I was at a Q&A session at Hoboken Running Company organised by Gold Coast Triathlon Club aimed at newcomers to the sport to ask any questions on their mind. I figured I would put my thoughts to paper given I have 3 athletes doing 70.3 races this spring.
Firstly as with any advice, there is much that has to be tailored to each person. A person who is going to complete the distance at a high intensity in 4 hours is going to have a different approach to someone hoping to scrape though the 8.5 hour cutoff and for this reason it is important to practice ahead of time. Ideally you’d have 4-6 weeks of race-specific workouts where you can practice nutrition intake so that by race day you’re really confident.
Nutrition (inc. hydration) can be thought of as having these aspects:
- How many calories do I take in an hour?
- How do I space out these calories each hour?
- How much water should I take in?
- How about electrolytes?
- Solid calories vs liquid calories?
- How should I carry it?
There are so many permutations that you can’t cover everything but here are my thoughts below.
Calories per hour on the bike
If you’ve read more than one article on 70.3 nutrition you’ve probably read two suggestions on how many to take. I’ve heard many different levels from 100 calories per hour at one extreme (someone very adapted to burning fat as fuel) to 500 at the other end (someone huge who can digest a lot!). So to get to an amount that works for you, you need to pick a starting level try that in a training session and then revise. The starting point could be 250 calories per hour, or you could try a formula-based approach: 4 calories/hr x your weight in kg. On your long brick session (e.g. 56mile bike followed by a 30 min run) try your base calorie number. If by the end of the run your stomach is complaining intensely you know to revise the number downwards. If you feel really flat later on the bike ride or on the run, or feel hungry then revise upwards. If you feel fantastic, then try it again as you may have got lucky first time.
There are other ways to try and figure out your caloric needs which are based on models but in my experience there are so many assumptions in the models that it is not much different than just picking a number and experimenting. Here’s a couple methods:
- If you have a heart rate monitor, take a look at your recording to see how many calories you burned and your average heart rate. Take a look at this site and put in your heart rate, age and gender to get a (very rough!) estimate of the % of carbs utilised to exercise at this intensity. Multiple that number by the number of calories you burned by hour to get your calorie intake per hour. I personally don’t like this method but figured I’d mention it.
- Go see someone like Nicci Schock and get tested. This is like a much more accurate version of the previous method. Additionally, if you’re far out from your race you can get advice on how to improve the % of fat utilization through changes to your diet. The downside is that it costs money!
One final thought is that even if you go with method 1 or 2, if you’re doing a very hilly race and expect to experience heart rate spikes throughout, your calorie burn and ability to digest is going to be impacted to some level, so again we go back to experimentation.
Calories for the run
When you’re running your generally working at a higher intensity. That combined with the fact that your stomach is bouncing around means you can’t consume as many calories on the run. The general recommendation is 100-150 calories/hour on the run.
Evenly spread out calories?
If like me you tend to swallow a little bit of salt water in open water swims, you may wish to wait for 15 minutes into the bike before you start taking in calories. This gives you a little bit of time for your stomach to settle. Additionally I prefer to take in a slightly smaller number of calories towards the end of the bike just in case I’ve overeaten and need my stomach to settle. Other than that it’s good to spread the calories out.
How much water should I take in?
Water again is a highly variable area depending on the person. Some people sweat more than others. In hot weather you’re likely to sweat more than in cool weather. Probably the easiest way to measure your sweat rate is to weigh yourself in the nude, go out and do an hours exercise without any water and then weigh yourself nude (after you’ve patted yourself dry again). If you lost half a kilo then you need to drink half a liter of water per hour. You can do this on longer workouts, you just need to divide the weight loss by number of hours exercised and then add back in the amount of liquid per hour you drank during the workout.
Again it’s not quite as simple as that. What if you live and train in North Dakota and heading off to Florida for a race? This is where guesswork comes back into play. You can estimate it by doing the test above wearing extra layers to try and simulate the heat, or do a trainer workout indoors with the room temperature around the expected temperature for the race. Even then you need to account for humidity.
Try not to get too carried away with these kinds of tests. It gives you a broad sense of what to plan for, but if the race is hotter than normal just take a few extra swigs of water whenever you feel like it.
Electrolytes
Starting to sound like a broken record? Experimentation! This is a great article on electrolytes and although a little lengthy I suspect it is probably shorter than this will turn out to be! Most sport drinks contain some electrolytes but sports drinks really vary so check the content of electrolytes in your sports drink and consider getting one with higher concentrations or supplementing with Nuun tablets. The benefit of Nuun tablets is that you can make a judgement during the race as to whether to supplement, the downside being that you have to manage the logistics of putting them into your drink while you’re moving.
How do you take your calories
This is perhaps the most personal choice out of all the aspects of nutrition. You can use assumptions and models to pick out numbers on calories and electrolytes but you really need to listen to your appetite and stomach on what to take in.
- Energy drink only (e.g. Perform/Infinity/Skratch/UCan). This is my preference.
- Energy drink + energy sweets (e.g. Cliff Shot Blox)
- Energy gels + power bars
- Real food (e.g. PB&J sandwich). In training I have had success with Pop Tarts; 400 calories per packet and easily transportable. I don’t do it in a race, but mention it just so you don’t feel constrained.
- Any combination whatsoever!
Remember that for the run if you have to carry the calories yourself you’ll need to pick something portable. Energy gels and coca cola are good options to play with as they are generally available on the run aid stations.
Logistics for the bike
The logistics depend a lot on the goals of your race. If you’ve practiced your strategy with items available from aid stations on race day then you’re pretty much set (assuming they don’t run out of your favoured items!). Generally it’s safest to transport all your calories on your person as you know you’ll have it. Some ideas:
- If going for an all-liquid strategy you can put all of your calories for the bike in one bottle and just take small sips from it. If you try this, use a see through bottle and mark lines on the bottle so you can keep track of how much you should drink per hour. Additionally make sure you use a mixture that stays consistent through time (i.e. the mixture doesn’t float to the bottom of the bottle and you realise you’ve been drinking water for most of the bike leg).
- Strap energy gels/bars to the top tube of your bike, or buy a bento box to store your calories.
- Stuff everything in your back pockets during T1 (assuming you wear a tri top with pockets or a cycling top).
Logistics for the run
In an ideal world you simply use the race nutrition, but if you have a preferred brand of energy gels you can stuff a couple in your back pocket during T2.
My preferred strategy for logistics
- Supermix my nutrition drink into one bottle that I put on the frame of my bike
- Use a hydration bottle between my arms that I can drink as I ride and also refill without stopping
- Stick something solid in my back pocket in case I get hunger pangs (normally Cliff Shot Blox)
- Put my tools/spares in a bento box
- On the run I just use race nutrition
Parting thoughts
These are ways to look at your nutrition for upcoming races, but there is much talk in the triathlon community about how to improve your fat-burning capability. GC’s own Matt Bach raced a full Ironman on less than 100 calories per hour. I’m experimenting with the same approach this year but don’t have any first hand experiences to relate. I’m game to try anything once, although if you’re coming up to a race soon I’d suggest you use the approach I outlined and then experiment with ideas such as MET when you have a longer time horizon.
Tired Legs Empty Mind 