Carbohydrates are crucial for keeping your energy levels and performance up and preventing you from hitting the wall. There are so many sports products available to supply your body with those carbohydrates… but what is best for you to use to fuel a long distance triathlon race to ensure you perform at your best?
In today’s episode we break down the differences between all these fuel sources, what they typically include (hint- carbohydrates, sodium and fluids), and when to use what.
You’ll learn about what to consider when choosing a fuel that is best for YOU.
Full episode transcript here:
Welcome back to another episode of The Fuelled Triathlete. I’m your host, Andrea. Today we’re talking all about different types of fuel sources that you can consume during a race or during training. So we’re going to break down sports drinks, gels, energy chews, energy bars, and real foods and talk about, what are the differences between them? What do they contain?
What are some of the best scenarios to use them in? And then how can you determine what you should be using?
So when it comes to all of these, they’re designed to be a convenient source of fuel, or fluids or electrolytes during training. Because when you’re doing a race where you want to perform, or you’re doing long duration training, you have to start giving your body some more fluids or electrolytes or carbohydrates to prevent hitting the wall and keep that performance up.
So these are kind of a vehicle to provide that. And when it comes to, you know, firstly trying to figure out which one do we want to use you want to consider these few things and you want to ask yourself these few things. So the first one is going to be how many grams of carbohydrates are you going to need per hour during your race.
So this is really important because all of these different products contain different amounts of carbohydrates some high and some small. So we are going to do another episode in the next week, or two more specifically about carbohydrates, you know, answering that question of how much do you need per hour and what types of carbohydrates are going to be best in the fuel sources.
But this is something to really consider because we want to make sure that we’re getting the right amount of carbohydrates per hour . If you, you know, think gels are going to be the best and that’s what you’re going to use, but you’re not consuming enough carbs per hour
you’re not going to get that same performance benefit.
So during exercise, especially moderate to high intensity exercise, our bodies using mostly carbohydrates for fuel, and those carbohydrates are coming from our muscle glycogen stores. So this is basically the stored form of carbohydrates in our muscles.
In previous episodes, I’ve kind of talked about this almost like your tank of gas in your car. And then also, our muscles get fuel from the sugar that’s in our bloodstream. So the muscle glycogen stores can last us about 90 to 120 minutes of moderate to high intensity exercise.
If you’re planning to do a race or a long training session longer than that, if you’re not taking in adequate fuel during that training, before that you’re likely going to run out of your muscle glycogen stores and that’s where you can hit the wall. So the goal is to consume carbohydrates early and often into that race so that you can maintain your muscle glycogen stores and maintain your performance.
So a lot of these products are going to have carbohydrates in its simple form. So simple sugars, just so that your bodies don’t have to work too hard to digest them. When you’re thinking of those carbohydrates, you want something that’s going to digest quickly and get to your muscles quickly.
The next thing you want to consider is your fluid needs.
How much fluids do you need to be taking per hour to prevent dehydration? So dehydration is when you lose more than about two to 3% of your body weight in fluid from sweat. And when this happens, performance can start to tank. So when we get dehydrated our heart rate increases, so that exercise is going to feel more difficult.
The rate of perceived exertion increases, your body relies more on glycogen for fuel, so you may hit the wall sooner if you’re not fueling properly. And also it can lead to an increased risk of GI or gastrointestinal issues. So you want to consider that because not all of these fuel sources contain fluids.
Next you want to think about how much electrolytes you need. Sodium is the main electrolyte that you’re going to lose in sweat during training. The we’d lose smaller amounts of magnesium, calcium, and potassium, but sodium’s a main electrolyte that you want to consider.
A lot of these products have different amounts of sodium within them. So this is an important consideration. Are you going to be able to get all of your sodium from these products? Do you need to add sodium to some of them or maybe take some salt tabs as well?
You also want to think about just, what do you prefer? You know, do you like something sweet?
Do you like something mild in taste? Do you not mind the texture of a gel, or do you prefer to chew something? So these are all, some, you know, important as well.
And then just thinking of, how much room do you have to be able to carry your food with you. And then what’s going to be practical during a race.
