This document is composed and produced by James Parker, Professional Triathlete, on behalf of High5 Sports Nutrition.

 

After years of training and racing I’ve just ‘discovered’ that I can train harder and race faster when using High5 so I’ve switched over to the High5 product range and developed a strategy that enables me to consume 114g of carbohydrates per hour and carry everything I need with me (except water) on the bike and run during Ironman events worldwide. High5 are a UK Sports Nutrition company that provides a full range of products that not only provide you with all the calories and nutrients you need for training and racing but are also palatable. 

Having trained for up to a year you would think all the hard is work done and all you have to do now is turn up and enjoy the race. It’s only when researching the race though that you find out that the race you are planning to compete in serves a different manufacturers energy drinks, bars, gels etc. Now you are faced with 3 options, switch brands and hope you can get along with their products, mix and match on race day using your own choice then once you’re out use the nutrition provided, or my choice, go self sufficient picking up only water from the course. 

What to do? Need I remind you of the old adage about not trying something new on race day that you’ve not used extensively in training or the other one about if something isn’t broke then it really doesn’t need fixing? That really leaves option 3 as the most practical way forward and now it’s my turn to show you that you don’t need to turn up to transition with panniers on your bike or a wheelbarrow for the run to get all your required calories throughout the race. 

Well there’s one bit that’s often overlooked and that’s pre-race. For many the race week starts with a flight or drive to the race site and this is when I begin to prepare physically and mentally for the race day. I make sure that from this point I always have access to some High5 liquids with its tried and tested High Electrolyte Anti Cramp (HEAC) formulation. My favourite is the Isotonic powder which not only can be bought in big tubs but travel friendly sachets that make up 750ml bottles. This is certainly the safest option as well when going through airport security – for some reason bottles of water are bad but sachets of white powder are fine. One point though is to make sure you speak without a Columbian accent and are freshly shaven with no Super Moustache on show!! I start making sure that my fluid intake is increased in the lead up to the event by taking onboard up to 3litres of fluid a day made up solely of High5 products. This strategy ensures that my body has all the electrolytes required for race day, or at least until I can begin to take onboard electrolytes on the bike as well as a steady trickle of carbohydrates to ensure my cells are as loaded with as much fuel as they can hold. 

I find that an early breakfast 3hours before the start works for me and I drink up to 45minutes before the start. I tend to start off with energy source but switch to Xtreme as my last bottle so that I have the ergogenic benefits of the caffeine which increases endurance and gets/keeps you focused as well as the carbohydrates that it contains to get me through the swim. 

So now to race itself, and the maths that you will need to undertake before the big day. Before embarking with any sort of refuelling strategy it is necessary to work out exactly how much you need to eat over the course of the bike leg. It is generally accepted that for a half Ironman you need to consume 0.75-1grams/ carbohydrates/ per kg body weight/per hour and for a full Ironman between 1-1.5grams. The reason for this difference is the effort involved with racing over each distance, essentially the harder you go the less effective your stomach becomes. Just to explain and hopefully make this understandable I’ll use my own figures as a guide – 

I’m 76kg and race IM so I’m aiming for 1.5grams per kg/ph, which is 114g per hour. Most nutrition companies say the limit is 60g per hour but with High5’s products this ‘absorption bottleneck’ doesn’t apply due to High5’s unique product formulation enabling the limit to be doubled up to 120g of carbohydrates per hour. I have now been able to use this new “Super Carb’s” formulation in both training and racing environments - it really works and is the main reason I switched to High5 products. 

I aim at most races for a sub 5hour ride but it’s always better to carry enough for your worst case pace. That means I need 570grams of carbohydrates or 28.5scoops of 4:1, Isotonic, Energy Source, Xtreme or a mixture of all four. At this stage it may be worth mentioning the 4:1 (4 parts carbohydrates to 1 part protein). I use this extensively during training and as a recovery drink and I have found that I get much less muscle ache (because less muscle is damaged and is repaired sooner) and my physiology has improved because of better nutrition during my training. I suggest that this product be used mainly for training purposes though and you stick to Energy Source, Xtreme or Isotonic for racing, so that you can consume more carbohydrates. (With the 4:1 you will need the same number of scoops but only 4/5 of the product is carbohydrate) . 

