By Shawn Dolan, PhD, RD, CSSD

Ironman is a long day for everyone, regardless of whether it takes under 9 hours or more than 16 hours to finish. Most athletes experience highs and lows throughout the day. In order to minimize the low points and maximize the high points, a significant amount of time is spent preparing both physically and mentally for a race of this length. Unfortunately, the best training program and training season will not be enough to get you successfully through an Ironman distance event without a carefully designed and implemented nutrition plan. Below is an example of how to fuel your Ironman race. The example follows basic sports nutrition guidelines for before, during, and after endurance exercise. However, each athlete needs an individual nutrition plan that will reflect their ability to consume, absorb, and transport nutrients and fluid. Sweat rate, concentration of sweat, gender, body composition, exercise intensity, finish time, and food and fluid preferences should be taken into consideration when customizing a plan.  The race environment will also need to be carefully considered because the humidity, ambient temperature, and altitude will affect the amounts of nutrients and fluid recommended.

Consider the following scenario:

Elisha is a 35 year old triathlete. Her goal is to qualify for Kona 2010. She has been racing Ironman distance for 4 years and feels this is her best opportunity to qualify for World Championships.  She is trying to earn a qualifying spot at Ironman Utah.

*If considering a gluten free diet, a baked potato may be a better choice.

**Many athletes like the ease of simply carrying a couple EFS liquid shots instead of both the EFS liquid shot and drink.

***PreRace can also be used throughout the Ironman, though take into account the Caffeine section below before incorporating this product into your routine.

… Though this follows the science of fueling guidelines, in practice many athletes find that they can consume considerably more calories while on the bike than while running.  Elisha may consider consuming close to 300kcal/hr on the bike and closer to 150-200kcal/hour on the run.

Further Considerations: The ability to absorb nutrients during efforts as daunting as an Ironman can be complicated by the dietary choices you make the days leading up to your Ironman race. We recommend you try your race day plan and modify your plan over and over in your training.  We also recommend you consider some other variables that could potentially help improve your nutrition success on race day.

The purpose of the team.firstendurance.com website was to test various nutrition programs that could improve or complicate ultra endurance fueling. In order to better understand your individual needs you may want to consider testing the following in the months leading up to your Ironman. If you find any of these to have a profound effect you may want to implement this for the days, weeks or hours leading up to your race.

Caffeine: Caffeine may be beneficial to a point.  In ultra-long distance racing it also has the potential to cause gastric distress. Try this program to determine your sensitivity to caffeine.

http://team.firstendurance.com/page/caffeine-1

Gluten Free Diet: You do not have to have celiac disease to notice adverse effects of gluten. Some athletes benefit from avoiding gluten the few days leading up to a race. Try this program to determine your sensitivity to gluten.

http://team.firstendurance.com/page/gluten-1

Sodium Loading: Sodium is one of the key electrolytes. Loading with some additional sodium prior to a race may offer some benefits. Try this program to determine your success with sodium loading.

http://team.firstendurance.com/page/sodium-load

Anti-inflammatory Foods: Some foods can cause inflammation in the gut, which could lead to a decrease in nutrient absorption. This should be avoided during training and competition. Try this program to determine how your react to inflammatory foods.

http://team.firstendurance.com/page/antiinflammatory-foods

Low Carb Training: Training with low glycogen or low carbohydrates could stimulate physiological changes that improve your ability to utilize fats for racing, allowing you to go Ironman distance with a lesser need for ingested carbohydrates. Try this program to determine how beneficial this may be in your training and racing.

http://team.firstendurance.com/page/low-carbo-training

Amy Marsh  followed her 2009 Ironman Wisconsin win with a convincing win at the 2010 Ironman China.  She seems to have nailed her nutrition with a very simple plan.  And it’s the exact plan we, at First Endurance, have been touting:  ”Use EFS is your foundation fuel, then add as needed from aid stations.”    Looks like Amy has made it two for two with this simple plan.

Amy Marsh’s Nutrition. Breakfast race morning consisted of… 1 ½ cup Oatmeal with peanut butter, banana and 2 hard boiled eggs. Had 1 scoop of EFS in a water bottle and sipped it prior to the start.

During the bike I followed my same nutrition plan as I did at IM Wisconsin last year since that seemed to work well! I had one bottle with 600 calories of Liquid Shot and another bottle with 600 calories of EFS and would sip it every 10 minutes. Since we were limited on energy bar choice in China, I ate a Clif Bar halfway through the bike. I also popped some gummy bears in my mouth every so often since there were no Clif Bloks available.

Everything seemed to work well.

On the run I carried a fuel belt with 3 flasks full of EFS Liquid Shot and would sip it every 4k. I was also trying to grab as much water, gatorade and sponges that I could at every aid station because it was so hot.

Amy’s complete race report is here.

First Endurance triathlete Jordan Rapp shares his strategy, race preparation, race re-cap and race nutrition following his record setting 2009 Ironman Arizona win. This 10 minute video is a must see for anyone racing Ironman.

