Fuel

So, the focus is definitely on becoming a bonk resistant, fat burning, super-healthy, strong endurance machine. Using sugary sports nutrition to fuel exhaustive mile-upon-mile is so far away from what we advocate at Tribal. We recommend two strategies for fuelling your endurance efforts.

1. Competition- A mixture of sports nutrition and food including Generation UCAN SuperStarch, MCT Oil, Vital Whey Protein, Lemon and Gross Sel Guerande Coarse Sea Salt, Or,
2. Non Competition- Real food like nuts, jerky or boiled eggs? Or, to learn great recipes for making your own portable snacks, here’s the link: click here

Through your training year I would recommend using a mixture of both these strategies, when away from competition and competition preparation Tribal suggest using real food and adapting your training to ensure you protect against running your glycogen reserves dangerously low.

In preparation for, or in competition I recommend using our first suggestion, the strategies for using super starch and the other products are included below.

During your longer sessions when you may feel the need for fuel, your focus should be upon using fat as your primary source of fuel, therefore, lessening the need for the ingestion of fuel whilst out training- churning through gels whilst panting your way round a 3 hour circuit goes a long way to making your choice of sporting pursuit an unhealthy one, instead of you becoming stronger the likelihood is that you’ll be providing such a level of stress that your body becomes catabolic and breaks down valuable muscle and raises inflammation.

The food you do ingest during these efforts can be slightly higher in fats/proteins and full of bioavailable great sources of carbohydrates, use the Feed Zone Portables book to help you with inspiration. Some of the foods I have used on longer sessions include beef jerky, mini fritatas baked in muffin trays, baked rice balls made with sticky sushi rice (these can made with different flavours including sweet potato, bacon, cream cheese etc..), nuts and the occasional mini Babybel (dairy dependant, of course).

Hydrating is also hugely important. We recommend making your own electrolyte drink- mix up filtered water, squeezed organic lemon and Gross sel Guerande Coarse Grey Sea Salt. When your consuming a real food diet as we advocate at Tribal your sodium intake may well be on the low side as you have removed processed and refined foods (bread, pasta, canned soup, salad dressings, cereals and processed meat) that contain huge amounts of processed salt and make up 75% of most peoples sodium intake. Processed table salt is high in sodium and anti-caking agents but has all other beneficial minerals stripped through processing.

Everybody loses sodium at different rates as the concentration of sodium within our sweat varies greatly between individuals- it is Tribal’s recommendation to add salt to all your water, quantity is driven by your taste that will help guide your daily intake- if you can heavily taste the salt you have probably added too much, add just enough to not overpower the taste of your water. The Weston A Price Foundation recommend a daily intake of Sea Salt of 1.5 teaspoons to maintain your mineral balance- Please bear in mind that this is a recommendation for a normal day free from exercise and indeed, exercise in hot climates. Your Sea Salt ingestion should increase in line with your increased and expected sweat loss.

A great tip-off that you are getting this balance right between optimum hydration and preservation of glycogen is your ability to swim/ride/run easy without fatigue or cramps for increasingly long distances and with no ill effect to your appetite, mood or energy post-session.

