By International Society of Sports Nutrition

There are several types of endurance athletes but all have one thing in common: they have a personal goal they are trying to reach. Whether its knocking 20 minutes off your PR for Ironman Hawaii or finishing your first marathon, your training regimen can rival that of Lance Armstrong’s and you might never reach your goal if you don’t have a sound nutrition plan.

So why do athletes pay meticulous attention to every detail of their training, spend hours debating over slip-last versus semi-curved running shoes yet they don’t give a second thought to refueling with a 32-ounce soda and a few Krispy Kremes? Don’t be one of those athletes, read on and learn what foods you should eat and when to eat them to maximize your endurance.

Years ago we heard the motto “eat carbs perform well” so often you would think local endurance athletes might get together, ditch their jobs and invest in a bagel franchise. Carbohydrates are still very important though now we know even more about the role that protein plays in the endurance athlete’s diet.

But first, let’s take a look at why carbohydrate is so important. Who hasn’t heard of the athlete who bonked at mile 21 in their marathon? Or the ultimate Frisbee player who hit the wall in the championship game of the tournament? If you ever feel like you can’t lift your arm enough to complete the last mile of a swim or the thought of a two-a-day seems impossible, you might be glycogen depleted. Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrate in the body and is readily converted to blood sugar and used during exercise. Training and performance are dependent on a number of factors including the amount of stored glycogen in our bodies. Glycogen is stored in both our muscles and liver, and is the primary source of fuel used during longer exercise bouts. When your body runs low on muscle glycogen you hit that point where you can’t possibly continue exercising. Though an average person has approximately 1500 calories of stored glycogen, the human body has an amazing ability to adapt and change to perform at greater levels. For instance, endurance training leads to an enhanced ability for glycogen storage in muscle allowing you to train harder and longer. For those hard-core endurance athletes this means you should take advantage of this increased ability to store glycogen by consuming carbohydrate throughout the day. And don’t skimp on carbohydrates in an effort to lose weight, your performance is likely to suffer.

It isn’t just the amount of carbohydrate you eat during the day but also when you eat it that is vital. Many athletes miss the window of opportunity to consume food soon after they finish a training bout or competition. It is during this period of time, within 30 minutes to 2 hrs after exercise (preferably 30 minutes) that you need to refuel because the rate at which your body takes up carbohydrate to produce glycogen for your muscles is at its peak. Scientists have examined the importance of refueling after exercise by taking trained athletes and having them cycle on two separate occasions ingesting a 25% carbohydrate solution either immediately after exercise or two hours later and then taking muscle biopsies (yes, that is as painful as it sounds) immediately after exercise as well as 2 and 4 hours later. The rate of glycogen re-synthesis was 45% slower in the group that waited 2 hours to replenish their carbohydrate stores. Lesson learned: consume high quality carbohydrate as soon as possible after exercising; especially if you are playing in multiple games in one day or exercising twice a day.

Now what about protein? During our bagel craze anyone who was hungry after exercise knew they should stuff their face immediately with as much bread as possible. More recent research suggests that ingesting protein along with your oversized bagel will enhance glycogen synthesis in addition to assisting with muscle tissue repair.

How was this research conducted and were the results really that impressive? In an effort to find the best post-workout combination of macronutrients, scientists devised a great plan to compare a carbohydrate-protein beverage with a typical 6% carbohydrate beverage after exhaustive (glycogen-depleting) exercise. Consumption of the carbohydrate-protein versus the carbohydrate only beverage led to a 55% greater time to exhaustion during the next exercise bout. In order to determine if this was in fact due to greater glycogen restoration, the same scientists took endurance-trained cyclists and had them cycle for 2 hours and consume either a carbohydrate-protein or carbohydrate-only beverage immediately after exercise and again two hours later (subjects were not told which beverage they were receiving). Those in the carbohydrate-protein group in comparison to the carbohydrate-only group experienced an astounding 128% greater storage of muscle glycogen. That is an edge no athlete should pass up.