So I know some of my clients have told me when it’s a very hilly race, they find it difficult to even drink enough. So are you going to be able to open the gel packets or consume food when it’s very maybe technical or hilly course?
Going back to sodium. So like I said, sodium is an electrolyte. It’s something that you can lose in your sweat, and we want to replace some of that sodium losses to make sure we’re not getting hyponatremia and that we’re maintaining a good balance of sodium in the blood.
Taking sodium with our fluids is also going to help us retain those fluids better and, may reduce cramping if you’re someone that experiences cramping, sometimes it can be related to low sodium.
Okay. So let’s get into the different, um, types of fuel and just talk a little bit about what they are, what they include, what are some good scenarios to use them?
Okay, so sports drinks, sports drinks are beverages that tend to contain both sodium and carbohydrates. So it kind of has everything that you need all in one. You can buy them pre-made in a bottle or there’s a lot of other powdered drink, mixes that you can add to water and kind of customize it, customize how much you need. But they tend to have to be about six to 8% in concentration of sugar.
Meaning that for every one liter of sports drink, you’re getting about 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates. Now you can probably go up to 10% concentration. So a hundred grams of carbs per liter. If it’s not necessarily the right mix of the types of carbohydrates can be more likely to cause more GI upset.
When it comes to sports drinks, you want to watch out for things that are low calorie versions or low carb versions. As we talked about, the reason we’re taking these are to give her body some carbohydrates or some glucose. So things like a Gatorade zero or even a G2 are probably aren’t going to provide enough carbohydrates that you need to fuel your body during a half or full iron man.
The nice thing is sometimes these are customizable. When you’re making a sports drink, you can add, you can concentrate a little bit more. You can dilute it a bit more, depending on what your needs are. You can even add this extra sodium in the form of just regular table salt or sodium citrate, which can be a little bit more readily absorbed. So I would say a sports drink can be great pretty much in all scenarios when you need to fuel with carbohydrates or some electrolytes. So when we want to start looking into actually fueling our body with some additional carbohydrates is going to be over 75 minutes.
So that’s when you can use a sports drink. However, when you get to very high amounts of carbs mean, so during a half or full Ironman, you may be looking upwards of 90 grams of carbs or more per hour. It can sometimes get difficult to get all of what you need through a sports drink.
Right. So if we’re looking at a sports drink, that’s six to 8%, Concentration. You don’t have to have a full leader or more to actually get that 90 grams of carbohydrates. And if your sweat rate is not super higher, you’re not drinking very close to your sweat rate. You’re probably not going to get that all through your sports drinks and you may want to. You know, combine that with another source of fuel that we’re going to try to talk about in next. But a sports drink can be used solely maybe if you have, lower carb needs.
They can vary pretty widely in terms of how much sodium they have. So just kind of give that a check and see if it matches up with what you need.
So you may need 500 milligrams of sodium per hour. Some clients I work with need a thousand milligrams or more. So just give that a check and if you’re only using that sports drink and it doesn’t quite have enough, then you’re just going to want to make sure that you’re adding some extra into that sports drink or you’re maybe using some salt tabs to go along with it.
So a couple of things to consider too, during something that’s really a long distance, you’re going to be drinking a sports drink for hours and hours on end.
You can get that flavor fatigue. It can start to taste a little bit too sweet. So keeping that in mind, when you’re choosing a flavor, do you really like to have a lot of flavor? Do you like something a little bit more mild in flavor?
Something to watch for is that this sports drink actually has more sodium than potassium.
So there’s kind of different sports drinks, not necessarily tailored for endurance athletes that have, a lot of potassium in there and claim to be hydrating, but really sodium is that electrolyte that we’re looking for.
So now, if we look at gels, so gels compared to sports drinks, whereas the sports drink has kind of everything, a gel is primarily gonna be carbohydrates with a little bit of sodium. And even though it’s a little bit liquid, it’s not really providing much fluids or contributing to your hydration. So there’s a lot of different types of gels out there. So there’s some that are kind of really thin more like that are maple syrup based. Then we’ve got kind of things sometimes a little bit sticky, like a GU or a honey stinger. There’s also things like the Maurten gels, which tastes a little bit more like jello with the hydrogel. There’s things like UCAN, which has something called Livsteady, which used to be known as SuperStarch, which supposed to be a very slow digesting type of carbohydrate.
