RACE NUTRITION

I cant tell you how good it feels to have run 16 minutes today pain free.
Cycling went well this week, 170 miles with intervals on 3 rides and a 6100 ft ascent long ride on Saturday.
Swimming is coming along, 11,000 last week.

This is a summary of the use of the 3 limiting agents in endurance exercise.
Sugar (maltodextrin)
Salt
Water

Period. Everything else is pretty much marketing gimick.

The method I use to mix maltodextrin into my bottles for IM and HIM racing. You need a measuring cup and a gram scale. The mix is a pure maltodextrin, no others sweeeteners, no taste, and no salts. I add these to the solutions.

CYCLING

1) use a measuring cup to fill your water bottle, to record how much
volume your bottle holds. Lets assume its a 28 ounce bottle, like the large
bottles at Athletes Lounge.

For men 160 lbs or more:
Use measuring cup and put in 5.5 oz water into your water bottle. Mark
the water line with a black marker. Continue this up the bottle so in
a 28 oz bottle, you will have 5 "doses", each marked so you
know exactly how much you're drinking on the bike.

For men/women 125-160 lbs:

For women 100-125 lbs: You can mark off 6 lines on your water bottle. If you are using a 24 oz water bottle, thats a line mark on the bottle for every 4 oz. If you are using a large 28 oz athletes lounge bottle, mark off every 4 3/4 ounces and that should give you about 6 portions on the 28 oz bottle.
Same as above

ADDING THE MALTODEXTRIN

For Men more than 160 lbs:
Add 140 grams maltodextrin to your water bottle. This now gives you 28 grams for
each of Five "doses" or Five 5.5 ounce portions.

For Men OR Women 125-160 lbs:
Add 125 grams to your water bottle. This now gives you 25 grams for
each of Five "doses"

For Women 110-125 lbs:
Add 120 grams to your water bottle. This now gives you 20 grams for
each of Six "doses".

For Women less than 110 lbs:
Add 108 grams to your water bottle. This now gives you 18 grams for
Each of Six “doses”

For Men more than 160 lbs, 84 grams per hour
For Men 130-160 lbs, 75 grams per hour
For women 110-125 lbs , 60 grams per hour
For women less than 110 lbs, 54 grams per hour.

These are rough estimates but very accurate. You can add a few grams
per dose as you can tolerate, but I would start with the above
recommendations first. Taking more than you need does [b]NOT[/b] translate to
better performance. In fact, its not an absorption issue from the
bowel in most cases...its the limitation in our muscle's ability to
process the glucose once its in the blood stream.

SALTS
The best salt capsule out there is Lava Salts, which they sell at Athletes Lounge. Simply break open the capsule and pour the contents into your water bottle and mix it up with the maltodextrin and water.
For a 28 ounce water bottle:
Men more than160 lbs add 1.5 to 2 lava salt capsules
Men 125-160 lbs add 1.5 lave salt caps
Women 110-125 lbs add 1 lava salt cap
Women less than 110 lbs add 3/4 lava salt cap, esp if you're using a 24 oz water bottle.

Sorry, you dont need stuff in your salt capsule like calcium, vitamin B6, licorice extract, ginko, and all the other crap that increases the osmolality of your solution and thus DECREASES the absorption of your primary energy source, glucose.

It is best to stay on 20 minute cycle when racing or training. Mostly, when I am training, I dont start my drink until 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes into my ride. Why? Because I am simulating an Ironman. In an ironman, I typically get out of water in just under an hour, then I start my nutrition 20 minutes into the bike. Never take nutrition within 20 minutes onto the bike or water within 10 minutes as there is a high risk of getting abdominal cramp or side stitch. Let your body get accustomed to the dramatic change in breathing and body position before drinking anything.

For flavor, if you add a flavoring agent that contains sugars of any
kind, you have to account for this in your total sugar intake per
hour. So when you weigh out your maltodextrin, also add in any other
grams of other sugars. If you are putting in 120 grams to your water
bottle, and you add 10 grams of gatorade powder to flavor, then you
will adjust your maltodextrin to 110 grams. If you want a total of 140 grams of sugar, which includes flavoring and maltodextrin, put in 130 grams of malto, then 10 grams of flavoring agent.

FLAVORING:
The 2 major options for flavor that are the best in my opinion are: Keep in mind, its best to have a little flavoring, just enough to taste, not strong. The stronger the flavor, the more pronounced it seems to become late in the race when you are tired or its hot, etc. Just a touch of flavoring is all you need. Bland is good.

1) Crystal light: This is essentially calorie free, and only a very small amt is needed to flavor the bottle, like 1/8 teaspoon. Added advantage is that nutrasweet
increases the rate at which the fluid empties from the stomach, which
increases its rate of absorption. Sucrose, Dextrose, Fructose do not
have this property. If trying crystal light, you dont really need to lower your total amount of maltodextrin in your bottle. If you are supposed to add 140 grams to your bottle, then do that, and add in 1/8 teaspoon crystal light.