Like many people I use an open topped ‘aero bottle’ on the front of my bike and carry 2 x 750ml standard drinks bottles. I start with the front bottle containing 500ml of Xtreme and the 2 x 750 bottles made up with very concentrated Energy Source (10scoops per bottle). That’s 22.5scoops taken care of and for the remainder I carry some Xtreme “Bombs” that are simply 2.5 scoops of Energy Source Xtreme in a gel flask. So there we go 27.5scoops of the 28.5 maximum I’d need. I also carry a couple of Energy Bars as some solid food can be nice to settle the stomach if it gets upset over the course of the cycle leg. 

I drink all the time from the aero bottle and when empty I simply squirt in a quarter of the very concentrated Energy Source from the 750ml bottles (enough to make up 500ml) I’ve mixed before the race and fill up with water provided from the aid stations on the course. To aid mixing the drink if needed I simply blow down the ‘aero bottle tube’ until its mixed. This simple strategy gives me all the calories I need from the drinks I know and trust allowing me to focus on the other aspects of racing. 

It’s important to remember to try and drink continually so not flooding the stomach with fluid every 20mins as an aid station is approaching, by doing this you will help your stomach empty steadily so ensuring that you do not get any blood sugar spikes or even worse a stitch. Each of my 750ml bottles contains 4 x concentrated 500ml servings and I use the measurements on the bottles to know how much I need to pour in (just under 200ml each time). It’s important that you get used to knowing how much to pour over as the stomachs optimum absorption concentration is between 10-12%. In layman’s terms that simply means 50grams of powder for 500ml of water, see that’s 10%. Any more than 12% and your absorption will become de-optimised, and you may end up feeling bloated, as the concentration will be too weak for your body to absorb. What you need to bear in mind with this strategy is there is no digestion occurring just absorption by a process called Osmosis. This is a sort of diffusion that occurs within a liquid environment so don’t think of it as giving your stomach something to eat but rather something to absorb and that absorption requires a specific concentration. This is only something to bear in mind though and you do have a 2% window which is sufficient enough for you to engage in this strategy effectively on race day without the need to carry around a measuring jug or set of kitchen scales. 

When I need a bit of a lift, as you inevitably will with such a long race, I use one of my Xtreme “Bombs” as the stimulant caffeine within this drink lifts me not only physically but also psychologically and ensures that I am back racing sooner than if I continued to use the non-caffeine varieties. 

So now we’re in and off the bike hydrated and most importantly well fuelled for the run. Its now many people will be fed up with sweet stuff and will be craving savoury but with this hydration and fuelling strategy you should find this isn’t the case. Just think you could be potentially 6hours into your race and you’ve not touched a gel!! I now switch to them though and use Energy Gel + which contains the same level of fuel as the standard gel but also contains caffeine and choline. Choline has been tested for many years and has been proven to give your muscles the necessary nutrients to function stronger for longer. Over the course of the run I’ll aim to consume a gel roughly every 20mins with maybe 2-3mouthfuls of water with each. The hydration and fuelling strategy for the run is a very individual thing as if you don’t have a hardy stomach then you’ll find absorbing many calories a real struggle. The key here is to try everything out on your long training days before the race. I split my run into 2 parts. For the first half I use the gel’s to ensure that I have all the carbohydrates I need and then for the last half introduce coke (generally provided at most aid stations in most races). The caffeine in the coke as well as the sugar gives me a lift and helps me kick for home when I need it most. 

Once done and the medal is around your neck you should try to get some protein onboard and I find the 4:1 the best for this as it also replaces lost carbohydrates that you won’t have been able to replace over the course of your day. With all long distance races you are fighting a losing battle. You will always sweat more than you can replace, you will always burn more calories than you can eat, the thing to remember is that you are fuelling to make the last half of the run as easy as possible, or to simplify even further you are trying to limit the damage of the first two disciplines. That as they say is that and now its time for the fireworks and the finisher’s party where I tend to swap my High5 for a beer and have a well-deserved rest from training for a week or so. 

I’ve not looked back since making the swap to High5 products and can’t wait to tackle my next Ironman using this strategy, I hope it works for you to.