Saturday, October 30, 2010

k. i. s. s…..my approach to nutrition/hydration for a successful 140.6 miles

 

KISS

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

~Charles Mingus

i can pretty much say that in the 17 years that i’ve been cycling, 14 years of running and less than 1 year of swimming, i have always tried to keep the training as simple as possible. i seem to enjoy the process so much more that way. i can remember back when i had about 2 or 3 marathons under my belt and started to research training programs and techniques and how i began to not love running anymore. following the workouts and the heart rate zones and all the scientific bull crap became a chore rather than something pure and simple; something that i loved. the thing is, i understand all the bull crap because i learned all of that stuff in college and some of it i buy into but a lot of it i don’t.

old school

that’s right, because i’m old school and i’m an old fool (who knows that song?). i will admit that i love training with my garmin and heart rate monitor but i will say this, i do not live and die by it. my rate of perceived exertion trumps what the garmin tells me anyday. i know my capabilities more than anyone else or any gadget. so where am i going with all of this you ask? well, this simplicity i speak of, transferred over nicely to how i tackled the hydration and nutrition before and during the 140.6 event. because so many people have asked me to share what i did with them, i will and i’m more than happy to do that, but please keep in mind that everyone is different. we all have different sweat rates and calorie needs so ESTABLISHING this and NAILING it before hand is KEY! no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

let me start with the night before and here is where the old school takes a back seat. i don’t carbo load. never have, never will. i had a 6 egg omelet (no yolks), turkey, a powerbar, powerade zero w/nuun and lots of water. yummy, right? same thing for breakfast on race morning at around 5am but this time with a half cup of coffee (i have eaten this same way for the last 3-4 months so i knew it worked for me). got to the race at around 6am, got body markings, sat around chatting, pee’d a couple of times, then put my wetsuit on and off i went at 7:30 into the lake. by the way, this lake we swam in really was pristine. it said so on the website but i usually tend to not believe the descriptions that florida tourism websites give bodies of water in florida….they are usually not pristine, but rather gross, but this one was very nice. i had water after the first 1.2 mile swim loop and then back for the last 1.2 mile loop. once i got thru transition and onto the bike, i pulled out my first treat.

fig newtons

i scarfed down 4 fig newtons within the first 15 minutes of being on the bike and from then on, i had a half of a powerbar every half hour and a powergel the next half hour and alternated like that the entire time i was on the bike, which was just a little over 6.5 hours. for hydration, i kept

aero bottle my aerobottle filled with water and the bottle on my frame filled with gatorade and nuun. i made sure to drink one or the other every 10 minutes. the bike course was 3 laps, so after each lap, i refilled both, as they were almost empty, but thankfully, never ran out of fluid. i was fortunate to have ridden this exact course a month prior to the race with pretty much the same hot and windy conditions, so i was able to get a good feel for how much to eat and drink and i can say now, that my calculations were dead on.

powerbar on the run, i just couldn’t stand the thought of anymore powerbars, so i relied on the hammer gels provided on the course. after about 2 or 3 hammer gels, i wanted to puke, especially after the orange one that didn’t taste anything like orange to me. perhaps after swimming and biking as much as i had at that point, nothing tastes right. pretty much the entire run course, i had water and gatorade at every other mile and splurged at mile 16 and 23 with some defizzed coke-a-cola…something i never have drank(drunk?) in training but i threw caution to the wind and chugged it down. i will say that i think it helped. my legs were starting to get a lot of lactic acid burn and who knows if the coke helped or not but i chose to believe it did, as the burn subsided and i was able to kick it in for the last 2 miles.

so there you have it kiddies, the k.i.s.s. approach to 140.6 race nutrition and hydration. nothing special, right? nothing you can’t buy at your local walmart, except for the nuun and i buy that by the box from performance bike. if you have any questions for me about any of the above, you can email me.

have a great weekend everyone. much love and peace out!

24 comments:

  1. I am with you on "keeping it simple." Several years ago I climbed a mountain with a friend who is a gym rat, and out-endured him by a wide margin even though my exercise consists of occasional hiking and weekend basketball.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love fig newtons. I use those a lot when I did century rides!