How does an athlete implement this strategy of nutrient-timing to maximize their glycogen storage? This depends on a number of things including how often and hard you train and what you can stomach. Some athletes can eat immediately after a long, hard run while others may get sick to their stomach at the thought of eating a full meal right away. Keep in mind that you should eat throughout the day and not skimp on quality sources of both carbohydrate and protein. In addition, use the age-old strategy of trial and error to find what foods your stomach can tolerate within that 30-minute period after you exercise. You might find that downing a carbohydrate-protein drink or bar is both easier on your stomach and better for refueling than a full meal.

References

Bergstrom J, Hermansen L, Hultman E, Saltin B. Diet, muscle glycogen and physical performance. Acta Physiol Scand 1967;71(2):140-50.

Costill DL, Bowers R, Branam G, Sparks K. Muscle glycogen utilization during prolonged exercise on successive days. J Appl Physiol. 1971;31(6):834-8.

Costill DL, Gollnick PD, Jansson ED, Saltin B, Stein EM. Glycogen depletion pattern in human muscle fibres during distance running. Acta Physiol Scand. 1973;89(3):374-83.

Greiwe JS, Hickner RC, Hansen PA, Racette SB, Chen MM, Holloszy JO. Effects of endurance exercise training on muscle glycogen accumulation in humans. J Appl Physiol 1999;87(1):222-6.

Ivy JL, Katz AL, Cutler CL, Sherman WM, Coyle EF. Muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise: effect of time of carbohydrate ingestion. J Appl Physiol 1988;64(4):1480-5.

Williams MB, Raven PB, Fogt DL, Ivy JL. Effects of recovery beverages on glycogen restoration and endurance exercise performance. J Strength Cond Res 2003;17(1):12-9.

Nuts for Heart Health

Nuts have staged a dramatic comeback in the world of nutrition in recent years. The overly simplistic “carbs are good, fat is bad” paradigm that was prevalent in the 80’s and 90’s is gone. Today, consumers are beginning to accept the scientifically accurate, but more complex, notion that, in terms of healthy eating, not all fats are bad and some carbs are better than others.

Most nuts are packed with “good” unsaturated fats, are low in “bad” saturated fats and contain no trans fats, the newest “evil” nutrient. In fact, the scientific research linking nuts to reduced cardiovascular disease risk, has led the FDA to authorize a claim based on this relationship. And PowerBar will soon be introducing Nut Naturals, a great tasting line of bars, which qualify for this new FDA-approved heart health claim (see below for more details). Bottom line, nuts are back. They make sense in a healthy diet, and can be a useful part of nutritional recovery for endurance athletes.

The Basics of a Heart-Healthy Diet
Of course, nuts alone don’t make a diet heart-healthy – they have to be part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Compelling evidence from a number of different types of scientific studies over the past few decades suggest three key heart-healthy dietary strategies:

1. Substitute unsaturated fats for saturated and trans-fats
2. Consume a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains
3. Increase consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from fish

Given this perspective, what do we know about nuts and heart health? At least five large population studies have found decreased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) with increased nut consumption. For example, in the Nurses’ Health Study of more than 100,000 registered nurses, study subjects who reported that they ate nuts 5+ times a week, had a 35% lower risk of CHD than those who reported eating nuts less than once a month. Likewise, in the Physicians’ Health Study, risk of cardiac death and sudden death decreased significantly as nut consumption increased.

How Do Nuts Reduce Heart Disease?
A recent review of a large number of studies suggests that effects on total and LDL (bad) cholesterol play an important role. In a scientific article, published in the Journal of Nutrition in September, 2005, researchers took a comprehensive look back through the scientific literature on the topic. Of more than 400 total studies identified, 23 high quality studies were chosen to evaluate. Based on their analysis, the researchers concluded that consumption of 50-100 grams (1.5-3.5 servings) of nuts, 5 or more times a week, as part of a heart-healthy diet could significantly decrease total and LDL cholesterol in people with both normal and elevated cholesterol levels.

There are other means by which nuts could have heart-healthy effects. Most nuts are rich in arginine, an amino acid building block for nitric oxide, which circulates in the bloodstream and serves to relax blood vessels. Some nuts are rich in alpha-linoleic acid, which has been independently linked to reduce CHD in a number of studies. Nuts also naturally contain a relatively high level of essential nutrients such as magnesium, copper, folic acid, protein, potassium, fiber and vitamin E.