Jordan Rapp used the EFS drink prototype and OptygenHP prototype in his race preparation and on race day to fuel his Ironman win. His nutrition report follows the race recap.

Race recap courtesy of slowtwitch.com

Jordan Rapp stormed to his first Ironman win with a dominating performance at the 2009 Subaru Ironman Canada.

The men

Mark Van Akkeren led the men out of the water with an almost 2 minute lead over Andi Boecherer. A few seconds later, Luke Bell, Wolfgang Guembel, Brian Lavella and Mike Aigroz were also back on land.

Boecherer and Bell rode quite hard and caught and passed Van Akkeren about 30k into the bike. Behind them “Hell on Wheels” Thomas Hellriegel was moving up through the field and by the time the leaders hit the top of Richter Pass, Hellriegel was sitting in 3rd place, about 1:50 adrift. Jordan Rapp was another athlete looking fast and composed and he crossed Richter in 5th position about 2:30 behind Boecherer and Bell and about 25 seconds behind Aigroz who was sitting in fourth place at that time. Rapp steadily closed in on the leaders and had moved up to 3rd place by the 120k mark. During the last 60k Boecherer started to slip away from Bell and Hellriegel quickly lost a significant amount of time. Rapp then caught Bell and moved past Boecherer in the last few miles, and reached T2 with a 45 second lead on the German.

A smooth running Rapp soon increased his gap over Boecherer even more and had a 2:42 cushion about 5 miles into the marathon. Bell also had lost a few seconds to Rapp in the early stages of the run and was now 3:20 down on the sole leader. Bell soon caught and passed Boecherer for second place, but Rapp further and further increased his lead. At the 25k mark Rapp had a 7:03 lead and from there he ran uncontested to his first Ironman title with the fastest marathon run of the day. Mike Aigroz grabbed second place and Courtney Ogden earned third on this day. Luke Bell crossed the line in the 21st place with a 3:53:49 marathon.

Subaru Ironman Canada
Penticton, BC, Canada / August 30, 2009

Top 5 men

1. Jordan Rapp (USA) 8:25:13
2. Mike Aigroz (SWI) 8:40:17
3. Courtney Ogden (AUS) 8:44:37
4. Jasper Blake (CAN) 8:48:29
5. Wolfgang Guembel (CAN) 8:50:27

Jordan Rapp’s Nutrition Report

BREAKFAST BREAKDOWN:
3 cups of Koala Crisp cereal at 110cals per 3/4 of a cup
1.5 cups of Ryza Chocolate at 150cals per cup
Tbs of coconut oil
Banana
One serving (2 scoops) of Orange Ultragen

PRE RACE BREAKDOWN:
Then I had one scoop of EFS Grape Prototype with one scoop of PreRace ~20min before the start

BIKE BREAKDOWN:  On the bike, I premix my carry-with-me bottles with salt. My bottles are ~200 cals with a LOT of salt. I add 3x SaltStick capsules to each bottle. I had a 24oz. bottle between the bars, and an Arundel Crono with the same mixture on the frame. And I had another bottle in special needs. Each one has 1 scoop (96cals) of EFS + 2 (small) scoops of ClifShot Crisp Apple + 3x SaltStick. I had all three of those. I also had 4 x Gu Roctane (too much caffeine when I added it all up from the Roctane and ClifShot). And one gel flask with ~400 cals of EFS liquid shot + 3x SaltStick in it. I needed extra salt because it was regular gatorade, not gatorade endurance, on the course. I also had 4 x gatorade bottles = total of 2000 calories, which is a bit on the high side. 1800 is closer to correct + 1000 at breakfast and less caffeine. I also had 6 additional salt stick capsules over the course of the ride.

3 x “Rappstar Mix” –3xSaltStick caps, 1 scoop EFS Grape Prototype, 2 scoops Clif Shot Crisp Apple (one bottle from special needs, one bottle & aero bottle on the frame to start)
1 x EFS Liquid Shot flask with 3xSaltStick to make up for Gatorade (vs. Endurance formula) on the course
4 x GU Roctane (I would rather have had 2x EFS liquid shot, but it’s not really feasible that I can figure out)

RUN BREAKDOWN:   On the run, I had an EFS liquid shot flask ready, but my stomach didn’t want it, so I just canned it. I had one or two gatorades and a pepsi at every aid station.
~23 x 2-3oz. gatorade & 1-1.5oz. pepsi (best guess)

courtesy of ironman.com

Michael Lovato, USA, and Michellie Jones, AUS, won today’s Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island Triathlon, presented by Ford.  Lovato, a two-time Ironman champion, claimed the title with an overall time of 3:54:39. Last year’s runner-up, Richie Cunnigham, remained consistent with another second place finish with a time of 3:54:50. Eight-time Ironman New Zealand winner, Cameron Brown, rounded out the podium just three seconds behind Cunningham with a time of 3:54:53.