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Might have to try the fig newtons to keep from getting the sh*ts from Infinit.

    My program is 100% Infinit and water and Saltstick for the extra sodium.

    Figs would be a nice "reward"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice Blog. You definitely kept it simple and it worked for you. It is SO easy to complicate it all. Never would have thought about the Fig Newtons.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I totally agree about the KISS. My plan is almost the same as yours - except I make my own 'power bars' (If you want to know how to make them - just let me know) :)

    For me - if there is too much involved, I get confused and mess it up! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm a big PB&J fan. I recently had a Powerbar and ir broke a tooth (really!) I have to try Nuun.

    Good post. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome post! I eat fig newtons on the bike too. They are my go to fuel, with clif bar pieces, for the bike.
    I have a question about the NUUN and Gatorade. Did you mix the two together or did you have 1 bottle of Gatorade and 1 bottle of NUUN? Also, how did you refill them? You said you did it every lap...did you stop at the aid stations and do it? Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great post! I love posts like this. I am always encouraged when I see other people that use "real" food (eg. fig newtons) instead of relying entirely on gels and energy bars. I am a huge fan of trail mix (raisins, peanuts, m&ms, and sunflower seeds) on the bike so I am hoping to find a good way to eat that on the go rather than having to stop and eat.

    I echo Aimee's questions. How did the water bottle refills work logistically? Did you have to stop each time? Or did you swap out bottles for fresh ones?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Aimee, I started the bike portion with my aero bottle filled with water and one bottle on frame with the g-ade/water/nuun mix. Then after each lap, I stopped at the aid station at ground zero/aid station and refueled. i mixed the g-ade and nuun together in one bottle - a 75% mix of g-ade/25% mix of water, and a nuun tab. Without a little water, it was too strong/sweet for me. I left the fig newtons in my bike gear bag so i could grab them and stuff em' in my jersey pocket. the rest of the stuff 3 powerbars and 4 gels were already in my aerobag on the bike and that was all i needed. It all worked out nicely.

    ReplyDelete
  10. One more thing, I never had to actually get off the bike, I just pulled off to the side and a volunteer brought me a bottle of water to dump into the aero bottle and a bottle of g-ade. I used a cup of water at the aid station to dilute the g-ade/nuun mix. It was a pretty quick transaction.

    ReplyDelete
  11. thanks for sharing!!! duly noted for next year's festivities

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Kristine,
    This post was really interesting for me a non-tri girl. I love to learn and read about the training and refueling that is involved. Funny about the Coke working for you:) One of my fellow running group peers drank a can of Mountain Dew at mile 26 of her 50 mile race. She said it did wonders:) You have a great weekend too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Fantastic post. Thank you for posting all of this.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Excellent post KC! It sounds like the little aero bag thing you had really pasted the torture test?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great stuff KC!! Thanks so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  16. KC - Thank you for this post, what a tremendous help this is for me. I did my first Oly this year and have the HIM CA in April and the fueling thing has me baffled some days.

    Now, how did you keep the fig newtons on your bike? Bento box on the frame?

    Thanks for the help.

    ReplyDelete
  17. That is interesting about the coke! I would have never known to try that :) Have a wonderful week!

    ReplyDelete
  18. thanx for sharing girly. i'm still a little nervous about my nutrition for saturday. i tend to not eat and drink enough. I'm sticking mostly to fluids tho. powerbars just sit in my stomach like a rock. i'm also using a 5 hour energy in my special needs bags. it's worked wonderfully on my training rides. we shall see!

    ReplyDelete
  19. New follower here but after hearing you music I knew I would like what you had to say. You didn't disappoint. Thanks. Congrats on the IM--Awesome.

    Leaving my footprint

    ReplyDelete
  20. I simply love this line; “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

    ReplyDelete
  21. Reading all of that food is making my stomach queasy. I also don't carbo-load; it just aggravates my intestines. Regular, consistent eating works best for me.
    An IM, though - if I ever go that route, I'd probably have to completely revamp my eating.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Great Blog!

    Kevin
    http://halftriing.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thank you for this K.C.!!! I have been lamenting over the nutrition part of things....your info gave me a few new things to try!!!

    ReplyDelete