HSBC Triathlon Series

Fueling on the Fly - by Deborah Moore

So many of my clients spend hours analyzing their heart rate files, or assessing their splits, but very few apply the same precision to their fueling. Although they all know that nutrition and hydration are often known as the “4th discipline” of triathlon, many neglect their nutrition plan, or simply are confused as to how to get it right.

Everyone is an individual
In short, there is no magic formula for fueling– every person has different needs based on their body weight, their metabolism, their energy or power output and the conditions. So if someone tells you they have a “fool proof” system for fueling, be skeptical!

The Basics
There are, however, some general guidelines that seem to work for most people: a minimum of 500ml of fluid per hour is recommended, and most athletes will perform better using an electrolyte drink that provides both calories and sodium. For any race over a sprint distance, most athletes will require some sort of carbohydrate fuel – for some, the sugars in the electrolyte drink suffice (for shorter distances), while others require a specifically timed and measured caloric intake.

Calories, calories
This is where everything gets a little personal. Each person has a different caloric need – heavier or bigger people will need more calories per hour. The type of fuel used is also somewhat of a personal choice, although the majority of athletes use either energy bars or gels, plus some calories from the electrolyte drink. You may see some bananas, dates, pretzels, peanut butter sandwiches and gummy bears too!

The key tip is to fuel at regular intervals to keep your blood sugar levels steady. If you go too long between fuel intakes, the subsequent peaks and troughs in blood sugar may lead to inefficient energy usage.

There are many tricks athletes use to easily deliver their food – opening your bar wrappers pre-ride or run saves you a lot of hassle. Gels are either taped on to bike frames, stored in bento boxes, run belts or back pockets and ripped open with teeth, or decanted in to gel flasks holding 5 gels at a time. The main thing is that you practice your method of delivery over and over again.

Liquids
As stated, most athletes need at least 500mls of fluid on the bike, perhaps slightly less on the run. Many need much more, and will also adapt the fluid levels depending on heat. Electrolyte solutions are numerous – eLoad, Gatorade, Accelerade to name a few (no endorsement intended) – and should be tried in training several times, well before race day. My suggestion is to try to train with the product that is provided on the race courses to accustom your digestive system to it.

Many athletes will dilute the electrolyte drink to avoid its cloying sweetness, but be aware that you are diluting both caloric and sodium intake so you must compensate with other products.

Like your calories, fluid should be taken in at regular intervals. Once you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated, so please drink even if you don’t feel thirsty.

Delivering the fluid can be done via regular water bottles in frame-mounted or rear seat-mounted cages, or via the aero bar-mounted sipper flasks that can be found at any multisport store.

Salt
This may be fairly new to many triathletes, but it is a fueling challenge that must be considered, particularly for endurance distances. Even if you don’t sweat very much, you should assess your performances in training and racing and try to understand if sodium depletion is hampering your potential – do you cramp regularly, or do you feel empty despite intelligent fueling and hydration? If so, you may be sodium depleted.

Athletes may need anywhere from 250-500mg of sodium per hour, and can achieve this by using salt pills. Again, test these in training, and start by taking 1 per hour and monitoring your performance. You may not notice any difference i.e. there may not be a “boost” to your performance, but the effect is likely to be preventative, so it is well worth building this into your fueling regime.

There have been many innovative methods of delivering salt pills: foil packets, empty film canisters, even Pez dispensers, but it appears that the 2 most efficient and easy ways to carry and deliver the salt pills to your mouth are: the Salt Stick (available from multisport stores); the other, more “home grown” method is using an empty Tic Tac container. Just make sure the pills you buy will fit through the mouth of the container! A widely available brand of salt pills is Lava Salts (and yes, it fits the Tic Tac container).

Timing
As previously mentioned, timing of fueling is crucial and should be at regular, frequent intervals. The easiest way to prevent missing out on fueling is to set the rollover timer on your watch for 15 or 20 min intervals. At each beep, you should take in fluid (although this should happen maybe more often) and some gel (1/2 or 1 packet depending on your needs). The salt pills should be taken every 2nd beep depending on your needs.

In Summary
These are the basics of fueling while “on the fly”. The intricacies of fueling for training and racing are complex with no one “perfect” formula. My best advice is to try a few methods, products and timing intervals out until you find one that works for you.

Deborah Moore is an Associate Coach with NRG Performance Training; a Toronto-based professional coaching services company specializing in endurance sports. Contact her at Deborah@nrgpt.com or visit www.nrgpt.com.