Performance Nutrition 101

It's hard to stress enough how important fueling is for endurance events. This includes every day nutrition, training days, and race day. Many times it’s tempting to go out and run poorly fueled, rationalizing that “it’s only a 2 hour bike ride'' or “I don’t need to eat anything for a long run as I’m going slow”. I also see variations of these two poorly informed thought processes: “I’m not trying to win the race, just finish, so I don’t need to pay attention to all that nutrition stuff”, or the worst of the bunch, “I’m trying to lose a few pounds so I’m not going to eat prior or during my workout”. 

All of these are wrong- for all sorts of reasons. For the sake of time (no one wants to read a dissertation-length explanation why these all don’t work) I’ll just say that we ALWAYS need to be properly fueled to optimize both our performance, and our recovery, where we make the critical adaptations and improvement the ways we need to. One way to ensure adequate fueling during races and quality workouts, is using' performance products'; gels, chews, and drinks that have unique combinations of electrolytes and sugars to help athletes train and race their best when it matters most. 

While we don't need to use performance products every session (that would get quite expensive), it's important to be fueled adequately for every session for a few reasons, and starting to experiment with some performance fuels in the process is a way to kill two birds with one stone:
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1. Adequate nutrition will maintain the quality of key workouts  (long or intense runs and rides). As we fatigue from loss of energy- or glycogen depletion- we loose our ability to generate power, our form collapses, and we revert into very inefficient movement patterns. Fueling correctly ensures that we first, execute and optimize the workouts, and second, that we maximize the adaptations we are looking for during these critical sessions. 
2. Fueling properly will help get your gut accustomed to taking in nutrition while running or riding at certain intensities. If we don't train with the appropriate amount and type of nutrition, we can set ourselves up for disaster if we try to consume what we should on race day without prior practice. 

So what should we consume to ensure we adapt our gut and optimize our workouts? Well, there's an entire industry devoted to endurance performance products, so your choices are seemingly endless. Some products like Gatorade have been around for decades, and is readily available everywhere- yet there are nutrition products that have come to market in the just the past few years that are revolutionizing the industry. Again, there are almost an infinite amount of choices- but for simplicity and time, I'll break down the most popular products types here: 

Types of performance products

I define performance products as pre packaged, nutrient-dense fuels that contain the essential nutrition (electrolytes, carbohydrates, etc.) and eliminate the non-essential nutrition (fiber, fat, etc.) for consumption during a race or training.  

SOLIDS 

• Bars
  1. Protein Bars- High in protein, these are typically best used for recovery, but there are a few times when these might be appropriate during an endurance event - namely an Ultra or multi-day event when the body will need to use protein to recover WHILE continuing to race. These can also contain a fair amount of fat. Ex: Cliff Builder Bar, Pure Protein bar, UCan Protein Bar, Rx Bars, etc.
  2. ​High Carbohydrate Bars- These contain a high concentration of carbohydrates that typically come from multiple sugar sources, namely maltodextrin and fructose.  When doing high intensity races, or races that require sustained effort over time, we want a product that contains multiple sugar sources so as to not ‘bog down’ the gut where the sugars are absorbed - we don’t want a ‘traffic jam’ because there’s only one ‘sugar door’ open allowing one type of sugar through- that’s what leads to GI issues (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). Ultra marathons, marathons, triathlons, century (and metric) rides, etc. are examples of when these are best used. ​​​​ Ex: Clif Bar, Quantum Bar, Power Bar (original), Honey Stinger Waffles, Fig Newtons
  3. Meal Replacement Bars - These are essentially ‘meals in a wrapper’, containing high amounts of all three macronutrients. Best used for long, low intensity events (multiple-day races, hiking, Ultras, etc.) Ex: Bobo’s Oat Bars, Go Macro Bars, Pro Bar Meal on the Go, etc.

 

• Whole foods- I include whole foods here because depending on the length of the race, athletes can become tired of constantly consuming performance nutrition. In these circumstances, I encourage people to use simple, easy to digest whole foods to help them vary their fuel intake. Sometimes, a mid to high glycemic carbohydrate option is the way to go (Ironman bike course), and sometimes, a more balanced option with carb/protein/fat  is better (think 50k, 100k, or 100mi ultra race)  Ex. bananas, boiled salted potatoes,  quesadilla, peanut butter and honey on tortilla, homemade rice cakes, etc.

