Nutrition for competition-DARE adventure race

The dare race is coming up this Saturday 21st,
EXCITEMENT! ;) this will consist of:
20k cycle
10k running
2k kayaking
And an obstacle course;)
fueling up for this event will be a totally different animal than the CrossFit comp last week,
While it will still have a lot of unknown obstacles and high intensity efforts,  it will be more of an endurance event with probably 3.5 hours non stop overall time.
This presents very different nutritional expenditure and therefore,  the nutrition will have to be tweaked accordingly.
The energy expenditure for this type of event will be mainly from the glycolitic pathway (the medium intensity setting on your metabolic "engine"), this means that you will be burning carbohydrate ,stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen.
Your glycogen stores are quite limited, and once they are expended,  you feel a very sharp drop in performance (what runners call "hitting the wall") which you obviously want to avoid at all costs!
The way you do this is to take in regular amounts of carbohydrate (preferably glucose) at regular intervals as you race. This keeps the glycogen stores topped up.

you need about half a gram of glucose per pound of bodyweight per hour to replace the used glycogen in your muscles

In a prolonged event like this you will also lose a lot of sweat, sweat presents two problems for the athlete.
1. Water
2. salt

It is possible for athletes to lose between 500 and 800 ml of sweat per hour! This must be replaced or you are on a fast track to dehydration or hyponatreamia, both located in Sadfaceville :(
You need at least 600 ml of water per hour, plus half a gram of sodium per 600 ml(if you drink lots of water without taking salts, your sodium levels get dangerously low, not fun)

The other thing to be considered is protein,
Adding protein to your in-race nutrition has the benifit of stopping seretonin release , which leads to central nervous system fatigue, it also helps with post race recovery and muscle wastage. 1/4 gram per pound of bodyweight per hour is optimal.
This gives a 4:1 ratio of Carb to protein, which is perfect

When all of this info is put together,  we come up with a formula for optimum in-race nutrition, for a 4 hour event the body needs:
2 liters of water
2 grams of sodium
360 grams of glucose
180 grams of protein powder

Take all of these throw em in a blender and BOOM!
HOMEMADE SPORTS DRINK (tailored exactly to your bodyweight and performance needs)
No sports drink on the market comes near this in terms of optimum nutrition, they are all low in sodium,  and only one that I know of contains any protein at all!

Save the money-make your own!

competition nutrition - paleo style

today i competed in the crossfit ireland invitational no 7. heres the workouts:

workout 1

3 Rounds of:
7 Deadlifts (140Kg/90Kg)
7 HandStand Push Ups

workout 2

3 Rounds of:
Run 400m
7 Snatches (50Kg/32.5Kg)

workout 3

3 Rounds of:
7 Clusters (45Kg/30Kg) - squat clean and thruster
14 Burpee Box Jumps
21 Pull Ups

i have been resting most of the week, some very light training and eating lots of food ,
last week i bought a book by doctor loren cordain called "the paleo diet for athletes"
i would recommend it for anyone who trains and eats paleo , although you should probably read his original book "the paleo diet" first to familiarise yourself with the basics.

this book goes into detail about adressing the more specific needs of athletes especially in relation to simple carbohydrate, it also discusses the timing and nature of meals that should be consumed before ,during,and after a competition,
i decided to use the crossfit competition as a guinea pig for trying some of the strategies outlined in the book.

in the week coming up to the event , i upped my fruit intake in order to top of the glycogen stores , plenty of dried fruit ,fresh fruit , tons of water and lots of protein too,
basically i just ate a shit load more than usual :)

the first thing was to ensure i ate my last solid meal between 2 and 3 hours before the event ,
as the first workout was at 0900 , i got up at 0600 and ate a cantoloupe and 3 eggs(he advises eating low fiber fruit such as melon and bananas as it wont sit in your stomach or gut for a long time but will give you a nice slow release of fructose into the bloodstream, especially when coupled with the protein in the eggs)

between breakfast and the  1st event i drank nothing but water, (eating anything now will leave food in the stomach and probably give you a sugar dump which will leave you feeling tired going into the event.not good!)

10 mins before the event i drank 200 ml of home brewed "sports drink"
(cordains recipe is 700ml of water 200 ml of fruit juice(slow release fructose)
2 tbsp of glucose powder (fast release sugars)
this tops up your glycogen stores and doesn't give you a sugar dump because when you start training , your cells become very receptive to glucose and this is basically sucked straight into the muscles, neat eh.

as soon as workout one was finished , i consumed one of cordains homebrew recovery drinks:
4tbsp of glucose -instant glycogen replacement
600 ml of fruit juice -slow release fructose to keep the glycogen stores topped up and keep you fresh.
1 banana - potassium and electrolytes
3tbs protein powder- amino acids to replace any used muscle fibre and slow the release of the sugars,

this provides a 4:1 ratio of carb to protein which is what you're looking for in these recovery drinks

besides being delicious , these recovery drinks really did the job, they left my feeling fresh and energised for the next workout, without feeling hungry or full, perfect!

this is the strategy i followed with workout 2 and 3 as well , "homebrew sports drink" 10 mins before  and "homebrew recovery" after, i think it worked a treat and i was well happy with my podium placement of 3rd considering the quality of the competition  :)

i think all to often you can mess yourself up on game/race/event day with bad nutrition management , which is a shame considering all the effort you put in for weeks and even months before an event, this gave me a clear concise proforma to follow, and this experience has cleared up a lot of grey areas for me,
i highly recommend loren cordain's books (the paleo diet , and the paleo diet for athletes) very interesting reading.