No, this has nothing to do with NASCAR, Indy car, or any other type of car. This is about fueling the human body while racing an endurance event, such as a triathlon. Specifically, a half-ironman triathlon. A race of this length is going to take most people a significant chunk of their day to finish. When I tell people that I am going to be doing a half-ironman triathlon, they always ask what the distances of the various portions are. Actually, before that, they ask if it is going to be a "full" triathlon (referring to an ironman-distance event). Well, no, it's going to be half of that. Then the question about the lengths. So here they are: a half-ironman triathlon is a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride followed by a 13.1 mile run. Taken individually, each event could take a person anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes (for the swim) to several hours (the run and bike). Add it all up and you've got 5+ hours of endurance excitement! I have done one race of this distance before, in 2002. A race called the Pigman, held in the vicinity of a small town in Iowa called Palo. (You can see the results here.) I finished in 5 hours 37 minutes 54 seconds. Since I am always trying to improve my times, I would like to finish the upcoming race in 5 hours 30 minutes, a modest improvement, and definitely a real possibility, in my mind.
But 2002 was probably my best year of cycling ever, I've come to decide. I started off the season with the Ride for the Roses in Austin, TX in April (see the website here) . Doing a century ride like that early in the year sets you up for great fitness throughout, and is a great building block for future training (that was also my first century ride ever). Then, later that year, I rode RAGBRAI, the Register's Great Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa. I treated it almost like a stage race; it was a week of riding 60 - 110 miles a day, and it was great! My biggest week on the bike ever, over 400 miles total (OK,not exactly huge numbers for people who like to do what I do - triathlons, cycling, etc. - but I haven't come close to matching it since). That was in July. Then the Pigman was in August. The point is, I was very well-prepared for the bike at the Pigman. I was quite fit. I am fit now, too; I just wonder if I am as fit. I've only had about 3 months of solid triathlon training since I returned from Iraq. Will it be enough?
This post is supposed to be about race fueling, so let's get to that. I've been doing a lot of reading on the topic coming up to my bike race next weekend because I want to do it right. In most long endurance events I have done, I have had problems with cramping late in the game. It happened to me at the Pigman on the run; it happened to me last December at the Honolulu Marathon. I would like to do what I can to prevent/stall it happening at Honu. People who should know (exercise physiology professors from my alma mater)I have spoken with about the cramping seem to think that it is from inadequate nutrition. Nutrition is a huge piece of long-course racing, and I am getting educated about it.
On one web page I read on the topic, top professional triathlete Peter Reid gave his thoughts on nutritional strategies for a half ironman. Here's what he said (I have added the highlights):
My bike bottles are filled with a carbohydrate drink. The solution is not too strong. I found that if the mixture is too strong it is hard to digest. Too sweet and I won't drink enough of the mixture. It is better to be too weak than too strong. This way you will drink all of your solution. The first few miles of the bike I typically eat a whole PowerBar for an Ironman event and half a PowerBar for a half-Ironman event. Halfway though the bike section I will down a PowerGel along with some water from an aid station. I will try to get water from all the aid stations until I run out of my own carbo solution, and then I will grab some energy drinks from the aid stations. A few miles before the end of the bike section I will down another PowerGel with some water. During the run I will have a PowerGel one-third and two-thirds of the way through along with some water.
Now, keep in mind that this is an elite triathlete testifying as to how he would fuel himself during a half-ironman race. Contrast that with what Dan Empfield says on his excellent website, www.slowtwitch.com regarding race fueling in a post called "The Mathematics of Race Fueling." (Go ahead, read it all. It will take you all of 10 minutes, and you'll be that much smarter. Make sure to take a second to marvel at the photos of the bike top tubes from the bike corral at Kona - look at all those gels taped on there!) Anyhow, the gist of what Empfield says is that you need a lot more fuel that what Peter Reid said above, on the order of 8 or more gels for the bike portion of the half ironman-distance race alone!
Me, I don't know the answer. I think I am probably somewhere between the two extremes. Empfield's math makes sense to the exercise scientist in me, but I don't think that I would be able to keep all of that down! And I know that I would be bonking like crazy if I went with only what Reid advocates. It's all about knowing yourself and what your racing requirements are. I plan on taping gels to my top tube and writing the exact times into the race that I need to be eating them so that I am on schedule and don't get behind. I think that that will take me a long ways toward being able to run all the way through the half marathon without cramping. After the race, I'll write in this space how things went and exactly how I worked my race fueling plan.
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