What Types of Nuts are Heart-Healthy?
The types of nuts eligible for the FDA-approved claim are almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts. The nuts with evidence of beneficial effects on cholesterol levels, from the review article mentioned above, are a more select group of nuts consisting of almonds, peanuts, pecans and walnuts.

Besides containing a sufficient quantity of appropriate nuts, in order to qualify for the FDA-approved claim for nut-containing foods, a low saturated fat level is required. This means one gram of saturated fat or less per serving. So, in order to qualify for the new FDA claim, a food would need to have a relatively high amount of unsaturated or ‘good’ fats and a low level of saturated or ‘bad’ fat. The new PowerBar® Nut Naturals bar meets this criteria and proudly wears a ‘heart healthy’ badge on its label. In addition, the POWERBAR NUT NATURALS bar provides 10 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, 16 vitamins and minerals and comes in three great-tasting flavors: Trail Mix, Fruits & Nuts and Mixed Nuts.

Fats as Part of Athletic Recovery
Nuts can also play a role in nutritional recovery for endurance activities. Intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) is fat that is stored in muscle (as opposed to on your hips), similar to carbs stored in muscle as glycogen. Like glycogen, IMCL stores get depleted with endurance exercise. However, unlike glycogen, it is adequate fat intake, not carb intake, that restores IMCL stores to pre-exercise levels.

In fact, a recent study showed that a high carb diet, similar to many endurance athletes’ diets, did not fully restore IMCL stores even 2 days after a tough workout, though a somewhat higher fat diet did. This and related research suggests that fat is, in fact, an important nutrient for endurance athletes. The best time to incorporate fat into meals is likely after the post-exercise window of opportunity for glycogen re-synthesis when carbs and protein are important. And, of course, unsaturated fats are more heart-healthy than saturated fats, so foods like avocados, nuts and olive oil make good sense in an endurance athlete’s diet.

Conventional wisdom holds that being physically fit equates to better health and a stronger resistance to colds and the flu. But what about athletes involved in strenuous training and competitions?

Investigators seeking to answer this question studied 150 ultra-marathon runners competing in a 90-kilometer race in South Africa. Surprisingly, a whopping one-third of athletes developed upper respiratory tract infections within two weeks after the race. In another study, involving 1,828 runners competing in the Los Angeles Marathon, almost 13% reported coming down with a cold within a week of the race. Among athletes competing in the Western States Endurance Run, approximately one in four reported symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection in the two weeks following the race.

Why would there be a spike in colds after these types of events? Well, it turns out that strenuous bouts of exhaustive exercise temporarily suppress immune function. The prevailing thinking is that the physical stress of prolonged exercise increases the circulating concentrations of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. While in the short term these hormones help meet the immediate physical demands the athlete faces, they have the side effects of temporarily suppressing the immune system. Unfortunately, for many athletes, these effects seem to be just enough to allow a head or chest cold to set in.

So, how do you reap the benefits of strenuous training or competition without temporarily compromising your immune system? The answer may lie in what you eat.

How the Immune System Works
Understanding the connection between nutrition and your immune system requires some background on how the immune system functions. The job of your immune system is to protect you against foreign elements like pathogenic bacteria or viruses. The immune system has two arms that work together to keep you healthy and help you recover if you do get sick.

The first arm, or line of defense, essentially blocks the entry or penetration of foreign elements into the body. Your skin, the acid in your stomach, mucosal secretions, enzymes in saliva and digestive fluids, and cells in your blood called macrophages all serve to prevent foreign invaders from taking hold in your body and causing infections. But, if that first line of defense fails, and a foreign invader does gain a foothold, a second line of defense immediately comes into play. This second arm of the immune system involves the rapid replication of immune cells and related factors designed to target and destroy the specific invader.

