their caloric hourly requirements, not race simulating during training, inaccurate calculations, or similar.
Fortunately, we can accurately prepare exactly what calories we require, in advance, in liquid form.
The sports drink market has come a long way since the early days of endurance events and manufacturers make it simple for us to calculate our hourly calorie requirements.
We can then test and tweak in training at various intensities, climates and courses to minimize errors during races.
Today’s sports drinks include caffeine, protein and electrolytes in addition to the base calories.
The electrolytes are usually about 200-300 mgs sodium per scoop, in the form of sodium, with the prorated amounts of magnesium, potassium and calcium.
This electrolyte contribution is important to remember.
We will touch on this a bit later.
The science behind today’s sports supplements is a huge business.
Oddly enough, the products, in my opinion, that are the most effective, are usually fringe brands that are not commonplace outside of endurance sports circles.
Most brands have relatively similar formulas, designed to sustain energy, minimize insulin spikes, reduce cramping, buffer lactic acid, not make your teeth fall out, and some even have protein to ensure nobody stays on your back wheel the entire ride !
Calories for the ride can be premixed and put into a bidon or smaller container, that is easily accessible during the ride.
If the estimated time of the ride is 5 hours, the bidon can be divided into 5 equal portions, simply by taking a ‘permanent’ marking pen and making marks on the bidon.
This ensures that an athlete does not over consume per hour, which can easily lead to GI distress on the bike, or the run.
ELECTROLYTE REQUIREMENTS PER HOUR
As mentioned, most of the aforementioned sports drinks will already have some electrolytes included in their respective mixture.
These often range between 200-300 mgs of Sodium per scoop.
Herein lies the difference between the prepared athlete who covers all of the bases, and those that train their backsides off, yet leave exact nutrition details to guess.
If you grew up in Canada or Northern Europe or Scandinavia and are racing in a warm climate that is outside of your norm, it is likely that you will perspire(sweat) substantially more than in your traditional environment.
The first step we need to do is to gauge our sweat rate or how much electrolytes we need per hour. This is conducted in training.
Depending upon the climate,size of athlete, origin, experience,acclimatization,etc. We can safely presume that in this climate most individuals will be in the 600-1500 mgs Sodium per hour range.
What are your electrolyte requirements per hour ? It is recommended to test the upper limits and move lower for tolerance.
Most electrolyte solution providers (NUUN, GU, HAMMER NUTRITION, etc) provide either powder form or dissolving tablets.
If you determine that you require 1000 mgs Sodium per hour (pro-rated Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium) that means that you will require 5hrs x 1000 mgs = 5000 mgs sodium for the entire ride.
Remembering that our sports drink already has 200-300 mgs of sodium per hour(let’s assume 200 mgs for simplicity),that adds up to 1000 mgs of sodium already.
This means that we need to prepare another 4000 mgs of sodium separately.
NUTRITION EXECUTION
“If” the electrolyte mixture is neutral tasting, it can be added to your already divided calorie mixture.
If not, simply keep it separate.
I personally mix this into a highly concentrated solution and place into a small container divided into 5 equal portions. As we did with the calorie mixture, and place it in my jersey back pocket, or velcro to my top tube.
If the electrolyte solution is flavor complementary,we can simply add it to our calorie solution. We then have a pretty simple delivery mechanism, ensuring we get our exact calories and electrolytes per hour.
Simply divide the bidon in 5 equal portions, as mentioned, and do not breach each hourly limit, OR divide it into 10 and sip every 30 mins.
If we have separate calorie and electrolyte containers, simply focus on the calorie container and ensure that every hour you accurately consume the required calories, not more, not less.
Separately, drink water as desired, provided you arefollowing your hourly consumption of electrolytes.
If there is a race drink on the course that has electrolytes in it that you pick up along the way, take this into account for your hourly consumption.
Overdoing it with electrolytes I have rarely seen and in my opinion is not nearly as common or severe as overdoing calorie consumption. This destroys races.
This overall strategy may sound complicated, but once executed, is very simple and ensures optimum calorie and electrolyte supplementation per hour.
EXECUTING THE BRICK RUN
Once off the bike, we are nutritionally prepared from both an energy and hydration perspective.
We have accurately and scientifically prepared our body, as best as possible, for a 90-180 minute (hopefully less) run off the bike.
It is very challenging to absorb calories when running. Theoretically, we should be able to burn a mixture of body fat, as well as calories consumed on the bike, for the first 60-80 minutes of the run, pending the pace.
Like we did on the bike, it is wise to carry a small squeeze tube with up to 3 hours of concentrated electrolytes, being 3×1000 mgs of Sodium, divided into 3 equal parts.
At aid stations (in a race scenario) we can then either squeeze small amounts into cups of water, or into our mouths and chase with water.
Gels have a mixed reputation in the latter stages of multisport events.
I personally find that they easily sabotage a race. Many races have bananas or even flat Coke at aid stations every 2km. These rae rapidly absorbed and easily tolerated by the gut.
As always; practice,practice, practice in training.
WHY NOT SIMPLY DRINK THE SPORTS DRINK?
If we were to rely on the sports drink alone, we would absorb 350-550 calories within the first hour and 1000 mgs of sodium to solve our thirst.
GI distress would very likely sabotage our race in the next 45-60 minutes.
We have to be strategic with a well-rehearsed plan, with easily digestible simple carbohydrates and avoid depleting our limited glycogen stores and “hitting the wall.”
Our objective is to match the carbohydrate (CHO) burn per hour, not the total calories reported on our power meter, watch or bike computer.
SUPPORTING FACTS
GI distress is extremely common in hot races, especially for athletes that are not acclimatized and originate from cooler climates.
Having raced in my fair share of events in sauna-like humidity, with temperatures well above 35C often breaching 40c with little shade, these are the strategies that work.
