GI Issues during HIM run

What was your race nutrition plan?

Was it an open water swim in salt water... some people get a bit sick from swallowing the sea water, but it normally noticable at the front of the bike.

I find Heed tough to take straight up in water and usually need to cut it with a watered down sports drink.  What was your hydration like during the race?  I find there's a balance between hydration and nutrition and too much liquid causes queasiness.  I wonder if the solid food and the hydration didn't mix well.  I find the engineered nutrition mixes more easily with my hydration than solid food.

One of the things I've learned in chatting with athletes of all levels, from Ironman winners like Andy Potts to first race newbies, is-

You have to train your digestive system to work under stress.

Your digestive system likely does not have the capability to adapt as much as your general cardiovascular capability- which is made to adapt to varying work loads- but it can adapt to different foods, different stress levels.

Firstly, it's important to simulate race conditions in training to the greatest degree of accuracy possible. The technical term for this is "Zero Transfer Training". Train like race, race like you train. This absolutely includes nutrition. Absolutely.

Also, the tried and true rule of "nothing new on race day" holds especially true for nutrition.

If the race is going to use "IronDude GoJuice XL" in the aid station, the official fluid replacment and energy drink of IronDude races, then find some GoJuice XL and use it in training. If it "makes you sick" then keep using it until it doesn't. Get used to it. Use what is on the course. You are paying for it in your race entry fee and it helps keep your load on the bike lighter.

You can adapt to avoid G.I. distress, but you need to do it proactively. It won't just happen.

I don't really agree with this, although you are correct you are paying for it; However, I don't think all sports drinks are made equal. 

For longer races, I use a custom blended mix from Infinit that correctly gives me the proper calorie and electrolite mix that my body requires.  I train with it, I race with it.  I don't care what stuff is used by the race, I will always bring my own nutrition for two reasons... One, I can count on knowing exactly what nutrition levels I am giving myself in the prodcuts I mix... and two, I know it will not run out if I find yourself at the back of the pack (aid stations can be pretty limited in what products they have left after the hords have run through)... YMMV.

Well, I didn't say all sports drinks were created equal- and I agree with you, I personally don't believe they are.

I do think it pays to adapt to what is on the course since they are all reasonably similar (as with bikes and other equipment) and the largest difference in the real world will come from how good you are at using the given nutritional beverage, equipment, etc.

That ability to use the given equipment- good, average or bad- comes from training and adaptation.

The best nutrition product in the world isn't as good as whatever is on the course if the logistics of using it slow you down in the event, prevent a cumbersome reliance on special needs bags at ultra distance and compel you to carry an extra 3-4 pounds of fluid on your bike.

Also, you have no back up: I've read so many race reports where an athlete was dependant on a special nutritional strategy in a long race and something went wrong- they couldn't access their nutrition, dropped a bottle, missed a special needs bag or whatever. It cost them time, anxiety and maybe even stomach problems.

I've been loving Chris McCormack's new book, I'm Here to Win, in which he talks about the simplicity of his nutritional program at Ironman. Here is a guy who could sign for thousands of dollars with "Product X" as a race nutrition product but, ultimately, he says- "I use Coke on the run". It works. It's simple. He'a adapted. It's already on the course. It's readily available for training.

Now, the nutritional demands of you and I, the 9-17 hour finisher at Ironman, are a little different than a guy going really fast like Macca and, in two cases, finishing an Ironman under 8 hours. He's burning nitrous. You and I burn diesel.

As a result we have to train our GI systems for what is on the course to an even greater degree. When we are out there 10, 11, 12+ hours it is logistically inconvenient to bring along your favorite SuperDrink X1. It is simply easier to learn, in the months before the race, to make due with what they are serving in the aid station. Your bike weighs less (a lot less), it's is simpler and more convenient and, you paid for the race to be catered.

Bringing your own nutrition to an Ironman is like going to a wedding reception and ordering a pizza. It is usually better than the food that is there, but it adds a level of... inconvenience.

Tom,

Can you speak a little about major temperature differences in your training and racing and how you handle nutrition and fluids?  for instance, I am training for IM Louisville and history tells us that it will most likely be in the upper 80's to upper 90's at the end of the bike and run.  My training is in a colder climate, and I am curious how I should handle nutrition on my longer training rides and runs. 

Yesterday I did a 3:30/1:00 brick and felt great with my nutrition and fluid intake, but the temperatures were in the upper 50's.  I took in on average 10 ounces of fluids per hour and consumed 200 calories per hour via Ironman Perform and Powerbar gels.

Suggestions?

Tom,

I understand what you are saying, but I still disagree.  You can easily ride a HIM with two, maybe one bottle of custom blended sports drink.  I only double concentrate mine, but other do it 3x in a single bottle.  This gives them a good 3 hrs of ride time.  Now, they do pickup water on course for hydration needs and the keep the solution from the sports drink bottle in the stomach isotonic. 

I mix a 20 oz bottle to 620 calories and 1000mg sodium... I drink that bottle over a 2 hr period with water that is pickup from course.  I typically carry two of these bottles on a HIM course.  I don't use special needs bags, nor do I carry excessive bottles (excpet in an Ironman race).  I don't use any GU or any other products for nutrition.... Talk about making it simple.

Granted, as a backup I only have what the course offers, except I do place extra bottles in the special needs bags for IM distance races in case I drop a bottle.  I can carry 4 bottles on my bike if needed.