2) Powerade Powder. They sell this at the grocery store by the gatorade, etc. Gatorade endurance formula powder is an alternative but the sugar combinations in the powerade are a bit better. These flavorings are composed primarily of sucrose/dextrose. These are fine to add to your nutrition bottle in about a 10 gram amount to the entire bottle for a bit of flavor. I use powerade myself, as there is some evidence that some of these sugars do absorb by different receptors than maltodextrin (glucose) but more slowly. So, maltodextrin form of glucose is the fastest and you want the vast majority of your nutritional calories from this. Use the flavoring just as a small portion of secondary calories, mainly for flavor.

RUNNING

Decreasing the amount of grams per 20 minute dose interval or total calories per hour is an important difference in running compared to cycling. Cycling allows for higher intake of carbohydrate mostly related to the lower heart rate, and more available blood to the GI tract. Running, even sub threshold and late in exercise results in shunting of blood to the extremities, and thus less total blood pool is available for digestion. A typical term called "running ileus" has been experienced by many after long runs. Abdominal cramping after long runs due to the lack of blood in the bowel and eating a meal too soon after a long run leads to cramping and poor digestion. So, keeping this in mind, you have to decrease the carbohydrates in your running flasks during training and racing.

Decreasing the amount of maltodextrin by 3-5 grams every 20 minutes is typically fine.
You cant take as much water of course because we dont carry 28 ounce water bottles when running. I find 8 ounce flasks work best if you dont want to have to take extra water and time your nutrition cycle with the aid station to intake additional water.

For male more than 160 pounds
23 grams maltodextrin in 4 ounces. So, 46 grams total in 8 ounce flask.
If this works without bowel distress, increase to 25 grams per 4 ounce dose or
50 grams per 8 ounce flask. I would not go more than this, as when it comes to
running, more doesnt mean "better".

male 125-160 pounds:
20 grams maltodextrin in 4 ounces or 40 grams per 8 ounce flask.
If works fine on long run, can increase to 23 grams per 4 oz, or 46 g per 8 oz flask

female 110-125 pounds:
17 grams maltodextrin in 4 oz or 34 grams per 8 oz flask.
If this works, can go to 20 grams malto in 4 oz or 40 grams per 8 oz flask

female less than 110 pounds:
15 grams maltodextrin in 4 oz or 30 grams per 8 oz flask. You can get away with 15 grams in 3 onces of water if you use a 6 oz flask but 15 grams is about the limit you want to add to 3 ounces of water to absorb efficiently.

SALTS:
Male more than 160 lb add 3/4 - 1 lava salt capsule to each 8 oz flask
Male 125-160 lb add 3/4 lava salt cap in each 8 oz flask
Female 110-125 lb add 3/4 lava salt cap in each 8 oz flask
Female less than 110 lb add 1/2 lava salt cap in each 8 oz or 6 oz flask

FLAVORING:
If using Crystal light, just a small amount, about 1/16th teaspoon will suffice. Your preferred flavor.
If using Powerade or Gatorade powder, I suggest 3 grams per 8 ounce flask. This is enough to add a bit of flavor. As on the bike, you need to account for the glucose in Poweraid and Gatorade when adding. So, if you are supposed to add 40 grams total maltodextrin to an 8 oz flask, only add 37 grams of maltodextrin, then the 3 grams of additional sugar using the Powerade.

WATER INTAKE: ("normal conditions")
Male more than 160 lbs
28-32 ounces of water per hour. So in taking 3 of your 5.5 ounce doses of nutrition, you have to take an extra 14-16 ounces of water per hour or so. Therefore, you need to take in additional water as you bike through aid stations. You dont need as much water running, and as a general rule, under "normal" conditions, cut by 30% to avoid "sloshing" of water in the gut. These things absorb more slowly when running when compared to the bike so you have to account for this. When moving to the run, take in 20-24 ounces of water per hour so if you take in 12 ounces of nutrition on the run, you have to take in another 10-12 ounces of water. So, take a drink at EACH aid station on the run. Smaller frequent drinks are better than downing an entire 8 ounce cup. If of course a very hot day, you have to adjust and force as much water in as you can handle, even with a drink of gatorade every 3rd mile or so to get some additional salts.

Male 125-160 pounds. Very similar to above, just drop the total water per hour intake to around 24-24 ounces per hour (water at aid stations plus the water in your nutrition).

Females: About 20-24 ounces water per hour. This is total of water at aid stations as well as nutrition.

If you take too much water on the bike? You'll pee. Thats ok. Just dont get off of the bike to do it if you're going for a PR, Kona, or Podium slot.
If you take too much water on the run? You'll likely feel a bit bloated. Just back off a bit, even skip a water dose or 2 while running and let what you took in absorb. Its very important to stick with the nutrition plan at all costs. So, dont let taking too much water in result in you skipping a nutrition dose interval.

SUMMARY
Once you do this 2-3 times in workouts, it will become second nature
to you and mixing it up is very easy. If you dont practice your
proper nutrition during your workouts, then you get to your race and
decide to then start marking your bottles, figuring out your salt
intake..etc...then you are setting yourself up for disaster.

Cardinal rule is race how you train, esp when it comes to proper
nutrition.

Knowing how many carbs is enough can be tricky. But, a simple rule is
if you take your carbs every 20 minutes on a ride, and you dont feel
famished or overwhelmingly hungry...you're getting enough carbs.

-Dave Ciaverella