PLAN #1: SPORTS DRINK + GELS + WATER
In very long endurance races such as Ironman triathlons and ultra marathons there is an apparent dose-response relationship between carbohydrate intake and performance. In plain English this means that in such races participants who consume more carbs tend to finish faster. It does not mean that every athlete would perform best if he or she consumed as much carbohydrate as the racer who takes in the most carbs in a given race, but at the group level there is a clear correlation between greater carbohydrate intake and better performance.
In shorter races such as 10Ks there is no performance benefit associated with consuming carbs in any amount. Somewhere between sixty and ninety minutes, a threshold is crossed, beyond which taking in some carbohydrate—at least 30 g per hour—is better than taking in none. And somewhere beyond 90 minutes of race duration, a second threshold is crossed, beyond which consuming larger amounts of carbohydrate—at least 60 and up to 90 g per hour—is better than taking in less. Alex Hutchinson, who writes the “Sweat Science” blog for runnersworld.com, speculates that this second threshold probably falls just below the marathon distance for most runners. If he’s right, then runners should try to consume close to the maximum amount of carbohydrate they can tolerate during marathons.
The trouble is that, above a certain level, increased carbohydrate intake elevates the risk of GI distress more than it enhances performance. Many runners cannot stomach 60 g of carbs per hour. To determine your personal tolerance you will need to experiment with various rates of carbohydrate intake within race-simulation workouts and actual races. If you discover that you can comfortably consume more than 60 g of carbs per hour during prolonged efforts at race intensity, count yourself fortunate and consider limiting yourself to 60 g per hour in marathons nevertheless. The advantage to be gained by taking in more is smaller than the inherent risk, and because of the unique stressfulness of racing, carbohydrate tolerance is typically a little lower in races than in workouts.
WHAT THE PROS DO
Elite runners are good role models for other runners in many respects. The things they tend to do are the things that tend to work; after all, professional runners have a lot more at stake than do the rest of us in their training and racing, and if the tools and methods they used did not work, then they wouldn’t be elite runners in the first place. But it is not possible for age-group runners to emulate everything that elite runners do. For example, elite runners are given their own special aid stations in races, where they are allowed to place fluid bottles filled with whatever they choose. Age-group runners, on the other hand, must either drink the official sports drink given out at aid stations for the masses or carry their own fluid.
It is interesting to note that virtually all elite runners fill their bottles with some kind of sports drink. Very few of them drink water. Why would they, when sports drinks provide both of the major performance-enhancing nutrients—water and carbohydrate? An elite runner who chose to hydrate with water in races would have to rely on energy gels entirely to supply carbohydrate. Almost none of them actually do this because sports drinks generally sit a little more comfortably in the stomach than energy gels. Elite runners with stronger stomachs therefore rely on sports drinks to supply most of their carbohydrate (and all of their fluid) and use energy gels to supply the balance of their carbohydrate needs. (In other words, they practice Race Nutrition Plan #1; see page 136.) Elite runners with a more sensitive stomach typically consume sports drinks only in races—eschewing gels and water—because they find that sports drinks supply as much carbohydrate as they can tolerate in the most efficient way. Sure, there are some sports drinks that certain runners cannot tolerate, but there is at least one sports drink that works for most runners, and because elite runners have total freedom to choose their favorite, it makes no sense not to do so, whether they supplement it with gels or not.
While the race nutrition strategies of most elite runners are the same in their general outlines, the details vary from one runner to the next based on the results of each runner’s personal experimentation. For example, Stephanie Rothstein, a 2:29 marathoner who trains with the Adidas McMillan Elite team in Flagstaff, Arizona, drinks Gatorade at odd-numbered aid stations and consumes between one-half and two-thirds of a PowerGel with water at even-numbered aid stations. (Elite aid stations are located at 5K intervals in most marathons.) Dathan Ritzenhein drinks 6 ounces of Gatorade with energy gels mixed in at each aid station.
Among the most successful marathon runners there are very few who consume more than 60 g of carbohydrate per hour, but there are some. Dathan Ritzenhein, whose marathon nutrition plan I described earlier, takes in as much as 90 g of carbohydrate per hour in marathons, which represents the maximum rate of carbohydrate absorption during running in humans. He was not always able to tolerate such a high rate of energy intake, but trained his stomach to accept it over time. So there is precedent for this level of fuel ingestion in marathons. Hence, if you have a strong stomach and you seem to benefit from levels of carbohydrate intake above 60 g per hour in race-simulation runs, feel free to experiment with the “Ritzenhein Method” in a race.
