9 days to the 1500 + Athletes biggest day of the year at the Port Ironman.
It will also prove to be the undoing of many athletes races through bad nutritional planning.
After being at the last 5 races and watching athletes unnecessarily go through numerous cramping and stomach issues usually on the run, I am continually amazed at how they plug onto finish no matter what !
Most of these problems are totally unnecessary. They usually come about by lack of planning and poor choice of nutrition.
Steve Born has written the most comprehensive guide for nutrition, which we strongly advise all athletes to read and understand.
Some of the biggest mistakes made are :
1. Too much nutrition – your system can only digest somewhere between 250-350 calories / hour. Think of it as a “traffic jam”, the nutrition can’t get go anywhere until the rest is digested.
Athletes get caught up in the race and forget how much they have taken or when.
Our solution is to separate your nutrition from your hydration, have 1 bottle for each on the bike.
Use Perpetuem on the bike mixing the strength to a 5-6 hour bottle. Then mark on the bottle a line to drink down to each hour.
Set your watch to beep every 30 minutes, so you have a reminder of when to drink.
On the run switch to gels for easy consumption, one every 30-40mins.
2. Avoid simple sugars until the last 3-5 km of the run !
3. Be prepared for the Heat ! and think of taking some Electrolyte tablets to ensure against cramps.
Hammer Nutrition will be at the Ironman camped outside Graham Seers Cyclery, Shop 2 Port Marina. Directly opposite the Expo. We will be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Drop in and say hello.
We will be giving away 25 Caps and Bottles to the 1st 25 who turn up.
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