How to Fuel for Training and Racing for T100

What are the correct strategies for fueling your training sessions and ultimately your race. These are questions that we often get asked in our Sported Showroom. Nutrition is a highly personal subject and there is a lot of information in the triathlon public domain. Here are a few guidelines:

• The Carbohydrate and fat stores in your own body and the carbohydrates that you consume during your race are your fuel!
• For racing: you need an intake of 60-90g of carbs per hour, either from solids or liquids.
• For training: Consume the minimum amount of carbs to achieve training objectives; in some cases this could be zero and sometimes this will be a fully loaded carb session!
• To prevent dehydration, make sure you have electrolytes in your drink, but don't drink excessively.

For training the correct fueling strategy will depend on the objective of each session.

An easy bike or run session at lower heart rates may be done either fasted with hydration tablets containing zero sugars, or with slow release carbohydrates. This way you train your body to use your own fat stores which is important when race day comes around.

A hard interval session with above race pace intervals is recommended to be fueled by fast carbohydrates, such as isotonic gels, or Big Endurance drink mix. Fueling requirements will be in direct proportion to the intensity of the session. The more minutes of intensity the greater the requirement for carbohydrates. Using carbohydrates for your harder training sessions will make you stronger and it gives your body the opportunity to practice with the amount of carbohydrates it will need during the race.

For racing the objective is consume enough fuel to produce the desired level of performance.

A well-practiced and carefully planned nutrition strategy can be the difference between a great race day. and a not so good one. Make sure you have a slight breakfast at home before you go to the race venue. Some toast with an egg, or porridge and banana.

How much nutrition should I take in a race, planning pays off!!

Whatever you are going to take, make sure you know how many carbs are in it and plan what you are going to take and when. Start with the nutrition intake when you are waiting in the swim line-up; take something in T1; calculate how much you need to take on the bike; take something in T2 and plan how many gels you need in the run.

For the Sprint distance take 60-90g of carbs per hour. Have a gel, or energy drink before the swim, a gel or drink in T1, a bottle with energy drink or some gels on the bike and 1 gel for the run. For the sprint distance you can take caffeinated gels as soon as you come out of the swim if you know you do well on it.

For the long distance this normally equates to consuming on average around 80-100g of carbohydrates per hour. Often on race day the challenge is being able to carry sufficient carbohydrates in a space efficient manner. How to carry them comes down to personal preferences; whether to carry in liquid or solid format and whether to be self sufficient or rely on some of the on-course nutrition and hydration available from the aid stations. For carrying large amounts of carbohydrates on the bike we recommend using the STEALTH BiG Endurance Drink Mix which provides approx. 90g of carbohydrates per 500ml bidon. This can be supplemented with some gels to achieve 100g of carbohydrates per hour. Don't start with caffeine too early, keep it for the last two hours of your race.

How to personalize nutrition:

A good strategy is to use a zero sugar electrolyte mix and add carbohydrates in the form of Maltodextrin+ or Race Maize to produce an energy drink that fits with the training session to be undertaken. For example, a three hour bike ride as 1 hour easy, 1 hour hard, 1 hour easy might require 60-80 carbs for one hour hard and this could be made up by adding 8 scoops of flavorless Maltodextrin+ to a 500ml bottle containing a hydration tablet.

Maltodextrin+ and Race Maize are simple, efficient and cost effective sources of carbohydrates which are easily absorbed into the body. For a low intensity session simply add one or two scoops to the hydration tablets to create a low carb drink.

By David Hunt certified TriSutto coach