Nutrition Testing

I started doing some testing with maltodextrin this weekend at the suggestion of fellow blogger Mike. Maltodextrin is a common food additive containing easily digestible carbohydrates, yet is cheaper than sports powders. It can be purchased online or at your local brewing supply store, since it is a common ingredient used to brew beer. My local brewing supply store is 40 minutes away, so I ordered a pound online so I could experiment. There was no calorie label on the package but doing a little googling, it looks like a cup contains about 360 calories.

I had a long brick work out scheduled for Saturday for which I planned on mixing a one hour bottle and a long ride Sunday for which I planned mixing a four hour bottle. My first attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one scoop of Gatorade powder and one tablespoon of salt. I mixed that up, took a sip and promptly poured it out :-). The Gatorade flavor was way too strong as was the salt taste. My second attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one Succeed S!CAP for electrolytes and a little lemonade flavored Crystal Light for flavoring. The taste was pretty good so I went with it for my first test.

On the plan for Saturday was a brick workout consisting of an hour swim, an hour ride, and an hour run. Unfortunately, lap swim didn't start until noon and the temperature was forecast to be in the mid 90's with the heat index being over 100. If nothing else, it would be a good nutrition test. If you can take in calories in the heat and keep it down, it should work in just about all conditions, right? The workout went fine, nutrition seemed to taste good and sit well but I did cut the run short due to the heat (5k instead of a 10k). Cutting it short had nothing to do with nutrition. I didn't want to hurt myself and risk missing the long ride Sunday.

With that success, I decided to make a four hour bottle for Sunday. I mixed three cups of maltodextrin, three S!CAPS, and lemonade flavored Crystal Light again. Maltodextrin is easier to mix hot, so i mixed the bottle Saturday night and put it in the fridge. Sunday was a little cooler than Saturday, but not much. I set off on a four and a half hour ride with ~1100 calories in one bottle and a second bottle of water only. My plan was to take a sip of calories every 15 minutes and drink water to thirst. This plan seemed to work ok. A couple times I skipped a calorie drink because I was feeling a little bloated. This worked out so I finished the bottle four hours in. I think finishing it in three hours would have been a little soon. I did notice a slight after taste a few times, but nothing stomach turning.

The last half hour of the ride wasn't pretty. I was exhausted and over heated and stopped at every water fountain to pour water over my head. Afterward I think I hopped in the shower too quick because when I got out, I started sweating, got the cold shakes, nausea, and really light headed. Let me tell you, its tough to shave when you are about to pass out (and probably not a good idea). I laid down for a while and felt better. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I weighed seven pounds less than when I started. I don't think it had anything to do with nutrition, I think it had to do with heat exhaustion. I guess when I do a full IM, I need to find a cool one.

With four and a half weeks until my 70.3, I'm running out of time to experiment. I did run to my local brewing supply store and buy some more maltodextrin and plan to try mixing some powdered Gatorade instead of Crystal Light for my next long session. Speaking of which, my next long ride is scheduled for Sunday, but I'll be in Cohasset, MA for a family visit and a little racing. The race should be challenging as it will be a cold ocean swim and ill be riding a borrowed bike. I'll try to fit in a long run while I'm there and a long ride when I return.

The goods :-)

 

When 8 weeks seems like 8 days

I'm a planner so I'm usually looking ahead to big events like my 70.3 at Door County in July.  It's good in that I'll be prepared, not so good in that it feels so close already.  

Since I failed taking in nutrition at New Orleans, I decided for this 70.3 I'm going to do some real nutrition testing. It's hard for me to practice race nutrition since I'm usually not hungry for the first couple of hours of training and I jave trouble eating if I'm pushing hard.

I need to go back and re-read the nutrition propaganda I read while preparing for NOLA, but if I recall correctly, I need about 250-300 calories/hour on the bike.  My training plan this weekend called for a four hour ride so I figured I might as well get started practicing. I mixed a three hour bottle of Infinit ride formula, that's six scoops in a 20 ounce bottle for a total of 840 calories.  Loaded another bottle of ice water, grabbed some honey waffle stingers, put on some sun screen and headed out about 8:30 am on Memorial Day.  I also wore my heart rate strap for the first time in forever. My goal was to keep my hr under 150 since I know when it's above 160 or so, any calories I take in just sit there.

It was already starting to get warm at 8:30 in the morning and it was a bit windy, but that's pretty typical for the St. Louis area and I was really glad it wasn't raining.  I've done 4 hour trainer rides before and they are mind numbing.  I have a nice 26.4 mile loop that goes right past my house so the plan was to do two of those loops plus a 15.4 mile loop.

I took a decent size sip about every 15 minutes and followed it immediately with water. It was very strong and didn't sit well for a few seconds but that feeling went away pretty quickly.  So I just rode on and on, taking in nutrition like clock work, enjoying the day, saying good morning a bazillion times and letting my mind wander aimlessly.  I finished the bottle about 2 hours and 45 minutes in and was glad to be done with it.  That's the most calories I've taken in on the bike by far and I didn't barf so success!

After two laps I was still feeling pretty good, even though it was over 90 degrees, so I decided to do another 26.4 mile loop and go for 80 miles, my longest ride yet.  I ate a honey waffle stinger during hour 4 for another 180 calories then I was done eating even though I had a ways to go.  The last loop and a half, I stopped and poured water over my head a couple times to cool off.  After the ride I had salt caked all over me but felt pretty good.  Even my knees and butt felt pretty good considering what I had just done.

just a little salt

That was a successful test though I need to push a little harder in the next test.  My hr average was only 139.  I would also like to try some other nutrition. Any suggestions?
  



 

NOLA nutrition failure

A couple more race pics from last weekend.



rockin the arm warmers

 


I think I can, I think I can.....





There is good nutrition info posted by some companies that make nutrition drinks.  In reviewing the info, it's obvious I didn't take in enough calories.

Accelerade (Pacific Labs) has a free nutrition handbook , Hammer has The Endurance Athlete's Guide to Success (and many other articles), Infinit .has an article on run calorie needs and another for bike calories needs (and many others)  Pacific Labs recommends replacing 30% of your calories burned and gives some formulas.  It says I burned 3000 calories on the bike and should have replaced 900.  I actually took in 400.  It says I burned 1500 calories on the run and should have taken in 450 calories.  I actually took in just over 100.  Here is the chart from the Pacific Labs handbook.



From Accelerades nutrition handbook



The Hammer Guide says to take in 240-280 calories per hour so about 1250 for me, I took in just over 500.  Infinite's run guide says I burned 1300 calories and should have taken in 400 calories. Infinite's cycling guide says I burned 2200 calories and should replace 660 to 1100.

All these endurance products are expensive!  Anyone from these companies want to sponsor me? I'll put your logo on my widely read blog :-)

Speaking of nutrition, I made some hummus tonight.  Yum!  Here is the recipe I used.