Ironman (full) training

[lisac957]

Hi friends! Currently on Round 2 and am feeling so great, but am wondering how to incorporate what I've learned into loooooong-distance training and racing. I'm registered for my 5th Ironman in September, and will ramp up training after a March full marathon. In my past training, I have relied on an all-in-one product for my bike nutrition, since biking is the bulk of my time in training and in the race. It's a powder mixed with water, so easy to carry in bike bottles and concentrate so you're not carrying 5-6 bottles on the course. It's worked fabulously for me in the past in terms of energy levels, digestion, hunger, no adverse effects, etc., 

I am perfectly fine doing distances like a half marathon or even full marathon with items like dates, bananas and boiled potatoes. But when it comes to an Ironman, the sheer length of time I will be on the course presents a logistical issue that is not there in other shorter races (I have been a 15-hour Ironman in the past, but could be up to 17 hours if I have a bad day). It's simply not feasible to carry a lunch box with all of the nutrition and calories I would need for a 15+ hour endurance race. 

What have others done in this situation? Do you consider a product with sugar "worth it" for something like this, or have you found another solution?

For reference, here are the ingredients of the all-in-one product I have used in the past:
Maltodextrin
Dextrose
Natural cane sugar
Citric Acid
Natural Grape Flavors
Sea salt
Potassium chloride
Magnesium gluconate
Calcium lactate gluconate
Whey protein isolate
L-Isoleucine
L-Valine
L-Leucine
Caffeine

[SugarcubeOD]

35 minutes ago, lisac957 said:

Hi friends! Currently on Round 2 and am feeling so great, but am wondering how to incorporate what I've learned into loooooong-distance training and racing. I'm registered for my 5th Ironman in September, and will ramp up training after a March full marathon. In my past training, I have relied on an all-in-one product for my bike nutrition, since biking is the bulk of my time in training and in the race. It's a powder mixed with water, so easy to carry in bike bottles and concentrate so you're not carrying 5-6 bottles on the course. It's worked fabulously for me in the past in terms of energy levels, digestion, hunger, no adverse effects, etc., 

I am perfectly fine doing distances like a half marathon or even full marathon with items like dates, bananas and boiled potatoes. But when it comes to an Ironman, the sheer length of time I will be on the course presents a logistical issue that is not there in other shorter races (I have been a 15-hour Ironman in the past, but could be up to 17 hours if I have a bad day). It's simply not feasible to carry a lunch box with all of the nutrition and calories I would need for a 15+ hour endurance race. 

What have others done in this situation? Do you consider a product with sugar "worth it" for something like this, or have you found another solution?

For reference, here are the ingredients of the all-in-one product I have used in the past:
Maltodextrin
Dextrose
Natural cane sugar
Citric Acid
Natural Grape Flavors
Sea salt
Potassium chloride
Magnesium gluconate
Calcium lactate gluconate
Whey protein isolate
L-Isoleucine
L-Valine
L-Leucine
Caffeine

Are you planning on doing this on a Whole30?  If this is not during Whole30 then it depends on whether YOU feel that the sugar is worth it in your context.  What you listed also has dairy, so you'd want to have tested dairy to make sure that you're okay with it before eating it out on a course.

[lisac957]

No, not planning on doing it on a Whole30 round, but am trying to figure it out in the context of Food Freedom Forever. Just looking for others' experiences.

[ladyshanny]

2 hours ago, lisac957 said:

Hi friends! Currently on Round 2 and am feeling so great, but am wondering how to incorporate what I've learned into loooooong-distance training and racing. I'm registered for my 5th Ironman in September, and will ramp up training after a March full marathon. In my past training, I have relied on an all-in-one product for my bike nutrition, since biking is the bulk of my time in training and in the race. It's a powder mixed with water, so easy to carry in bike bottles and concentrate so you're not carrying 5-6 bottles on the course. It's worked fabulously for me in the past in terms of energy levels, digestion, hunger, no adverse effects, etc., 

I am perfectly fine doing distances like a half marathon or even full marathon with items like dates, bananas and boiled potatoes. But when it comes to an Ironman, the sheer length of time I will be on the course presents a logistical issue that is not there in other shorter races (I have been a 15-hour Ironman in the past, but could be up to 17 hours if I have a bad day). It's simply not feasible to carry a lunch box with all of the nutrition and calories I would need for a 15+ hour endurance race. 

What have others done in this situation? Do you consider a product with sugar "worth it" for something like this, or have you found another solution?

For reference, here are the ingredients of the all-in-one product I have used in the past:
Maltodextrin
Dextrose
Natural cane sugar
Citric Acid
Natural Grape Flavors
Sea salt
Potassium chloride
Magnesium gluconate
Calcium lactate gluconate
Whey protein isolate
L-Isoleucine
L-Valine
L-Leucine
Caffeine

I think you've answered your own question. This is POST Whole30 during Food Freedom and you say it works for your body and the logistics so I'd say ya. "Worth it" is different to everyone but I think you've got this one down. 

[mountain_erin]

Hi Lisa - I'm a 4x IM finisher and have been Whole 30-ish for the past year.  My 1st IM was done while eating a "typical" American diet (I used IM training as an excuse to have extra bread, chocolate milk, and cookies and then wondered why I only dropped 10 lbs...). IM 2 and 3 were done while eating meals as paleo and upping healthy fats while restricting sugar (I thought I was restricting sugar... ha, I know better now!) while using normal training food.  My most recent IM was done while I was Whole 30'ish and here's what I did and my experience.

Mon - Friday - pretty strict Whole 30. The only exception was my nightly "Goodnight" drink which has whey, casein, and maple syrup and my breakfast "nutty balls" (basically coconut, cacao nibs, cashews, and maple syrup."  

