NY Times:Secrets of Endurance: Eating to Go (and Go and Go)

[mimitabby]

thanks for posting that article. It really is strange how different our appetites are when we are doing long events.

[Lise]

Thanks for posting that. What a useful article. Now, with 4 international distance triathlons, a marathon and a half-marathon behind me, I can see that I've never taken in enough calories. I am slow, so I do need more than I'm allowing myself.

According to the article, I should've taken in 1,250 calories on the marathon. I got ~ 700. In my last tri, I was very concious of nourishing myself. In past tris, I haven't eaten at all, and really suffered afterwards. I always blamed it on "the sun"; now I know it was lack of glycogen. Even still, I calculated that I was over 500 calories short in my race last Sunday. Of course you don't eat on the swim, so I should've at least doubled my calories on the bike. An additional 200-300 calories on the bike might've given me more leg power on the run. And one extra Gu might've helped me finish stronger.

Fascinating learning about this. I can read about it, but correlating it with my own physical experience is so helpful.

[Cassandra_Cain]

The longest event I've ever done is just a century ride. Still I figured out fairly quickly that eating too much was far, far more difficult and less harmful than the opposite.

Everything I've read on physiology suggests that so long as a person stays below their lactate threshold, keeps eating, hydrating - that they can exercise for a very long, long time. Granted, your backside may want off that saddle but...

That's another story

[CycleChic06]

Yeah, it's a really interesting topic. Such a fine line between having too much and too little. And then it's all about eating the correct things...like the guy that ate the powerbar and it really hindered his performance. I guess it's kinda trial and error too, since it's so individualistic and also based on race conditions....there's not really one set formula you can follow every time.

It makes endurance sports just THAT much harder.

[Lise]

And yet, that's part of what I enjoy about it. The strategy, learning from errors, fine tuning each time out.

[HappyAnika]

Thanks for posting that. I have a newbie friend who doesn't eat on long rides (4+ hours) because she says she's not hungry (or she says, and this kills me, "I had a power bar with me, but I don't like power bars" Duh! take something you like to eat so you'll eat it!!!). I've said everything I can to convince her . . . I'll give her this article, I think it sums up nicely what I've been trying to tell her.

[KSH]

Great read right before my 100 miler on Saturday!

I'm all about LOADING UP ON THE CARBS! HA!