What do you do if you are going to do a long race and don’t like the nutrition that is provided on the course or just want to carry your own? One solution is to use concentrated bottles. When I ran the Paris marathon last year, I used concentrated bottles to pack in 5+ hours of nutrition into 3, 10 oz bottles. I have also had a lot of triathletes use concentrated bottles on the bike or run to allow them to have enough fuel until they get to their special needs bags where they can pick up more concentrated bottles for the second half of their race. This post will describe what concentrated bottles are, how to decide if you want to use them, and how to configure them.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of concentrated bottles I have to mention a caveat: You MUST practice with concentrated bottles before using them in a race! If you don’t know how to use them, or if you haven’t practiced them, they can very easily go wrong leaving you on the side of the road or in a porta-potty with GI distress. Now. . . on to the topic!

What are concentrated bottles? Concentrated bottles allow you to fit a certain amount of nutrition into a smaller container than what is called for on the label. In order to make concentrated bottles, you have to be using a powdered formula.

Are concentrated bottles right for me? They can be if you have time to practice them, have a way to dilute the concentrated bottles (additional water available on the course), you need to carry a lot of nutrition with you, and you have a powdered fuel you like and knows will not cause you GI distress.

How do you setup and use concentrated bottles? Here is an example: We are working with Suzie who is training for a marathon in Europe. She does not like what will be available as on-course nutrition. Suzie does not have anyone supporting her who can hand her bottles of nutrition during the race. She needs to carry all of her nutrition with her. Suzie will be running with a belt that contains 4, 10 oz bottles. She plans on finishing around 5 hours. She has a powdered drink she has used for a long time that has 45 grams of carbohyrdate per 2 scoops. She needs about 45 grams of carbohydrate per hour (2 scoops per hour). Suzie has decided she wants to use concentrated bottles for her race and fit 5 hours of nutrition into 3 bottles, leaving the 4th bottle for water to dilute the concentrated formula.

Based on this information, we know Suzie needs to fit 10 scoops into 3 bottles. I would put 3 scoops into two of the bottles and four scoops into the third. Then, you can top off with water and mix. This can take some practice and may require you to mix the concentrated mix for each bottle in a container other than the bottle then pour it into the bottle. If you do this, you need to be sure the final mixed solution will fit into the bottle.

Once Suzie has the bottles mixed, she can begin practicing with them. This means carrying them on her long runs and determining how much water she needs to take in with each drink from the concentrated bottle. What I have found is that it is two to three sips of water for every sip from the concentrated bottle. This means that you also need to stop at aid stations and re-fill the 4th bottle with water. As concentrated bottles are emptied, you can fill them with water which results in fewer stops at aid stations. During her runs, Suzie also monitors how much she drinks. She knows that to get 45 grams of carbohydrates our of the first two bottles, she needs to drink 2/3 of a bottle. To get 45 grams of the last bottle, she needs to drink half (the last bottle has 4 scoops in it). If she starts with the bottles that have 3 scoops each, she would follow this schedule: Hour 1, she drinks 2/3 of the first bottle. Hour 2, she finishes bottle 1 and drinks 1/3 of the second bottle. Hour 3, she finishes the second bottle. Hour 4, she drinks 1/2 of the third bottle. Hour 5, she finishes the third concentrated bottle. This gives her all the nutrition she needs to finish the race in 3 bottles she can carry with her. If the bottles do not have marks on them indicating 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3, you can mark them using a permanent marker.

You can use this same methodology on a long bike. Just determine how many carbohydrates you need per hour, how many carbohydrates are in your preferred fuel, the size and number of bottles you will carry, and go from there.

Concentrated bottles are a great tool to have available when you need them. Just remember to practice, practice, practice with them to be sure they will work on race day.

Sarah Seppa, my current fabulous intern from the University of Houston Dietetic Internship, wrote this blog about using real food during endurance and ultra-endurance training and racing. Thanks Sarah!

An Ironman triathlon takes a long time to complete, 11 to 16 hours for most athletes, give or take.  100-mile races take even longer, over 24 hours in most cases.  These athletes are burning calories at a extreme rate, and there is really no way to replace all the calories burned during the event, but nutrition is needed along the way to help fuel the athlete as they go the distance.  Endurance athletes are familiar with consuming supplements throughout their races such as sports drinks, gels, bars, and other engineered products, designed to deliver specific amounts of nutrients in a form that is easy to consume on the go.  But as endurance events get longer, over 5-6 hours, some athletes begin to look for something different.

Here in lies the problem.  When running, swimming, or cycling, your nervous system is in sympathetic or “fight and flight” mode.  Your blood vessels leading to your limbs are dilated, carrying nutrients and oxygen to your hard working muscles.  When you eat, your nervous system switches modes, to parasympathetic or “rest and digest”.  Blood rushes to your stomach and intestines to help you process the food that you have just eaten.  When you eat and exercise at the same time it is very difficult to digest food because your nervous system doesn’t know what to do, thus resulting in stomach cramps and other symptoms of gastrointestinal distress.  The key is to find foods that satisfy your hunger but digest easily so you can utilize the food for energy as soon as possible, avoiding an upset stomach.

Foods that are easiest to digest are carbohydrates.  As luck would have it, carbs are the preferred source of energy for your muscles.  By talking to athletes and reading a few discussion forums, it was unanimously clear that these quick digesting carbohydrates are the foods that endurance athletes competing in endurance and ultra-endurance distance events prefer.  Here are a few ideas:

• Potatoes or Yams
• Bananas and other lower fiber fruit
• Pretzels
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Crackers
• Dates and other dried fruit
• Rice Balls
• Cookies

Switching up flavors is also important.  Athletes often report “flavor fatigue” or the feeling of nausea at the very thought of having one sip or bite of the food or drink they brought with them.  One way to avoid flavor fatigue is to use foods that have a variety of different flavors: sweet, salty, savory, and sour.  That being said, it is important to be practice with the foods you plan to race with. You should also be cautious of the food provided at the aid stations in longer races.  Your gut needs training to consume food on the go, and you need to know which foods work for you and which foods don’t.  Only grab foods from the aid stations if you know they are tried and true.

