Since the good old days, the sports drink market has become segmented into various categories. There are now several types of sports drinks formulated for different specific uses. Many endurance athletes have trouble keeping these categories straight and knowing what they should drink when. This short guide to sports drinks will help you.
This category of sports drinks encompasses products that offer the traditional, basic formulation of water, 6 to 10 percent carbohydrate, and electrolyte minerals. Research has shown that regular sports drinks effectively limit dehydration, maintain blood glucose levels, and enhance performance in interval workouts and in workouts and races lasting longer than one hour.
Regular sports drinks are useful before exercise to hydrate and increase blood glucose levels and during exercise lasting 60 minutes of longer, especially in warm or hot weather. Also, they are not as effective as recovery sports drinks in promoting muscle recovery after exercise. Gatorade — The original sports drink provides a conservative 14 g of carbs and mg of sodium per 8-oz.
Low-calorie sports drinks such as Propel typically contain little or no carbohydrate and are sweetened with artificial flavorings. Most low-calorie sports drinks perform similarly to plain water. They hydrate effectively, but because of their minimal energy content they do not enhance endurance performance as well as regular sports drinks.
However, some endurance athletes with sensitive stomachs are able to tolerate low-calorie sports drinks better than regular sports drinks. If you have trouble with regular sports drinks, use the strongest i. So, as you exit the swim you are most likely already in a calorie deficit. Start fueling during transition or within the first 10 to 15 minutes on the bike.
A sports drink, gel, or small snack will help replenish your carbohydrate stores as you ramp up for the next leg of the race. You may not feel hungry, but you still need to fuel. You can manage your carbohydrate load by fueling consistently and often. The recommended calorie range for exercise lasting over three hours is 45 to 90 grams of carbohydrate to calories per hour.
They do not provide true energy; fuel means calorie! Try to consume a combination of liquid calories and solid calories. The various articles on triathlons recommend a good, healthy diet at all times, of course. Another coach writing on the Ironman site, Ben Greenfield, advises :. Not always. Greenfield then lists five reasons why long-distance athletes need supplements, including that nutrients are depleted the longer produce is in transit and on the shelf and because soils are depleted of minerals that provide nutrition.
Take an Olympic triathlon competition. By now athletes have been competing for an extended period of time. They are fatigued and managing pain. But to continue progressing they need to have been addressing their nutrition needs from the start of the race. So, that by the run they have fueled properly to have allowed them compete at the pace they had trained for.
If not, they are typically managing the issues mentioned earlier — fatigue, digestive, hydration, cramping and a variety of other issues. At the beginning of triathlon training athletes map out a training plan that will give them enough fitness and endurance work that if carried out with consistent discipline will provide them with the ability to complete the swim, bike and run distances under the allotted times on race day.
On race day you want to complete the swim feeling fresh and warmed up for the bike leg. You then want to ride at a pace that will let you complete the ride in the time you have trained for without exerting all of your energy.
And last, when you get off the bike you want to be feeling like you can run at a pace that you can finish in your target time. So with that in mind we tend to focus our training on just the physical aspects of being ready — Getting your runs in, getting your rides in, and getting your swim laps in.
This mimics race day and trains your mind and body for what the transition from bike to run will feel like. But all too often multisport athletes take nutrition training for granted during these training months.
And that can spell trouble! Multisport athletes need to think about race day nutrition as much as they think about the swim, ride and run. Nothing will stop you in your tracks faster than your body telling you that your race finish is in jeopardy.
Or peeing at every port-o-john because your overhydrated. Having digestive issues because the gel at the aid station did not agree with you. Training your body with the exact kinds of nutrition at the exact times you will take them is imperative for optimal race day performance.
For example, did you know that most races now provide Gatorade Endurance formula. This is not the same Gatorade that you buy off the shelf at your local supermarket. Gatorade Endurance Formula was designed to meet the unique needs of endurance athletes, who train and race for prolonged periods of time.
This is uber-Gatorade! So, race day is not the time to be drinking Gatorade Endurance for the first time. Discovering that you have to get used the taste and the ingredients and hoping that agrees with you.
Because, on race day there are no other options on the course unless you bring your own.
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