Here Moving up to long-course triathlon means more miles, more training and definitely more attention on your nutrition. As you take on the 70.3 or full-distance tris, fueling becomes an essential part of your preparation.
Given how hard it is to recover during a race if your nutrition is off during a long-course triathlon, we knew we needed to have an expert write this blog and we definitely found one.
NYX Endurance Co-founder and Coach Alison Freeman was kind enough to craft this post for us. We hope you enjoy it and take her advice to heart!
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You’ll show up at the start line for your half-distance triathlon with the fitness to move your body across 70.3 consecutive miles. But if you don’t also fuel your body properly over those miles, you won’t be able to take advantage of that hard-earned fitness. So let’s dive into what goes into a fueling plan, how to build your 70.3-distance fueling plan and - equally important - how to ensure you follow it on race day.
The Components of a Fueling Plan
We talk about “fueling plans” for triathlon, but in reality we’re actually using that one term to encapsulate the three components of “fueling”: carbohydrates, fluid, and sodium. All three are necessary to sustain your body’s performance during prolonged exercise, and all three are interrelated:
Carbohydrates are the actual fuel for your muscles and are utilized across all effort levels. Even at lower effort levels that also burn fat, your body requires carbohydrates - we often say that “fat burns in a carbohydrate flame.” For 70.3-distance triathlons, or any exercise exceeding 2.5 hours, we aim for 60-90 grams of carbohydrates per hour on the bike and 50-70 grams per hour on the run, combining both glucose and fructose (glucose + fructose, maltodextrin + fructose, or glucose + sucrose + fructose).
Fluids are necessary to replace your body’s fluid loss during exercise - a.k.a. sweat - which then helps to maintain your core temperature (among other physiological responses) and also aids in carbohydrate absorption. Your hourly fluid intake should match your hourly fluid loss, or sweat rate, on the bike, and hit at least 70% of your hourly fluid loss on the run.
Hourly sweat rates vary widely and are highly individual, ranging from 8 to 48 oz per hour. While a sweat rate of 20-24 oz per hour is most common (conveniently, the capacity of a standard-issue bike water bottle), you will do best by calculating your hourly sweat rate for both bike and run at a variety of temperatures using the instructions below:
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How to Complete a Sweat Rate Test |
Example |
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1. Weigh yourself (in the nude) immediately before your workout. |
149 lbs |
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2. Complete your workout, noting the workout duration, intensity, temperature and humidity, and amount of fluid consumed. |
60 min run 12 oz consumed |
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3. Weigh yourself (in the nude) immediately after your workout, toweling off excess sweat as best as you can. |
147.8 lbs |
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4. Calculate pounds of body weight lost during exercise |
149-147.8 = 1.2 lbs |
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5. Convert to pounds to ounces (16 oz = 1 lb) |
1.2 lb x 16 oz = |
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6. Add back in fluid consumed, in ounces, to measure total fluid loss during exercise |
12 + 19.2 = |
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7. That number divided by number of hours exercised is your hourly fluid loss rate. |
31.2 oz / 1 hr = |
Electrolytes, namely sodium, are necessary to replace the sodium lost through sweat, and aid in both fluid and carbohydrate absorption as well as helping to maintain appropriate blood sodium levels. Because your sodium loss is tied to your sweat rate, we always talk about sodium intake in proportion to your fluid intake, rather than on an hourly basis - if your fluid intake scales up or down, your sodium intake scales up or down with it.
Like sweat rates, sweat sodium concentration - and therefore your sodium requirements - vary widely and are highly individual, ranging from 300 mg to 2000 mg per 24 oz of fluid. While there isn’t an at-home test to determine your sweat sodium concentration, we can estimate your sodium requirements using a few clues:
If you shy away from added salt with meals or very salty foods, you may be on the lower end of the range, requiring 300-450 mg of sodium per 24 oz of fluid
If you consistently reach for the salt shaker and/or finish a workout with crusty, white salt marks on your face, hat, or clothing, you may be on the higher end of the range, requiring 1000-1500 mg of sodium per 24 oz of fluid
If neither of these rings true, you are likely in the most common area of the range: 600-800 mg of sodium per 24 oz of fluid
Building your Half-Distance Fueling Plan
It takes some focus and attention to detail to translate the list of your fueling requirements into a practical fueling plan for your triathlon, but it’s worth the effort to get this right.
Start by clearly identifying your fueling requirements based on the information above. Then, find fueling products that align - alone or in combination - with your fueling targets. As you think through products, remember that it’s helpful to use products from race-day aid stations, where available, and to be able to scale your fluids separately from your carbs. You want to develop a simple, repeatable hourly fueling plan so that you can avoid having to keep track of complex timing while racing - that’s not easy on race day.
Sometimes you’ll find a set of products that neatly matches your requirements, and developing your fueling plan is very straightforward. More often, though, you’re using a combination of products in various proportions to arrive at a plan that meets your needs, and that math can be hard. Spreadsheet kind of hard. The fueling plan below was developed using The Fueling Tool (www.fuelingtool.com), which provides fueling guidelines, includes a library of commonly used fueling products, and helps combine these two to develop fueling plans for training and racing.
Practicing your Half Distance Fueling Plan
Once you’ve developed your fueling plan, it’s important to test and practice that plan in training. Testing the plan in training helps you determine whether the plan that you thought would work actually does work - you might need to fine-tune your fluid or sodium requirements to get them just right. You also might need to give your body some time to acclimate to absorbing carbohydrates while exercising - if you’re not used to consuming carbs, or consuming at the level of your requirements, start where you are and gradually ease up to your planned level of fueling.
Additionally, practicing your fueling plan in training helps it become routine, so it doesn’t take as much mental energy to stay on top of your fueling. (Pro tip: you can set alarms on your watch or bike computer to remind you to eat/drink/take a gel/etc.) Using your fueling in training also means you’ll be fueled during your workouts, which means you’ll perform better in training and develop greater fitness. It’s a win all around!
So now that you have no excuses, it’s time to get fueling. Define your requirements, identify your fueling products, build your plan, and practice until it’s just right. Your race-day self will thank you for it!
Alison Freeman