SEMI SOLIDS / LIQUID  

• Chews- Soft carbohydrate blocks designed to give you quick absorbing energy in a semi-solid form, super easy to absorb when consumed with water. Many people who dislike gels like the ‘gummy-like’ consistency of blocks, which requires a bit of chewing. These are used in situations when quicker energy is desired, during a marathon, half marathon, 70.3 or full Ironman bike course, or during an accent on an ultra or multi-day event that requires a ‘burst’ of energy. Typically packets contain 2 or more servings so be careful to calculate correctly when determining intake needs. Ex. Clif bloks, Powergel Chews, Honey Stinger Chews, Scratch Chews. 
• Gels- Carbohydrate/electrolyte single serve portions that do not require any chewing, and are instead sucked or gulped down. Many athletes (myself included) prefer not to chew during a race. Gels typically contain anywhere from 14-26 g of carbohydrate and also contain various amounts of sodium and caffeine depending on the type. Due to their consistency, gels absorb even faster than blocks. Most need to be consumed with water (exception being SIS gels) Ex. Gu, Gu Roctane, Power Gel, Ucan, Honey Stinger, Maurten, SIS, etc. 
• Liquids- Carbohydrate/electrolyte in either mix or ready-made single serve containers. Probably the most products on the market are in liquid form. These widely range in terms of the type of carbohydrate/sugar source as well as the amount and type of electrolyte that may or may not accompany the carbohydrate. With few exceptions (Ucan), most of these products are quick absorbing, and release energy within a few minutes (6-12) of taking in the nutrition. The drawback is that liquids are heavy to carry. If an athlete requires a predetermined mix, they will need to strategize as to how to carry and consume the nutrition on race day. Some athletes choose to use liquid solely for hydration, and therefore just use the electrolyte mix for fluids, and then gels/chews/bars for nutrition. This can also help minimize GI issues in some athletes. Ex. Gatorade, Gatorade Endurance (different from what you get at the store), U Can, Scratch, Infinit, Tailwind, Hammer, LMNT, NUUN, etc.​

When to use which type 

This is the age-old question, and the answer is, "It depends." To truly fine-tune what works for you will take some time and lots of trial and error. It took me several years to figure out what works best for my system during Ironman events- and I'm still tweaking things here and there. But I know what works for me and many of my athletes (see #6). Here are a few basic guidelines most can agree upon in terms of "what and when": 

1. During higher intensity efforts, liquid (and sometimes semi solid) nutrition can be more gentle on the gut. Therefore shorter, harder effort or events are a good time to use these, or later in a race where the body (and digestive system) is fatigued. 
2. During longer (and slower) steady state efforts, solids can work really well as your body has time to break down and digest the fuel. 
3. On hot days, blood vacates the gut making digestion difficult and causing many to alter their nutrition plans, ditching solids in favor of liquid and semi solid nutrition. Plan accordingly for hot days.
4. Similarly, on cold days, solids and semi solids can be a better option as hydration won’t be quite as critical. Therefore liquid nutrition intake will be minimized so don't make the mistake of relying on your fluids for fueling. 
5. For a typical race nutrition intake timeline the race duration and intensity are critical for determining which type of nutrition strategy to employ; I use the following sequences- but this is just an example of what works for me:  
   1. Half Marathon - gels, then liquid
   2. Marathon - gels, and liquid, then caffeinated gels (along with custom hydration mix) during second half of the race
   3. Half Ironman/70.3- gels on bike, w custom hydration mix, gels and custom hydration on run, caffeinated gels 2nd half of run
   4. Full Ironman- bars on bike, gels on bike, custom and on-course hydration on bike, gels on run, custom and on course hydration on run, caffeinated gels on run.
6.  Always focus on daily and pre-race nutrition. Many race days can be derailed by over eating at the pre-race pasta dinner the night before, or a poorly planned pre-race breakfast, or worse, eating poorly on a daily basis with the mentality that because we burn lots of calories training, we can eat whatever we want. 

Key takeaways: 

• Everyone is different. Find what works for you via trial and error on both long/slow days and short/high intensity days (it’s hard to replicate long, intense race days so try out nutrition on the short days even though you may not need it)

 

• Practice practice practice! Your gut can be trained to an certain extent. The more your practice with your preferred fuel, the better your body can adapt to this during an event. 

 

• Don’t ‘follow the crowd’. Find what works for YOU. Many a nutrition plan has been derailed by well-meaning but poorly-educated athletes and friends suggesting others try fuels they swear by. 

 

• If you have a fairly long race build up and/or an ‘iron gut’, you may wish to train with the nutrition that will be on course during the event to minimize logistics. For example, most North America Ironman brand events have Quantum bars, Muarten gels, and Gatorade Endurance liquid on course. If you train in practice with these products, there won’t be any guesswork when it comes to race day as to how you’ll be able to handle consuming on-course nutrition. 

 

• Know your needs. Figure out your necessary caloric and carbohydrate demand EARLY in the training process and start experimenting now to determine the best fueling strategy for you. 

 

• For events lasting longer than 60-90 min, you need to fuel. Or, if you're doing a particularly intense workout (multiple threshold interval or VO2 max repeats). The longer the race, typically the more per hour you’ll need to consume, up to 80-100g of carb per hour (for men). Remember, everyone is different and these range widely based on age, weight, experience and intensity of effort: 
  • Men: Approx. 55-90 g of carbohydrates per hour (200-350 cal)
  • Women: Approx. 40-70 g of carbohydrates per hour (150-250 cal)

A great resource for what is the most current, most advanced nutrition products is TheFeed.com. If you’re curious as to what products you might like, the best thing to do is try out a bunch and see how you do (keeping in the appropriate intake parameters of course). As we all navigate and fine tune our race nutrition, remember these keys and be patient with yourself. It takes time, but if you can successfully dial in which products work best for your needs on race day, you'll be ready to race confident that your nutrition can fuel you to your best performance yet.