Support Your Immune System with Good Nutrition
The key to avoiding the immunosuppressive effects of heavy exercise is to ensure that your diet is rich in nutrients and dietary factors, which play important roles in supporting immune function. Protein in the diet is important because many components of the immune system are made up of protein. In addition, a variety of vitamins and minerals are needed to support the rapid replication of immune cells that are critical to warding off infectious agents.

The strongest evidence in favor of a link between diet and immune function comes from studying malnutrition. It is well established that among individuals suffering from protein-calorie malnutrition (where calorie and/or protein intakes are inadequate), immune function is weakened, and rates of infection are high. With malnutrition, there just aren’t enough calories, protein, or critical vitamins and minerals for the immune system to mount an effective defense of the body.

Nutrition and Strenuous Exercise
Serious athletes involved in strenuous training are obviously not malnourished, but they are in a state where physical demands are pushing the body’s limits. Interestingly, scientists have found that in these types of athletes, even a few weeks of dieting to lose weight can impair the function of their immune cells. So, as a general rule, to insure that your immune system is able to function at its best, make sure that periods of heavy training and strenuous competition don’t overlap with periods of dieting to lose weight.

While calories and protein are certainly mainstays of a diet to ensure a strong immune system for athletes, the role of carbohydrates has also intrigued investigators. Carbohydrates are of particular interest as a strategy to reduce the stress hormone response to exercise. The thinking is that if the rise in stress hormones associated with strenuous exercise can be blunted, the negative impact on immune function may be substantially reduced as well. Studies show that athletes eating low carbohydrate diets who engage in prolonged strenuous exercise show sharp increases in circulating levels of stress hormones. Scientists also found that as stress hormone levels rise, the number and activity level of key cells involved in immune function decline. Other research shows that consuming carbs during exercise reduces the rise in stress hormones seen with strenuous exertion and helps to offset the suppressive effect on immune function. Does this translate to fewer colds? No one knows for sure, but given the already well-established benefits of carbohydrate consumption for extending endurance performance, it’s gratifying to think that carbs may be offering an immune system boost as well.

Scientists have also studied a virtual smorgasbord of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and related dietary factors to see if any can impact exercise-induced immuno-suppression. Unfortunately, to date there is no strong evidence that any specific nutrient or herb can offset the effects of strenuous exercise on immune function. Numerous studies have looked at one or two biomarkers of immune function, sometimes showing evidence of benefit, but few studies have actually looked at the effect of these dietary factors on rates of upper respiratory tract infections.

The notable exception is vitamin C. In two different studies, ultra-marathon runners taking 500-600 mg of vitamin C for a few weeks before and a few days after a 90-km ultra-marathon had lower rates of upper respiratory tract infections compared to those taking a placebo. Unfortunately, other investigators were unable to find beneficial effects. Although definitive proof is lacking, taking a daily 500 mg vitamin C supplement for a few weeks before and the week after competing in a marathon, triathlon, or ultra-marathon might be a measure to consider. Finally, a reasonable argument can be made for a balanced once-a-day type multivitamin/mineral supplement to help ensure that athletes obtain adequate amounts of the micronutrients needed to support immune function.

Avoiding the Post-Race Sniffles
In summary, while being physically fit helps strengthen the immune system, strenuous bouts of exhaustive exercise can suppress immune function and substantially increase the risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection. What can you do to help avoid the post-marathon sniffles? Make sure you’re not compounding the physical demands of the event itself by scrimping on calories before hand. Consume carbs during the event – they not only increase endurance, they may reduce the immuno-suppression associated with strenuous exercise. Also consider routinely taking a balanced multivitamin/mineral supplement to ensure that your diet always has an adequate supply of the nutrients needed to support immune function. Finally, a little extra vitamin C a week or two before and after the event may give your immune system an added boost

December 15, 2005 — Hello again. It has been a while since I checked in. I guess it is that time of the year — when the race season is over but there is still a lot of life going on.

Courtesy Kelly Guest

Lab rat: Guest recently participated in a cycling-fitness study.

