Frequently Asked Questions
By
Randy Bernard
Well it’s that time of the year where most athletes have plans for some of the longer endurance events. Whether it is an Olympic Distance Triathlon, Half or Full Ironman, or maybe a marathon is in your future. Here are a couple of things that you should know when you are Fueling for Endurance Events. I have put together some of the most frequently asked questions that we receive from athletes:
1. I have always used Endurox, Gu and Gatorade in
the past, but now I have heard to avoid “simple sugars”, what’s best?
The trouble with simple sugars fall into two areas, First the blood sugar spike (then subsequent crash) that happens with simple sugars and secondly the concentration of sugar/water (6-8%) to allow the fuel to pass through the lining of the stomach. Complex carbs (maltodextrin) are able to pass through the stomach at higher concentration, thereby delivering the maximum amount of calories without causing the extreme blood sugar spikes. So check the label of your favorite endurance fuel. If you see high concentrations of Fructose and Sucrose then you’ve got simple sugars.
2. Is it a good idea to eat solid foods on long
training rides or race day?
It’s not necessary. Eating solids can pull blood OUT of the working muscles (in order to DIGEST the solid food in the stomach) in the process, you pull WATER and SODIUM out of the bloodstream as well (to create the right "mixture" for the solid calories to leave the stomach). We recommend going w/ the liquid diet. I DO know of some folks who just MUST have something solid, for them, something w/ salt is a relief as well. If you must: go w/ corn chips. Pretzels, etc, but use them sparingly and do so first, in training.
3. How much water/fluid should I drink?
Fluids along with Fuel/Electrolytes are critical to continued performance. Most people need around 20-24oz of liquid per hour. Larger individuals, those w/ high sweat rates, or on extremely hot days you may go up to 30 oz per hour. Be careful about taking in too much liquid, because you can dilute your blood sodium content and create hyponatremia.
4. What types of fuels are best?
The short answer is complex carbs (maltodextrin) and some protein.
Quote
from Steve Born at HammerGel/E-Caps
I'm fond of saying that using simple sugar to fuel the body
is like trying to heat your home with newspapers in the fireplace. Sure, they
burn hot and bright but they are extinguished much too quickly. Conversely,
complex carbohydrates match body fluid osmolity even at higher concentrations
(18-24%), which means that this mixture exits the GI tract at the same rate as
normal body fluids (no sour stomach or indigestion like you get from simple
sugars) while also providing substantially more calories available to the
energy cycle. It's kind of like putting a big log on the fire, it burns longer
and more consistently. Your fuel of choice should be a drink or gel whose
carbohydrate source is primarily complex carbohydrates.
5. How many calories
should I be eating for endurance event?
The body will always lag behind in replenishing its losses via outside sources. In other words, you will burn more calories than you can efficiently replenish via any food or sports drink, bar, or gel. Fortunately, the body has a very efficient means of taking care of its losses. Unfortunately, most athletes neutralize these means (more on that in a bit). Here's what I mean: The main problem I hear about, especially with the ultra distance athletes, stems from the belief that "since I am burning several hundred calories an hour, I must therefore eat that same amount every hour." Physiologically the body simply isn't capable of replenishing calories from outside sources (your energy drink, bar, gel or other food) at the same rate it depletes them. You may be burning 500-600 calories or more an hour but there is no way your body can replenish that on an equal basis. The liver can return approximately 1-1.4 grams of carbohydrates per minute back in to the energy cycle. The normal upper limit for the majority of athletes is around 60-70 grams (240-280 calories) per hour. Yes, there is a deficit. How are we to continue exercise on what seems to be an inadequate amount of carbohydrates?
The answer is from two sources. One is from protein. After about 70-90 minutes, and until you complete exercise, the body will fulfill 5-15% of its energy requirements from protein. There are two ways of satisfying this need. One is via lean muscle tissue donation. That's right, the body, in an effort to make more glycogen for energy, will literally steal the amino acids required from lean muscle tissue. Some lean muscle tissue "cannibalization" is to be expected in endurance events but fulfilling all your protein-for-fuel energy requirements from lean muscle tissue creates a variety of problems, one of which the excess amounts of ammonia produced through the metabolic processes of this lean muscle tissue cannibalization. Science hasn't figured out exactly to what extent ammonia accumulation is responsible for fatigue but there is no question it is. I tend to believe ammonia is the primary culprit for premature fatigue in an endurance athlete. The way to avoid excess ammonia production and accumulation is:
Provide some protein in your fuel mix to spare lean muscle tissue. The choice is pretty simple. Either you provide your body the protein it needs or it steals it from your lean muscle tissue. You've worked awfully hard to gain that lean muscle tissue; you should do everything you can to keep it. Drinking a fuel that contains both complex carbohydrates and protein (in the proper ratios) will go a long way to helping preserve your hard earned lean muscle tissue and preventing excess ammonia from being produced.
Use nutrients to help scavenge ammonia. A series of nutrients (like those contained in the Anti- Fatigue Formula from E-Caps) act as ammonia scavengers, sponges of sort that soak up excess ammonia and remove it through the urea cycle. This product is a real ally for any endurance athlete, prolonging endurance by protecting the energy cycle from the performance inhibiting effects of ammonia.
The third, and main energy source is fats. The majority of your energy during endurance events will come from body fat stores. Even the very leanest athlete still has 60,000 - 100, 000 calories available from fatty acid stores. These are THE fuels of choice during endurance exercise. If you want to access them more efficiently you need to avoid refined sugar, which tends to inhibit the fats-for-fuel process. In addition, you must not eat too much during endurance exercise. If you do, you're basically sending the body the message that you don't need its help that you're going to try and resolve everything on your own. Eating too much during endurance exercise (and that includes "playing catch up") neutralizes the body's ability to access and utilize its fat stores. It's as though the body is telling you, "hey, I had plenty of stored energy available to help keep you going but your excess calorie intake makes me think you don't need my help."
Happy training,
Randy
Bernard
For more information on
the TRImyCoach.com training programs, you can visit our website at www.TRImyCoach.com or email
Randy at Randy@TRImyCoach.com
Some information used in this article was provided by our
partners at E-Caps/Hammer Gel www.E-caps.com