General Rules For Fuelling

• Be prepared, make your race week nutrition an absolute priority. Hydration and glycogen reserves should be optimal comfortably before race morning so that there is little need to over feed with starches or fluids, it’ll make healthy digestion easy.
• Have a precise fuelling plan, memorise it, practice it before competition and stick to it.
• Pre-Race stress can play havoc with your digestion, trial a breakfast and pre-session/event nutrition strategy that is trusted, replaces lost glycogen from your overnight fast (approximately 100g), available at your race location and easy. Pre-loading with UCAN will provide 22g of this 100g per scoop, to make up the shortfall in your breakfast, here is a list of paleo friendly carb sources and quantities.
• Be ahead of the game. For best results always stay on top of your hydration and fuelling. Start early, once you are dehydrated or rapidly depleting your glycogen reserves your central governor will slow down. If you know you can exercise at race pace for 90 minutes before feeling the affects of glycogen depletion, begin fuelling at 60 minutes to avoid the slow down.
• Ingest slowly and steadily. Calculating your total need for glycogen ingestion, water and electrolyte will allow you to plan the steadiest ingestion possible for your personal needs and event length.
• For example, based on you needing 600ml of fluids per hour, you can calculate your sip volume (50ml) and identify a target sip rate- 12 sips per hour means 1 sip every 5 minutes to achieve 600ml of fluids per hour. Measure the amount of salt per bottle that feels good for your personal need, you can always carry salt or hydration tablets if refilling on course.
• Or, based on you needing 25g/100kcals of SuperStarch per hour and using UCAN you can identify your steadiest ingestion possible, 1 scoop of UCAN every 50-60mins to achieve your target of 25g per hour.
• This is an essential part of learning for you. Calculating your personal need for SuperStarch requires that you ask yourself the question during training, get out and train with no fuel, only water and salt mix and experience the early signs of glycogen depletion (fatigue, loss of energy, dropping blood sugars and mild dizziness). Ensure you take fuel with you and avoid a loop that takes you far from home. The ability to go long will be a great tip-off that you are becoming fat-adapted and ensure you learn the valuable lesson of how long you can ride at varying intensities so that you can plan well for future training.
• Nb- The hormonal response to running low on glycogen is to release catabolic hormones, the result will be muscle atrophy, impaired immunity and under recovery before your next session. If you are hitting the wall or bonking regularly you are not taking responsibility for your pace or your fuelling. Always ask yourself these two simple questions-
  • How am I feeling?
  • How is my performance?
• Caffeine- Caffeine has been shown to increase speed and power output, improve the length an athlete can train, and assist the athlete in resisting fatigue. Caffeine has also been proven to stimulate the brain which contributes to an athlete’s clearer thinking and ability to concentrate harder on the task at hand. As part of a strategic and tested plan- caffeine can become a great addition to your fuelling plan both before and toward the end of your event. It is also essential that you avoid day-to-day overconsumption of caffeine as it can lead to dependence, tolerance, drug craving, and withdrawal symptoms when it is used chronically. Save it for training and racing.
• Your fuelling plan is strongly linked to your training and racing pace, your pace determines the energy system used and therefore the rate and type of fuel required.

Download your ‘Race Fuelling Plan’ here:

Events lasting up to 90 Minutes

Goals

• Slowly maintain hydration before (sipping) and throughout (450ml-750ml per hour) event.
• Ensure you know your Pre-Event meal- familiarity is key here.
• Pre- Event- Begin the event with adequate glycogen reserves, ingest 1 scoop of UCAN with added Vital Whey Protein (minimal) and MCT Oil (Up to 1 tablespoon) 30-45 minutes before event commences and hydration.
• Avoid a catastrophic slow down from glycogen depletion. Ingest a well diluted scoop of UCAN whilst on the bike if it raises confidence.

Primary fuel in events lasting less than 90 Minutes is Glycogen. Whether you are in need of fuel as you compete is largely down to your personal condition and fat adaption.

For experienced triathletes you are likely able to race up to 90-120 minutes without reaching a critical level of glycogen depletion that would slow you down. If you prefer, include a scoop of UCAN in your bike bottle.

For a beginner triathlete, it is worth using 60 minutes as your indicator to trigger a need for glycogen ingestion during your event. 1 scoop of well diluted UCAN in your bike bottle will be plentiful.

Hydration- Be prepared with approximately 150ml-250ml of water, lemon and salt mixture where possible for every 20 minutes of competition. Be driven by your desire to drink- The rate of hydration varies and quantity of salt is dependant upon your body size, personal sweat rate, including the sodium concentration of your sweat and the ambient temperature at your race location.

Events lasting between 90 Minutes and 4 Hours

Goals

• Slowly maintain hydration and sodium balance throughout event.
• Pre- Event- Begin the event with adequate glycogen reserves, ingest 1 scoop of UCAN with added Vital Whey Protein (minimal) and MCT Oil (Up to 1 tablespoon) at 90-120 minutes before your event commences and another at 30-45 minutes before event commences and hydration.
• During- Avoid a catastrophic slow down from glycogen depletion or digestive discomfort.

Fuel utilisation shifts from primarily glycogen to a greater percentage of fats as your average intensity lowers to sustain your pace target. You will definitely need to replenish glycogen during events of 2 hours + and it’ll be variable to the individual for events between 90 minutes and 2 hours.

For all triathletes, when exercising for this duration at a race intensity you’ll need to be ingesting UCAN at intervals you have previously measured, during training, measure the time it takes you to experience the feelings of glycogen depletion at race pace. If a slow down for you normally occurs at 90 minutes, ensure you are taking your first UCAN mix at 50-60 minutes- avoid letting yourself reach this slow down before fuelling.

UCAN should be ingested at regular intervals throughout your race duration, almost like a slow drip ingestion that maintains digestive comfort. Because of the increased duration, it is preferable to now use a pre-tested mix of UCAN (1 scoop), Vital Whey Protein (up to 1/4 scoop per mix) and MCT Oil (up to 1 tablespoon per mix) to protect your concentration and muscle stores. Adding too much MCT will lead to digestive issues, pre-test.

