In race fueling strategies

for an olympic distance race, you are over thinking/worrying about things that are pretty much a non-issue (even at that time ange).

Protein is not something you need or probably want in that distance.
carb wise, find whatever is easiest to use, gels take some getting used to but are easy to digest (part of the bloating may have been due to "plenty of water" with it, personally i dont drink with the gels, as i dont want a stomach full of sloshing water).

drink to thirst can work, some epople need more/less, but its a good place to start.

any sports drink with be fine for electrolytes unless its like 120 out.

at 3 hours you really just need to be keeping some calories coming in, not worrying about really fueling for a long hual.

depending on body weight on the bike, 150-200 should be plenty. adjust down or up (would prob not need to go up) as needed.

try it out in training first.

Thanks. And I agree re over thinking. But I am prone to that....and am starting the learning process for longer. Also I have been noticing some trends at around 1.5 to 2 hours. That is: strong ammonia on my breath (in setting of good hydration), increasing heart rate over what I think would be "creep," and getting REAL hungry. To me this means running out of fuel and metabolizing muscle.   This got me started on reading strategies for fueling during exercise. Having an interest in physiology, this can be a viscous cycle.

Doing an oly in the time range you've indicated, you're unlikely to need as much as you've been led to believe. If you properly fuel leading up to the race, you're not going to have your electrolyte stores depleted. As newbz mentioned, you may have taken too much water with the gel. For an oly I use a gelbot with 3 servings mixed with water. That dilutes the mixture and I take in about 1.5 servings, plus a sip of water from either a bottle or if I'm on the run course one of the little cups. In an oly I'll go through a half bottle of sports drink at most. I'm a very heavy and salty sweater too.

When I went through the USAT coaching clinic this year it was interesting to hear both Bob Seebohar and Bobby Magee talk about people taking in way too much stuff during races. You're intial thought that more is better appears to be not what the"experts" are saying. It seems that people should be trying to use as little as possible in order to keep performing at a high level. If you fuel properly in the days leading up to the event, you may find yourself only needing to top things off and not making the race into a moving buffet.

Stop drinkin' hooch and you'll be fine with that ammonia breath

I don't know much, but I'm pretty sure the ammonia breath means that you're generally eating too much protein, just like most red-blooded Americans.

I don't think the increasing heart rate is due to lack of nutrition either. I'm going to go with lack of fitness. Don't shoot me. I know you're coming off an injury and simply haven't been able to train as much as you probably wanted/needed to.

REAL hungry--what's your diet in general look like? Week of race? Breakfast?

What's your weight like? Are you overweight? (I have no idea, you look pretty skinny to me, but what do I know).

Look, I'm one of the biggest race chowhounds there is, and I wouldn't be eating during an Oly (and I take longer than you). But I'd be sucking down plenty of POWERADE ISOTONIK (or, of course, your sports drink of choice. Ha ha).

I am from Georgia...don't mess with my hooch. 

Weight 169 (6'0")

Diet fairly well balanced...haven't measured the percentages lately (prob should given my Berkley panel). Breakfast usually whole grain (homemade...ground) hot cereal with fruit (@65 gr carbs and 15 gr protein), plus an egg/banana.

Don't think ammonia breath is over consumption of meat...only happens at longer distance workouts above zone 3. Lots of article talks about this when you start running low on glycogen. So for me if this happens at 90 minutes, and the race is 180...that is my point. I think for my current conditioning etc, I need more gas (plz read that carbs...not colonic...which I got plenty of with the gels...and I think there are penalties for that in the new rules). 



Edited by RiverRat50 2010-09-05 12:44 PM

Okay. I actually looked at a real old Oly race report, just for you.

Breakfast
1/2 bagel with PB and J
Coffee with milk and real sugar
1/2 Powerbar found on backseat that a dog ate half of the week before

Before Race
Plain coffee that Tim offered me
1/2 Clif bar that Tim offered me (I would have popped a gel 10-15 min before race start if not)

During Race
Bike: 1 Camelbak full of Gatorade Endurance (it was REALLY hot and dry that day)
Run: Popped a Gu in T2 and a squirt of water. 10 oz worth of sipping water on the run.

Other than that ... as for gels ... different brands really make a difference for some people. And a decent gulp or couple o' sips of water should be fine. If you really don't tolerate gels well ... how 'bout Shotblox, gummies, gummybears, honey sticks ... ?