How to Carb Load (and common mistakes)

 

Over the past 50 years, a significant amount of research has shown the important role of glycogen for delaying fatigue in athletes competing in endurance and ultra endurance events. Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrates. In humans, small amounts of glycogen are also found in tissues and cells, like the kidneys, red blood cells and brain. Glycogen is primarily stored primarily in the cells of the liver (~100g) and skeletal muscle (~500g). Skeletal muscles transform chemical energy to mechanical work. Glycogen is the body's predominant source of energy during moderate to high intensity activity. The depletion of muscle glycogen during endurance activity causes early fatigue. 

Dietary carbohydrates are converted to glucose - the main source of energy for the body and brain. For the non-diabetic population, when you eat a carb-rich meal, your blood glucose will rise. Increased blood glucose signals the pancreas to produce insulin - a very important hormone that helps the body cells take up glucose from the bloodstream to be used for immediate energy or for storage. Insulin tells the liver and muscle cells to produce the enzyme glycogen synthase that links chains of glucose together to form a glycogen molecule to be delivered to the liver and muscles. 

Because glycogen has a limited storage capacity, the intake of carbohydrates is extremely important for endurance athletes. High muscle glycogen content improves high intensity and endurance performance by increasing the time to fatigue. Due to the high demand for glycogen as an energy source, many athletes stay in a state of low glycogen depletion. Trying to complete high intensity or high volume workouts in a state of very low glycogen can increase the risk for damaged muscle tissue, immune system suppression and injury. Thus the importance of proper fueling, nutrient timing and understanding daily energy needs to support the current training load. And for all this to happen, the athlete must have a good relationship with food and the body. 

The heavily researched topic of carb-loading focuses on increasing the content of stored glycogen in an anticipation for the upcoming endurance event. Maximizing glycogen stores can help reduce fatigue in events lasting longer than 90-minutes. 

There are a lot of misconceptions around carbo-loading and a few key considerations to help you get the most out of glycogen supercompensation. 

• Muscle damage limits the capacity of the muscle to store glycogen, even while consuming a high carbohydrate diet. If you go into a race with damaged muscles (ex. downhill running, back-to-back racing), don't assume that a high carbohydrate diet will magically make your muscles perform/feel better. 
• Most of the research on carb-loading is on men. But there is a little research showing that females may require a slightly different pre-race fueling strategy due to metabolic differences from different hormonal profiles (specifically estradiol). Whereas men are advised to increase carbohydrate intake before a race, women are advised to increase carbs and calories. In other words, women may need to "energy load." 
• Muscle glycogen concentration is dependent on the diet. The higher carb intake in your diet, the higher the glycogen stores. 
• Training increases the amount of glycogen that can be stored in the muscle. Endurance training increases muscle glycogen stores and reduces the reliance on glycogen as a result of increased use of free fatty acids by active muscle cells. This metabolic adaptation allows your body to become more efficient at storing glycogen while also becoming more metabolically efficient. 
• After prolonged intense exercise, muscle glycogen levels may fall from 150-200 mmol/kg wet weight to <50 mmol/kg wet weight. When muscle glycogen levels fall to less than 70 mmol/kg wet weight, calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum is impaired - which impacts muscle function, power output and performance. 
• Muscle glycogen resynthesis is a very slow process. It may take several days of rest or very light training (along with a higher carb diet) for muscle glycogen levels to reach adequate levels after several days of hard training. Consuming a high carbohydrate diet is critical to meet the demands of high volume/intensity training. 
• Carbo-loading should not be confused with overeating. Effective glycogen loading should the the result of emphasizing more energy-dense, low fiber carbohydrate sources and reducing fat intake alongside reducing (not stopping) energy expenditure (tapering). 
• One to two days of carbohydrate loading is sufficient to prepare your muscles for the upcoming event. 
• Glycogen depletion is considered an important limiting factor to performance. But eating more carbohydrates will not make you a better trained athlete. However, just because you didn't complete your  training as planned, this doesn't mean that you need to punish your body by underfueling. 