So in general, lots of different types of gels, textures, consistencies, flavors. Really what it does is going to provide you with carbohydrates. They tend to have different types of carbohydrates, which are known as multiple transportable carbohydrates. Sports drinks will have this as well. I find a lot of gels are pretty low in sodium, so they’re not really super contributing to your electrolyte needs.
There are some that are a little bit higher than I’ve seen having maybe upwards of 150 milligrams of sodium or more. But I know many in general have maybe 20 to 80 milligrams, so really check the label and see check how much sodium there is in there. If you’re using gels alone with water then you may also want to add some sodium in electrolyte drink or some salt tabs. So just kind of keep that in mind. Couple good things about gels is they’re pretty lightweight, they’re pretty portable. So you can tape them to your bike. You can put them in your bag or bento box. They’re durable as well. So it compared to some foods are not going to get squished or get soggy, like certain foods might be. When it comes to gels, if you are looking to take some caffeine during your race to boost your performance a little bit, give you a little bit more energy, and give a mental boost, then you’re usually going to find caffeine in gels. And it really varies how much caffeine there is as well.
Even if you like the taste of that gel at the start. If the race goes on and you’ve had a number of different gels, you’re going to get that flavor fatigue possibly. So you may want to switch up the types of flavors or there’s different gels out there that don’t have a lot of sweetness to it, or a lot of flavor to it.
If you’re taking a gel you want to have some fluids on you to drink a couple sips when you take the gel or you can time the gel to have at a aid station. The other thing to consider with gels is, again, if you’re riding a bike, sometimes it can be difficult to open that, especially if it’s kind of technical or there’s some hills. So you may want to time it when you’re having those. You may need two hands to be able to do this. And sometimes it can get a little bit sticky.
So next up there’s energy chews or energy chews are kind of like candy. They’re not going to have any fluids and part of them, there’s going to be a little bit of sodium, but there’s always going to be some chewing required. And you want to consider because this is solid and does require some chewing, it can be a little bit harder to ingest these when sometimes when we’re running. Or when we’re breathing really heavy. They are a pretty compact source of carbohydrates, similar to gels so you don’t have to carry such a high volume to get the amount of carbs. So a gel typically contains anywhere from 20 to 30 grams of carbs per gel.
Chews can really vary. There’s a lot of different sizes and different packages, but I find sometimes a standard pack has about 40 grams of carbohydrates. If you are someone who does like to choose something while you’re running, you may find it a little bit more satisfying, especially if you don’t like the texture of gels. There’s not a different sizes, different flavors. So test those out. There’s kind of some really smaller pieces. I find like the honey stinger or some of those GU ones. And then there’s some that are a little bit bigger as well. Just like opening a gel, sometimes if you’re opening a pack, it can take two hands, so you may want to consider opening up the packages and just putting those chews right into your bento box, your bike bag. Or if you’re running, putting it right into that pocket, and it’s just going to save you some time, be a little bit less frustrating and just easier to actually consume.
But I would say these are pretty interchangeable with an energy gel, so you could choose whatever one you wanted based on the texture that you wanted, and there are some chews out there that may have some caffeine in them, branch chain amino acids if that’s something that you’re looking for as well.
So energy bars, tons of different energy bars out there. You want to consider if you can actually chew it and eat it during that race or during that training, I would say for some of my clients, they like to use that during a full iron man just to have some more solid food on the bike, because it is a long time that you’re on the bike and then going on the run.
So when you’re looking at energy bars, there’s tons of different types out there. Not to be confused with a protein bar so when we’re looking at energy bars, we really do want something that’s primarily still going to be carbohydrates, with smaller amounts of protein and fat really limit the fiber, the fiber can cause some digestive upset, potentially make you have to go to the washroom, protein and fat, just take a longer to digest, so it can feel a little bit heavy in your stomach. So you don’t want to choose like our protein bar that’s super low carb or the ton of artificial sweeteners. There’s Cliff , Skratch has some good bars, Maurten has some bars as well.
