Big S Curve on the river

Big S Curve on the river
S Curve on the Petaluma River, view from southeast with California Coastal Range in the background
Fueling for the Petaluma Marathon

Editor's note: This post was written by Elizabeth (Izzie) Brown, M.S., R.D., C.S.C.S. Izzie teaches sports nutrition at San Jose State University. Izzie has coached the Women’s Rowing Programs at Mount Holyoke College and Temple University. In 1995 she earned a silver medal at the Pan American Games in Argentina in the lightweight women’s double rowing event.

This is the second of two nutrition articles aimed at helping competitors optimize their race day performance. The first article addressed hydration. The questions of why, with what and how were answered. This article is geared to improve food choices during training to make your time on the water count and to give guidelines for fueling on race day.

Athletes obtain their calories from four sources, carbohydrates, protein, fat and alcohol. Of course, alcohol does not enhance athletic performance but the other 3 macronutrients do.

Protein, found in meat, dairy, soy, grains, legumes and a small amount in vegetables, helps build and repair tissue and is a part of hormones and enzymes. Protein can provide energy for exercise but is not truly designed for that purpose.
Fat, found in oil, nuts, fat, dairy and animal foods, and carbohydrate, found in grains, dairy, fruit and vegetables, on the other hand, are designed to provide energy for exercise. So, in order to meet the demands of the Petaluma Marathon, carbohydrate should be the main source of energy while fat contributes a good bit. How much carbohydrate compared to fat that is burned depends entirely on intensity of exercise. Higher exercise or racing intensities results in a greater contribution from carbohydrate and less from fat.

Protein contributes anywhere from 5-15% of total calories during training and racing. The percent of protein depends on the carbohydrate content of the diet and the duration of exercise. To a great extent, an athlete consuming a high carbohydrate diet reserves protein for its primary job, tissue building, maintenance and repair, and uses very little for energy. An athlete on a low carbohydrate diet requires the use of protein to meet energy needs regardless of how much fat is in the diet or body fat.
Having dispensed with the formalities, there are two crucial periods of time to focus on for training and racing at the Petaluma Marathon. First, you must eat well daily to support proper training. It is reasonable to think that you only race as well as you train. If training is hampered by poor nutrition, your training will be less effective and race day will be less than stellar. So, proper daily nutrition is needed. Second, you must carry fuel during the race to meet your racing energy needs. Even with ideal pre-event eating and drinking, the race is so long that carbohydrate, and possibly protein, is needed during the race.

Proper daily fueling means that 50-65% of your calories should come from carbohydrate sources. Protein should comprise 12-20% of calories and fat should make up the balance, 15-30% of calories. Another way to look at it is you should consume about 5 to 10 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight. About 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight should be consumed. And fat should make up the balance of your calorie needs. The best way to know how many calories you need, as well as determine how well your diet meets your exercise and health requirements is to use a computer program to analyze it. HYPERLINK "http://Www.mypyramid.gov" Www.mypyramid.gov is a terrific and free analysis program. Use the MyPyramid Tracker on the home page to create an account and then evaluate your eating and exercise habits. Keep in mind if you only enter your diet without entering your exercise, the estimated calories, carbohydrate and protein needs will be low. These are dependant on the type, intensity and quantity of exercise. Add and extra 300-800 extra calories for each hour of rowing or paddling, add one half more grams of protein and 100-200 additional grams of carbohydrate.

As for fueling on race day, hydration and carbohydrates are the keys to success. The pre-event meal or snack has a few purposes: primarily to provide hydration and secondarily to provide some carbohydrate or glucose or sugar to the blood so your brain has something to run on after an overnight fast. Thirdly, the pre-event meal should be of low residue, meaning not containing a lot of fiber, and also low in fat. Both contribute to slow gastric emptying and potential gastrointestinal (GI) upset on the racecourse. Satisfying pre-event meals could be yogurt, fruit and water or cereal, milk and juice or French toast, fruit and water or eggs, toast, fruit and juice. The longer time you have before the start of the race the larger the meal can be and the more fat it can contain. Be sure to do a trial run of eating before a practice to see what works best on race day.

During the race, plan to consume 0.7-1 gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per hour of racing. Sports drinks are the best way to accomplish this. They provide hydration and fuel in a tasty, easy to consume package. Please refer to the article on hydration for details. Of course, you need to train using these products to get your gut used to digesting large quantities while racing. Race day is never the time to try something new. Whether you choose to obtain your calories from drinks, bars or gels is a personal preference. Carbohydrates will get into the bloodstream fastest if obtained from sports drinks in the concentration that the manufacturer recommends. Do not water down your Gatorade, Powerade or other drink. They are made in about a 6% carbohydrate solution, which doesn’t require digestion to get into the blood for transport to working muscles and to your brain. Drinks like Coca Cola, juice and bars and gels all require digestion to be broken down into a form that can enter the blood and used by working muscles. This means that the time to feel better after ingestion is longer if you choose to consume anything more concentrated than sports drinks. There are products that are more energy dense (contain more calories) than sports drinks and come in liquid form so they provide hydration, carbohydrate, protein and fat in an easy-to-digest form and can be consumed during an event. Metabolol is such a product. PowerBar makes one as well, and there are probably more on the market. You would do well to experiment with these products in long training sessions. It may be that sports drinks work well for you until the 90 minute mark and then you need more sustenance before consuming sports drinks again or even water. Water should not be consumed in large quantities especially to the extent that you gain weight during an event. Please refer to the Hydration article written earlier for information on water toxicity.

It appears there may be some benefit to including a carbohydrate and protein beverage during long training sessions. Athletes using these products show less muscle breakdown during training, an unfortunate result of long training. Researchers demonstrated that consuming these products on race day hasn’t shown any performance benefit. However, because protein is present, this product may stave off hunger. For some athletes, including protein in your during-event beverage or food my cause some GI upset. Use the products in training to see how you tolerate them. Your GI tract can be trained to handle more fluid and nutrients just as your heart can be trained to pump harder. Be sure to practice drinking the quantities that you anticipate needing on race day during training sessions to evaluate tolerance. If you wish to experiment with sports drinks that have protein in them, PowerBar makes one, Accelrade is another but my preference in Rad Endurance made by Nutribev Science and is available on line at www.nutribevscience.com.

Online Race Registration Now Up on Regattacentral

Online registration for the Petaluma River Marathon/Half Marathon is up on Regattacentral.

Go to http://www.regattacentral.com,
Click on the "Regattas" tab on top,
Scroll to the date, 9/02, and then select Registration form from the options on the left.