Carb-Loading Tips

• A carbohydrate intake of 5-7g/kg/day in the 1-2 days before your endurance event is recommended. 
• If you have a sensitive stomach or are prone to GI issues, be strategic with the foods you consume. Opt for a low-residue diet. 
• Males should aim for ~70% of the daily diet from carbs (without making a major change to caloric intake). A female athlete should aim to eat ~70% from carbs with an additional 30% increase in normally consumed calories. 
• Carbo-loading does not remove the need to stay well-fueled and hydrated throughout your event. Carb-loading is designed to help delay fatigue - not avoid fatigue. 
• Consume small meals, regularly throughout the day. Create a schedule (and plan) for eating so that you don't forget to eat or go long hours without eating. 
• If you feel "heavy" when you carb-load, this is good. This reflects the water weight that is added from glycogen storage. For every gram of glycogen stored in your body, you store ~3 ounces of water. This is also why people immediately lose weight on a low-carb diet. It doesn't have to do with body fat but water weight. 
• Aim to eat your largest carb meals in the morning hours (breakfast - lunch) to allow more time for digestion. 
• Stay well-hydrated throughout the day to help with digestion. 
• Practice with similar pre-race foods in training to build familiarity and confidence for race day. 

Sample Carbo-Loading Menu (~400g carbohydrates)

Breakfast: Pancakes + syrup + juice + eggs + fruit
Snack: Granola bar + pretzels + sport drink
Lunch: 2 cups rice + chicken + optional small salad
Snack: Yogurt + granola + berries
Dinner: Large potato + veggie burger + soup

Sources: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6566225/
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/JP280221

https://www.220triathlon.com/training/nutrition-training/do-female-athletes-need-to-carb-load-more-or-less-than-male-ones-before-a-race/
https://www.mysportscience.com/post/carb-loading
https://www.scienceforsport.com/carbohydrate-loading-for-endurance-still-a-good-practice/

Pre-race nutrition: Train like you compete

Training is easy. You feel great when you get your endorphin boost, you can control your environment (or select your terrain), there is no pressure because no one is watching or tracking you and you know that if a workout doesn't go as planned, you always have tomorrow to try again.

On the other hand, race day is stressful! Competition, and being in an unfamiliar and/or uncontrolled environment, brings anxiety, nerves and expectations. It's easy to compare yourself to other athletes and experience a heightened fear of failure. Never in training do you feel what you feel on race day and that is why only a select number of athletes can compete better than they train. Far too many athletes will finish a race feeling like they underperformed, relating back to all the amazingly great workouts that they crushed, yet feel defeated as to why they were unable to perform on race day, despite feeling so prepared. 

One of the great challenges for triathletes is translating training into a great race day result. With three sports to master on race day, in unpredictable environmental conditions, this can be difficult. Thinking back to this quote posted above, far too many athletes are overly confident in training yet lack the necessary confidence, physical skills, nutrition readiness and mental strength on race day.

Competing like you train seems like an obvious strategy to bring confidence on race day but a better approach is to train like you compete.

If you think about all that you (try to) do on race week/day in order to set yourself up for success, why not put that same focus, energy and attention to detail into training? 

• Restful sleep
• Organized and planned diet
• Good mobility
• Relaxation and visualization/meditation
• Good warm-ups
• Proper fueling
• Great daily hydration 
• Reviewing the course maps
• Rehearsing race strategy/execution
• Ensuring gear/equipment is in great condition

It seems obvious that if you are going to do something on race day, you should repeatedly do it in training, but far too often is this not the case. Rushed and busy schedules, poor planning and lack of application causes athletes to gain confidence is subpar performances by the body. In other words, you are simply getting by rather than making physical investments for race day. 

If you want to perform well on race day (who doesn't?) it is important that you nail the little things in training. In reference to this blog, this means practicing your pre race and race day nutrition many times in training to ensure confidence for race day. The purpose of training is to build physical and mental skills, habits and strategies that will translate into an optimal performance by your body on race day. Sadly, many athlete get really good at performing workouts underfueled and undernourished and expect to put together a fail-proof pre race and race day fueling and hydration strategy. I think of this like riding a bike - if you are always riding with poor bike handling skills, you can't expect to master bike handling skills on race day, simply because it's race day. The same is true for nutrition. If you are putting together a complex, detailed and precise diet and fueling/hydration strategy for the 48 hours before a race and for race day, but you never practice this approach in training (repeatedly), you've been training half prepared but you are expected to compete 100% prepared. Unfortunately, success doesn't happen this way. You must give 100% to your training if you want to compete well on race day.