So you have satisfied your hunger, but do real foods work as well as engineered foods for endurance?  A recent research study done at Louisiana State University comparing raisins to sport jellybeans in prolonged cycling, suggest that they do.  The study found that when equal caloric values of raisins and sport jellybeans were consumed in two different trials, there were no significant differences in endurance performance for time, power, blood glucose levels, or rate of perceived exertion.  In addition, the athletes preferred the raisins, as measured on a hedonic scale.  This is cool news!  More research is definitely needed comparing the use of real foods and supplements during intense activity.

If you are considering an Ironman or an ultra marathon, consider working real food into your race nutrition plan.  It will prevent you from getting hungry, experiencing “flavor fatigue” and might just add a little more enjoyment to your competition.

This morning when the alarm went off at 4:30AM, I thought really hard about turning it off, rolling over, and going back to sleep until 6AM. I laid there arguing with myself. “You need to go workout.” “Yeah, but I”m tired.” “But, you need the workout.” “I know, but I could do it later. The bed is so comfortable. I’m so tired.” “No, you can’t. You need to go now! If you don’t go, you’ll regret it the rest of the day.” Back and forth for a few minutes. I finally got up and ended up having one of the best workouts I’ve had in a long time.

How many times do we have these arguments with ourselves? Why is it that we have this evil little voice that always argues against doing what we know we want to do to reach our goals? When we have these arguments, who wins? If that evil little voice wins, does that help you reach your goals? Usually not. Usually, that evil little voice sabotages your efforts.

If that evil little voice is actually a saboteur why do we even listen to it? The key is to know that you have control over that voice. You can tell it to be quiet, or if you need to be stronger – mentally yell at it to SHUT UP! and not listen to it anymore.

I’m going to challenge you in the next week to quiet that evil little voice. When it starts talking, just say “I’m not going to listen to you” and keep doing what you need to in order to reach your goals. Because, if you engage in the argument, who really wins?

The goal I’m working towards is running the New York Marathon on November 6, 2011. I am raising funds for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) for this race. One of the other reasons I tell myself to do my workouts is because I am blessed to have two arms, two legs, and a body that lets me run and workout. There are many, many people who want to be physically active and who have to use something artificial to make it happen – a prosthetic leg or legs, a hand-cycle. I’m thankful I have a body that is whole and allows me to run, bike, and swim. Thanks to all of you who have given so far to help me help these special athletes. If you would like to help the athletes sponsored by CAF, you can make a donation (of any amount) here.

If you are racing a fall marathon – Chicago, Marine Corps, NY, etc. – now is the time to start planning and practicing your race nutrition. You want to have a nailed down nutrition plan for race day that you KNOW WILL WORK.  How do you put together a marathon race nutrition plan? Well. . . .

You start by deciding if you want to use the on course nutrition or if you want to carry your own. If you want to use the on course nutrition, you need to look on the website and see what flavor of the product they will have. If they have lemon-lime and you can’t stand lemon-lime, then you need to make an alternate plan. You also have to recognize your position in the pack. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for races to run out of on-course nutrition for those in the back of the pack. (If this is you, I would strongly suggest having some nutrition with you for the second half of the race just for insurance. You can either carry it with you from the start or get a handup from your support crew along the route.) If you are OK with all aspects of the on-course nutrition product you want to get it and start practicing to be sure that your GI system likes it and you really, really like the flavor.

If you want to carry your own, you need to pick the product and start practicing with it now. That way, you know it works. If it doesn’t, you have time to try something else.

The second step is to determine how much you can consume while running. I usually start people between 45 and 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour.  A product with a mix of glucose, fructose and sucrose allows your body to absorb more which can allow you to take in more fuel (which can lead to an improved performance). If you start out at 50 grams and have stomach problems, go for less or change product. If you do not have any problems, you can try going up 5 – 10 grams per hour. The key is to get in enough fuel you have a great run while avoiding GI distress. The grams of carbohydrates can come from any source you like – sports drink, gels, blocks, beans, etc. However, I would not recommend mixing sports drink with other sources (gels, blocks, beans). If you are going to take carbs in a non-sports drink form, use water (not sports drink) to dilute them. Using sports drink to dilute them can lead to the dreaded GI distress because it puts too many carbohydrates into your stomach at once.

That is the basic way of developing a marathon race nutrition plan. It also works for half-marathons.

If you have questions, let me know. Otherwise, have a great race!

You may find yourself outside in the heat more these days with football, soccer, and other sports. If you are playing, you absolutely have to watch your hydration. If you are spectating – you still need to be aware of your hydration. In Houston, we have been in the 100′s or close to it the entire month of August. College football season starts this weekend, and it is going to be HOT again in Houston.

If you are tailgating or spectating at a game or practice, be sure and dirnk penty of non-alcoholic fluids. You may want to alternate water with a product like G2 so that you also get electrolytes. If you are drinking alcoholic beverages, be sure that you drink at least one non-alcoholic drink (preferably water or a drink that contains electrolytes) for every alcoholic beverage you consume.

When you go to the bathroom, check the color of your urine. It should be the color of pale lemonade to clear. If it is darker, that means you need to increase your non-alcoholic fluid intake.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the game! Stay hydrated!