IM Training- What do you eat??

It's early and I easily confuse ... add to that the dearth of coffee and I am not certain whether you are talking about what to eat while actually training or what to eat during the period in which you are training?

I'm on board with Bryan...eat smaller meals more often, and include plenty of fruits and veggies, make sandwiches with whole grain bread and tuna or chicken/turkey, lettuce, tomatoes.  Make sure you eat right after a training session (within 30 minutes), a good mix of carbs and protein.  If you're not doing that, maybe you're feeling run down from muscle breakdown from not refueling.

I've just started training for IMLP and I would like to drop off a few pounds in the process.  I have found the smoothie recipes on this article well balanced and filling post workout and she gives a guideline as to which recipe to use based on the time of your work out.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1336

That light bulb finally lit for me a couple of weeks ago.  I began to wonder why shorter workouts on weekdays (MTWTF) were so grueling and difficult while my Sat/Sun workouts which are a lot longer but perceived easier.   I usually eat a really good breakfast on the weekend which is explains a lot.

I'm working to change that but finding it hard to eat first thing in the morning.

That is a key question ... I've been told that after heavy exercise where you deplete a bit of your energy stores, your body flips the 'hunger switch' and sends the signal for more food.  As is often the case, there is a lag between ingesting enough calories and when the switch gets turned off - meaning you crave calories beyond the amounts you need.

The way to rectify this I was told is to ingest simple sugars within 30 minutes of completing exercise.  I followed that advice through my IM training and it worked well for me.

Note, however, you need more calories than you think.  Based upon my training volume and what it did for my metabolism, my coach estimated that I needed ~4000 cal/day ... an amount that I often had difficulty taking in.

That said, the craving for calories led to eating anything + everything - and more often than not the less healthy foods (favorites were gummy bears washed down with Coke).  Later, I found pre-made yogurt smoothies  (the protein and calcium of which was perfect to assist in recovery).

Good luck with your training.

I'm opposite of what most are saying.  I do not eat anything at all in the morning before workouts unless it is a gel or a drink literally right before I start.

In my sports nutrition readings I have always read that anything in that window from 3 hours before to about 15 minutes before causes your digestion to divert too much blood/energy to handle it which in turn hurts your performance.  They say it is better to eat as you go or after you started as it will then process it in a way that is not as detrimental to your performance.

But then again, my body is use to that routine and I can go out and run a 20 miler or ride a century with nothing in the tank at the start.  But I have to eat a lot when I'm done and eat smart during the excercise or I bonk hard ..........

I'd just make pasta and mix it with some nice olive oil and seasonings and put it in a tupperware type container.  Then after my workout I'd just eat it out of the container if I couldn't get home within that timeframe.

OJ is good as a recovery drink for electrolytes and carbs, but you need protein as well (4:1 or 3:1 depending on who you ask).  That's why I like the pasta.  Whole grain pasta seems to have a higher protein content so hits those ratios better.

I sometimes travel to do my long bricks and after a 3-5 hours workout I need to eat now so I would pack a cooler and bring food to eat on the ride home. 

Yogurt is good...has almost right carb/protein blend and lots of flavors and works similar to chocolate mile.  Bananas, endurox is great but costs more but highly portable. Ideally you want simple sugar type things ie high glycemic so it digest quickly and helps refuel your depleted glycogen stores.