Ironman Perform and GI Issues

In my job as a writer I get the opportunity to interview and interact with a lot of athletes across a wide spectrum of experience levels.

One of the things I see consistently is that, among us rank n' file recreational age groupers there are common comments about not being to "stomach" or tolerate a given, specific nutritional product.

When I speak to the pros about it; Andy Potts, Leanda Cave, Chuckie V, etc., etc. the story is completely different. Completely.

The predominant difference is some pros, an increasing number I'll suggest, train themselves to tolerate a given product. Andy Potts told me, during an interview, "You have to train your gut. It takes time." He mentioned how important it was to train with what you will be using on race day and taking from the aid stations. He said it was particularly important if the given product was initially less than optimal and produced some gastric distress.

Why bother? Valid question.

If you are doing longer events and you have not been dilligent in acclimating your gastro-intestinal system then you are limited to certain products you can tolerate. That is a profound limitation. If something goes wrong with your nutrition plan such as missing a special needs bag, minor bike fall coming out of transition that causes you to lose a bottle or some other of the hundreds of problems that can come up- you have no "Plan B".

Additionally, the entire problem of G.I. distress is generally, at the highest level, a reaction to stress. Gastric stress, emotional stress, cardiovascular stress. If you are having difficulty with that it needs to be trained, just as- if you had difficulty running farther than 20 miles you'll need to train that.

The G.I. system is a physiological process that can adapt to a degree. If you want a smooth, enjoyable experience on race day trainig your G.I. system is a critical, critical doctrine at ultra distance. If you fail to adapt your G.I. system to work effectively under stress with a wide variety of products there is a strong chance you'll be, at best, uncomfortable on race day and- at worst, maybe wind up in the medical tent.

I hope that helps. Buy some of the product you'll use on the course in your key race and teach yourself to use it effectively. Adapt.

Best of luck to you!

Since I'm signed up for IMKY 2011, I'm beginning to use the Ironman Perform drink.  I have not had any issues with it so far.  I've only used the RTD bottles.  I have a tub of the powder that I will begin to use in the near future.  We'll see how that goes.

I trained all summer with the Power Bar powdered version and liked and tolerated it well. I bought 12 bottles of RTD in various flavors to try to be sure it worked well in September for IMFL and I found the taste to be quite different and I more than disliked it.

I went with another nutrition plan using Power Bar gels and water with nuuns added in. I was still mostly living off the course but it was more palatable for me. I had nuuns with me in two places and had a back up supply in bike SN in case I needed more.

2 months out from IMTX perhaps you can train your gut to tolerate Ironman Perform but perhaps it is time to try a different plan to see if it works well.

For my first IM I asked my coach about having a back up plan in nutrition as I saw over and over reading BT IM RRs that folks had issues and abandoned their nutrition plan and winged it. Why this occurs my guess..... racing at higher level then they trained at thus harder to process nutrition and/or taking in to many calories. My coach had me try two other nutrition plans as back ups and I did those on my last long rides. Having a second plan that is living off the course so you know the how much to take and what amount can be very helpful if needed.

I switched from Gatorate powder to PB endurance powder after signing up for IMAZ 2010.  i trained all year with it with no GI issues but I drink it half strenght because I don't do well with too much sugar. 

My mistake was that I never tried the PB endurance bottled product until it was too late ( i think it was september or october) and I did not like it. since they have the bottled product in the bike course,  what i did was to mix two bottles of powder at tripple the strenght and just pick up water on the bike course.  Before the aid stations, I would pour 1/3 of the bottle in my aero bottle and fill the rest with fresh water.  It worked great.  

on the run course they had the powder mix but the have it at full strengh (according to my taste) so I would pick up a cup of PB mix and a cup of water and mix them myself. (yea, I walked most of aid stations)

Good luck

x2, 

WTC made a terrible mistake from this athletes standpoint switching from GE.

When I was volunteering for IMWI, I was handing out Perform at our aid station.  We were told just to shout "GATORADE!" for the triathletes.  Some of them would stop and be like, "you really have Gatorade?" and then when they saw the bottles of Perform, they would just keep running without taking any.  A number of them refused to take it.  Some who did take it were really mad that it wasn't actually Gatorade.  Long story short, we learned our lesson!

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Races using "special" drinks really pisses me off. I agree that one should train with what will be on the course. It makes sense. Race directors and product manufacturers know people will do this, so they partner with each other and create an otherwise non existent demand for a given product. These "special" products are generally hard to find and more expensive that good old Gatorade. Even the Gatorade Endurance formula falls into the "special" category.

I had to hunt down and buy up supplies of GE since they used that at the Philly marathon. I had to buy Heed mix and train with that nasty stuff becasue they used it at Savageman. Now I'll have to buy this Perform crap for IMLP.

I know, I could carry all my own stuff but that is such a pain in the butt. Living off the course is so much easier.

Stop it already! Yes, I'm looking at you WTC!

[/rant]

I appear to be in the minority but I kind of like it.  My stomach does not digest any Gatorade product well.  (I think there's too much sugar in it for me.)  I trained all last year, through the TX summer using Perform so that I could live off the course in Louisville and it worked off for me.  (Except for the fact that they ran out of everything to drink on the bike course, but that's another story.)

To each his/her own but I can drink it without any problems. 

They sent me a free case of it when i signed up for a 70.3 that was serving it last year.  I guess I'm lucky - I really liked it.  My only issues seem to stem from certain solids and running (Cliff Bars I finally figured out are no good for me).

Maybe try just drinking it during non training to see if it has the same effects.  You might be able to differentiate the effects of training and the drink, i.e. if you still feel gross after, you know it's the drink, if not, it may be the training.  If it's the latter, try easing it into easier workouts (perhaps some that not long/intense enough that you'd usually drink anything during them).  If you can't ease it into easy workouts, you might have your answer about using it on raceday.

I love it. carry it in all my bottles whether i'm at the pool, riding, or running (over an hour). on long runs and rides i mix in Base Performance products. out of everything i've tried this stuff seems pretty docile. i think the posters that didn't like it may have some picky stomachs. of course i can eat Taco Bell and train a few hours later and not have any "symptoms" afterwards haha.

are you mixing it according to the instructions or putting more than required? too much could possibly be a bad thing. maybe. just thinking out loud.