Instead of gearing up for my next big race I find myself gearing up for my wedding — in less than two weeks! As you can imagine, this is very exciting and it’s keeping me rather busy. I have to say that there are a number of aspects of my upcoming wedding for which I have to thank the sport of triathlon. The first (and foremost) is my fiancée. I met her through my training group. I also met four of my “best men” through triathlon: my Coach Cliff English, Simon Whitfield, Jasper Blake, Nik Southwell. My fifth “best man” is my best friend: “Cousin Bob.” He’s someone I’ve done a lot of things with, including triathlons. This is a great sport in so many ways. The friends you meet through triathlon are so often friends for life.

In addition to planning for the big day, I have used some of my time off from racing to take advantage of my year-end fitness and participate in a cycling study. Now let me tell you, this was not an easy study to participate in. The entire thing was five weeks long. The first week was a VO2 max test, then the next four weeks consisted a series of 20km time trails on a stationary bike with no feedback — I mean nothing. The whole process was both physically and mentally draining. (As you may be able to tell from the pictures.)

Courtesy Kelly Guest

Guest working hard on the bike in the lab.

The tantalizing part of this study was the data I would receive from the test (personal information on watts, thresholds and left vs. right side balance) — oh, and I also got paid for it. My wonderful fiancée said to me after one of the time trials, as I laid, completely smashed, on my living room floor, “You are working so hard for this study . . . you should use the money from it to buy an iPod Nano.” I ask you, how great is she?

Now that the study is done I have the information I wanted, which will be key in developing my winter training sessions, and I have a great new device for listening to music (also likely to be key in upcoming training sessions).

After completing the study, I have taken a couple of weeks off from training to allow my body to rest and ready itself for the upcoming winter of training. While I’m not clocking tons of miles, this is still an important part of the race year. As hard and frustrating as it can be to take time off, you have to do it at some point, and I say it’s better now than mid-season. I believe if you want to be able to hurt yourself in a race in August, you can’t be out hurting in December.

I usually don’t have too much trouble taking time off at the end of a long season of racing, however. I usually relish the idea of staying up late, watching movies, sleeping in, going to a café for a coffee in the morning and of course getting my fill of cheeseburgers and fries. That is until I see someone out running or cycling, and then a wave of panic comes over me and I think, “I have to get back at it or I am going to be so far behind when I get back to training (after my three-week break).” Luckily this year I’ve not only had the wedding to concentrate on and look forward to during these weeks of downtime, I’ve also been keeping busy with coaching my groups of kids. This is an aspect of sport I really enjoy. Kids bring such genuine enthusiasm and energy to the things they do.

Another distraction has been my latest birthday gift. My fiancée got me a guitar a couple of weeks ago. Other than a few misused years of elementary-school music class, I’ve never played an instrument, but I am learning now, so look out world. I plan to move on to rock stardom after I finish with triathlon. Do I hear Triathlon Idol?

Until next time, this is the Mountain Man saying, “Use your off-season to do whatever you can to recharge your body and mind. If you do, it will pay you back in spades come the summer!”

By Coach Joel Filliol

December 16, 2005 — For many triathletes, the off-season is a good opportunity to break through to a new level in the water with a swim-focus phase. Adding a swim-focus phase to your program means increasing your training load by changing the frequency, volume and intensity of your training. A swim focus should last from six to 10 weeks or more, and the training load should progressively increase (to avoid injury) and include recovery phases to help your body adapt to the new loads. Here are a few key workouts to include in a swim focus that are sure to challenge your limits and boost your swimming.

Technical pulling
Although many use pulling as a way to increase intensity and muscular load, paddles can serve a technical purpose as well. The added pressure awareness on the hands that comes from using paddles often helps keep the elbow high and armpit open, thus reducing dropped elbows, a common technical error in freestyle. Improving the catch also enables better use of the trunk muscles, including the lats – and a key to swimming faster is engaging these muscles, rather than just the arms. If a swimmer can feel some fatigue in the lats after a good pull set, then he or she is on the right track.

In the off-season and during a swim-focus phase, use pull sets to reinforce good technique and establish good distance per stroke, rather than just increasing intensity.