The more you treat training like it's race week/ race day, the easier you will find it to perform at your highest level when it counts. Simply put, don't do anything drastic on race week/day that you didn't practice in training. 

In route to my first half ironman (IM 70.3 Florida) to kick stat my 11th season of endurance triathlon racing (with Karel also racing), I made the effort to practice my pre-race fueling strategy similar to what I plan to do this coming Saturday (4/8), on the day before the race. With a 3:45 hr brick on Saturday this past weekend, Friday was the perfect opportunity to gain confidence in my well-practiced meals for race day. Considering our travel logistics (staying in a rental home with a full kitchen), knowing the area (Publix grocery store near by) and traveling by car, I put together three meals to ensure that I would easily meet my carbohydrate needs without feeling too full or uncomfortable. All of these meals have been consumed prior in training, but never all in one day. I gained a lot of confidence in practicing my nutrition for a full day as it kept me from overeating or second guessing what/how much I was eating.  Because I never worry about eating too much on a daily basis, I always want to make sure I am eating "enough" to ensure that my body is primed and fueled to perform in every single training session. I gain a lot of confidence from high quality workouts with my healthy, strong and fit body.

Here is what I plan to eat next Saturday on the day before IM 70.3 FL. 

I will first have a small snack before my pre-race workout, likely some saltine crackers w/ nut butter and a hardboiled egg and ~200 calories of sport drink on the bike and run for a ~75 minute morning brick. After the workout, I will have a recovery drink w/ a pre-made protein/carb mix along with milk. Then, I will have homemade pancakes (which I will make ahead of time and then freeze for our travel) topped with lots of syrup, butter on some and nut butter on the others, topped with fruit.

For a mid morning snack, I will likely snack on more fruit. Of course, lots of water and I will salt my food.



For lunch, breakfast tacos w/ eggs, spinach, avocado spread and cheese with a side of pretzels (or chips) and fruit. This goes down really easily and sits better in my belly than a sandwich or wrap. I will make the stuffing for the shells ahead of time and bring the tacos shells with me.

For an afternoon snack, I will likely snack on some granola and raisins along with a little nut butter (probably straight off the spoon) and some more fruit. I try to keep my veggies low in the 48 hours before the race to reduce the residue in my gut.



For an early dinner, I will either have pasta w/ tempeh and marinara topped with cheese or basmati rice. Although I practiced with pasta to see how it sat (felt fine), Karel and I both like pizza/pasta two nights before a race so I may stick with rice on Saturday evening. 

I'm looking forward to using IM 70.3 FL as a great opportunity to dust off the rust, take some risks, put the past 5 months of consistent training to good use and experience the hurt of half IM distance racing (I haven't raced an endurance tri since winning Lake Logan 70.3 in August!). Although my mind keeps taking me to St. George 70.3, which is on May 6th, I'm trying to keep myself in the moment, understanding that this race is a great opportunity to be in the race environment and compete like I train.
I'm also excited to share the course with Karel, along with several of our Trimarni athletes (Chris, Stephanie, Kim, Julie and Freddy).

If you are racing, volunteering or spectating at IM FL 70.3 next weekend, I hope to see you. I don't mind hellos pre-race or cheers on race day! :) 

Triathlon training tips: Pre-race nutrition, swim, bike, run

I am always excited to share my knowledge and experience with others, especially to the newbie triathletes who are about to train for (or race in) their first triathlon. 

If this is you (or someone you know), you are about to step inside a fun, rewarding, inspiring, active lifestyle with a wonderful community of passionate, like-minded, multi-thinking, time management experts who love to challenge the body and mind to reach goals and to push physiological limits. 

A big thanks to Oakley Women for letting me share my triathlon training tips with you all!

To read more about my trip to Laguna beach with Oakley Women this past spring, click HERE.

PRE RACE NUTRITION TIPS

SWIM TIPS

BIKE TIPS

RUN TIPS

Any questions? Send me an email via my website:
TRIMARNICOACH.COM