Race Nutrition Planning – 5 reasons it keeps me up at night

jill
July 15, 2018

Sleepless nights are all part of ultra-endurance racing, both for rider and crew.

It’s a bit much though when I start losing sleep with just over 3 weeks to the the next big multi-day race, with BarrUltra.

I’m currently in race nutrition planning phase, but I’m acutely aware of the multiple ways my best laid out plans can go awry.

My nutrition strategy may be brilliant, but the bottom line is this – the health and function of the ultra-cyclist’s gut during a race is often the difference between a great performance and a big, fat, disappointing DNF (did not finish)!

The 5 reasons I lose sleep

  1. Think about your gut as a 9 meter (25-30ft) food processing plant, packed tightly into an abdominal cavity. And it’s not a straight forward food processing plant, it’s convoluted. It twists and turns in crazy ways. In those 9 meters your gut has to break-down, process and absorb fuel. That’s a big job at the best of times!
  2. You then fold that convoluted 9 meter food processing plant in half, and suspend it between a saddle and a set of handlebars. And we’re talking folding it in half for days and nights with very little upright relief. That kind of impedes the advancement of food and all the processes that have to occur so that food is turned into energy to keep the bike moving forward.
  3. Then you restrict blood supply to that 9 meter food processing plant, diverting blood instead to working muscles. Bear in mind that your gut is a muscle too, and all it’s essential functions depends on a healthy supply of oxygen and nutrients, which you’ve now diverted.
  4. Plus you’re asking it to process 4-6 times the normal calorie load in each 24-hour period. Is it any wonder that many a gut rebels, shuts down, stops functioning efficiently, gets bloated, nauseous, and so forth.
  5. Lastly, your gut is called the second brain because it’s intimately connected to your nervous system. This means that it’s significantly impacted by emotional, mental or physical stress (the very essence of ultra-endurance racing). This often results in nausea, diarrhoea, constipation and gas. Lovely stuff when you’re trying to race.

When ultra-endurance race nutrition goes wrong

If it all goes horribly wrong and the gut stops functioning efficiently, your rider probably has enough stores to get through maybe four to six hours, depending on the ability to utilise fat.

It’s a given that speed decreases in proportion to the level of gut discomfort.

Sooner or later if gut issues do not resolve, your rider will come to a slow and disappointing stop with two choices – a prolonged rest period or withdrawal from the race.

Either way, it’s not the race that was planned.

Yes, this is why race nutrition keeps this ultra-endurance nutritionist up at night.

And this is how it sounds…

It’s 2AM and my mind sounds like this… “Okay, Joe can go for 48-hours with minimal stops. I know he’s going to push hard from the start line to lay down the race. If the weather is cold, even more blood supply will be diverted but he’s going to need more calories. What if I overload the gut too early? How can I get enough calories in to meet demand? How can I maintain core temp? What if… what if… what if!

The race nutrition plan is coming. I hope my sleep does too.


If you want an ultra-endurance nutritionist who loses sleep over your race nutrition, contact me today and let’s start working together.