Total workout distance: 2600

Individual medley
The off-season is the perfect time to learn better technique in butterfly, backstroke and breastroke. Aside from the body-balance benefit of working different muscle groups in the water, each of the other strokes has elements that can be applied to better freestyle. The catch motion in butterfly is similar to the freestyle catch, and increased butterfly proficiency can lead to better awareness of how it feels to hold more water during the freestyle catch. Similarly, the breaststroke catch can be thought of as a freestyle drill, with increased water pressure and pitch awareness on the hands. Finally backstroke works the opposing muscle groups and can help activate the lats through effective elbow position, just like in freestyle. Backstroke can also help with body position and balance, as it is a long-axis stroke, as is freestyle.

Total workout distance: 2600

Incorporate these key pulling and IM workouts into in your winter swim-focus phase this year and not only will your technique improve but you’ll also be on your way to personal-best swim splits through increased efficiency and fitness.

We All Strive To Get Faster

We are all in that perpetual but at times elusive search for improvements in our training and racing. Our underlying reason for participating in our sport is for our enjoyment, fitness and health but that intrinsic competitive aspect in all of us inspires us to set goals that we strive to reach. We do so by attempting to train and race at faster speeds from month to month and from year to year. So what means are available for us to attain our goals? From the beginner in the sport to the elite fulltime athlete, the elements for improvement are often the same - we all seek out knowledge and experience.

We get this knowledge and information wherever we can. We read articles and books, we talk to fellow athletes, we watch what others are doing - in short, we do everything we can think of to gain any insight or secret to training that we can use to help us improve. Most of the time, we have a narrow direction of where to look for guidance. We always seem only to look to the faster athletes for wisdom about training and racing. Perhaps the greatest degree of improvement can be found in that direction, but it is truly a wise person who keeps all options open. As one gold medal athlete once told me, he believes there are still many things about training and racing he can learn from other athletes, whether they are beginners or pros. You just have to be listening and have an open mind to any and all ideas.

In the beginning of our training days in the sport, simply getting out for that one more run, bike, or swim during the week brings us improvements. Following that, it is the aspect of going a little harder or longer in the odd workout that inches our fitness and speed up. We train with some friends, we join club sessions, we do more races, all of which raises the intensity of our sessions and to a degree brings us small improvement here and there. As long as we don’t make the error of overdoing it on this intensity and mileage element improvements are attained.

This is exactly where training becomes a bit more complicated. How much, how hard, how long to go to bring positive gains without crossing that line and over-exerting ourselves? We want to push the line but at the same time, we must avoid injury or the possibility of pushing so much as it having a negative effect and causing a decline in our performance. If every week of training does not have a beneficial aspect and purpose to help us move closer to our goal(s), that is a wasted week of training and of time that could and should have contributed to helping us improve.

One tool that helps athletes at all levels, from beginner to pro, is having a training consultant or more widely referred to as “coach.” This person, through their knowledge, training and racing experience, provides proper daily training guidance that allows an athlete to attain their goal and avoid the pitfalls of training mistakes that simply waste precious training time or lead to injury. The coach has in their arsenal all the aspects of training that work to improve speed, increase fitness and have the athlete at the starting line in the best possible mental and physical condition that their allocated weekly training time permits.

But there is no one magic solution to training and a coach is not a magic wand that provides the athlete with the aspired result. Hiring a coach does not in itself knock an hour off one’s Ironman time. A coach is merely a tool the athlete can use to maximize the efficiency of their weekly training time to bring the biggest fitness gains possible. Training time for all but the fulltime athlete is limited, so getting the most out of each session is essential when pursuing improvements and a certain race goal. But even with a coach, it still comes down to the athlete doing all the work. The coach’s purpose is to ensure that the athlete’s training is the proper mix, at the proper intensity and mileage for that person, and at the proper time in the training plan to bring about the best possible outcome.

The other aspect of standing on the start line in your best condition possible (in context of the amount of training time you are able to put in) is a heightened level of confidence. Racing fast is all about confidence. Knowing that what you did in the previous months of rigorous training brought about positive changes in your mental and physical abilities means you can line up at the start line knowing you are fully prepared, having done everything better and wiser than you’ve ever done in the past. This added confidence means you are able to push yourself during a race and get the most out of your body and the training you put into it.