Fuelling an endurance event?
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:31 pm
Hi All
I've recently signed up for a longer distance triathlon (1500m swim + 50km bike + 11km run), that will likely put me at a 3hr finish time. Maybe 2:50 if all the stars align and it is a perfect day. Or 3:10 if it ends up being a tough day (hot day, poor sleep, get sick, get a flat, whatever could go wrong). I'm not new to endurance athletics, though in the past several years my training has been more in line with what's optimal for longevity, rather than pure performance. Of course, not everything in life needs to be aligned with longevity. My training will likely peak at about 9hrs per week, if all goes according to plan. I don't recommend this if you are interested purely in longevity. I don't plan on doing another event like this again but am committed fully to the training and process to do it well.
Of note, 2 years ago I did do a 1:15:xx sprint tri that went pretty well (750m swim + 20km bike + 5km run). Many years before that I did a 19:52 5km and a 42:xx 10km. All fuelled on the power of whole plant foods. Since these events are so short I only consumed water during and before the events. Along with a breakfast of oatmeal + high nitrate vegetables to improve athletic performance.
I will have several long-workouts (bike/run bricks) in the 2-3hr range well before the race to tinker with nutrition, along with the race of course. I'm wondering how you would approach fuelling for this. Part of me wants to stick with just whole foods (like bananas, raisins, and dates). However, part of me wonders if that is just naive and I'm setting myself up to bonk and maybe I should just suck it up and buy some GU Gels or Gatorade. I did email Rip Esselstyn and he did say for workouts over 2 hours that he used to consume gels with no artificial flavors, etc.
I'm extremely compliant with the McDougall plan. I would estimate that in a given year 98.5%-99.5% of my calories come from whole food plant based sources. The non-compliant calories are in rare meals (like maple syrup or maybe oil that snuck in during a rare meal at a restaurant or family gathering that was thought to be oil free - or perhaps the animal products I eat maybe twice per year).
To all the endurance athletes on the board, how would you fuel for this?
I've recently signed up for a longer distance triathlon (1500m swim + 50km bike + 11km run), that will likely put me at a 3hr finish time. Maybe 2:50 if all the stars align and it is a perfect day. Or 3:10 if it ends up being a tough day (hot day, poor sleep, get sick, get a flat, whatever could go wrong). I'm not new to endurance athletics, though in the past several years my training has been more in line with what's optimal for longevity, rather than pure performance. Of course, not everything in life needs to be aligned with longevity. My training will likely peak at about 9hrs per week, if all goes according to plan. I don't recommend this if you are interested purely in longevity. I don't plan on doing another event like this again but am committed fully to the training and process to do it well.
Of note, 2 years ago I did do a 1:15:xx sprint tri that went pretty well (750m swim + 20km bike + 5km run). Many years before that I did a 19:52 5km and a 42:xx 10km. All fuelled on the power of whole plant foods. Since these events are so short I only consumed water during and before the events. Along with a breakfast of oatmeal + high nitrate vegetables to improve athletic performance.
I will have several long-workouts (bike/run bricks) in the 2-3hr range well before the race to tinker with nutrition, along with the race of course. I'm wondering how you would approach fuelling for this. Part of me wants to stick with just whole foods (like bananas, raisins, and dates). However, part of me wonders if that is just naive and I'm setting myself up to bonk and maybe I should just suck it up and buy some GU Gels or Gatorade. I did email Rip Esselstyn and he did say for workouts over 2 hours that he used to consume gels with no artificial flavors, etc.
I'm extremely compliant with the McDougall plan. I would estimate that in a given year 98.5%-99.5% of my calories come from whole food plant based sources. The non-compliant calories are in rare meals (like maple syrup or maybe oil that snuck in during a rare meal at a restaurant or family gathering that was thought to be oil free - or perhaps the animal products I eat maybe twice per year).
To all the endurance athletes on the board, how would you fuel for this?