For the athlete you talked about, he got used to coke.  Which is a single product that is used in almost EVERY race.  If coke can give you the calories and electrolites you need...  more power to you.  It's cheap, at every race and taste good.  However, trying to get used to a product for each race is a bit harder to do.  One race is Power Aid, the next Gatoraid... the next JoeBobGUaid... some are premixed, some are mixed by race volunteers.  If you fall back in the pack, you often can be left out to dry.  You may train one flavor, but the race provides a different flavor.  You my pickup the wrong bottle at the aid station.... blah blah blah... the stress in my opinion is FAR greater using on course products than using your own .

For each person they will have to find what works for them... and that may very well be what you outlined in your post, but I know it isn't right for me so that is why I have to disagree with it. 

Again, each person is going to have to find what works for them, so for me to say your advice is wrong would be wrong as you're only stating an opinion and it may be correct for some people... but I will say for me and the way my body works it isn't the correct system.  Again, YMMV.

How much harder/faster did you ride compared to your training rides?  I also thought my GI issues in my HIM were because of nutrition (although it was the same I'd used in training and marathons).  I also thought it could be because of swallowing the salt water in the swim.  In reality, I think it was because my exertion level was higher on the bike than I'd practiced in training, and the reason the nausea went away at the aid stations on the run was because I started walking.  As soon as I started running again, the nausea would come back.  Until I backed off the run effort, I couldn't get it to go away, but then I ended up being fine for the last 3 miles.  I think if you were hitting it hard on the bike, your body may not have been able to process the solid food.

Just a thought...

Yes.

In 1999 I did an ultra distance running race in Antarctica (The Last Marathon) then went to Morocco to do the 147 mile stage ultra-marathon, the Marathon des Sables. Outside Television did a documentary on the event that featured me in the race. It aired a long time ago on what was OLN.

The conditions in Antarctica were mild (for Antarctica) with temps around 0-17 degrees Fahrenheit, high humidity (odd for Antarctica, since it is an "arctic desert" surrounded by ocean) and overcast. There were no aid stations on the course. We carried backback/Camelbak style hydration rigs.

In Antarctica I carried a relatively strong solution of Hammer HEED, which I like. It was good, it worked, I didn't bonk. The race was laboriously slow since part of it was slogging through a glacier that was falling apart, called sastrugi.

Having a high calorie mix in Antarctica, at lower temperatures, worked great. Dehydration was a concern, but not the primary concern.

In Morocco I used water. Plain water. The race was 5 days long, total distance 147 miles of running. Longest stage was roughly a double marathon. The temps made it well over 130 degrees. For food I carried "stripped" military MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) and figs. That's it. I lost about 15 pounds. Oddly, I never bonked or felt hungry.

So- in the cold I used a fluid solution with a lot of calories. In the heat I used plain water. I did not use salt tablets in the Sahara, nor have I ever- not in Raid Gauloises in Vietnam, not at Eco Challenge, not at any of the Ironmans I've done or at Laguna Phuket, Thailand- the hottest race I have ever done.

Here is a good reference that compares environmental temperature to rates of gastric emptying:

http://www.andersenchiro.com/understanding-fluid-replacement.html

In general, it suggests that at a higher temperature we may do better with a lower concentration of sugars in our sports drink: When it is hotter, the drink should be more dilute.

We can vary that ourselves in an aid station. For example, at Ironman Wisconsin if it were 55 degrees, overcast and raining; when I hit an aid station early in the run I would take a Coke, a sports drink and maybe a piece of candy. I would only take a water about every other aid station in those conditions. More calories, less fluid.

At Ironman Hawaii, where it may be in the high 80's on the run with no overcast, I would take two waters, a Coke and probably grab a third water in every aid station. More fluid, less calories.

Higher temperature= more fluid, less calories.

Lower temperatures= more calories, less fluid.

This.  You are tapered and fit and the race day Mojo grabs you up and sweeps you along.  They call it "eating the paste".  I have done it.  Everyone has done it.

Tom has some good points about training with what is on the course, and I hear the other guy about his comfort with his "customized drink of choice" but the bottom line is that if you go faster than your gut is used to going, whatever you choose to ingest is not going to digest as quickly (or at all) and then your run becomes disaster.

This. SO this. Even in training I've done some long Z3/Z4 bikes and my usual long-distance nutrition just didn't sit well with me, whereas it's perfect when I stay in Z2/low Z3. My coach (The lovely KSH) is probably going to have me tape a note with "Don't Eat The Paste" on my aerodrink so I'm staring at it the entire time. LOL.

your experience sounds similar to mile 20 in my first full marathon.  my GI just shut down and i couldn't eat or drink anything without dry heaving.

I discovered that mine was due to dehydration.

This is a great thread. I had similar issues with Nasuea at IM Cozumel last year. I think it was the heat, rather than my exertion.

In fact, I rode the whole ride at a lower power output than most of my training rides(using the EN training plan), so it wasn't a case of eating the paste. I think it was a case of the heat and the sheer volume of liquid I took in on the bike.

I had a decent nutrition plan, never felt like I ran out of energy, but I sweat a lot, and it was a hot day. I used my own nutrition on the bike, but also grabbed a fair number of gatorades and waters.

I think it was the gatorades that may have pushed me over the edge.