As a coach the hardest thing for me to control is how your gut feels on race day - it worries me more than anything.

The end of the season IM’s are getting close and I want all of you to have every tool necessary to have the opportunity to race of your potential.

During hot days it is possible to get almost all the calories we need from sports electrolyte beverages like Gatorade or something of the like.  However our Gastro-Intestinal tracks often disagree.  Whether it be the fructose, the low glycemic index of high malto-dextrin drinks, low sodium concentrations... the end result is nausea.  On the contrary, cooler days it is hard to get all of your nutrition from fluids and you must consume more solid foods.

I really encourage everyone to develop a strategy on how you can employ every possible mode of supplying nutrition to your body so you can adjust and readjust in order to keep your gut happy on race day.  So if a higher concentrate does not work you can transition to a normal sports drink or try a bar or any combination.  I wish I had the perfect formula but we are all different and no one formula works fore all of us.

For example, try a high concentrated calorie beverage like carbo-pro - mixing about 800kcal in a bottle that you will drink over the course of three hours giving your 230kcal per hour from this source.  This way you can drink a little more water for hydration instead of straight Gatorade or the races chosen beverage. 

You can try a mix of both the electrolyte lower carb bev like Gatorade or something you prefer, a higher caloric drink you are just sipping from, some gels, electrolyte tabs and a few nibbles on a bar will give you a lot of control with how your gut feels on race day. 

If you can come up with an ideal nutrition plan or better said a trouble shooting procedure, you will be in a much better place throughout your race.

            Let’s work hard on this over next month of preparation for our IM events!

…a few notes about the racing!

With every passing weekend the fun race reports keep stacking up!  John and Cathy had a great race at Waconia both finishing 2nd place overall.  Cathy was the 1st place MN athlete which sends her to the Best of the US championship in September.  Julie Hull had another great race and finished 4th place overall. 

In Wisconsin Jeff Fleig posted a 2:18 fastest bike of the day at the Aurora High Cliff ½ IM giving him 4^th place overall and Maggie Fourier had an outstanding 5^th overall finish at the 1/2.

Racing is getting pretty exciting here in CO with Andy Feeney winning the expert division in one of the nations most competitive mtn bike races series and Josh Shadle finishing 12th overall at the 5430 sprint among many professionals and some of the nation’s best elite amateurs.

Joe Berg hit 10:25:00 at IM CDA with a 16th place 52:20 swim a 5:20 bike and a steady 4:06 run – this is a one hour PR for Joe and he credits most of his success to a solid nutrition and plan and the truth that he is a much better athlete than his brother Jared.

Date modified: 7/19/2006