For example- for a 3 Hour standard race and using the numbers presented in the previous paragraph- 1 UCAN mix can be taken 20-30 minutes into your bike and another between minutes 80-90 just before you get off and run, both these scoops can be mixed in one bottle. Athletes completing standard distance events between 2 and 2 hours 30 minutes may find that 1 UCAN mix on the bike is enough.

Hydration- Be prepared with approximately 150ml-250ml of water, lemon and salt mixture where possible for every 20 minutes of competition. Be driven by your desire to drink- The rate of hydration varies and quantity of salt is dependant upon your body size, personal sweat rate, including the sodium concentration of your sweat and the ambient temperature at your race location.

Events lasting between 4 and 12 Hours

Goals

• Slowly maintain hydration and sodium balance throughout event.
• Begin the event with adequate glycogen reserves and hydration.
• Maintain homeostasis of the body to promote health under extreme circumstances.
• Protect against muscle glycogen depletion.

Intensity lowers again and fat becomes your primary fuel, despite the shift in fuel choice you will still need to maintain glycogen, but, completely keeping up with your glycogen expenditure will be fairly impossible over an event of this duration. You have to protect against your brain suspecting that it is in danger of running low on glycogen, “fat only burns in the flame of carbohydrate”, running low on glycogen flirts with a very high risk of bonking or hitting the wall in these longer events. It is a good idea during these long events that to provide a very slow drip feed of simple sugars for your brain to stay happy.

For all triathletes, when exercising for this duration at race intensity (See Pace) you’ll need to be ingesting UCAN at intervals you have previously measured, during training, measure the time it takes you to experience the feelings of glycogen depletion at race pace. If a slow down for you normally occurs at 120 minutes, ensure you are taking your first UCAN mix at 80-90 minutes- avoid letting yourself reach this slow down before fuelling and it’ll take 20-30 minutes for you to digest and start using the SuperStarch.

UCAN should be ingested at regular intervals throughout your race duration, almost like a slow drip ingestion that maintains digestive comfort. Because of the increased duration, it is preferable to now use a pre-tested mix of UCAN, Vital Whey Protein and MCT Oil to protect your satiation, concentration and muscle stores.

For example- for a 10hour30Min ironman race and using the numbers presented in the previous paragraph (1 UCAN mix for each 1hr20mins)- over the first 10-20 minutes of the bike leg sip water and allow yourself to settle into the bike ensuring that you lose the fight or flight sensations that can accompany the swim leg and begin with the 1st UCAN mix from 20-30 minutes into your bike, 1 from 1hr50mins of bike, 1 from 3hr20mins of bike, 1 from 4hr40mins and 1 from 6hr 20mins just before you get off and run, these 5 scoops can be mixed into two bottles with the individual mix volumes marked on the side of the bottle. I cannot emphasise how important it is for you to self-test these intervals. Getting out onto the run, you have choices of carrying your UCAN in a run belt or a hand held bottle and you should pack enough for the same time intervals as we used above, so, 1 UCAN mix taken from 20mins in, 1 from 1hr40mins and a final mix at 3hrs.

If you are competing in long course events at the longer end of this range you may want to use alternative sources of fuel, these should be viewed as secondary sources of energy, pre-tested, low in fibre, easily digested and with a mix of fast acting carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Also, using this strategy will decrease your need for the UCAN mix a little. I’m still exploring these healthy choices, real f00d from Feed Zone Portables is a good option and I have started testing nut butters as an alternative.

Hydration- Be prepared with approximately 150ml-250ml of water, lemon and salt mixture where possible for every 20 minutes of competition. Be driven by your desire to drink- The rate of hydration varies and quantity of salt is dependant upon your body size, personal sweat rate, including the sodium concentration of your sweat and the ambient temperature at your race location.

Events lasting between 12 and 16 Hours

Goals

• Slowly maintain hydration and sodium balance throughout event.
• Begin the event with adequate glycogen reserves and hydration.
• Maintain homeostasis of the body to promote health under extreme circumstances.
• Protect against muscle glycogen depletion.

The metabolic demand of Ironman events taking longer than 12 hours is much the same as the previous section. The guarantee during events of 12-16 hours is the drop in performance during the later hours. Please view the 4-12 hour section for guidelines.

Ensuring that you include proteins, fats and caffeine during these really long events is essential to protecting against this drop in performance during the latter stages.