Hydration is an area that all endurance athletes struggle with. No matter what your background or distance you are traing for you will run into an issue. The following is some feedback that I recently gave to one of my athletes that ran into some hydration issues at his first 1/2 Ironman triathlon.
I really felt for you during your 1/2 IM experience. I, like most long course triathletes, have and do struggle with hydration and nutrition during, so it really breaks me when I hear of my athletes that experience this as well. Nutrition is an aspect that we all neglect to often and can, will and does get in the way of our goals.
A few questions for you to think about as I review some problem areas related to nutrition and hydration for ultra distance competition (anything over 3 hours)
1) How well are you hydrated before, during & after training / racing?
2) What kind of calories are you taking in (carb / protein) during your training practice and racing?
3) What duration are you taking in those calories?
4) Do you simulate 'effectively' the intensity during training that you wish to accomplish during a competition?
5) What kind of electrolyte supplementation do you do?
1) A rule of thumb for daily life is to consume 1 oz of water per lb of body weight 'daily'. If you are not getting this in (or at least close to it) you are effectively beginning your training and potentially your competition in a de-hydrated state. During competition I recommend approx 24 oz of water (no more) per hour to maintain hydration. This is a rule of thumb but have found it to be effective in keeping athletes body functioning and maintaining hydration levels. I have found many newer / less experienced athletes have problems tracking how much water / sports drink they are consuming during an hour, or have a hard time drinking, especially during competition at higher levels of intensity. In greater than 90% of nutrition related problems the source of the problem is really not what food or amount of calories taken in, it is poor hydration practices. Here is an exerp from your post race report that tells me your hydration during the bike was not satisfactory
..I started jogging again to the second sag.. During this same time I felt my stomach was full of water that I drank just getting off the bike. I remembered reading something about the stomach shutting down and hydration becoming a problem when something isn't done right..I don't know but it took several miles for the full stomach to empty. I didn't feel like eating anything so I took was water and very little of it..I just didn't feel that thirsty.
You indicate that your stomach felt full, and felt like it had shut down. That is exactly what happens when athletes get behind on hydration. When that does happen, the only thing you can do is wait it out, which you did. Thus the reason why you started to feel better late in the run.
2) In order to simulate competition as close as possible you have to use in training what you plan on for the race. Some concentration, same fueling intervals and same calorie content. In my experience taking in calories that are a 4/1 ratio of carbs & protein, is the best combination to fuel your body for ultra distance training and racing. With that being said, if taking in protein does not work for you during competition "DO NOT DO IT". This is the greatest error that endurance athletes make. We think to our selves "Tim DeBoom is an incredible athlete and he uses GU, so if I want to be as fast as Tim I need to eat and drink what he does!!!" Sorry - but we are all too different to make such a statement. What works for Tim or me, may not work for you, so you have to experiment. I have been doing triathlons for 16 years and I am still experimenting.
3) I recommend you take in calories every 15 mins during training / and competition both during the bike and run. If you have to set a timer to go off very 15 mins then do it. By taking in calories at a regular interval you maintain your calorie needs on a consistent basis and diminish the chances of upsetting your stomach by taking in to many calories at one time. Also - I highly recommend 'liquid' calories as much as possible on the bike and run. This will assist in a quicker digestion of the food and help keep your blood volume in the areas needed most and out of your stomach.
4) During specific training sessions that simulate racing intensities you need to practice what nutrition / hydration plan you will be using during the race. This is your opportunity to make sure that your body will tolerate the plan and then if things go wrong you adjust and try again. Many athletes do not put there body / mind into this position to see how their body reacts, then wonder why their is issues on race day. Your body will most likely react differently at race intensity than at your regular training intensity. In my coaching of 1/2 Ironman and Ironman athletes I have them do multiple 'Brick" (bike / run) sessions that push their intensity up to a sub threshold intensity for long durations, just as in high intensity racing. These are the sessions that you need to focus your nutrition needs and dial in what is and what is not working. Now - I realize that there are factors that you cannot control during these sessions such as weather, heat, humidity, hills, but as I say "focus on what you have control over and nothing else".
5) During ultra distance training and competition athletes put there bodies under a huge amount of stress. One area that can be very harmful to your body, unless you are proactive in keeping up with it is electrolyte imbalance. Through the process of cooling itself (sweating), the human body losses electolytes. The main element that is lost in sweat is what we refer to as salt. But it is actually sodium chloride, magnesium and potassium. The main electrolye lost is sodium chloride. So in order to maintain the proper level of sodium, athletes need to supplement each hour with some kind of replacement. I recommend 300 mg or sodium chloride per hour as a starting point, but based on your body, heat, duration of training you could need up to 1000 mg per hour. A product that I use for this is endurolytes from Hammer nutrition. It is relatively inexpensive and comes in powder (you can mix it in with your sports drink and capsule form.
If it makes you feel any better - all endurance athletes will struggle with hydration / nutrition at some point. I encourage you to process all of this and set into practice some of the theory's I have outlined. One of the biggest steps you can make is in being intentional about your nutrition. In doing so you will be doing better than most :-) Hope all this helps!
Let me know what you think!
Train Smart - Race Hard - Coach Kevin
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