It’s better to have this on the cycling portion versus the running portion, because it can be difficult to be able to try to chew when you’re running, unless you’re someone who’s doing ultra marathon. Then usually you’re going to want to have some solids and you’re at a lower intensity where it’s okay to be having these.
Personally, on race day in terms of bars, where most of my clients may use that is that snack in between breakfast and race start.
If your breakfast is really early, then maybe having a bar half a bar an hour or two before the race is a good time. Or maybe as you’re getting onto the bike or an hour or two into the bike.
So keeping in mind what these are energy bars are going to provide or carbohydrates that are fuel source. It’s more of a long lasting fuel source. It’s not. It’s not as a quick digesting fuel source as these other fuels, we’ve talked about previously. And obviously not going to have some fluids, so we’re going to want to take some fluids with that as well.
So last up in terms of our fuel sources, we’ve got real foods. So some people like to use real food instead. So you can use fruit like banana or dried fruits, dates, figs, apricots, raisins. You may want to use peanut butter and jam sandwiches, roasted salted potatoes, lots of different options. So same thing with our energy bars. We want to keep it low protein, low fat, low in fiber to really prevent that digestive upset. Most of them are not going to have much fluids.
So we’re making sure we’re taking these as we eat them. We take it with fluid as well and maybe break it up into chunks, make it easier. You’re going to have a sandwich, cut it up into little piece bite-sized pieces that you can eat on the bike.
Use these real foods on the bike, as opposed to the . The run, I would more so look at using our sports drinks and then maybe some gels and chews as well to get your carbohydrates.
These real foods still can have sodium in them, especially if we’re looking at a peanut butter sandwich, we’ve got sodium in our bread.
We can use salted peanut butter or add salt. They’re salted potatoes. Those pretzels. There’s still different ways to kind of get the electrolytes and the carbs piece, but not that fluid piece you would want to pair that with it. But again, if your chooses keep it for the bike.
So that’s kind of a brief overview of the different types of fuels that you can use during training or during a race, lots of different options out there. I want to break down different types of triathlon races and what you can use when.
So when we look at a sprinter, since if it’s going to take you less than 75 minutes, you probably don’t need really any additional carbohydrates if you’re well fueled going into that race, you had a good breakfast with enough carbohydrates, you were sipping on some fluids before. But if you wanted to take, you know, some sports drinks or an electrolyte drink on the bike. An Olympic race, I would say you could do a sports drink on the bike so that you’re getting some carbohydrates, you’re getting some electrolytes, it’s a bit more higher intensity. So that’s a little bit easier to digest and, depending on how long that race is taking you. If it’s say three hours and you want to go for 60 grams of carbs per hour, so you could pair that with some gels or chews, and then on your run, maybe take a gel or chew there as well.
So Olympic is when you can kind of start to mix things up a little bit. Half and full , I would suggest a mix of both fluids and gels or chews. So you can integrate some of those solid foods a bar or solid food in the full iron man, maybe in the half, if you wanted.
So keep in mind, the longer duration of the race, the more carbs per hour you’re going to need.
So as the duration of the triathlon that we’re racing is increasing, our carb needs per hour are increasing. And the more likely that it is that you’re going to need a combination of these types of fuel sources.
So a lot of different things to consider but the first thing, like I said at the beginning of this episode is how much carbs do I need per hour?
How much fluid do I need? How much sodium do I need and kind of choose products that are going to help meet that need. So if you need any help with this, this is something that I do with my clients. We create a race day plan months in advance of that race so that my clients can test it out, see what works, what products do they like? And that by the time on race day, we’ve got it refined and they feel confident that they have a plan that’s going to meet their needs and they know because they’ve tried it out and they tried out the products. So send me a message if you feel that you need some help with that, and you want to learn a little bit more about working with me and coming up with a race day plan. Otherwise stay tuned for some future episodes we’re going to talk more in depth on how to figure out your carb needs, how much fluid you need, how much sodium you need, and all the different types of carbohydrates and different types of gels that are out there because there are so many. So thanks for listening and appreciate it if you could, share this with your fellow trap beads or give it a rating and review, because that just helps more people find the show. Have a great day!