Friday Q&A

FRIDAY Q&A (only one day late:)

I am getting kitted up for my longest training session of the year in preparation for the Full Moon In June 36hr exp. adventure race. With only 5 weeks until GO time my teammates and I are putting in about 10 hours today and 6 hours tomorrow. I will have a full report for you once I crawl out of bed on Monday:) Let's just say it involves riding our bikes to the Comox Glacier...

What do you EAT? is a question that I often get from both my athletes and curious (actually, appalled) friends and family members. The short answer is alot. One of the biggest challenges of adventure racing and endurance sports is replacing nutrition and hydration losses adequately. It is near impossible to consume enough calories to recover those lost, so our goal is to replace as many as possible- including vital macro and micronutrients.

I have put together table that provides an overview of the guidelines for fueling before during and after endurance events. The key is getting a steady stream of glucose (carbohydrates), water, and electrolytes for the duration of your event- but there are specific guidelines for the amount and frequency of these nutrients.

Too high a concentration of glucose can cause gastric distress as will too much protein and fat in your workout snacks. Sodium combined with glucose increases the speed of absorption into the muscle cells.

Certain foods sit better with some people than others and the best way to figure out what will work for you is to practice during your training. Stick to the table guidelines and play with food types to find out what works for you!

If you can't read this table, just fire me an email and I will send it to your inbox. Or go to the ELM homepage and scroll down until you find a link to the file Endurance Fueling Table.

Today I have a pack full of snacks to get me through 10 hours of training with everything from Chocolate GU gels to Sunripe Fruit Bars, to Pretzels to homemade energy bars and PB&Banana wraps. I'll let you know what I end up going through nutrition wise in my post weekend blog.

Happy Trails!