Weekends were a bit more lax - like I'd have an occasional beer or very rare donut (because I earned it).  Sunday nights ended up being steak and potatoes (because I earned it!)

For my long training, I would stick to the traditional training food/drink because that's what works for me.  Honey stinger waffles, honey stinger chews, electrolyte drink mix (that has some sugar in it to aid with gut absorption).  Traditional recovery drink.

(as an aside, eating mostly fruit while training will result in GI distress.  Fructose is VERY hard to digest)

My recoveries from my long workouts were quick and honestly, amazing.  My longest run was a 20 mile AM run + 3 mile PM run on concrete and the next day I felt remarkably good. My paces were overall faster than they ever have been. I noticed that I was able to get by on fewer calories while training and racing.  And my body composition was slimmer than for my other 3 IMs (I got down to my usual race weight but my clothes were still hanging off of me... I figure I dropped down a full tri kit size this most recent IM from my usual).  And as a bonus, I didn't rebound weight like I typically do.  I stayed at race weight for pretty much the whole season (I started with IM Boulder and ended with a local 70.3 in Sept).  And even now, I've only gained 10 lbs from my race weight (I usually gain 20-25).

I think it was being mostly no sugar and no dairy that made the biggest difference in my experience in 2017.  Those two things are inflammation agents and without those things, my body was able to heal quicker and use my own fat stores.

This way of eating has made such an impact on me that I'm going to continue.  Good luck with IM #5!

[lisac957]

Thank you @mountain_erin! EXACTLY the type of experiences I was hoping to read. Appreciate your detailed response! 

[Ddalcour]

I am so excited to see you all talking on this subject! I recently completed my first 70.3 and tackling my first 140.6 in April! I am on day 5. This is my first whole 30. I noticed starting yesterday I was feeling extremely exhausted is this normal will this change? 

I deemed it more important to not ride this evening and rest early because of how sluggish i was feeling.  Any knowledge on this? I am thinking it could be from removing all the sugars. 

I am open to suggestions as well for nutrition to try. I am a newbie to the sport but a all in type of guy. So any help would be greatly appreciated! 

[SugarcubeOD]

1 hour ago, Ddalcour said:

I am so excited to see you all talking on this subject! I recently completed my first 70.3 and tackling my first 140.6 in April! I am on day 5. This is my first whole 30. I noticed starting yesterday I was feeling extremely exhausted is this normal will this change? 

I deemed it more important to not ride this evening and rest early because of how sluggish i was feeling.  Any knowledge on this? I am thinking it could be from removing all the sugars. 

I am open to suggestions as well for nutrition to try. I am a newbie to the sport but a all in type of guy. So any help would be greatly appreciated! 

This is totally normal to be feeling tired and to take a hit on performance (good for you for prioritizing rest over training!).  It'll go away as your body becomes fat adapted so keep going... you're right, because you removed all the sugars, your body doesn't have access to 'easy energy' so it's converting to fat burning!  Wahoo!

As far as nutrition, if you mean what to eat for endurance athletes on Whole30 then definitely poke around this forum sub a bit more because it's been discussed quite a bit.  If you mean gels or bars or other 'food' that endurance athletes eat that comes in a package, we wouldn't really encourage that type of conversation here given that we're sort of against those things  

[Sieb]

HI, so excited to read your experiences with whole30 and IM training! I am a 3X IM finisher and several marathons, lots of HIMs ,etc. My experiences are somewhat similar. First IM when I wasn't familiar with the Whole30 at all, I got way in shape as in more muscular and compact. I am somewhat small anyways at 5'2 with a muscular build. Never been the lean body type but the athletic type. First IM I ate SO much and started craving steak and other foods. I always was into healthy foods (so I thought) but it was kind of the first glimpse of realizing to listen to my body and what it was asking for. But I ate a BIG bag of pretzels a night as I was burning the candle at both ends, etc and now I look back and think what I needed was SLEEP!  Skipping ahead over the years and more IMs and HIMs and marathons as I adapted to paleo and listening to my body and using the Whole30 for experimentation and resets (I have successfully completed 4 Whole30 and did one that extended to 5.5 months which was amazing and I was learning so much about myself and my habits). I tried making my own nutrition before my 2nd IM while doing HIMs but it was just too much work on top of everything else. So I resorted back to honey stingers, etc while training the longer races. My last IM I was pretty surprised is that by following whole foods and maybe I was much more fat adapted as I have been following rather strict foods that I didn't really eat much different or feel like I was eating more than normal but I did continue to use stinger waffles, gatorade endurance (not sure I would use again) while on those long training rides. It just wasn't worth bonking and the craziness of it all I need to pick and choose my battles. I did lose a lot of muscle which bummed me out which made me think I was way too low in carbohydrates.  

Anyways,  your question @lisac957   was: What have others done in this situation? Do you consider a product with sugar "worth it" for something like this, or have you found another solution? 

I know following a 100% compliant diet can be done though my personal answer to that is yes, it is worth it for me to still use my stinger products and recently using HUMA gel products but only while on the long training rides and runs. I personally won't do a Whole30 while in the middle of heavy training (beginning is ok)  but in the perfect scenario, I try to follow the Whole30 approach and rules as close as possible and use as clean products as I can for training.  FYI, I am currently trying to reel my eating back in as I went a bit crazy the last few months so jumping back on the Whole30 wagon.. and in week 5 of 20 for training. 

[Sieb]

I couldnt edit above but I should of said  "too low in carbohydrates" in my sentence above..I did lose a lot of muscle which bummed me out which made me think I was way too low in protein.  

[SugarcubeOD]

9 hours ago, Sieb said:

I couldnt edit above but I should of said  "too low in carbohydrates" in my sentence above..I did lose a lot of muscle which bummed me out which made me think I was way too low in protein.  

Fixed it