In recent years, food-related topics have become increasingly interesting and debated. Awareness of the importance and functions of food has certainly increased even though some proposed systems and/or diets are often promoted more for commercial interests than anything else. Like any amateur athlete, you should not see nutrition as something you have to give up but as a fundamental tool that can help youachieve your goals. Forget about miracle diets or magic supplements that can blow up your performance. It is important to get a good understanding of what your needs are and to rely on a professional who is able to give you useful and personalized support by putting your health first in the program.
The nutrition of an endurance athlete
What you are most interested in is getting some insight into the needs of an endurance athlete. Endurance competitions are increasingly popular with durations ranging from a few tens of minutes of a 10 km run to 12-15 hours to finish an IRONMAN, the long distance of triathlon. To sustain such prolonged exertion, you must keep an eye on energy availability and hydration at all times.
To have continuity in muscle contraction, the availability of energy in the form of glycogen in the body is critical. The difficulty you experience in the final stages of some training sessions and especially in the race, where you tend to push harder, is precisely due to the depletion of your energy reserves. This is why a moderate and proper carbohydrate load in the days leading up to the competition is necessary to get you to the start with full tanks.
Hydration is important because through sweat you can get to lose more than a liter of fluid per hour. Remember that along with water you also lose many minerals that are important for your performance. The goal is to limit your weight loss to a maximum of 3 percent. Get in the habit in strenuous workouts of always weighing yourself before and after to measure your average fluid loss and thus have an estimate of how much you should drink to avoid incurring dehydration.
The eating protocol for a race then starts a few days before the start. First goal is carbohydrate loading. This is recommended if you are preparing for a competition that will last at least ninety minutes. Below is not essential. How many carbohydrates are needed to get a pre-race energy boost? The minimum required is about 5g of carbohydrate per kg of weight per day. About 350g for a 70kg person. Depending on your level and the distance you need to cover you can increase a few grams per kg but always go step by step. Keep in mind that you need to accustom your digestive system to progressively sustaining a higher and higher load for at least two or three days before the race. You must not overdo it because, on the other hand, an increase in glycogen carries with it an increase in weight because every gram of stored glycogen carries with it about 3g of water retention. Always best to monitor overall weight management well to arrive at the starting ribbons in perfect shape.
Before the race
After about three days of carboloading we arrive at the morning of the race. Depending on your digestive needs, you should eat about three to four hours before departure to do your last load. You don’t need too much of a meal because you are coming from three days of little training and loaded with carbohydrates. Hard to expend so much energy during the last night. After this meal it is not recommended to ingest additional carbohydrates in the last hour before the start. The intake of other sugars results in a glycemic spike in some athletes followed by a phase of hypoglycemia that may coincide with the start of the race. A practice to be avoided also because in addition to the risk of hypoglycemia, a high blood sugar situation tends to limit lipolysis, that is, the consumption of fat as an energy source that in an endurance performance is instead the basis of success. By consuming only sugar, the tank would end up emptying too soon. If you really feel the need to introduce energy before the race do it 10 to 15 minutes before so that the ingested sugars are available when the physical activity has begun and therefore are directly used without causing a rise in blood sugar. It must be a supplement that does not require digestive effort.
Regarding hydration, we need to take a step back. The basis of any good performance is proper hydration, which you must maintain daily even when you are not exercising. This is because it is already difficult to stay hydrated in certain conditions; if you start from a situation of partial dehydration, you have little chance of finishing the race well. Calculate your daily fluid intake well between what you drink and what you eat such as fruits and vegetables, which are composed mostly of water. The morning before a very long competition you should drink 5ml of water per kg of body weight between four and two hours before the start. This gives you a chance to hydrate well while at the same time expelling through urine excess fluids before you start. This hyper hydration is very useful because it allows you to have fluids available for sweating. Sweat is important for your body’s thermoregulation. It helps you keep your body temperature down and avoid the risk of overheating or even heat stroke, which is the biggest danger of racing in the heat. Better to take a complete solution of water and mineral salts to keep the body’s salt balance intact as well.
To be ready for an endurance race, it is not enough to show up after completing the training program. You must also take good care of nutrition and hydration. Only in this way will you be able to show up on race day with the availability of energy resources to meet the effort and with the hydrosaline balance necessary to successfully conclude your performance.
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