Deep Dive: how to fuel for long distance triathlon
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What is the overall strategy for race‑week nutrition for a long‑distance triathlon?
Welcome back, everybody, to Unlock and Performance, the Ministry Podcast. It is time for another deep dive, and today, with races like Ironman Frankfurt and Challenge Road, just around the corner, it's all about the race week nutrition and the race day nutrition. We're gonna give you a perfect guideline on how to fuel in the week leading up to the race, race morning, and some practical tips for race day. We're gonna tell you why mostly. Likely you don't want to eat more than 120 grams of carbohydrates, even though everybody's telling you to do so. We're gonna give you some knowledge about cherry shots that might you might actually not have been aware of, and so many more tips like electrolytes and so on.
So let's get into it. So, challenge rough is around the corner. We just had Ironman Hamburg, Iron Man Frankfurt is coming up, and so many international races. Um And obviously we talked to a couple of long-distance triathletes, learned about their lives, and got a hint of their nutrition. So die let's dive into that nutrition a little bit and give listeners an idea of how to perfectly fuel in general, but maybe also how to supplement in the week leading up to the race and then race day. So Let's start with a general guideline. When before the race do you really start focusing on detailed nutrition?
Well, I think it starts long before because nutrition is a very uh important part of performance. And just to get better generally in training, you need to Yeah, we we call it deep dive, but you need to dive deep into your nutritional habits. And it is an integral part of just your training and your daily regime, I call it. And um I think we cover this pretty well in our long podcast episodes. And I don't think I have to go into detail, but I think the more you train, the more hours you spend on in swimming, running or or biking, the better you get, the more important nutrition gets because you just um deplete your stores, your glycogen stores uh in almost every day. And you or not deplete it, but you use your glycogen stores almost every day.
And you just need to focus on good high quality nutrition before, during and after workout. But like I said, I think we covered this pretty well in our long uh podcast. Talking about a typical race week, um, let's say the race is on Sunday. When we talk about the immediate preparation, the glycogen loading for the race. It's a very long race. You spend a lot of energy. You will definitely go through your glycogen stores. Um so you need to definitely glycogen load for the race. So how would it do that best? Well before there was lot there were lots of different concepts but um I would just keep the nutrition quite normal in the days running or or going into the weekend.
When should an athlete start detailed carbohydrate loading before race day?
Um and not change a lot. What I would change is to start um going back on fiber two to three days before that Sunday. So probably on Thursday I would cut back on salads, on on berries, on beans, uh whole grains. Um And Just to be clear, these are all good and healthy and nutritious foods, but for this race it's all about performance. And you wanna go to a low residue diet, you wanna like really lose a little bit of of gut volume, I call it like this. And um probably you will also lose a little bit of water from your intestines. And um this will make you maybe a kilo or so lighter. But this is not the point. It is just To uh to uh Improve the tolerance for high carbohydrate feeding, just to get the body used to like easy to digest carbohydrates.
Um, probably also improve the digestibility of high amounts of carbohydrates in the days leading to the race, and just uh to make sure that you have no stomach or gut problems on race day. So I would kind Back on fiber, maybe Thursday, and then Friday afternoon, Friday evening, it's it's time to really start. Um like implementing more carbohydrates. Low fiber carbohydrates, like I just said. Um good examples are probably white rice, white bread, peeled potatoes. Um It can also be like not so healthy food like gummy bears or fruit juices, um uh uh sports nutrition products, low fiber bars, gels, drinks, just to make sure that in those around 36 hours before the start, you really like get in a lot of carbohydrates.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the overall strategy for race‑week nutrition for a long‑distance triathlon?
0:01–3:07
2
When should an athlete start detailed carbohydrate loading before race day?
3:07–6:01
3
Why is reducing fiber intake 2‑3 days before the race beneficial?
6:01–8:40
4
How many grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body weight should be loaded in the 36‑hour window?
8:40–11:38
5
What should a practical race‑morning breakfast look like for an 80 kg athlete?
11:38–14:20
6
How should carbohydrate fueling be split between the bike and the run sections?
14:20–16:40
7
What role do caffeine and cherry‑based antioxidants play in race‑day performance?
16:40–19:27
8
How can pre‑hydration and electrolyte shots be optimally used before a long triathlon?
19:27–21:51
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from UNLOCKING PERFORMANCE
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