As I first mentioned in Chapter 4, it is impractical to get 60 g of carbs per hour exclusively from the sports drink offered on the course. Cytomax, for example, is the official sports drink of many marathons and half marathons. To get 60 g of carbohydrate through Cytomax alone you would have to drink almost 33 ounces. The only way most runners could do that would be to slow down so much (for the sake of reducing stomach jostling and increasing the gastric emptying rate) as to defeat the very purpose of maximizing their carbohydrate intake.
Assuming that the sports drink that is available in a given race is one that contains a useful amount of carbohydrate and does not upset your stomach, the best way to get 60 g of carbohydrate per hour is to rely on the sports drink to supply most of your fluid and carbohydrate needs and use energy gels to supply the balance of your carbohydrate needs. To determine how much carbohydrate you’re likely to get from the official sports drink, you need to know how many grams of carbs are provided in 1 ounce of the product and how many aid stations on the racecourse will be stocked with it. The Chicago Marathon, to cite a concrete case, is typical of today’s major marathons in providing twenty aid stations, or one aid station every 1.3 miles. The sports drink offered at the 2012 Chicago Marathon was Gatorade, which supplies 1.75 g of carbohydrate per ounce. Some smaller events do not post detailed aid station information online. In those cases you’ll need to contact the event organizer and ask.
Remember that my advice for hydration during running is to drink according to your thirst. In training, when you’re carrying your own fluid, you will do this by drinking literally whenever you feel like it. In a race, however, you can only drink when you pass an aid station. Thus in races you’re not drinking by thirst so much as you are drinking by feel, or comfort. Because you are likely to perform better if you drink at close to the highest rate that is comfortable for you, I recommend that you try to drink something at every aid station. If you’re not very thirsty or feel that your stomach could only tolerate a small sip at any given aid station, take a sip. If you’re thirstier or feel your tummy could tolerate more, drink more.
The average amount of sports drink in the paper or plastic cups handed out at aid stations is 4 ounces. A runner who drinks one such cup at every station—that is, 4 ounces every 1.3 miles—will consume anywhere from 10 to 18 ounces per hour, depending on his or her pace. Research has shown that runners typically consume 13 to 27 ounces per hour when they drink by thirst. This means that most runners can comfortably take in at least one full cup of sports drink per aid station in races. You will need to experiment to determine how much sports drink you are likely to consume per aid station. A good way to start is to measure out 4 ounces and drink it every 1.3 miles in some training runs to see how that treats you. This will also calibrate your sense of how much you’re actually drinking at race aid stations.
Let’s assume for the sake of illustration that you anticipate drinking 4 ounces of sports drink at each aid station in your next event. Four ounces of Gatorade provide 7 g of carbohydrate. Multiply that by twenty aid stations and you get a total of 140 g of carbs for the race. To determine how many carbs you’ll get per hour of running, divide this total by your anticipated finish time. Let’s say you’re planning to finish the Chicago Marathon in three hours and thirty minutes. This means you’ll get (140 ÷ 3.5 =) 40 g of carbs per hour from the sports drink, leaving a balance of 20 g of carbs that you’ll need to get from energy gels.
Most marathons provide energy gels only at a single aid station near the 20-mile mark. So if you plan to rely on gels to provide some of the carbs you need to get 60 total g per hour, you’ll have to carry your own gels. A typical energy gel contains 25 g of carbs per packet. If you swallowed one packet per hour on top of drinking Gatorade at every aid station you would get 65 g per hour. However, it’s best to consume energy gels with water, as washing them down with a sports drink creates a very concentrated carbohydrate load in the stomach that few runners can tolerate. If you drink water instead of Gatorade at one aid station per hour—specifically the aid station at which you consume your hourly gel—you will lose the 3.5 g of carbs you would have gotten from Gatorade. With this substitution you will get 61.5 g of carbs per hour from Gatorade and energy gels combined.
Some runners (myself included) find it difficult to consume a full packet of energy gel at once, even with water. If this is the case for you, empty a few gel packets into a gel flask such as those made by Fluid Belt and wear it in a clip on your shorts. With this tool you can sip smaller amounts of gel more frequently to avoid overloading your stomach. I mix 3.5 ounces of gels with 2.5 ounces of water in a 6-ounce flask to make it more drinkable and even easier on my stomach. I take a small slug from the flask every half hour or so and by doing so I usually empty the flask somewhere between the 20-mile mark and the finish line.
There are many individual variations on this general race nutrition plan. If you apply the basic framework of this plan to a few races you will surely find ways to tweak it so that it works optimally for you. Be sure to test your chosen plan in a Simulator run before each marathon and half marathon as well.